Durham University there is no formal teaching at Durham colleges (with the exception of Cranmer Hall theological college within St John's), although colleges are active in research. The colleges dominate the residential, social, sporting, and pastoral functions within the university, and there is heavy student involvement in their operation. Formal dinners (known as "formals") are held at every college; gowns are worn to these events at just over half of the colleges. Gowns are not worn for formals at Collingwood, St Aidan's, St Cuthbert's, Hild Bede, Van Mildert, Stephenson or Ustinov. There is a great deal of intercollegiate rivalry, particularly in rowing
Johannes van Mildert and Robert Colyns the Nole that had dominated the Antwerp market from the beginning of the seventeenth century. He initially worked in a mannerist style. The monumental alabaster mantelpiece which he made in 1618 for the wedding hall of the Antwerp City Hall followed the Mannerist style of Cornelis Floris de Vriendt and may have been based on a drawing of Floris. Around this time van Mildert started working in the Baroque style of his friend Rubens. In 1618 he executed a black and white marble altar made for the Chapel Church in Brussels based on a design by Rubens.