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Ms Pirjo Rayner retires on 30 June after over 34 years of dedicated service as the Librarian of St Mark’s College. She will be succeeded by Ms Amanda Ward, who has qualifications and professional experience in both libraries and archives, and who is also managing the College’s extensive Archives.

A Sundowner event to thank and farewell Pirjo will be held in the Library on Friday 4 August from 5pm to 6.30pm, and all alumni and friends of the College, as well as current students and staff, are warmly invited. RSVP here.

Pirjo commenced as a part-time Librarian at St Mark’s in early 1989. She had previously worked for 13 years in the State Library of South Australia, including in what became the Mortlock Library of South Australiana.

Over the last 34 years she has cheerfully helped innumerable students, as well as Old Collegians, colleagues, and others. With great enthusiasm, she has led successive stages of modernisation of the Library, culminating in the move in 2015 from its old location above the Grenfell Price Dining Hall to the purpose-built Academic Centre in the East Wing (opened in 2015). A “Learning Commons” was developed in 2019 where the old Library had been, and Pirjo has since taken responsibility for this as part of the Librarian’s role.

Many developments over these years have been guided by surveys of students’ library usage and needs, the most recent of which was held earlier this year. Technological change has led to many improvements, including automation of the catalogue and of the loan system, including the introduction of QR codes for borrowing books, and the development of wireless internet access in the Academic Centre and the Learning Commons.

Pirjo’s thoughtful and forward-looking expansion of the Library holdings has always been mindful of the needs of students. This expansion has benefited immensely from the many generous donations of books, to the great advantage of our students. A large proportion of the College’s holdings has been donated. As well as new and recent books, this includes almost all of the College’s significant Rare Book Collection, and most of the holdings in the St Mark’s Collection which Pirjo has developed – a collection devoted to publications by or about the College and its students, past and present.

In both the old and the new Library, Pirjo has overseen the development of rare book display cases, and has helped to prepare the way for two rare book cabinets which will be installed later this year – including one in memory of Dr Richard Watson, who chaired the Library Sub-committee for many years and was amongst the Library’s most significant donors.

As well as developing valuable links with external experts, Pirjo has encouraged interest in and support for the Library through various events, such as Library Sundowners, and the publication of Library newsletters.

Throughout more than a third of a century of conscientious service to St Mark’s, Pirjo has brought her very special qualities to this crucial part of the life of our residential academic community. She has been a warm and inviting presence in the Library. We are deeply grateful, and she will be much missed.

All members of the St Mark’s community are welcome at the Library Sundowner on Friday 4 August to thank and farewell her.

Pirjo will be succeeded as Librarian by Amanda Ward, who has already taken on responsibility for the Archives, and who will be both Librarian and Archivist from 1 July. Currently Amanda is eagerly taking on increasing responsibility for the Library, with encouragement and assistance from Pirjo.

In December 2022, Amanda succeeded Mrs Monica Smith, who had served at the College as part-time Archival Clerk (and before that in the Office) since 1999. Monica retired in December, after 23 years of dedicated and diligent service, and was warmly thanked for all that she contributed to the College, including through her encyclopaedic knowledge of the College’s Archives and history.

Through sustained hard work and careful attention to detail, Monica developed the College Archive as a carefully organised and protected repository of documents which is of immense value to the College. With much work underway in preparation for the College’s Centenary in 2025, the value of the Archives has perhaps never been more evident.

Amanda Ward has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Information and Library Studies) from Curtin University, and a Graduate Diploma of Information and Systems Management from Monash University.

After a ten-year period in public libraries, Amanda worked as a Librarian at the Parliamentary Library of South Australia, and for four and a half years as Librarian, Archivist, and Information Manager at Adelaide Zoo. She has also worked as a Business Analyst at the University of Western Australia.

Amanda’s professional interests include unearthing and preserving history through archives, storytelling for community and individual wellbeing, harnessing technology to make resources more accessible and enjoyable, storytelling through data visualisation, and helping others develop a passion for reading.

Amanda has already contributed a great deal at St Mark’s, including helping with two important current projects – carrying forward Pirjo’s vision for new rare book cabinets, and the movement of the Archives from Walkley Cottage to the Library stacks.

These and other projects are benefitting from a comprehensive review of the Library and Archives undertaken earlier this year by Dr Rachel Buxton and Dr Katrina Stats, with significant input from Pirjo and Amanda and drawing on this year’s survey of student usage and needs.

As we warmly welcome Amanda Ward to her new roles, the College is profoundly grateful for the work of Pirjo Rayner since 1989 and Monica Smith from 1999 to 2022. We wish both Monica and Pirjo all the very best in their retirements.

For details of the Sundowner on 4 August to farewell Pirjo, please click here.

Top photo: Amanda Ward and Pirjo Rayner in the Academic Centre, May 2023.

Photos below: Ms Pirjo Rayner, Mrs Monica Smith, Ms Amanda Ward

To help engage alumni and friends of St Mark’s in celebrating our Centenary in 2025, the College has recently appointed Ms Karin Dunsford as Director of Centenary Engagement.

Karin is currently Director of Marketing and Community Engagement at Adelaide’s Walford Anglican School for Girls, and will start at St Mark’s in July.

Events to mark the Centenary of St Mark’s will include the Gala Dinner on the 100^th anniversary of the official opening of the College in 1925 (Saturday 15 March 2025), which promises to be a great College reunion, and the launch of the College history currently being written by our Centenary historians, Associate Professor Paul Sendziuk and Dr Carolyn Collins.

These and other events, including for Founders’ Day, will be planned by a Centenary Events Planning Committee of Old Collegians and friends of St Mark’s, which is currently being formed. It will work closely with the College’s events manager, Carol Atkinson, with Karin Dunsford as Director of Centenary Engagement, and with the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell AM.

Karin Dunsford graduated from Flinders University with a BA, majoring in English and History, and a Diploma of Education. She later earned a graduate diploma and then a Masters of Business Administration at UniSA.

After early career work as a teacher, Karin has worked for a little over 30 years in community-building and development roles at Walford, Prince Alfred College, and St Andrew’s School – reflecting her passionate commitment to advancing education in South Australia.

“I very much look forward to working to help as many people as possible connect or re-connect with St Mark’s as the College heads to its Centenary”, she said.

“The Centenary is a great opportunity for everyone to get involved, and to help to steer the College strongly into its second century, celebrating the best of St Mark’s over the last 100 years while doing all we can to support the students of today and of tomorrow.”

More information about the Centenary, including Centenary events, will be posted from time to time here.

To provide memories and insights for the Centenary historians, complete the short questionnaire here.

A major new scholarship endowment – the Ian and Pamela Wall Scholarships – has been created to help students who are in need of financial support to be at St Mark’s.

Dr Ian Wall AM (1931-2022) was a resident student at St Mark’s in 1950-54, and later an Honorary Fellow. In gratitude for all that St Mark’s did for him, he and Dr Pamela Wall OAM became the largest ever donors to the College. They have also served jointly as Governors of the St Mark’s College Foundation.

In announcing the creation of the Ian and Pamela Wall Scholarships, the Chair of the College Board, Ms Linda Matthews, and the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell AM, said:

“Ian and Pammie Wall have a uniquely special place in the history of St Mark’s College, and in the hearts of College members. Their exceptional generosity to the College, providing facilities and other support for our students, is unparalleled.

“Members of the St Mark’s community are also proud that, with Pammie’s unstinting help and support, Ian Wall was co-founder of Codan, which became a globally successful company, and that together Ian and Pammie became among South Australia’s greatest modern philanthropists.

“Ian often said that he owed his success in life to what he gained from his years at St Mark’s. He also believed that he and others had, in his words, ‘almost a duty that you should reinforce the opportunity for those who are to follow in your steps’.

“Ian and Pammie acted on this conviction, and we could not be more grateful.

“Like Ian and Pammie, the College is determined to pass on the best opportunities we can to current and future generations of students.

“This requires working to support all students who need it through a major expansion of scholarships and other financial support for students. This is the key to many students having the opportunity to be at St Mark’s at all. The need among current and prospective students is very real.

“Greatly expanding our scholarships is the College’s highest priority as we head towards celebrating our Centenary in 2025.”

The creation of the Ian and Pamela Wall Scholarships is an important step towards this goal.

Ian and Pamela Wall Scholarships will be awarded to young people of potential who are in need of financial support to be at St Mark’s.

Dr Pamela Wall OAM said: “I am delighted that the Ian and Pamela Wall Scholarships will enable students to have the opportunity to be at St Mark’s that Ian valued so much, and that made such a positive difference in his life.

“I look forward to presenting the inaugural scholarships in coming months.

“I am also delighted that Ian’s memory will be honoured in this way in the College both he and I have loved so much.

“It has been a joy for us to do all we can to help the College and the students.”

The Ian and Pamela Wall Scholarships fund will be managed with the goal of at least preserving its real value in perpetuity, and ideally increasing in value to create further opportunities for students in need to gain the benefits of College life.

An inaugural round of Ian and Pamela Wall Scholarships has already been held. Applications were recently invited from current St Mark’s students, with applications assessed on the basis of financial need. This inaugural round has seen five scholarships of $2,000 each awarded, and it is expected that larger awards will be possible in future years.

The College’s tribute to Ian Wall on his passing in October 2022 is here.

The image above is of the portrait of Ian and Pamela Wall by Tsering Hannaford that hangs in the St Mark’s College Dining Hall. There is background to it here.

For details of College scholarships, click here.

To donate to create life-changing opportunities for students to be at St Mark’s, click here.

The flags at St Mark’s are flying at half mast this week to honour the life and mark the passing of Gayle Cowan OAM, a Governor of the College Foundation, whose generous financial support over 25 years helped hundreds of students from regional areas to be at St Mark’s.

Gayle Cowan was honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia in January 2023 “for service to the community of Mount Gambier”. Her community service reflected her commitment to education at all levels – kindergarten, and primary and secondary school, as well as at the university level – together with keen interest in art, film, bridge, and other community activities. Details of some of Gayle’s extensive community involvement and service may be found here.

At St Mark’s, we particularly honour with gratitude her service as Secretary and Trustee of the Cowan Grant trust. Created by Mrs Cowan’s parents-in-law in the early 1990s, from 1995 to 2020 the Cowan Grant trust awarded grants (or scholarships) to a very large number of university students at St Mark’s College, Adelaide, and other institutions such as the Roseworthy campus of the University of Adelaide.

As Secretary and Trustee, Gayle Cowan was integral to the running of this remarkably generous Cowan Grants program, working closely with her husband Mr Robert (Bob) Cowan.

Over that quarter-century, financial assistance totalling approximately $1 million was given to students to attend St Mark’s College alone. Hundreds of students were assisted through this. The focus was on supporting students from rural, regional, and remote areas of Australia (principally but not exclusively South Australia) to be able to afford to be at St Mark’s and so be able to undertake university study at one of the universities in Adelaide.

Many of these students would not have been able to come to St Mark’s or to study at university in Adelaide were it not for the Cowan Grants they received. Gayle Cowan was integral to creating life-changing opportunities for them.

Along with Bob Cowan, Gayle also took an active interest in the institutions to which students went and in the students themselves. She and Bob visited St Mark’s College on many occasions to meet with students, both through formal occasions such as scholarship presentations ceremonies and through social occasions such as meals together at the College.

The warm interest which Gayle and Bob Cowan showed in the students they were supporting was very much appreciated.

Gayle Cowan’s contribution, with Bob, to supporting university students in need, thus transforming their life chances, was truly exceptional, and we could not be more grateful.

Our deepest sympathy to Bob Cowan, their children Tiffanie, Leigh, and Jeremy, and their families.

Leigh and Jeremy Cowan were both resident students in St Mark’s, and Leigh was College Club President at St Mark’s in 1989.

Details of the Memorial Service for Gayle in Mount Gambier on Friday 24 March are here.

The College Club has embarked on a thorough-going review of its Constitution led by a high-powered committee of law students and student leaders.

Appointed at the Club’s AGM on 1 March, the Constitutional Review Sub-Committee has been tasked with conducting a comprehensive review of the Constitution, inviting feedback from current and Old Collegians, staff, and friends of the College.

It aims to ensure that the College Club’s guiding document remains fit-for-purpose, and helps the Club to thrive into St Mark’s second century.

The Sub-Committee comprises Assistant Dean Cameron Akehurst, Law Academic Coordinator Holly Boswell, and CAS Hawker Scholars Oliver Douglas and William Gillett.

The impetus for a review began in 2022 when then College Club President, Caitlin Glascott, and Vice-President, Oliver Douglas, identified several areas for improvement in the Constitution.

The first round of consultation is now open and the Sub-Committee is inviting written submissions – in the form of direct annotations to the Constitution or general comments – to be made here. The College Club Constitution can be found here.

On Wednesday 26 April the Sub-Committee will provide an initial progress report to an Ordinary General Meeting of the Club. The Sub-Committee will then publish its first revised draft of the Constitution and call for further feedback in a second round of consultation.

It is envisaged that a new Constitution, if approved, will be adopted at the Final General Meeting in October 2023.

The Sub-Committee warmly welcomes all feedback.

Photo: Cameron Akehurst, Holly Boswell and Oliver Douglas

The 2023 academic year has commenced with a record enrolment at St Mark’s, our students pledging to uphold a student-written “Living Document of Values”, and many successful Welcome Week events including the post-Covid return of Old Collegians’ tennis, followed by a nail-biting and exciting win for St Mark’s in inter-college tennis.

The hard work of student leaders and staff to prepare for the new academic year included the writing by student leaders of a statement of values that emphasises integrity, collegiality, respect, growth, and generosity.

This “St Mark’s Collegians’ Living Document of Values” was initiated by student leaders at a retreat last July, fleshed out in lively discussion in the student leadership training last September, and drafted by student leaders over the summer with every returner invited to contribute.

The Living Document was signed during Welcome Week by almost all students, who committed “to seeking to uphold and live out these values in our time at St Mark’s and beyond”. It is expected that all students will soon have pledged to uphold these values. To read the Living Document of Values, click here.

Upholding good values was also the theme of the Commencement Service in St Peter’s Cathedral at the end of Welcome Week. It was addressed both by the Chaplain, the Rev’d Grant Moore (whose retirement has recently been announced), and by the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell AM.  For Professor Markwell’s Commencement Address in the Service, click here.

The record enrolment in the College this year has been made possible through extremely strong demand for College places, and by St Mark’s renting the Cathedral Deanery between Walkley Cottage and the Cathedral. Renting the Deanery has made possible an extra seven student bedrooms.

Many students have been able to come or return to St Mark’s only because of scholarships generously funded by alumni and friends of the College, and many other students have been significantly helped in this way. These students have been writing letters of thanks for their scholarships, and extracts from some of these will soon be available here.

Our new students were welcomed to the College on Thursday 16 February with a Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country, our annual Admission Ceremony, and two days of important training, followed by a Welcome Week of further university and College induction and social events – several on the College Club theme of “Top Gun: Maverick”, based on the Tom Cruise action movie of last year.

Our student leaders – College Club Committee, the Academic team, the Assistant Deans and the Wellbeing team, the Charitable Foundation, and others – have worked hard together and with College staff to welcome and support all students.

Welcome Week concluded with Old Collegians’ tennis, which was won by a team of current Collegians, Paddy Douglas and Nick Schofield. They went on a week later to play in the St Mark’s tennis team which scored a close-run and exciting win in the SAAUCC inter-college tennis.

Our win was secured only in the final games against Aquinas in pelting rain, thunder and lightning flashes. It was a day to remember – and an encouraging start to the College’s campaign to retain the High Table Cup won by St Mark’s last year. Next stop: swimming on 23 March.

At the College Club AGM on 1 March, students gave a standing ovation to the retiring Chaplain, the Rev’d Grant Moore, who has served as Chaplain since 2014. Grant, who turns 75 this year, has been transferred to a locum position in the western suburbs of Adelaide before his final retirement. He and Ellie will be much missed at St Mark’s, and we wish them well in their retirement.

The Club’s AGM also made the important decision to review the Club Constitution, and a high-powered committee of College law students will lead this work throughout the year. They invite input on the review. Read more here.

The curators of the Gassie – the 1936 Dodge hawker van which College students have enjoyed since 1966 – are also working on crucial repairs and maintenance to prolong its lifespan, and would greatly appreciate your support here.

University classes are now in their third week, and College life is in full swing, including academic and wellbeing support for our students. Several sessions on key academic skills have already been held, College tutorials are getting underway, and our highest-achieving students in 2022 university results will be honoured in our annual Academic Awards Dinner next week.

Wellbeing support is being ably led by our new Director of Wellbeing, Sally Cassidy, who recently joined the College from the University of Adelaide’s Counselling Support team, and is living in Walkley Cottage with her family and much-loved Samoyed fur-ball, Hachi.

2023 is off to a very positive start, full of potential for the year ahead for all our students.

Photos by Amelie Beltakis