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.

After a series of very busy and varied sessions during the first semester, here are the dates for the second semester's open surgeries.

All surgeries take place from 2pm-3.30pm in the Union Main Bar unless otherwise indicated. Click here for more information.

Wednesday 10th February
Wednesday 24th February *
Wednesday 10th March
Wednesday 14th April
Tuesday 27th April

(*3pm-4.30pm)

Came across one of the less well-regarded St Andrews traditions today, which is students having to queue up outside property letting agencies in the hope of getting accommodation for the next academic year. This queue is on Argyle Street; the snow and ice of last week has largely gone to be replaced by a bitterly cold easterly wind.

Spoke with Toby Marsh (Classics), Celeste Sloman (Art History) and Freddie Edmunds (Neurosciences) - all First Years living in Sallies who seemed to be stoically resigned to the fact that this is what you have to do to get a place, although it was hardly the best preparation for the Biology exam Freddie had that afternoon.

If you're organising an event next semester, campaigning on an issue in the new year or need some advice in the last week of term, remember that the Rector is here to help.

The University Rector, Kevin Dunion, will be in the Main Bar of the Union from 2pm on Wednesday 16th December, so feel free to come and have a chat.

This week's topics included:
- Setting up a student ambulance service
- Chairing a high profile Energy Debate
- Potential charity events for RAG Week
- NGO work in Tanzania
- Oxfam society - to give KD his raffle prize!
- Scarlet Gown Society
- SRC International Students Representative re. semester reform

Check the Events page in the New Year for details of next semester's surgeries.

The Rector, Kevin Dunion, will on Monday be helping students mark the launch of a new community-led initiative to promote the transition to a low-carbon university. Transition Universities is a national student campaign based on the success of the Transition Town movement.

The launch of Transition: St Andrews will be taking place on Monday 7th December at 7pm in Venue 2, on the top floor of the Students' Association, and is being organised by the OneWorld Society. OneWorld would like to invite all students to attend and find out more about this exciting new project.

The Transition Universities initiative has already been successful elsewhere in Scotland - it was announced yesterday that students at Edinburgh University have been awarded £340,000 of government funding to reduce their carbon footprint - so it would be excellent to see similar success in St Andrews.

Full details of the launch event can be found below or at http://tinyurl.com/yzkltre.

Stayed well away from St Andrews on Sunday evening -  Raisin Sunday revelry should be Rector-free. Raisin Monday was raw but bright as I watched a succession of bejants/bejantines in colourful Raisin receipts outfits somewhat self consciously heading to St Salvators Quad. After the foam fight a bedraggled procession, foam covered and frozen cold, beat a retreat home - including this group of DRA residents:-

Front row, left to right: Karina Pawloff (Economics), Rosie Al-Adwani (Geography), Harriet Paterson (Russian/Spanish), Kelly Laws (Social Anthropology); Back row: Craig Graham (Chemistry/Physics), Rebecca Butcher (Philosophy), Peter Gowler (Neuroscience).

As the G20 Finance Ministers gathered in St Andrews an alternative People's Summit was organised by a wide range of voluntary bodies including two of my former organisations Oxfam, and Friends of the Earth. After a media photo-call on the West Sands which included bowler hatted 'Ministers' complete with red briefcases, over 300 people gathered in Venue 1 in the Students' Union. I was pleased to welcome the participants to St Andrews and to introduce the keynote speakers: Colin Hines, Director of Finance for the Future; Judith Robertson, Head of Oxfam in Scotland; Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe, Ugandan development campaigner; and Alex Cobham, Policy Manager at Christian Aid.

Mermaids are celebrating their 90th - at least - birthday. They say that the student theatrical society started with a group of female undergraduates reciting poetry on the Castle Sands - hence the name. A good enough reason to revive the occasion - so various members recited from a rocky perch above the beach whilst the appreciative audience below were gradually engulfed by the rising high tide.