Golden reunion for graduates

In October 2007 a total of 97 graduates returned to their alma mater to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of their graduation.

In 1957 John Lennon and Paul McCartney met, the first frisbee hit the skies, TV game show Pick-A-Box made its debut, and Sir Robert Menzies was halfway through his term as Australia's Prime Minister.

The University of Adelaide was a different place - there were 4759 undergraduate and diploma students, 243 international students (with 118 of those from Malaysia), and the Barr Smith Library had a total number of 209,385 volumes.

Fifty years later, and a lot has changed. The University now has approximately 20,000 students, with 5486 international students from 94 countries. The Barr Smith Library has more than two million volumes, as well as an extensive Digital Library with a wealth of resources now accessible online.

The 1957 graduates were recently invited to discover for themselves what had changed at the University of Adelaide, half a century after their graduation. The University welcomed back for the Golden Jubilee celebrations 97 alumni from as far afield as the US, Canada, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, as well as from across Australia.

Alumni relived their graduation with a commemoration ceremony in Bonython Hall - complete with academic dress - and enjoyed a luncheon, faculty tours, and the opportunity to reconnect with people and places from their university days.

Returning 1957 graduates included retired manufacturing giant Robert Hill-Ling AO, Brisbane paediatrician and burns specialist Professor John F Leditschke, and former Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Bishop Dr Ian George AO.

Bishop George, who received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Adelaide, delivered the Golden Jubilee Address.

"What a marvellous time we had in those more relaxed days of the 1950s," he said.

"We came from the high pressure of secondary school to a life of endless sport, social life, occasionally interesting lectures, good tutorials, club activities, sport, all on the then more beautiful campus and Torrens bank areas. For me it was a vision of paradise."

Bishop George also used the occasion to highlight the need for greater financial support for education today.

"We graduates of the 1950s have much to be thankful for. One of the biggest of these is the generosity of the Menzies government to universities. Many of us were on State bursaries. Most of us held Commonwealth scholarships and fees at the time were low. Many of us would not have been able to aspire to tertiary education at all without these benefits.

"By and large, tertiary education offers the greatest hope and opportunity for social mobility in our society," Bishop George said. "In a city like Adelaide, there is a genuine lack of opportunity in pockets where students are lucky to finish high school. Inevitably that is why there are generations of unemployed people in these areas, particularly the northern suburbs, which leads to the wide range of social problems we are experiencing there. In these areas there are some of the lowest rates of tertiary education participation in Australia."

STORY LANA GUINEAY

If you are interested in organising a class reunion or would like more information about the University's reunions program, please contact
Development and Alumni
Phone: +61 8 8303 5800
Email: alumni@adelaide.edu.au
Visit the reunions website: www.adelaide.edu.au/alumni/reunions/