College town unfazed by prince’s arrival

Published 9:00 pm Friday, September 7, 2001

Los Angeles Times

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — In this medieval town overlooking the North Sea, residents have watched Bill Clinton tee off on the Old Course, Clint Eastwood savor a drink in a bar and Sean Connery wander down the cobblestoned streets.

A different kind of celebrity will arrive later this month. The question is whether residents will react when the most famous college freshman in the kingdom, Prince William, heir to the British throne, shows up for orientation week at the University of St. Andrews.

"When he first comes here, there will be hustle and bustle," says Sheena Willougby, who runs the Dunvegan Hotel, catering to the likes of golf champion Tiger Woods and former astronaut Neil Armstrong. "I think that will die down very quickly. People are used to seeing celebrities here. At the end of the day, they put their trousers on like everyone else. What is the fuss about?"

The fuss is about a teen prince trying to fit in as a common student. It’s about seeing how the town and university react to a handsome young man who is the son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana and second in line to succeed Queen Elizabeth II. The spotlight will be shining not on the part of town renowned as golf’s ancestral home, but on Britain’s third-oldest university, founded in 1410. (Oxford, the oldest, had students by 1096; Cambridge, the second-oldest, had its first scholars in 1206.)

The event begins with orientation Sept. 18, the start of "freshers" week, as Prince William and the university’s 6,000 other students begin to arrive and settle in for the new academic year. He’s here for four years to study art history.

This is not like an American president’s kid going off to college. William, 19, is a public figure in his own right. His life is part of a national family album, from his birth at St. Mary’s Hospital in London to his first day as a 3-year-old at Mrs. Mynor’s Nursery School to his stint at Eton, the elite secondary school now attended by his younger brother Prince Harry.

The university is trying to deal with the publicity, security and public interest surrounding the prince’s impending arrival. There has already been one security hoax, as someone mailed a mysterious brown powder accompanied by a piece of paper with the words: "Anthrax-Warning."

But mostly, the university has stuck to its principles, declining to talk specifically about William although managing to at least meet the press halfway by explaining the school’s mission — to provide a broadly based education.

As the locals are fond of saying, nobody actually passes through St. Andrews. You have to want to be here — about a one-hour drive northeast of Edinburgh, literally at the end of one main road.

It says a lot about William that after attending Eton, within sight of Windsor Castle, he chose to come to St. Andrews rather than, say, follow the lead of his father, who attended Cambridge and became the first heir to the throne to gain a university degree. It’s very doubtful that William will repeat his father’s college entrance: Charles showed up driven in a red mini-car that became stuck in traffic.

The town is justifiably proud of its school, which lures students from 75 countries, boasts a strong liberal arts tradition, and includes among its alumni John Napier, the inventor of logarithms, and feminist author Fay Weldon. Female students were admitted in 1892, and the current student population breaks down to 53 percent women, 47 percent men.

At St. Andrews, students wear scarlet gowns on formal occasions, and a mentoring system places new students under the wing of third- and fourth-year students in a so-called family. The students are actually adopted by a "mother" and "father" and gain "brothers" and "sisters."

If a first-year student is out of line, his "family" will let him know about it. There is also fun, culminating with "Raisin Monday," when the first-year student is dressed by his mother and sent to his father to receive a receipt in Latin. But it’s not like the receipt comes on a piece of paper. It is often put on objects such as bathtubs and boats, which then have to be taken through town.

‘The social culture is different here than in an American university," Green says. "You go out. You have a drink. You talk. You listen to music. You go to balls, dress up and go out. It’s the difference between frat parties and Scottish pubs."