STAR - St Andrews' student radio station - has been off air whilst upgrades have been made to the technical equipment and software. So I was pleased to be invited to look round the refurbished studio and to see it once again a hive of activity with an unfeasibly large number of people crammed inside.

You can listen to STAR or download podcasts at www.standrewsradio.com.

I came across a bunch of Officer Cadets pedalling like mad but going nowhere outside of the Union. They are from A Squadron Tayforth UOTC and were raising money for Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Passers-by were asked give a donation and to guess how many miles they would clock up on the exercise bikes. In the end they cycled 209 miles - the same distance as from St Andrews to Darlington they tell me (though I doubt you would want to cycle there from here) and raised nearly £400.

Well done to them and to (Junior Under Officer) David Mason who led the thirty strong team.

Miriam Rune, President of the Scarlet Gown Society, came along to a Meet the Rector event to ask me to deliver the inaugural lecture at the launch event of the new society.

It aims to maintain university traditions especially promoting the wearing of the traditional gown at day-to day university events and to make the gown more affordable (in part by asking alumni to donate their gowns to be borrowed by current students - which is why the society has officers with splendid titles such as Chief Collector of Gowns).

I talked about the role of the Rector, which is one of the most traditional in the university, and how in the 19th century the legislation which set up the University Court also provided that it should be presided over by the Rector. Although that function remains to the present day it has regularly come under threat and so the Scottish Rectors Group has been established to provide a forum for mutual support and to encourage effective Rectorship. In that way traditional roles adapt to challenge.

The traditions of the university are part of the fabric of our institution and deserve to be celebrated and nurtured. However, we should guard against our traditions being appropriated or distorted to cause exclusion or division in our increasingly heterogeneous university community.