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.