ON CAMPUS
campusreview.com.au
St Paul’s 2.0?
Photo: St Paul’s, via Facebook
Will a change of leadership result
in a more diverse and inclusive
culture for one of Sydney’s
most notorious colleges?
By Loren Smith
T
he oldest university college in
Australia, St Paul’s at the University
of Sydney, is no stranger to scandal.
In May last year, the 200-resident, ‘liberal
Anglican’ all-male establishment became
the centre of controversy when the
following post appeared on the ‘St Paul’s
2017’ Facebook page:
“G’day Lads,
If you ever want to get rid of some chick
who either (a) won’t leave your room
after a root in the morning or (b) if you’ve
harpooned a whale and she’s taking the
whole bed preventing all chances of sleep,
I’ll be there with a purposeful c—kblock
to rescue you. Simply message me the
code word “argh” and your room number
and I’ll be there with a well thought out lie
(terrifying lump on penis, broken foot or
personal emergency) which requires your
immediate assistance and her immediate
exit. Happy slaying.”
It was ‘liked’ almost 100 times. To make
matters worse, St Paul’s published a
statement on its Facebook page warning
residents that “incautious or disrespectful”
social media posts “may resurface just when
you need your best CV to work for you”. It
was later deleted and replaced with a wholly
condemnatory statement.
Now, for the first time since 1994, the
college has a new leader. But will Dr Donald
Markwell usher in a culture change?
Markwell attended the University of
Queensland, and was then selected as
Rhodes Scholar for Queensland for 1981.
Leadership stints at the universities of
Oxford, Melbourne and Western Australia
followed. Most recently, he served as senior
adviser to the attorney-general and leader
of the government in the Senate, and is
also the former global head of the Rhodes
Scholarships.
His aims for St Paul’s include it “being
a centre of excellence, not a bastion of
privilege”, as well as enhancing diversity.
These could be difficult to fulfil, given
the college charges a base per semester
residency fee of $12,825, and offers just
seven full-fee (and numerous partial, up to
half fee) scholarships annually.
Markwell notes his fundraising
credentials – he was instrumental in vastly
increasing the number of Indigenous
residents at Melbourne’s Trinity College –
and says he will use these to maximise the
provision of scholarships at St Paul’s.
A more concrete, diversity-minded move
to be implemented during his tenure is the
college’s acceptance of 140 postgraduate
men and women from 2019.
‘Respect for men and women alike’ is
another of his aspirations for the college. In
this sense, it seems he truly might best his
predecessor. A clearly imparted message of
zero tolerance of sexual misconduct is his
policy cornerstone in this regard. He also
has ideas about changing the ‘iconography’
of the college by, for instance, switching up
the portraiture that lines its walls, to perhaps
convey a more gender-equal tone.
He will also monitor the types of
activities permitted at the college, to
minimise the risk of sexual misconduct.
However, he denies this is a bigger issue in
residential colleges than in other university
settings. This is contrary to a finding in the
Australian Human Rights Commission’s
report on sexual harassment and assault
on campus: ‘residential settings’ was one
of four “recurring themes in incidents of
sexual assault and sexual harassment that
occurred in university settings”.
Curiously, USYD recently received a
report from former sex discrimination
commissioner Elizabeth Broderick on the
cultural renewal at its residential colleges.
Notably, St Paul’s was not one of the five
commissioning colleges.
Nonetheless, Markwell’s vision for St Paul’s
exceeds restoration. It centres on the idea
of residential colleges as the settings of
ideal educational experiences. He wishes
for the college to be akin to famed ones in
Oxford and Harvard, for example, where
students are utterly immersed in academic,
extracurricular, social and – depending on
the college’s orientation – religious life.
“Almost all of the world’s greatest
universities are collegiate, or at least
residential, universities,” he says.
However, he doesn’t wear rose-tinted
glasses. In a speech, he admitted that
“colleges can become places where
conformism, sexism, sexual harassment
and worse, racism, anti-intellectualism
and an over-emphasis on alcohol have
damaged students.
“Sometimes the camaraderie, mutual
support and college spirit that many value
goes too far and effectively demands that
individuals conform to behaviour that they
do not like.”
In his experience, with good leadership,
they can become the opposite. ■
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