This History Revisited column, History revisited - changes at the helm of UNE, is the start of a new series on the history of the New England University College/UNE seen through a prism set by Wardens/Vice Chancellors of those institutions. I will add the links at the bottom as I go along.
In aggregate, the local historians probably form the largest group of New England writers, especially if combined with the overlapping group of family historians whose writing often extends beyond the immediate family into broader topics such as station histories.
The first local historical writing seems to have been associated with civic events such as anniversaries. Here local newspaper editors such as E C Sommerlad in Glen Innes seem to have played lead roles. They were used to writing, were committed to their communities and also controlled the printing presses. They also wrote and published on a range of other topics through their papers, pamphlets and books, adding substantially to the total body of New England writing.
In 1928, the Armidale Teachers' College College was established, followed by the New England University College in 1938. They brought the first trained historians to the North, while the students they educated generally came from the North and were interested in local and regional topics. This combined with a rising interest in local history. leading to the formation of local historical societies. The Richmond River Historical Society was founded in 1936. Within twenty years, most Northern centres had their own historical societies. These not only provided local historical forums, but also began to collect records and memorabilia and to establish museums and displays.
Even in the 1950s, there were still very full local histories. This was not dissimilar to the position in Australian historical writing in general. An explosion took place over the next thirty years. By the end of the eighties there were hundreds of titles, most with very small print runs. General interest in Australian history was growing, but beyond that the existence of the Teacher's College and University in Armidale had a huge direct and indirect impact at every level in the process.
Not all the local histories were well written. Some were mere compilations of newspaper stories, catalogues of things considered to be locally important written in isolation from broader events. They provide a useful resource, but are boring to read unless you know and are interested in the area in question. Others, however, are very good indeed. This includes both those books written by professional historians such as John Ferry's Colonial Armidale and those written by amateurs, if often amateurs with some form of study at the University of New England,
Note to readers: This piece is a work in progress, the start of my attempt to define and describe the various threads in New England writing over time. I have over four hundred separate New England titles on my shelves, and i know that I have barely scratched to surface!
University of New England Vice Chancellor Jim Barber today announced he had given the University Council six months’ notice of his decision to resign.
Professor Barber said it was a difficult personal decision to leave UNE but with the university now in a very solid position he and his wife wished to return home to Melbourne. Stepping away from executive leadership of UNE would also enable him to focus on his interest in online learning and educational innovation, he said.
“This was not an easy decision as the last four years here in Armidale have been very rewarding,” Professor Barber said.
“However, UNE is in a very good position right now and I have every confidence that it will build on recent successes in the next phase of its development. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with such a talented, committed team.”
UNE Chancellor John Watkins paid tribute to Professor Barber’s achievements since joining UNE in 2010. UNE had improved its position on a range of key indicators, he said.
“UNE currently has record student demand, staff numbers are growing, University funds are in surplus, research funding has increased and the biggest capital works program in the history of the Armidale campus is now under way,” Mr Watkins said.
“Much of this success can be credited to Jim’s strategic leadership, his energy and his dynamism. Jim has proven very adept at reading the trends in higher education and putting UNE in the vanguard of growth areas such as online education and other innovations that will enable us to compete globally.
“I speak on behalf of the University Council in applauding his contribution and wishing him well. We are very sorry to see him go but understand his reasons for heading home. We are exploring ways in which Jim can pursue his interests in association with UNE in an external capacity.
“We share Jim’s optimism about UNE’s bright future and will shortly commence a global search for an appropriately qualified replacement to lead the next phase for UNE.”
I was surprised at the sudden resignation of University of New England VC Jim Barber. Apparently his wife wishes to return to Melbourne. I will post more as I learn it.
This post, History revisited - University of Dance, looks at the role of UNE in the promotion of ballet and dance in Australia at a critical period.
This photo from Paul Barratt took me back. It was taken by his father in the 1950s. Further brief comments follow the photo.
The photo is taken on Booloominbah's northern forecourt. The caption - “When the wisteria starts to bloom it is time to make your run; when the roses bloom it is too late” - captures the old exam message. The students with their books and gowns, the colour, captures a world now past.
I have now finished my History revisited stories on the foundation of the Armidale Teachers' College and the University of New England. The posts are:
For those who haven’t come across my train reading yet, these are the books I read two and from work. Each is just plucked from the shelves, and they vary greatly. This week my training reading is P E H Barratt, Psychology at New England: An autobiographical history of the first forty years (University of New England Publishing Unit, Armidale, 1983)
Paul Barrett Snr, we have to call him Snr because his son Paul Barratt Jnr is another very well known New Englander, was the first student to be enrolled at the newly established New England University College in 1938 and later the University’s third professor of psychology. The book is part reminiscence; part an overview of the author’s evolving interest in the discipline and teaching of psychology.
I suppose it could be a boring book to those who know nothing about the people, nothing about the history, nothing about the discipline itself. However, it is quite fascinating to me.
One if the big issues today in academe is the split between teaching and research. We need, or so it is argued, establish a clear division between the two. Staff and institutions must specialise in either. We can’t have both. That was not the view of early staff at either the College or subsequent University.
By the nature of the times in a small, newly established institution, teaching had to come first. Library resources were limited, courses had to be written or upgraded, students had to be guided and examined. There was neither the time nor the resources required for full or even intensive research, something that cost the staff members in question in career terms. And yet, none of them appeared to mind.
Not all the early staff were good teachers. Still, in total they did a pretty good job, aided by small class sizes and an intense academically oriented residential atmosphere. Pound for pound, their early students had lower entry qualifications than students entering Sydney, the mother university. Despite that, pound for pound, their students achieved relatively better results even when marked by Sydney staff.
While teaching came first, the ideal of the academy was deeply embedded: you had to ensure that your students had access to the range of the discipline; you had to do some research to extend your knowledge; and for many, applied research was critical to the areas that the College and University served. One result was that, relative to size, the College and University had a good research output measures by those standards so beloved by our current university funders.
Professor Barratt’s book charts the challenges involved in developing a new institution, in teaching, in trying to balance research and teaching where research had to come second. But it is also an exploration of his evolving ideas about his own discipline. In that sense, it’s a very academic book.
Paul Barratt Snr admits that he did not write as much as he should, that he didn’t carry the formulation of his ideas to the point that he should. Like many New England academics, he taught and revised certain courses year after year without ever publishing the results. Like a number of New England academics, he thought that too much was being published to the point that quantity totally outweighed content – and the budgets required to buy the ever-expanding volume of publications.
I regret his failure to publish the course material, as I regret my father’s failure to publish his history of economic thought material This was constantly being re-researched, rewritten, re-tested with students and then rewritten again.
When, at the request of some of his ex students, I tried to get him to publish, he simply said that there was too much written. In reality, I suppose, he just enjoyed the personal research and its representation to students via teaching. I was that that interested him.
It is just this point that pulls me up in my tracks about current approaches.
Do we really expect those university people designated as “teachers” with the heavy loads now expected of them to maintain currency in their subject areas, let alone pursue the intellectual curiosity (call it research; it is) required to improve? I think that we are being unrealistic and short sighted. But then, I accept that I am old fashioned.
The untimely death of the archaeologist Professor Mike Morwood will, I hope, be properly recorded. The UNE coverage is here, although other places have claimed him too.
Mike's best known work was leadership of a team that in 2003 discovered a possible new human species, Homo floresiensis, nicknamed ‘the Hobbit’, on the island of Flores in East Indonesia, UNE VC James Barber notes that the discovery of the skeleton of a tiny woman, who died about 18,000 years ago, has been hailed as one of the most important finds in human evolution since the discovery of the Neandertals in the middle of the nineteenth century. "
I think that there is still debate on this point, but it was a remarkable discovery. During his 32 years association with UNE, Professor Morwood worked as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor of Archaeology, and Adjunct Professor, a position he stood down from earlier this year. His long and outstanding contribution to scholarship included research in the fields of human dispersal and evolution, culture contact and change, Aboriginal rock art, and ethnoarchaeology.
Since Isabel McBryde came to UNE as the first lecturer in archeology and prehistory, the University has established a proud tradition in these fields. It is also one that I can claim a tiny part as a member of Isabel's first prehistory honours group. All these years later, I am still writing in the area although as an amateur historian.
Necessarily, the University's focus broadened beyond Northern New South Wales, my main area of interest. That has actually left a gap. But I can take great pride in Mike's work and the contribution he made to students. That was very much in the UNE tradition.
Over on Northern Rivers Geology, Rod Holland kindly featured one of my history posts, History Revisited - New England gold fields lost to time.
In the post just before(Doctor John Lindsay), Rod featured the work of one of the University of New England geologists.
I didn't know that John had died 2008. He and I overlapped in time at UNE, but I didn't study geology and really only knew him as a face on campus. It is only now, years later, that his work has become important to me because of the way that it informs others including Rod.
We, and I am thinking just of we New Englanders, have been very lucky in many ways. The things that we fought for in our efforts to grow our area and to retain our identity were hard won. Much has been lost. Yet the chain effects continue.
Our ancestors' efforts created the first university in Australia outside the metros. The students who came like John created New England knowledge. Most, and this is the story of the New England diaspora, went on to other things, but their contribution remains.
When Rod, I and others write today, we draw from and preserve that earlier work,
New England doesn't exist. We New Englanders can agree on neither name nor boundaries. And yet, after 150 years, we remain the only area in Australia capable of mounting a sustained challenge to the intellectual and political dominance imposed by the metro elites.
We still demand to be heard, we still write, we still care. That's no bad thing.
The VV noted that at the close of enrolments, UNE had more than 700 additional students enrolled than at the same time last year. That’s a 4.5 per cent increase in enrolments.
Even better, the number of new applicants wishing to study at UNE rose 13.8 per cent, more than triple the national average growth in university applications of just 4.2 per cent in 2012.
Enrolments were up almost across the board - Arts, Education, Law, Nursing and Science Courses still remained popular with commencing students, with significant growth in other disciplines.
The biggest increases in undergraduate enrolments this year were in the Bachelor of Ecology, Diploma of The Sciences, Diploma of Town Planning, Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Sciences, Bachelor of Pharmacy, Bachelor or Organisational Leadership, Bachelor of Agriculture and Bachelor of Education (combined).
In postgraduate studies there was significant growth in enrolments in the Graduate Certificate of Agriculture, Graduate Certificate in eLearning, Graduate Diploma in Applied Anatomy by Dissection, Master of Agriculture and Graduate Diploma of Applied Anatomy.
Both the University of New England and New England in general have gained from UNE's official photographers. I was reminded of this with the death of John Fields. John died at his home in Guyra on 4 February, 2013.
In this post I want to record a little of two of those men, Bill Webster and John himself. This a shot of Bill.
Bill was appointed to the University of New England as photographer in July 1959. He stayed in Armidale for the rest of his life, dying in September 1989. During his time as UNE photographer, he took shots of all UNE activities, including some archaeological digs that I was on.
We all know slices of people. In Bill's case, I knew him through his work. He was a familiar figure, one I liked, but not one that I knew well. I had no idea, for example, of his fascination with astronomy.
This fascination was not unusual in Armidale. Several Armidale people had high-powered telescopes, including the mathematician Wes Taylor. Bill had his own observatory. Upon his death, Bill bequeathed this to the University of New England. In March 1990, the Webster Observatory was dismantled and re-installed at the Kir
The photo from the UNE and Northern Tablelands Astronomical Society shows the Webster.
John Fields's life is recorded in poet Michael Sharkey's obituary, Photographer used his gift to travel, in the Sydney Morning Herald.
In 1987, John arrived in Armidale to became Photographer-in-Charge at the Media Resources Unit of the University of New England. For five years prior to his retirement in January 1998, he was the Liaison Officer with the University’s Publicity Unit.
I met John and wife Patricia after their arrival in Armidale. At the annual Drummond memorial dinners he was always there, taking photographs. New Zealand friend Peter Ireland wrote of John: John was a lovely man. Gentle, modest, generous and with a quiet but devastating sense of humour. He was a remarkable human being and great company.
That fits 
I said earlier that we only see slices of people. I had no idea of the variety of John's life, nor his achievements.
John James Fields was born on January 18, 1938, in Rockport, Massachusetts, son of Ludwig Fields and his wife, Sara Mae (nee McDonald). He seems to have been an adventurous boy according to John Turner, excited by guns, hunting and the sea. He joined the US Navy on his seventeenth birthday, serving in the Pacific and the Far East. It was there that he acquired his love of photography.
After leaving the navy, John studied photography and worked as a freelance photographer. In 1965 he became a photographer at Massachusetts General Hospital, working under English cell biologist Dr Stanley Bullivant. When Bullivant transferred to the University of Auckland in 1966, John followed.
The New Zealand period was a remarkable one. I had no idea of it, although I do understand some of the milieu that John was involved in because I visited New Zealand each year to see family, backpacking and travelling widely. I will only sketch the New Zealand experience. You will get a better feel for it if you go to this page on Photoforum and then follow some of the links through.
New Zealand was a strange mix at the time John arrived, It was still a very small and in many ways conservative society. It was also localised; each major centre had its own approach, its own elite; yet it was also a society strongly affected by new trends. I covered one aspect of this in a 2012 post, "Things were a lot looser then" - the New Zealand hippie movement.
In 1966, John married Australian-born Patricia Hazelton (known professionally as the singer Kerry Bryant).
looking at the various photos on-line, I chose this one because of its composition and because it captures so well that one aspect of New Zealand that I referred to earlier. I don't know whether the Allen in the photo was a hippy, but the photo really resonates.
John's impact in New Zealand was remarkable. In 1971, his work set a New Zealand record when his photographs were the first to sell for the then extraordinary sum of $100 each. Today, his works are held in many galleries and still referred to because of their quality, because of the way they captured New Zealand life.
In 1976, frustrated by lack of official support for photography, the Fields moved with his family to Sydney to work at the Australian Museum and then in 1987 to Armidale. There he continued to do as he had done before, photograph and educate.
Michael Sharkey records that part of the New England's appeal for John was its beauty, up close and in its vistas. He photographed the spectacular electrical storms of the region as well as the bird and plant life of its lagoons and open country. Images of lightning strikes, of tranquil waters and of snowbound natural features are among his enduring legacy.
As in New Zealand, he encouraged and actively supported fellow artists and craft workers, teaching photography at Armidale TAFE, attending exhibitions and recording events, mentoring young photographers. He was also active in community activities.
In 2008, a major exhibition of John's work, Forty Years Ago Today: selected vintage photographs was mounted in Wellington. John attended the opening. It seems a fitting tribute.
It's not on-line, at least at this point, but the Armidale Express is reporting that UNE's new trimester system has hit the local economy hard.
The system allows students to do an extra semester between November and February, a time when the University was previously in recess. It sounds good, but there is a problem.
To accommodate the system, the end date of the previous semester has been shortened by three weeks, finishing end October. Because offerings in the new trimester are on-line, residential students have been leaving Armidale earlier than previously, hitting local businesses.
Back in Armidale earlier this month, I noticed how quiet the University campus and city centre were, but didn't properly realise the cause.
Judith Ross Smith is leading a campaign to revitalise the Armidale CBD. For those who are interested, you will find the Facebook public group page here.
Postscript
Siobhan McCarthy's Armidale Express story - Cafes reel over UNE trimester - is now on-line.
In a comment here, Rod wrote:
I don't like the idea of shortening semesters to create trimesters. A similar thing happened to my closest university (SCU) about three years ago. I remember how the students struggled to do the units adequately within a shortened time frame. Eventually the units had content cut or more units were created (of course the number of units needed to complete a degree didn't decrease) and the result is... graduates with less knowledge than before. That is without considering the issues associated with a local economy relying on tertiary education.
Rod, this was something I wondered about. I didn't have time on my last trip to Armidale to properly suss out the on-ground position. You have to talk to a number of coal-face people to get a proper picture. The comments I did get were negative along three lines: some to the supporting systems hadn't been properly worked out; student's weren't dumb - they knew when they were being short-changed; finally, the additional load on staff.
According to a comment on the Express story from one student studying in residence, not all the courses are on-line delivered. When I get time, I will try to properly establish just what courses are offered, how, over what real period and with what content. That will make a standards judgement easier to make.
I won't repeat the Express comments in detail, but I wanted to pick up a couple of themes.
First, the UNE heavies have in fact ignored concerns raised by students and by the residential system. There was on-campus consultation, but Professor Barber's very focused support on one primary solution has raised concerns among alumni. That is, its not consultation but direction and persuasion. I covered this a little in Saturday Morning Musings - UNE alumni dinner.
If you look at my report, you will see how Professor Barber's initial and very enthusiastic for on-line as a low cost profitable delivery device that would allow UNE to compete in the new world actually got quite a frosty response. He was telling the wrong story to an audience scarred by previous university mistakes. UNE might become successful in commercial terms or as measured in Canberra, but what was the point if the UNE experience was lost, if it became just another on-line delivery vehicle. Professor Barber then changed track. I quote from my story:
"Now I heard Jim Barber start by talking about the university as a business, about the on-line revolution, about the need to deliver a low cost product. UNE, he seemed to be saying, had to survive by delivering a mass, cheap, on-line product. There was not a single word in the first five minutes of business/CEO speak that explained to me why I should continue to support UNE.
From my question, the flood gates opened. It wasn't harsh questioning. It was persistent questioning. Under that questioning, VC Barber gradually gave us reasons for encouragement.
UNE was not going to become, as it first seemed, a low cost provider of mass on-line education. In fact, UNE had chosen to stay smallish. UNE was not going to become just an on-line institution, something that worried many alumni. In fact, UNE was going to use revenue from on-line delivery to cross-subsidise the redevelopment of the University's unique residential model.
And yet, all this had to be dragged out through questioning. Even then, there was no real recognition of the University's history, of what in management speak might be called its unique selling points.
If you now look at the Express story, and I quote:
Ms Woodbury (pro-vice chancellor) said that given the positive student response, the university anticipates that in the coming years there would be more on campus study options as well as seeking alternative uses for the campus over the summer months.
“As the student interest in trimester three grows the university would look to see more on campus and residential schools take place over this period,” she said.
“The university is looking to have a better use of the summer period with a wider range of options with more school and sporting groups and conferences.
“This is a long term plan and I think it is good news for Armidale.”
On the surface, and if you consider Professor Barber's presentation, the University would have appeared to have delivered the first arm, on-line delivery, without the second, ways of managing the impact of change to enhance other aspects of the UNE experience. All the positives are possibles, long term things.
Normally when you introduce a major change, you do two things. You model the impacts on other parts of the system and you do a risk analysis. Now that may have been done, but I have the strong impression that University management was so focused on selling the new approach, on trying to make it work, that they may not have looked at broader issues. As I said, that is an impression.
Turning to another matter raised in the comments, I quote Jack:
So, if trimesters are here to stay, and retail is suffering because of it... what is the solution?
Here is a hot tip, when the students come back, make sure you let them know how valued they are.
Next hot tip; Armidale had better start looking at other ways to turn a buck. Shutting down for all of january - really? That's a business plan nowadays?
As a former Chair of Tourism Armidale, I can tell you that the city is very bad at promoting itself. One of our problems at the time lay in our inability to get people to recognise that it needed too. Part of the problem, too, was the purely domestic focus of many local businesses including those servicing tourists.
Later, I hammered away at somewhat similar themes in my Belshaw World columns. I traced the rise of Armidale inwardness and indeed that of UNE back to the university expansion of the 1970s. Then official NSW projections saw Armidale's population passing that of Tamworth by the turn of the century. Everybody talked about growth. Many were concerned to restrict it to preserve the city's life style.
I talked about the near-death experience that the city and university faced in the 1990s. I argued that Armidale now could not assume that the University would be there in future; other options had to be found. I pointed to the dramatic decline in the name recognition attached to the city and what that meant for the future; and I argued that in promotional terms the city's approach was narrow, unimaginative, unstable, using only a tiny proportion of the sizzle that could sell the city. I also suggested that the university actually suffered from similar problems. Both had become parochial and inward looking.
Was I right? Am I right? I don't know. I do feel that both UNE and the city itself need a reality check plus a large dose of applied imagination.
My main post today, Neucleus days - Part One, was on my personal blog. It was a follow up to Diary of my Armidale trip. Here I want to record just a few New England comments.
The Neucleus post is part personal memories, part historical research.
One of my continuing complaints is that our shared history is not seen as mainstream, not important. So outside the purely local or sometimes narrow regional level, few research it, fewer still publish it. It's just so non-metro!
I wrote about Soo Khoo, Khoo Soo-Hay I should probably call him, because he occupies a particular spot in my memory and life. I didn't know he was a poet! He is obviously a good poet, so I have to find his main book and read him. He is another of the ever growing list of New England writers.
Talking to people in Armidale or in other New England towns or cities, I find them cut off from their past. They just don't know, Yet our history is deep and interesting. It's just different from that elsewhere in Australia, different from the current "mainstream". Obviously it varies across New England, but those variations are part of the interest.
The story of Neucleus, a student newspaper, is of limited relevance to many. Yet it's also relevant to tens of thousands who read the paper. It's also relevant as a window into a broader slice of Australian history. And it's relevant to the thousands of New Englanders who have left the bounds of New England, however defined.
I hope that you enjoy the post, because it's part of us.
I hadn't caught up on the fact that Scott Williams had stood down as Deputy Chancellor at UNE. Just to embarrass him a little, this is a photo of a much younger Scott at the Aymever Christmas party. Aymever was our collective attempt to establish an Armidale based national/international consulting, training and information services business specialising in the electronics, aerospace and information industries. On the right of the photo are Phillip and Susan Mendes. Philip was our commercial and intellectual property lawyer. Further comments follow the photo. 
I thought that Scott made a pretty good fist of his role as UNE's Deputy Chancellor, often in very difficult circumstances. UNE really has suffered more than its fair share of turmoil in recent years.
The University has announced the election of Dr Geoff Fox as its new Deputy Chancell
or.
In the announcement, UNE Chancellor Richard Torbay said that Dr Fox brought a wealth of experience to the role, including a distinguished 27-year career with the World Bank, six years as Principal Adviser in Agriculture at AusAID, and positions as Adjunct Professor of Rural Science at UNE and Chair of the UNE Foundation.
He has a long association with UNE, having begun his tertiary education at the University in the 1960s.
“Dr Fox is a passionate advocate for education and the New England region, and his leadership on the UNE Council since his appointment in 2010 has been recognised with this appointment,” Mr Torbay said. “I think Dr Fox will make an excellent Deputy Chancellor, and I congratulate him on his appointment.”
In announcing the appointment, Richard once again thanked Scott for his work.
In another announcement on the same day, the University claimed now to be one of the fastest growing universities in Australia, with student numbers up more than 20 per cent over the last two years. That's good to hear. A post back in August on my personal blog ( Saturday Morning Musings - UNE alumni dinner) provides an insight into the frustrations that some of the alumni have felt about UNE's overall approach in recent years. May be things are improving!
