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.

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.

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.

Good Meet the Rector event in the Union Bar - but I really need to get a sign or something otherwise students tentatively come up and ask if I am free to speak when in fact that is what I am there for. A variety of issues which people want advice on or support for - Clare Riley and Didi Wambugu have a great idea for a skills exchange - I will post more about it once they are ready to launch but in the meantime happy to do what I can to support.

Toured the Barron Theatre with its administrator, Julie Amphlett, along with Sam Fowles, President of Mermaids, and Phil Pass, Director of Events and Services, Students' Association. The Barron is a great asset for student drama - a dedicated 60 seat 'black box' space. It is much used but like so many of the student facilities would benefit from fresh investment especially to upgrade the retractable seating and the technical box. Sam and Phil embarrassed Julie for this photo taken in the props room.

Arrived at the Buchanan Theatre this evening for Mohsin Hamid's lecture to find it absolutely packed - the aisles were littered with bodies and people were congregating in the doorways straining to hear. However, I was able to have a brief chat beforehand with Mohsin and then wangle a space to hear a thoughtful reflection on the craft of writing The Reluctant Fundamentalist  ("The job of the novelist is to re-complicate the over-simplified," he said).

To that end he pointed out the main character Changez is polite, Westernised, not observably religious yet his immediate reaction on hearing of the attack on the Twin towers is a smiling satisfaction. We have by that time been drawn into a certain empathy with Changez- not least because we see how affected he has been by his doomed relationship with his girlfriend - which makes the prospect of his capacity for cold blooded action all the more troubling.

But the ending is ambiguous: do we imagine what may happen only because of what we fear 'radical Muslims' are capable of post 9/11?