Students sitting exams under a glittering disco ball in a nightclub.
That’s one of Tanya Parker’s enduring memories from her 30-year career at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
In the early days, she recalls, there wasn’t space to hold mass exams on campus so other venues had to be found – including Stewarts Hotel at Alexandra Headlands.
“I have strong memories of the logistics of fitting in the seating arrangements for the exams amongst the pillars in the hotel’s nightclub.
“The smell of stale beer. The very psychedelic carpet. And I can testify that there are some students who did exams under a disco ball.
“Possibly some... [on the Sunshine Coast] may have attended that nightclub. We probably should have thought to take them [the disco balls] down, but I think we only realised they were there after the event,” she said.
Tanya now leads UniSC’s Data Governance team and is one of the University’s longest serving current staff members having begun in an administration role ahead of the long-awaited university opening in February 1996.
She vividly remembers the students’ excitement as they waited in the scorching summer heat to confirm their enrolment details inside one of two buildings on campus.
“The university had very little extra shelter. We had few trees. But we did have kangaroos and they were a fantastic distraction!
“At that time there wasn’t a student portal. There wasn’t even a student management system.
“So, while the ground staff were laying the last of the pavers to open the campus, we were scurrying around trying to create forms for students to update their details,” she said.
And, working on a campus still under construction posed challenges at times.
“We didn’t have air conditioning in many of the offices. That wasn’t so much of a problem [for me] having grown up in Queensland, until the library construction started.
“We needed to open our windows to get air. But that meant our desks were lined with grit and we had many paperweights to hold down our paperwork, so it was a fun time,” she said laughing.
[It was worth it though – with the library winning the prestigious Sir Zelman Cowen Award for the best public building in Australia in 1997.]
She also has fond memories of the first graduation ceremony held in a big marquee in 1999 – having been postponed until we gained full university status [and were no longer under the governance of the Queensland University of Technology.]
“The weather on that day was windy and rainy. During the ceremony, the sides of the marquee were billowing and by the end of the ceremony the carpet on stage was really sodden and very muddy.
“But nobody minded. It was just so exciting to have that event occur,” she said.
Above all, she remembers the camaraderie among staff, students and the community.
“Those early years were really challenging, exciting, lots of pioneering and [there was] just a great community spirit. It truly was a special time.”
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