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Remember when the World Wide Web was new and every university, business, company, organisation and individual was working to get their first web site home pages on line? If so, you may like to look back at how the main USQ web site has changed since 1997.
Les Mitchell
Division of ICT Services
On 20 February 1997, 75 USQ distance education students who lived in the Melbourne region gathered for their first Regional Orientation Meeting. The evening's program commenced with Kevin Stapleton (General Manager for the then Student Association) taking photographs for student identification cards and later he outlined the many services the Association provided for students. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Ken Goodwin, then described USQ's commitment to distance education students. Judy Andrew from the Distance Education Centre provided hints on study techniques which could enhance success rates. My presentation focused on the support services, 'Letters of Introduction' which students needed in 1997 to borrow books from local university libraries, and a suggestion to form Learning Circles to make the life of the distance education student less isolated.
As the Regional Liaison Officer I was concerned about how the students would mix. I need not have worried. During refreshments there was a buzz of conversation as most were delighted they finally had a chance to discuss their experiences of studying by distance. Another nine years of orientations have followed but none have held the excitement of that first meeting.
Kate Jones
Outreach Services, DeC
I studied externally at USQ for a BBus, majoring in HRM and graduated with distinction in April 1996. My study memories include a strongly supportive role from Maureen Stone, the RLO for Bundaberg, and coordinating ‘study buddy’ groups in the Bundaberg area to help other external students achieve satisfactory assignment outcomes. I also assisted with the student mentoring program and can remember engaging with students in rural areas of the Wide Bay Burnett to assist them with their studies. Read more
Frank Smith
BBus 1996
My best memory was the graduation ceremony held in the gymnasium at USQ Toowoomba. The large number of graduates and the presence of family members all helped make the day a very special memory.
Dianne Wood
MEd 1998
Seventy students, faculty and staff numbers that scarcely reached double figures, a (nearly) completed new building, and a new city. When I came to Wide Bay at the end of 1996 everything was new and untried. Nevertheless I believe the Campus has succeeded in its primary aim of bringing a real university experience to the Wide Bay with the tremendous help of the growing city, the parent campus in Toowoomba, but above all, through the dedication of all its staff and students in those early years. The period 1996-2003 was the best time!
Malcolm Cooper
Foundation Principal, Wide Bay Campus
In 1992 I participated in the first meeting of the First Council of the University of Southern Queensland, another historic event for this university, and have a photograph of the members of the First Council of the University of Southern Queensland, taken on that day.
Edwina Crowther
Student Administration
I started at DDIAE in 1989. In early 1990 I had a meeting with the Finance Manager Denis Maguire while he was acting in the position of Director of Administration (I think). It had been raining for some days (possible weeks) and I had to run through the courtyard to B Block. By the time I got to Denis' office I was very wet and I can remember asking him "doesn't it ever stop raining in Toowoomba?" I can't remember his answer but it hasn't rained since.
Kevin Stapleton
Student Guild
The very first time I came to USQ it was on the back of an overnight, 11 hour bus trip. I was traveling to the Toowoomba campus to audition and interview for entry into a bachelor of Theatre Arts.
USQ was on no one's radar in my home town – it was too far away, and in another state. Pure chance led me to the discovery of a brochure.
Reading through it, I liked the description of the Theatre Studies major of the Bachelor of Theatre Arts. I decided to throw caution to the wind, and make the application.
I applied for several theatre degrees in both NSW and QLD, and interviewed and auditioned at them all. Yet only USQ really impressed me. I stepped off the bus after a nightmare trip without any sleep, pottered around town in the early hours waiting for time to tick away so I could have the interview. I found the campus, enjoyed its outdoor setting, and waited to get started.
In the acting audition (a much lower choice, though one I was curious to see whether I could make the grade in) I was tired and not very lucid. Yet with the patience of saints, both Robert Ketton and Scott Alderdice patiently coaxed more out of me. That they would take the time with someone who probably showed little to no promise at all was very encouraging. They didn’t just watch, assess, and send me on my way; they directed, and engaged in the process. This was very exciting for an inexperienced country boy like me!
Following this, my interview with Janet McDonald for Theatre Studies commenced. Janet very quickly made friends with me, and had me completely relaxed – she showed a personal interest in what I had done previously, and filled me in on the goings on in the degree. It was a level of connection that won me over very quickly. Delirious, half asleep, and cranky as only a McCafferty’s passenger can be, USQ nevertheless penetrated into my psyche, and I left with a resounding positive impression.
Several weeks of interviews and auditions followed, each one impersonal, each one disconnected. When I received an offer for USQ, I didn’t have to hesitate (even when a Sydney based University also offered a place!)
Personal care, attention, and connection make a lot of difference. As someone who has been both a student and a graduate of USQ, I am proud to say that it is what sets us apart, and what makes us worthwhile.
Jason Nash
Marketing and Public Relations
I was among a very small number of people who were in attendance in 1991 at a ceremonial signing of the legislation changing the University College of Southern Queensland to the University of Southern Queensland, an historic event for this university.
In 1990, both CQU and USQ had been designated university colleges for a period of three years, under the auspices of the University of Queensland, while they worked towards full university status. After less than two years of this probationary period, CQU made overtures to the state government to cut this waiting period, and their application was successful. Suddenly the government realised that UCSQ was in a similar position, so the legislation to make UCSQ an independent university was also enacted, if I recall correctly, in September 1991 to take effect in January 1992.
A ceremony was hastily convened in the Vice Chancellor's Conference room for college council members and senior staff to witness the Governor's assent. Because of the short notice, some who were invited could not attend, so it was quite a small group who witnessed this significant occasion. The signing was conducted by Acting Chief Justice B H McPherson, Chief Justice of the High Court of Queensland who at the time was Acting Governor of Queensland. I recall that it was all done in haste and some secrecy, and staff and students were advised only on the day about our institution's change of status, and were disappointed at the time about the lack of public celebration of the event.
Edwina Crowther
Student Administration
I remember when we first opened the Coffee Club in W Block in July 1991. People would stand outside and look in and be a bit amazed but hesitant to come in as there was nobody else inside. The only alternative in those days was the Refectory with its then green carpet and orange air-conditioning units overhead. To solve the problem of people not wanting to come inside to an empty coffee shop I sent Guild staff over to sit inside for a couple of hours a day until people got used to coming in and ordering the best coffee on campus.
Kevin Stapleton
Student Guild
I recall working on the ground floor of Y-Block at the USQ International Office (as it was known back in 1999). It was early Spring, still cool and drizzling with rain bringing the worms up from beneath the moist soil. A gaggle of geese, who seemed to have some experience at USQ, decided that these tasty treats located in the grass between Y-Block and the Japanese Gardens were far too good to pass up. I remember the amusement of all who caught sight of these creatures on their quest for succulent cuisine. They looked very much at home, waddling across the zebra crossing from the Gardens, all in a row, all within the lines of the marked crossing. It turned from entertainment to outright amusement when cars began stopping to give these strange pedestrians right of way. Nature at its very best!
Jenny Simmons
Marketing and Public Relations
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