Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary. Mildmay, a Puritan, originally intended Emmanuel to be a college of training for Protestant preachers to rival the successful Catholic theological schools that had trained Dominican friars for years.

Emmanuel still has quite a few theological students, but has broadened itself to include students of a wide variety of subjects, and opened its doors to female students in 1979.

Emma, as it is known throughout the University, attracts large numbers of undergraduate applications owing to its reputation as a 'friendly college' (although several other colleges also claim this). Emmanuel topped the Tompkins Table, which ranks colleges according to end-of-year examination results, in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 and was second in 2001, 2002 and 2008. Emmanuel has been among the top five colleges in each of the last nine years (2000-2008). The 2008 figures (2007 in brackets) were 68.30% (66.62%) with 30.6% (29.5%) awarded as First Class degrees.

Emmanuel is one of the wealthier colleges at Cambridge with an estimated financial endowment of £162m (2005).

Notable features

Emmanuel's chapel was designed by Christopher Wren. There is a large fish pond in the grounds, home of a colony of ducks. Until the late 1990s, these were largely Mallards, but a former Master donated a variety of more exotic duck species, including the Carolina, the Mandarin, the Pintail, the Tufted, and the Wigeon.

There is a fine example of an Oriental plane tree in the Fellows' Garden, which is reputed to have lived far longer than is typical of the species. The Fellows' Garden also contains a swimming pool which is one of the oldest bathing pools in Europe.

Civil partnerships

In February 2006, Rev. Jeremy Caddick, the Dean of Emmanuel College, announced that Emmanuel's chapel would be open to the blessing of same-sex civil partnerships — becoming the first in the Church of England to do so. Emmanuel's chapel is not under the formal jurisdiction of the local Church of England bishop, and did not have to obey a House of Bishops ruling against such blessings.

Only members and alumni of the college may be blessed in this way. The decision was supported both by the College council and the students' union.

College Grace

The following grace is recited before formal dinners at Emmanuel College:

Oculi omnium in te sperant, Domine, et tu das escam illorum in tempore opportuno. Aperis tu manum tuam et imples omne animal benedictione. Benedic, Domine, nos et dona tua quae de tua largitate sumus sumpturi; per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Students' Union

The Emmanuel College Students' Union (ECSU - ) provides a bar, a common room, and funding for sports and other societies. ECSU's Executive Committee is elected on a yearly basis at the end of Michaelmas Term. The individual officers fulfil varying roles, each designed to aid and improve student life within the college. ECSU also acts as a formal channel of communication between the students and the College authorities.

Socities in Emmanuel College

A large number of student societies and sports clubs exist at Emmanuel College. Examples include the Boat Club, Emmanuel College Music Society (ECMS), the Christian Union, the Mountaineering Club, the Emmanuel Real Ice Cream Society (ERICS), and the Politics and Economics Society.

Notable alumni

Emmanuel graduates had a large involvement in the settling of North America. Of the first 100 university graduates in New England, one-third were graduates of Emmanuel College. Harvard University, the first college in The United States, was named after John Harvard (B.A., 1632), who was an Emmanuel graduate.

Other alumni of Emmanuel include:

Choudhary Rahmat Ali Charlie Bean Henry Cantrell Graham Chapman Alan J. Charig Joe Craig Francis Darwin Gurusaday Dutt Sebastian Faulks Reo Fortune Michael Frayn Graeme Garden Edward George Joseph Hall Richard Holmes

Fred Hoyle Jonathan James-Moore Griff Rhys Jones Tom King F.R. Leavis Rory McGrath Alexander Morrison Richard W. Murphy Ronald Norrish Maggie O'Farrell Cecil Parkinson C. Northcote Parkinson Steven Poole George Porter

Alan Rouse Stephen Sackur Birbal Sahni Herchel Smith Dan Stevens Stephen Timms Justine Waddell John Wallis Hugh Walpole Thomas Watson Tim Yeo Benjamin Yeoh Thomas Young

See also

• Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
• Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

External links

• Emmanuel College website
• Emmanuel College Middle Combination Room (MCR)
• Emmanuel College Students' Union
• Events Happening at Emmanuel College
• Emmanuel College Music Society