College Guide: Langwith

 

Established: 1965

Motto: Vincit qui se Vincit (He conquers who conquers himself)

Principle: Jon Fanning

College Officer: Jonny Exon

College President: Symone Thompson (extra cool points: Symone changed her name by deed poll to Gimli son-of Gloin last year for charity)

The original, the best and the hardest partying; that is Langwith College in a nutshell.

If anyone wishes to debate these three things, they should first bear in mind that we were of course the first college to be created at York, we’ve hosted Jimi Hendrix for a fresher’s week gig and we have our own tribute to the legendary Willow club, Marmite. These are things that other, lesser colleges just don’t have going for them.

Since our inception 49 years ago, when we were opened by Queen Elizabeth herself, we’ve been a dominant presence in university life, first on Heslington West where we shared accommodation with our sworn rivals Derwent, and now on the new(ish) Heslington East, a beautiful haven of rolling hills and plastic buildings. We have our own college bar, The Glasshouse, which is comparable to a gentrified pub and certainly a lot more personable than the stark cavern that is D-bar. It regularly plays host to an electric atmosphere whenever there’s a significant sporting event on or when we host our ever popular Marmite club nights! Should you want to absolve yourself in body (if not in mind) of these things the next day, we’re also only a stone’s throw away from the shiny new York Sports Village.

The college has a strong sense of community and we hold plenty of college-specific events (pre-drinks, barbecues, pub-quiz nights etc.) to enhance this. This is all run by the incredible Langwith Students Association who have dominated the YUSU awards in recent years, winning committee of year in 2013! As part of the LSA myself, I can assure you we’re doing everything we can to make Langwith’s freshers week head and shoulders above the tea-parties being thrown by other colleges, even if that does just mean we’re going to sing our famous songs a bit louder than everyone else.  Wearing the university colours of gold and black, when Langwith hit the town this freshers week you can guarantee that you’ll hear us before you see us!

Langwith certainly has a proud history, performing well in both the sporting and volunteering cups, the latter of which we won in 2013. Our RAG society also raises more money for charity than any other college, last year raising close to £20,000! Whilst some probably correctly point out we’ve lost a little of our sporting calibre in recent years (with the exception of snooker, we’re still quite good at that), we make up for it with the closest-knit teams, endless grit and the best college spirit the university has to offer.

Not that you should need any more convincing that Langwith is the college you should choose but we also produce the best students: four out of the five members of the YUSU senior team are Langwith students, including our president, the indomitable Irish-Sam Maguire!

Accept no substitute, we are the real McCoy! Langwith til’ I die! S**t on the Derwent!