The University of Tasmania consists of four essential elements – the members of Council, the academic staff, the graduates and the students. Our role as the University of Tasmania Alumni Committee is to represent the graduate constituency and to build awareness that graduates remain a part of the University family.

University of Tasmania graduates are prominent in business, industry, public service, education, science, medicine and much more, right around the globe and have performed at a consistently high level of expertise and have made and continue to make outstanding contributions to Tasmania in so many ways. 

I joined the Alumni Committee in 1996, at that time not having an understanding or appreciation of the role of Alumni and of the Alumni Committee. I had completed my higher education through the Centre for the Continuing Education of Teachers, a partnership between the Tasmanian Education Department and University of Tasmania. Lectures were held at the Teachers Centre in Launceston outside school hours, so while my burning ambition as child was always to go to University, I did not achieve that ambition in the usual way. However I will be eternally grateful for that opportunity and for the opportunity to become part of the university family through and with the Alumni Committee. Of course I soon learned that the term ‘alumnus’ or ‘alumna’ came from the Latin verb to nourish, and meant former pupil.

It was just 4 years into the life of Alumni Committee when I began my journey; it had been established in 1992 after the University’s amalgamation with TSIT. At that time it was a small statewide committee supported by Robin Lohrey. The Committee generally travelled to Campbell Town for a Saturday meeting and our business focussed on the Tasmanian graduates with our best efforts on establishing interstate and international branches and on keeping in touch with graduates ‘overseas’ at that time only in such places as Borneo. 

The Alumni Committee was led at that time by my then boss, Director of Education, Ken Axton and on his retirement in 1996 by the amazing Ann Hopkins who took over the role of chairperson. It seemed to me the dedicated Committee had limited support and was not seen as an important part of the University family. Over the time I chaired the Alumni Committee I saw the realisation of the critical role of keeping in touch with our graduates, led by such skilled and dedicated staff as Greg Parkinson who willingly and unfailingly provided wonderful support to both the committee and the university, particularly in initiatives to a change agenda that would put us on a par with other such committees across Australia.

A landmark change for the Alumni Committee occurred in 2009 when we commenced a journey to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Tasmanian University Foundation to further University development efforts. While maintaining both parties’ integrity, it was planned to integrate staff members into a common support unit under the leadership of a Director of Development. The initiative enabled a collaborative and cohesive approach, strengthening communication, networks and relationships within the University of Tasmania family. This initiative enhanced opportunities for both the Foundation and the Alumni to support and maintain greater contact with graduates across the globe. A mutually significant initiative was taken to move a specialist electronic database that was integrated with the University’s Student Support Record System which incorporated event management capability as well as enabling us to capture comprehensive data related to alumni, bequests and donations.

Highlights for me during the time with Alumni were:

•Renewing and strengthening ties with that very important and much respected group of graduates who came to Tasmania as part of the Colombo Plan. Among those of special interest included two recipients of Distinguished Alumni awards who both rose to leadership roles in Indonesia. Koesmarihati Koesnowarso became Director of development at PT Telekom, a state owned Telecommunications Company, and later CEO of PT Telikomssel, the largest mobile phone provider in Indonesia. Jonathan Parapak, Secretary General of the Department Tourism, Arts and Culture in Indonesia, was appointed President and Rector of Pelita Harapan University in 2006. 

Both Koesmarihati and Jonathan have been frequent visitors back to the University of Tasmania since their time as Colombo plan students at the School of Engineering. The tale of Koes and her one female Indonesian student colleague caused great interest and surprise as well as some rapid need for minor building modifications when on arrival, the faculty realised that two of the students were female. A most unexpected surprise! Alumni Committee members and staff reciprocated with visits to Jakarta both for planned celebrations and on private visits. Those of us fortunate enough to participate in such visits saw at first hand the esteem in which graduates hold this university.

•The beginning of graduation ceremonies in China furthered Alumni’s resolution to ensure graduates continued to feel they belonged and were valued by their University. These, together with planned events in more and more Australian states as well as in countries across the world, have meant the growth of global friends that keep in touch with and feel a loyalty to the University of Tasmania. 

•Taking opportunities offered through my own travel to catch up with Tasmanian graduates in London, Jakarta and Thailand were experiences that I will be long remember for the pleasure they brought to those graduates attending.

•And the most memorable of all, co-hosting with Vice-Chancellor Daryl Le Grew, a reception in London at Lords Cricket Ground strongly supported by Keith Bradshaw, an alumnus living in London and then CEO of the MCC. 

•Welcoming some of our brightest and best University of Tasmania graduates home to share their successes and life around the world has assisted in keeping before Tasmanians those alumni who are at the forefront in so many fields including: Allan Clark, Honorary Professor of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the University of Geneva and working in the Atlas experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider; Tunku Abdul Aziz, Malaysian politician and founder of the Ethics Office at the United Nations; Tan Sri Mohd Effendi Norwawi, Malaysian politician, businessman and former Minister for Agriculture and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit; and Dr Ashton Calvert, former Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The synergy that flourished through the partnership of the Alumni Committee with our focus on ‘raising friends’ and the University of Tasmania Foundation with their focus on ‘raising funds’ is now seen as critical to growth and development. 

It has been my pleasure to play a tiny role in the great story of the University of Tasmania 125 years of service to the education of Tasmanians and of our global friends. 

About the author: Elizabeth Daly retired from a career in education as teacher, principal, Superintendent and Director of Education and well as positions as Acting Commissioner for Children, Chair of Tasmanian Early years Foundation and the Smith Family. She currently works with community organisation, Colony 47. She served as a member of the Alumni Committee from 1996 and as Chair of Alumni Committee from 2000 to 2010.