News Release:
Meteoric signs for UNE 50 years ago
| 23/2/04 035/04 When Frank Letters saw three meteors stream across the sky just after midnight on February 1, 1954, it seemed as if heavenly assent had been granted to the newly independent University of New England. His widow, Kathleen Letters who celebrated her 94th birthday last month, recalls how her husband, a keen skywatcher and head of the Classics Department, told her about it the following morning and also informed the Armidale Express. It made front page news, Meteors Herald Birth of New University, along with Mr Letters suggestion that he thought "the phenomenon's worth recording for possible designers of the heraldic emblem for the new University." Today, February 1, 2004, 50 years exactly since the official date of autonomy, marks the start of a year of golden jubilee celebrations at UNE. For Mrs Letters, though, the memories go further back when she and her husband, a barrister and classics scholar arrived in Armidale in 1938 for him to take up a post as one of the foundation staff of academics at the newly established New England University College, affiliated with Sydney University. All four of their daughters Margaret, Helen, Leonore and Frances are UNE alumni. Helen (now Helen Carey) enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954 and remembers that she got to know almost all of her 250 fellow students on campus at the time. "We had morning and afternoon tea each day on the verandahs of Booloominbah and used to sit out on the lawns," she recalls. "It was mainly the Arts students who had the time to socialise during these breaks as the Science students always had a much heavier schedule.
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She remembers the campus being more formal than it is today with all students required to wear black academic gowns while at the University. Most first year students were accommodated in demountable huts in the grounds which were strictly segregated. Otherwise the majority of the student population lived in official residences in town and were bussed onto the campus for breakfast and taken back again after the evening meal. "I remember that on evening trips and after dances the students used to sing on the buses, all sorts of bawdy student songs and oldies like Green Grow the Rushes O," she says. "Booloominbah was the centre of social life, with common rooms, the dining room and the library as well as the Vice-Chancellor's and administrative offices. Latin lectures were held in the old maid's quarters on the third floor. "Most students held Teacher's College or Commonwealth Scholarships," she says. "Although the majority came from regional areas there were quite a number from Sydney. One of the big differences was that we had almost no international students at that time. "We were aware that the University had achieved independence and there was some concern that students would no longer receive their degrees from Sydney University. They wondered if their new UNE degrees would carry the same prestige." Media contact: Lydia Clifford, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 2779. |
