University of St Andrews Students' Association
This year the dinner will take place on 14 April and will be held in Lower College Hall, thanks to the support of the Principal’s Office.
14/04/2015 19:00 - 14/04/2015 23:00
Lower College Hall
Go to basket
*Please email all dietary requirements (including vegetarian) to [email protected] by 1 April*
*Please purchase your ticket prior to emailing seating/table requests (up to ten per table) to [email protected]*
This year the dinner will take place on 14 April and will be held in Lower College Hall, thanks to the support of the Principal’s Office.
The night will begin at 7pm with a drinks reception in Upper College Hall, after which guests will be taken downstairs and seated for speeches (one of which will be delivered by the mystery Guest of Honour) and a three-course dinner, followed by tea and coffee.
The dinner is open to all students and staff, and is priced at £18 for students and £28 for staff, to allow for the original purpose of the dinners (‘to enable students to have a “decent and varied diet”’ at an affordable price) to be continued. We really encourage students to ask their tutors to the dinner, as it makes for an excellent night of interaction out-with an academic setting.
The dinner was founded in 2012 and is named for Peter Redford Scott Lang, whose contributions to the University are numerous. Highlights include his fundraising activities that helped to buy the property at 79 North Street that served as the first Union building, as well as insisting that students in his class, as well as those who attended chapel, be required to wear their academic gowns. But his most important contribution, per the dinner, was his institution of ‘Common Dinners’ in the 1880s. The original purpose of the dinners was to enable students to have a “decent and varied diet,” but ended up meaning much more than that to some. In 1926, L.J.D. Gibson wrote this about the dinners:
The Common Dinners were of the greatest service in the bringing the men together … Modern St Andrews owes a great debt to Professor Lang … was so invaluable in fostering the social life of the university.
The dinner is designed to encourage interaction across interests in all areas of the University community and is open to all staff and students. Seating is deliberately mixed across tables of ten to promote discussion between students and staff.