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St Mark’s College deeply mourns the passing of our Honorary Fellow and Governor of the College Foundation, Ian Baker Wall AM.

Ian was a student at St Mark’s from 1950 to 1954. Grateful for what St Mark’s contributed to his life, he became the largest donor to the College in its history.

We extend our deepest sympathy to Mrs Pamela Wall OAM, and to their daughter, Annabel Wall. The flags at the College are flying at half-mast as a mark of respect.

We remember Ian with profound admiration, gratitude, and love.

Below are a collection of messages in memory of Ian. If you would like to leave a message, please submit it here.

For the College’s tribute to Ian, please click here.

“Ian and Pam Wall’s company was a treasured part of my connection with StOrder of Service for funeral of Dr Ian Wall AM 11 November 2022 FINALOrder of Service for funeral of Dr Ian Wall AM 11 November 2022 FINAL Mark’s College. Ian will be greatly missed by all those who came in contact with him. Vale a generous and gracious man.” – Angela Bannon

“I’m deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Ian Wall AM. My St Mark’s College experience was richer because of Ian and Pamela’s significant contributions to the College over many years. I was able to thrive because of the first-class facilities that simply wouldn’t be available without their commitment. He made a significant contribution to so many students lives and I couldn’t be more grateful. May Ian Rest in Peace. Thinking of Ian’s family during this time.” – Benjamin Jenner

“Thank you for your kindness and generosity.”  – Steve Mason

“With deepest sympathy and much love to Pam and the family. Many happy occasions shared at St Mark’s functions since the 1950s. From Mary and Jack.” – Jack Brady & Mary McLeod

“Dear Pammie and Annabel, As a proud student of St Mark’s myself, I appreciate the profound impact that College life can have on a person. A student with whom I was at College said to me, “I am now a successful financier in Sydney. As a son of a Murray Bridge abattoir worker and the only one of my family ever to have been to University, if it hadn’t been for St Mark’s I never would have made it. I was in tears as he said it. As the Chair of the College Foundation, I appreciate the pleasure of giving back to the College. Ian and you have given so very generously, you have had a wonderful impact on countless St Mark’s students and we will be forever grateful. My heartfelt thanks and sincere condolences, James.” – James Price

“Ian Wall was an exemplary person who will be dearly missed by the St Mark’s community. He was a role model of the highest calibre. At university, he was conscientious and dedicated to his studies. In the working world, he co-founded Codan: one of South Australia’s largest companies with world-leading technical capability. In later life, he was uniquely generous with sharing the fruits of financial successes with a wide variety of charitable and non-for-profit organisations. The benefactions of Ian and Pamela Wall have significantly bettered the education of generations of collegians at St Mark’s College. Vale Ian Wall: the community will miss you.” – Alexander Makarowsky

“Ian was one of the nicest men that anyone could know. He was so generous and caring and I have lovely memories of him. My sincere condolences to Pam and Annabel.” – Jan Sim

“To Mrs Pamela Wall OAM and daughter Annabel Our family would like to extend their deepest sympathy and condolences to you on the passing of your husband and father, Mr Ian Wall AM. Our children have reaped the benefits of Mr Wall’s kind and generous support to St Marks College and we would like to acknowledge his legacy. May Mr Wall Rest In Peace.” – Montefiore family, Alice Springs

“Deeply saddened to learn of Ian’s passing. Heartfelt sympathy to Pam and family. A true gentleman and generous benefactor whose influence will be long celebrated.” – Jane Doyle OAM and Ian Doyle OAM

“Such sad news, what a wonderful and inspiring man. I have known Pam and Ian for many years and most recently of the Adelaide Club. I have a very hollow heart today after hearing the news.” – George Randle

“Ian was a kind and humble man, always with time to listen and chat. I appreciated the conversations I had with Ian and Pammie. In fact I looked forward to our chats when they attended special occasions at the College. I was amazed by their generosity to St Mark’s and to other places too. It was obviously done from a grateful heart and that’s a characteristic God values. You might have passed over the horizon of this life Ian, but as Jesus once said, we are ALWAYS alive to God so I look forward to our next chat in the hereafter. With admiration, Grant Moore.” – Rev’d Grant Moore

“Prof” (as Ian was known during his College years) attended College at the same time as my late husband, Richard Hancock. “Prof” was known as the academic one, while Richard was known as the sporty one!  Ian will be fondly remembered as a vibrant and very generous man.  My most heartfelt condolences go to Pammie and Annabel. – Mrs Diana Hancock

“Ian was a wonderful man, kind, generous and brilliant, and was a wonderful supporter of St Mark’s College. He will be missed.” – Darren Pitt

“A very kind, knowledgeable and generous gentleman who was very special. Always remembered.” – Sophia & Stephen Finos

“Always a friendly nod as alumni. Most bonding was the generations of Codan HF radios that equipped our yachts that provided ever reliable service. Thanks Ian, always remembered.” – Ant and Mary Lou Simpson

“Without the remarkable generosity of Ian Wall I wouldn’t be living in the amazing East Wing building and I wouldn’t have made so many lifelong memories in the library and the flats. I am forever grateful for my experience at St Marks College and Ian’s contribution to this. May he rest peacefully.” – Eliza Lee

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Ms Sally Cassidy as Director of Wellbeing at St Mark’s College. Sally has worked for the past 7 years as Student Counsellor (Complex Cases) at the University of Adelaide’s Counselling Support service, where she has recently served as Acting Team Manager. We are very much looking forward to her joining the St Mark’s community.

Sally will succeed Mr Stuart Meldrum, our inaugural Director of Wellbeing, who is moving to Melbourne with his wife Sarah and their son Harry for family reasons in December. Stuart will become Director of Student Life at Queen’s College in the University of Melbourne.

The Director of Wellbeing at St Mark’s provides support to students, including helping students to access external mental health care when needed. The role also focuses on bringing a proactive approach to wellbeing by helping students and staff develop knowledge and skills, including resilience, that promote their wellbeing and help them to thrive and flourish.

The need for such a role has grown significantly in recent years, including with the impact of the pandemic. The position of Director of Wellbeing was created as part of a major expansion of student support at St Mark’s a year ago.

Sally Cassidy will start at the College on 28 November, enabling a week’s handover from Stuart and allowing her to work with our College Club Committee on training and planning for 2023.

She and her husband, Rohan, and their two children will live on-site in Walkley Cottage from mid-December – along with their white fluffy Samoyed named Hachi.

Sally brings with her a wealth of experience which is highly relevant to the role here at St Mark’s. She has worked as a social worker for nearly 20 years, specialising in mental health, including as a Student Counsellor for complex cases at the University of Adelaide’s Counselling Support since 2015.

Previous roles include working as a social worker for Disability SA and as a support worker for Youthlink (a support service for disadvantaged young people), and from 2004 to 2012 she worked in mental health care in London as a registered social worker.

Sally graduated from Flinders University with a BA (Legal Studies and Politics) before completing a Bachelor of Social Work at Flinders. She has postgraduate qualifications in social work practice and advanced mental health practice from universities in the United Kingdom.

A Mental Health First Aid trainer since 2017, Sally has extensive experience in developing and delivering training programs. She is a member of the Wellbeing Champion Network at the University of Adelaide, and a founding member of South Australia’s first Tertiary Suicide Prevention Advisory Group.

Her volunteer roles include being event director and run director for Largs Bay parkrun, and food and wine coordinator for Bayettes Beefsteak and Burgundy Club.

Sally Cassidy was selected as Director of Wellbeing from an exceptionally strong field of candidates.

Those who met her during the selection process – student leaders, as well as a selection panel of staff and Board members – commented on how warm and approachable she is, her passion for wellbeing, and her highly relevant experience in engaging with and supporting university students.

“I am excited at the opportunity to join the St Mark’s community, and look forward to getting to know every student in the College, and doing all I can to help them thrive”, Sally said.

We look forward to warmly welcoming Sally and her family to the College.

A most generous endowment by Mr Antony Simpson (St Mark’s 1958-62), Honorary Fellow of the College, is creating a very significant new scholarship to support outstanding students who could not otherwise be at St Mark’s.

The A. Simpson & Sons Scholarship will be awarded annually by the College on the basis of excellence in intellect, character, leadership, and service, and to give recipients of the Scholarship the opportunity to attend the College.

The name of the Scholarship refers to the name of the Simpson family company – known for much of its history as “A. Simpson & Son”, famous for its household appliances – and reflects the warm support of Ant Simpson’s own sons, Adam and Mark, for this visionary initiative.

The Scholarship, which may be shared by up to two Scholars, will start with a value of $10,000 per annum (nearly half the College’s annual fee) but is expected to grow in value to enable up to full fees to be covered, where needed. The A. Simpson & Sons Scholarship endowment of $500,000 will be managed to provide for scholarships in perpetuity.

The Scholarship is open both to new and to returning students of the College, regardless of gender, and to students of any discipline.

Applications for the inaugural Simpson Scholarship close at 9am on Tuesday 20 December 2022. Details are on the College website here.

The A. Simpson & Sons Scholarship will be awarded on the basis of:

• Assessment of excellence in intellect, which will include consideration of academic potential and motivation (as well as achievement to date) and be open to “late bloomers”.
• Assessment of excellence in character, as reflected in behaviour and motivation, which will include an expectation that the Scholar will show thoughtfulness to others, including an aptitude for bringing others together for the benefit of all, a consistent work ethic, and character in the face of adversity.
• Assessment of excellence in leadership, which will include an expectation that the Scholar will contribute to their community, be it within their school or the College or the community generally.
• Assessment of excellence in leadership will also include consideration of the extent to which candidates for the Scholarship are innovative and show an ability to think outside established precedents.
• Assessment of excellence in service.
• In the awarding of the Scholarship, no particular regard is to be paid to sporting achievement, contribution or ability.
• Assessment of the Scholar’s financial circumstances such that, without the benefit of the Scholarship, they would be unable to attend the College.

The names of the A. Simpson & Sons Scholars will be recorded on an honour board in the Junior Common Room.

The Scholarship will be advertised to potential recipients including at high schools in lower socio-economic areas.

Ant Simpson was a resident student at St Mark’s from 1958 to 1962 while studying for a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of Adelaide. He served as Secretary of the College Club in 1962, and also as Grand Alpiner, Co-Captain of Coits, and Keeper of the College Curse. Amongst other notable contributions was his helping to rebuild the College Buick (forerunner of the present Gassie), so that it could make it to Uluru and back.

In the 1962-63 Lion, the College Club President for 1962, Tony Basten, warmly thanked Antony Simpson “for his nimble wit, his skilful handling of the College curse, and his support during the year”.

In an oral history interview a decade ago, Ant Simpson said:

[St Mark’s gave me] self-confidence, an ability to relate to people from different disciplines… [and] the recognition that other people shared the world of things that I enjoyed and that’s carried me through life. I still draw on that to this day.

After graduating, Ant worked as a trainee in the electric motor division of Emerson Electric in St Louis, Missouri, before returning to Australia to take on increasingly senior responsibilities in Simpson Pope Ltd, before returning again to the United States to study for a Masters of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

After graduation from Harvard, Ant worked in the New York-based management consulting firm of Cresap, McCormick and Paget, in New York and then Melbourne, before again returning to Adelaide. Here he held a range of company directorships and other positions of leadership in business – for example, as Deputy Chairman of the accounting software packages company, John Neller and Associates (Aust.) Pty Ltd, from 1979 to 1986.

Returning to the family business from 1980 to 1986, Ant applied his significant business acumen and experience as a director and member of the Audit Committee of Simpson Holdings Limited, helping the company – the largest producer in its field – bring about the rationalisation of the white goods industry in Australia. In 1984-85, he worked on a project basis to assist fellow Old Collegian, Dr Craig Mudge, start Austek Microsystems Ltd, a VLSI chip design company in Australia.

Crucially, in 1985-86, Ant Simpson served as Managing Director of Simpson Holdings Ltd prior to its successful sale to Email. During this period, the company returned to profitability and achieved significant increases in market share.

Last year, Ant Simpson’s magnificent history of the family company – Revolution in the Home: The Simpsons of Adelaide 1853-1986: 133 years of manufacturing – was published, with a foreword by Professor Geoffrey Blainey.

Superbly illustrated, this business history brings alive the fascinating story of a family firm, based in Adelaide, which revolutionised domestic life through successive waves of innovations in household appliances. It tells a family story but also a story of Australian manufacturing, of technological and social change, and of broader economic and other forces – including wars, depressions, industrial disputation, and government policies – which helped to shape its context and varying fortunes. Details of the book are here.

Following the sale of Simpson Holdings Ltd in 1986, Ant Simpson held a number of significant directorships – including of Laser Dynamics Ltd and of Austereo Ltd, owner of Australia’s largest network of FM radio stations – and, from 1987 to 1997, was Chairman of Mason and Cox Pty Ltd, the largest private steel foundry in Australia.

Ant Simpson’s technical expertise has also been brought to bear in a variety of other ways – including as a member of CSIRO’s Integrated Manufactured Products Sector Committee, on the Board of Management of the Gartrell School of Mining, Metallurgy and Applied Geology at the University of South Australia, as a member of the Australian Academy of Science’s Science and Industry Forum, and on panels reviewing various Cooperative Research Centres for the Australian government.

For many years Ant served as President of the Waterhouse Club, a network of supporters of the South Australian Museum, and on the Museum’s Advisory Board. In his interest in ocean yachting, he combined exploration of the islands of the western Pacific with providing a facility for research staff from the SA Museum to conduct field work. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Ian Wark Research Institute, which focuses on the science of particles and surfaces.

Ant Simpson has shared many of these interests with his wife, Mrs Mary Louise Simpson, who has also been very active at the SA Museum, and who is Founder and Chair of the Flinders Ranges Ediacara Foundation. She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia this year “for service to conservation and the environment, and to the arts”.

Mary Lou Simpson’s father, Archie McArthur, was a resident student at St Mark’s in 1940-41 and 1946-48, and we are most grateful that, in his memory, she has created the Archie McArthur Scholarship to support an engineering student from rural or regional Australia to enter the College each year. Mary Lou is a Benefactor of the College Foundation.

A generous philanthropist supporting several causes, Ant Simpson has over the years assisted many activities at the College, including making a very significant contribution to construction of the East Wing, opened in 2015. The Simpson Tutorial Rooms in the Academic Centre were named to recognise his great generosity.

Already a Governor of the St Mark’s College Foundation, in 2016 Ant Simpson was made an Honorary Fellow of the College.

In his oral history interview for St Mark’s in 2012, when asked for advice to someone starting at St Mark’s now, Ant Simpson replied: “go for it, immerse yourself in College life, give it everything you’ve got”.

Thanks to his extraordinary benefaction, many outstanding young people for generations to come will have the opportunity to do just that.

We are deeply grateful.

The College community mourns the passing of Warren McIntosh Rogers (31 May 1935 – 28 August 2022), a member of the College Council for over 27 years, who was recognised in 2007 as a Distinguished Collegian.

Warren Rogers was a resident student at St Mark’s from 1955 to 1958.  Having commenced his studies at the University of Adelaide in 1953, he completed his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1957 and his Bachelor of Economics degree in 1958.

As a student, he was active in a variety of activities: he played cricket for the University of Adelaide, for which he was awarded a Blue (he was renowned as a fast bowler for the University cricket team), and for the College, for which he was awarded Club Letters; he was active in the University of Adelaide’s Student Representative Council, the University Squadron, drama (including as Treasurer of the University Dramatic Society), on the committee of the Adelaide University Law Students Society, and football (for which he was awarded College Colours). In 1958, he served as President of the College’s Wranglers Club, hosting a remarkable array of guest speakers at St Mark’s. His younger brother, Wyndham Rogers, followed him to St Mark’s (1970-1975).

Warren became a practising solicitor and a prominent and devoted lay member of the Anglican Church.  He was a member of the Council of his old school, St Peter’s College, for over two decades, and was active on several of its sub-committees.  His contributions to the Council are remembered still for their great good humour. He was Warden of the Senate of the University of Adelaide from 1968 to 2004. His distinguished services to the University were recognised by the award of Doctor of the University (DUniv) in 1986.

Warren Rogers served on the Council of St Mark’s College for over 27 years, joining the Council in August 1982 and retiring in March 2010.  He had already contributed significantly to the College, including through his active involvement in creating the Alumni Fund as a scholarship fund for students, which it remains. On his retirement from the Council, the minutes record:

“The Chairman [Mr Richard Burchnall] said that Dr Warren Rogers OAM had been a member of the Council since 1982, am extraordinary length of service to the College. He had brought to the Council his acute legal mind and critical eye. His attention to detail was an indication of his real interest in the College and the Council. The Chairman thanked Dr. Rogers on behalf of the Council for his long and valuable contribution.”

Warren Rogers continues to be remembered as a most conscientious and helpful member of the College Council, including for his excellent drafting, in which his precise use of the English language served the College very well, as it did his clients.

In 2007, Dr Rogers was appointed a Distinguished Collegian of St Mark’s College, and in 2009 was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia “for service to the community through church and educational organisations”. His continued support, generosity and interest in St Mark’s, including as a Senior Member of the College’s Foundation, was greatly appreciated by the College.

Warren and his late wife, Elizabeth, had four children, and a number of grandchildren.

We extend our deepest sympathy on Warren’s passing to his family and friends.

His funeral was at Montacute in the Adelaide Hills on Saturday 10 September.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Image: Ms Rose Alwyn (Master 2008-19), Dr Warren Rogers OAM, and Mr Richard Burchnall (Chairman 2007-18) at the 2014 St Mark’s College Opening Service

As the College heads to its Centenary in 2025, a bold vision for St Mark’s to offer our students the best all-round university educational experience possible in Australia, in line with the vision of the College’s founders nearly 100 years ago, was discussed by the Head of College, Professor Don Markwell, at the recent annual dinner of the Old Collegians’ Association.

Speaking on the topic “Towards the College’s second century”, Professor Markwell said:

St Mark’s College was officially opened on 15 March 1925 by the Governor of South Australia, Sir Thomas Bridges, following detailed planning and fund-raising over previous years by remarkable men led by Canon Julian Bickersteth – and also, it is important to note, a women’s committee led by Mrs Ernest Good, as she was known in the style of the time. Our founders were committed to creating here in Adelaide the opportunity for university students to have the kind of opportunities for collegiate education which most of our male founders had had in Oxford or Cambridge, or in some cases at Trinity or Ormond in the University of Melbourne or St Paul’s College, Sydney.

Nealy 100 years on, my vision, and the College Board’s vision, for St Mark’s today is that we aspire to offer our students the best all-round university educational experience possible in Australia, and we aspire to making it increasingly comparable with the best in the world – a university experience grounded in the pursuit of academic excellence, collegiality, and service.

We aspire to this quality of all-round collegiate education so that we can make the greatest difference for good in the lives of our students that we can, and so that we can help them to make the greatest difference for good that they can in the lives of local, state, national and international communities.

In a very real sense, this vision is to give the best effect we can in the circumstances of our time to the enduring ideals and values for which the College was founded nearly a century ago, and to the centuries-old tradition of collegiate education which our founders had seen so brilliantly expressed in Oxford and Cambridge. Our founders had as their model and their standard the greatest colleges in the world, and so should we.

So, before I talk a little about how we do this in the 21^st century, let me say a little more about our founders’ vision for collegiate education here in Adelaide.

Our founders wanted to create the opportunity for students of diverse disciplines and backgrounds to live and learn together in a residential academic community that brought together academic aspiration and support; guidance – what we might call mentoring – and pastoral care from the Master, the Chaplain, resident tutors and perhaps other academics; and opportunities for rich extra-curricular life in sport or the arts or other fields, together with social activity. As this was and is an Anglican college, our founders expected participation in Chapel – though the College was always open to people of all denominations or faiths or none. It was expected that enduring friendships would develop between students, and that mature behaviour would prevail among the students and where it did not that remedial action would be taken.

The founders expected that the College would help to develop the leadership capacities of its members, and that many would go on to leadership roles in their professions and the wider community. Importantly, the founders believed that the College could and would promote among its members what they called “the ideal of service”: this was at the heart of the values on which the College was founded. The founding Master, Sir Archibald Grenfell Price, spoke of applying the trained academic mind to the service of others.

In this, by the way, he held up as an exemplar one of our founders, Charles Hawker, who might have been Prime Minister had he not been killed in a plane crash in 1938. Charles Hawker’s portrait is in this Ballroom; the anonymous and selfless generosity of his sister, Lilias Needham, later made possible the purchase of Hawker House, named in his memory; and his great-nephew is the outgoing president of the Old Collegians, Michael van Dissel.

The founders explicitly saw themselves as initiating, not only the creation of this College, but the creation of what they hoped would be a network of colleges in Adelaide. It should be no surprise that in later years members of the St Mark’s community, perhaps most conspicuously Lady Price – wife of Archie Grenfell Price – helped to lead the creation of St Ann’s as a college for women, at a time when single-sex schools and colleges were overwhelmingly what the community expected. This year, of course, we are celebrating the 40^th anniversary of coeducation at St Mark’s, and we are very proud to do so.

In the 1920s, the founding of the College was made possible through generous donations which, in the first instance, enabled the purchase of this building, the former home of the Downer family, in 1924. All of the buildings that have been built or bought since the founding of the College – from the purchase of Downer House and then the construction of Newland, through to the construction of East Wing and more recently of the carpark – have depended on philanthropic gifts.

In the 1920s also, our founders looked ahead to the creation of scholarships and prizes to attract students to St Mark’s, to enable students of potential who could not otherwise afford to be here to do so, and to reward excellence of achievement. When in the early years of the College the first major donations for scholarships came, there was great excitement on the part of the Master and of the College Council. Over subsequent years, reflecting the desire of the founders to build up scholarships to help students to come to St Mark’s, more donations came for scholarships and other purposes. Most of the scholarships which have been offered over the decades have depended on generous gifts, as they do today.

Since the opening of the College in 1925, the vision, hard work, and generosity of many have built a College of which we can be very proud – a College whose alumni have given and give so much to the South Australian, wider Australian and international communities, and whose current students show so much ability, vigour, and potential. But like any institution, we can always do better.

Commencing in September 2020, precisely 100 years from the first motion in the Anglican Synod aiming at creating a College, the College Board has spent much time working on a College strategic plan to guide us through to the Centenary and beyond. Through our e-newsletters and in other ways we have invited input from Old Collegians, current Collegians, and friends of the College. Earlier this year, the Board formally endorsed the new strategic plan which emerged from this process. The new strategic plan will be reviewed from year to year, with a major review intended around the time of the Centenary.

In the new strategic plan, the College has committed to providing life-changing opportunities for students in coming years through focusing on seven areas of strategic priority.

These strategic priorities are:

1. Actively encouraging academic excellence and supporting career preparation
2. Promoting student wellbeing and belonging in a safe, respectful, diverse, and inclusive community
3. Working to support all students who need it through a major expansion of scholarships and other financial support for students
4. Developing the strongest team of staff who contribute to an exceptional student learning experience
5. Providing an inspiring and sustainable physical environment with outstanding facilities and services
6. Developing the financial resources needed to achieve these priorities, and
7. Engaging our alumni and friends in lifelong connections and in positioning St Mark’s for its second century

There is more detail on each of these priorities in the strategic plan, which is, of course, on the College website.

We are working to give effect to each of those priorities, including planning for how to give best effect to them over the years ahead.

Although our founders used different language, I believe that these priorities genuinely do help us to give effect in our time to the founders’ vision, appropriately adapted to the circumstances of today.

While we are never complacent, I think we can be proud of where we are today.

In 2022, this is College with a strong academic programme and with strong academic results. Our extra-curricular life is rich and rewarding, and our performance in sports has us leading in the High Table Cup competition, with seven sports down and four to go. Our artistic life is reflected in inspiring Arts Evenings, and in other ways. This October, after a three-year break because of the COVID pandemic, we look forward to the return of Marksenfest as a celebration of the arts and culture. The social life is busy and fulfilling.

The focus on community service, which our founders thought so important, is strong, with excellent work by our students’ Charitable Foundation. And each year now we recognise a student who has given selfless service through the awarding of the Lilias Needham Medal for Service. Students have so many opportunities to exercise leadership and develop their leadership skills, and the quality of our student leaders is high.

Being realists, we know that from time to time there are aspects of behaviour that do not live up to the values we stand for. One of these areas is in occasional sexual misconduct. Preventing this and responding appropriately to it is something to which we have given and give very focussed attention, as we work to promote respectful relationships and gender equality. We are clear about our values, especially of respect and dignity for all. Our training, such as on consent and bystander intervention, is extensive and professional. Our policies are clear and strong, and are improved from year to year. And when there is an issue, we take action, firmly but fairly, to uphold our values.

Earlier this year, the College Board – I think wisely – decided that it was time to review what we do and what we can do better to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and sexual assault. We engaged Professor Catharine Lumby from the University of Sydney, a respected expert in this field, to undertake this review. Her review is well underway, and we expect to publish her report in early October.

I am proud of the way our students have contributed to this review, and how many student leaders have taken ownership of the importance of promoting respectful relationships and of continuing to strengthen the positive bonds of community in College.

In this, our students are supported by what I think I am qualified to describe as a truly exceptional staff team. This year, we have been able to expand our staff support for students, through the appointment of a psychologist, Stuart Meldrum, as inaugural Director of Wellbeing, and the appointment of Rachel Buxton to a new mentoring and advisory role.  They work alongside our new Dean, Professor Jonathon Allen, and Director of Learning, Dr Katrina Stats.

There is much more I could say to you about the College today. But in short, as we head towards our second century, the College is in good shape. And like any institution, we can always be better. Implementing our strategic plan will guide us as we work towards that.

As we look ahead to the Centenary in 2025 and to our second century beyond, there are three elements that I especially want to mention before I conclude:

First, last year we announced the appointment of two fine historians from the University of Adelaide, Associate Professor Paul Sendziuk and Dr Carolyn Collins, to research and write a history of the College to be published early in the Centenary year. They have been hard at work, using our archives and conducting oral history interviews with older members of our College community – beginning with our oldest Collegian, Dr John Skipper AM, who was in College in 1940 and whose 100^th birthday we celebrated in this ballroom last October. Our Centenary historians warmly invite anyone with recollections of the College to be in touch with them. The details of how to do this are on the page of our website called, somewhat unsurprisingly, “Towards our second century”.

Secondly, we will, of course, mark the Centenary with appropriate events. I mentioned that the College was officially opened by the Governor on 15 March 1925. Exactly 100 years to the day, we will mark our Centenary with a gala dinner, which the current Governor, the Hon. Frances Adamson AC, has agreed in principle to attend. We have tentatively booked the Adelaide Convention Centre for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Other events to mark the Centenary will also include the launching of the Centenary history and, I hope, as on past landmark anniversaries, a service – I hope led by the Archbishop – either in the Cathedral or in the College. I look forward to working with the Old Collegians’ Association on the programme of events for 2025 – and, I hope, to the involvement of as many Old Collegians as possible in celebrating this historic landmark for our College.

Thirdly, just as our founders wanted to see major benefactions for scholarships as well as buildings, so today, as I have mentioned, one of our top priorities is to work to support all students who need it through a major expansion of scholarships and other financial support for students.

While there is significant work to be done to maintain and improve our physical facilities, for which we will need philanthropic support, our most pressing need is for scholarships, especially to enable students of potential to be able to come to and remain at St Mark’s who would not otherwise be able to do so.

Every time each year that we invite applications for scholarships and request detailed financial information about students’ circumstances, I am struck – staggered sometimes – at the extent of the need. The need is real. And every time our students write letters of thanks for the scholarships they receive, it is clear – often movingly so – how important this support is to them and to their families.

Many of our students can only afford to be here because of financial support the College gives them. In some cases, students of potential cannot afford to come even with what we can offer. And too many students need to work too many hours of paid employment, when it is available, at the expense of their marks or of their ability to take advantage of the opportunities that College life should give them.

And so – in addition to the Centenary history and Centenary events for 2025 – we will, in the spirit of our founders and in line with our strategic plan, be undertaking a Centenary fundraising campaign which will have its greatest focus on scholarships.

I am delighted to say that, as well as providing generous support through Annual Giving to help fund our annual scholarship awards, some members of our College community have come forward to endow scholarships. I hope to announce at least one new significant endowment in coming months. But the need remains great, and more needs to be done.

I hope that this is something which everyone in this room tonight, and as many members of our College community as possible, will support with enthusiasm and generosity, to ensure that our College is as well positioned as possible to support our students in our second century.

In this and in other ways we will fulfil our founders’ vision, refreshed for our time, and create the best life-changing opportunities we can for our students, whom we are here to serve.

Thank you so much for your support.

The full text of Professor Markwell’s speech is available here.

The Governor of South Australia, the Hon. Frances Adamson AC, recently spoke to students at St Mark’s about the “tremendous opportunities” of College life, and her six pillars as Governor – leadership, civics and schools, international engagement, gender equality, Indigenous issues and reconciliation, and business.

It was, she said, the first time she had spoken as Governor about these six pillars of her Governorship, in which she had a very strong community role alongside her constitutional and ceremonial roles.

Speaking at Formal Hall at St Mark’s, the Governor said that she had learnt a great deal about college life and the opportunities it gave students from her husband, Mr Rod Bunten. As a result, three of their four children had college experiences in Canberra and in Adelaide.

Referring to the celebration of the 40^th anniversary of coeducation at St Mark’s, Her Excellency said it was “wonderful to see” the portraits of women as well as men in the College dining hall. They and the profiles of 40 St Mark’s women which are being published as part of the 40^th anniversary celebration would help to shape the culture of the College.

The Governor also acknowledged the strong sense of community and volunteering at St Mark’s, and gave “a big cheer for the volunteer”. She encouraged students to recognise the great sense of satisfaction that came from volunteering and helping others.

In discussing her work as Governor in supporting future leaders, both in South Australia and beyond, Ms Adamson spoke of the importance of leaders working to create a culture where everyone has a strong sense of belonging, can thrive, and achieve their potential.

In speaking of leadership and culture, Her Excellency spoke of the importance of adhering to the values one stands for – she spoke as a Christian and an Anglican – including when, as happens from time to time, there are challenges to the culture you are aiming to have. How we respond to challenges and the lessons taken from that experience are important.

The Governor – a former Australian diplomat whose stellar career culminated as Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – encouraged students to take opportunities to gain international experience. Especially with so many careers having international dimensions, she encouraged them to consider the prestigious and valuable opportunities available through the New Colombo Plan to understand our region better; the New Colombo Plan supports Australian undergraduates to study and undertake internships in the Indo-Pacific region.

It is, she said, important to understand Australia’s external strategic environment, especially at a time such as this when it is deteriorating. Our students could in future help to determine Australia’s course.

Ms Adamson referred to the strong history of members of St Mark’s participating in public life, including many alumni entering Parliament, and said that she expected that “your generation will be the same”.

“Be true to your values and support each other”, Her Excellency encouraged the students, who greeted her address with enthusiastic applause.

The Head of College, Professor Don Markwell, thanked Her Excellency for her “thoughtful and inspiring” address, before the Governor and Mr Bunten engaged in a most stimulating discussion with a group of students in the College Ballroom.

“Awesome” and “cool” were just two of the superlatives with which students described the Governor’s address and conversation with her.

Photos by Emerson Fielke