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Gift of immortality
(Left to right): University of Wollongong vice-chancellor professor Paul Wellings, Suzanne Walker,
emeritus professor Ken McKinnon and chancellor Jillian Broadbent. Photo: UoW
UoW donor sees prosperity,
form of eternal life in generosity.
T
he donor of a $1.3 million grant
to the University of Wollongong
argued that funding education is
the single best investment one can make
for future generations, and is useful in
ensuring “a bit of immortality”.
Emeritus professor Ken McKinnon,
former UoW vice-chancellor, and his wife,
Suzanne Walker, have started the McKinnon
Walker Trust for his former university.
McKinnon said he and Walker established
it to help make Australia the best possible
country it could be. He said universities
need money that isn’t already committed to
keeping the lights on and paying wages, to
fund innovation.
McKinnon was UoW’s second
vice-chancellor, serving from 1981 to
1995. Reflecting on his term, he noted
that many of the improvements he made
One of Nick Papas’ eco-friendly toilets. Photo: Nick Papas
Thesis down the toilet – happily
For master’s program, UNSW
student designs eco-friendly
toilets for PNG locales.
A
University of New South Wales
student has used the toilet seat
to marry two of his passions –
architecture and altruism – in a master’s of
philosophy thesis.
4
Nick Papas partnered with the Sago
Network to research how to rollout
low-cost, eco-friendly toilets throughout
Papua New Guinea, where 3.8 million
people – 55 per cent of the population –
don’t have access to adequate sanitation.
Papas conducted his research in the
remote coastal village of Barakau in
PNG’s Central Province. He designed two
types of toilets. One is a typical outhouse
would’ve been much easier if there had
been a bit of extra cash. For example,
McKinnon wanted there to be art in every
room, “so we focused on buying the art of
young emerging artists, rather than trying
to pay for the expensive, well-established
artists,” he explained, saying eventually the
university raised $10,000 a year to fund
such acquisitions.
And if the ability to contribute to
Australia’s future prosperity isn’t enough to
entice one to help a university, McKinnon
said, appealing to the ego could help.
“It’s good for the givers,” he said. “They
receive a bit of immortality, and their name is
registered and available to future generations.”
Current UoW vice-chancellor professor
Paul Wellings thanked the couple for
the contribution. He said “philanthropy
in education has the power to achieve
extraordinary outcomes”. The $1.3 million
will be dispersed throughout the university
at Wellings’ discretion.
McKinnon and Walker want the university
to “surprise” them with what can be
achieved with the money. ■
with a composting system, the other is
a dehydration toilet that dries out waste.
Papas said locals preferred the latter.
While this is an unglamorous architecture
and design project, it’s one that’s important,
Papas said.
“You’re not building pretty houses
or something like that for people,” he
said. ”You’re building a toilet, essentially.
So it’s not something people tend to
be comfortable talking about, but it’s a
necessary topic. It’s a major issue, not just
in that region, but globally. We have to find
a way to overcome that.”
Interestingly, Papas said that designing
the commode was not the hardest part;
“relatively easy” is how he described that
phase. Understanding how humans related
to the facility was another matter.
“The real challenge is trying to work out
a whole system, a whole way of designing
the toilet and the human interaction around
it,” he said. “We’re talking about how they
operate the toilet, how they maintain the
toilet, how we transfer information about
the toilet and how that information gets
back to us.”
The World Health Organization estimates
2.4 billion people lacked toilet access in
2015. Of the global population, 15 per cent
practise open defecation. ■