Friends of the Cam co-founder stands for Chancellor of Cambridge University

One of the co-founders of Friends of the Cam, and the organiser of our annual Festival, Tony Booth, is standing for Chancellor of Cambridge University. His decision to do so has been prompted by two other candidates: Lord Brown, ex-CEO of BP, one of the most polluting companies on the planet; and Mohammed El-Erian, the President of Queen’s College, which is determined to extend student accommodation at Owlstone Croft, against the decision of the City Council and local residents, and to the detriment of Paradise Nature Reserve. El-Erian is also the Chief Economic Advisor of the world’s largest insurance company, Allianz. Tony’s statement is reproduced below. Any holder of a Cambridge University master’s degree and/or PhD; or academic or senior administrative member of staff may nominate Tony and then can vote in the election of the chancellor, although if they have not registered to do so before May 2nd at 5pm, they will have to vote in person. The Supporter Nomination Form can be found here. Nominations have to be sent to tonyforchancellor@gmail.com  by Thursday 1st May to be collated and handed in by noon on 2nd May. 

If you need to register for on-line voting you have until 5pm on Friday to do that. You will also be able to vote in person. You can find out about voting here.

I, Tony Booth, am standing for Chancellor of Cambridge University. I care deeply about this great University, the education of its students, the wellbeing of all its staff, and the city in which it is located, where I have lived for fifty years. I am not famous or rich and do not have a wealth of establishment contacts. My appointment would not represent business as usual.

The University’s focus must be on education, research, and the futures of its students. We are at an astonishing juncture in history. Sir David King said in 2021, that we had only three or four years to rapidly cut carbon emissions to conserve a liveable planet. This reality calls for exceptionally productive thought. A reverse ‘Manhattan project’ is needed, led by Cambridge University with others, locally and globally to understand and overcome denial, resistance and inaction, and do what is necessary to preserve life on earth. We need a new sensibility about what growth the present predicament of our planet can permit. We can call on wonderful mathematicians and engineers to do their calculations. We must restore nature, including the iconic River Cam, not destroy it.

I worked in education departments of universities for thirty-seven years, latterly as a professor of education. I shaped my work on developing schools and education systems around two questions: ‘How should we live together?’ and ‘What do we need to know to live together well?’ I see promoting environmental sustainability, preserving a future in which young people can flourish, as an imperative, woven into the fabric of education. It is part of the duty of care of educators.

Universities are an ethical force in the world. There is no place for investment in fossil fuels or the arms trade, which makes the University complicit in unjust killing, inevitably of some of its own students. The University has to encourage respect for international law, supporting the international courts. It must continue to implement its values of encouraging ‘a questioning spirit’, ‘freedom of thought and expression’, and ‘freedom from discrimination’. I support the determination of the University to reduce all forms of bullying and harassment. I would like to learn how student fees are impacting fair recruitment.

The University is a place of reflection, teaching, scholarship and research, finding new solutions to important human concerns. I value all departments and all subjects; the physical, biological sciences and engineering, at the economy’s cutting edge, and the arts, humanities and social sciences, extending our humanity.

Cambridge University is a powerful influence in our city. Many groups are deeply exercised by plans for massive expansion with the involvement of the University and Colleges, in the hottest, driest, lowest lying, area of the country, which has virtually used up its carbon budget to 2050. The area is also among the most nature depleted. I look forward to the University building on community connections to forge a new partnership with Cambridge citizens.

I wish to represent the University, as a critical, loving friend.