50th anniversary celebrations reach the West Coast

50th anniversary celebrations reach the West Coast

Fittingly, 50 alumni, friends and University staff joined together in San Francisco last week to mark the University’s 50^th anniversary at a special event hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Farthing.

Alumnus John Wilton (SOC1973), Vice-Chancellor for Administration and Finance at UC Berkeley, gave a stimulating talk about the funding challenges faced by universities like UC Berkeley and Sussex in the current climate. Guests also heard from the Vice-Chancellor and the Director of Development and Alumni Relations about the latest developments on campus and Sussex’s Making the Future fundraising campaign which aims to raise £50m by 2015-2016 to support new academic chairs and scholarships to attract the brightest minds to Sussex.

The formal part of the evening culminated with the presentation of the first ever Vice-Chancellor’s Gold Medal for Philanthropy, given to Andrew and Jinny Rudd in recognition of their generous gift to establish The Andrew and Virginia Rudd Centre in Adoption Research and Practice at Sussex.