Sydney University Civil Engineering Graduates Association

When Professor J. W. Roderick took up his appointment as Head of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney in 1951 he found that the term “run down” was inadequate to describe the facilities that he had inherited.  In common with what had happened at other universities throughout the nation, the Second World War and the preceding worldwide Great Depression had done their work.

The 1909 premises on Science Road – which were shared with other departments – were clearly grossly inadequate for the support of even the current numbers of students, let alone the increase demanded by the country’s economy.  Some of the equipment, including testing apparatus, was of robustness and simplicity to last longer but apparatus of modern design and sophistication was hardly to be found.

Partial salvation was not far away when a sympathetic Menzies national government followed the findings of the Murray Report which detailed the plight of Australia’s tertiary education system.  Government funding, the like of which in all probability will never occur again, poured into university floor space expansion.  Subsidies from the national coffers of up to three-quarters of cost were available for university-related buildings.

This sudden largesse took some university bodies by surprise as regards planning but Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney had already worked out requirements for future laboratory and teaching space in the event that options for expansion became available.  This meant that plans for a new Civil Engineering building could more rapidly be drawn up when the University decided to make its expansion move to the south into Darlington, including an Engineering Precinct along Shepherd Street.  Civil Engineering, at first in some geographical isolation, was scheduled to have its building available in two stages in 1961 and 1963.

With a solution to the space problems in sight, there remained the task of finding funds for the new equipment that would be required for a first-class civil engineering facility in the second half of the twentieth century. 

The Civil Engineering graduation year of 1924 was noteworthy as being the large, ex-service year resulting from the First World War. These graduates held annual reunion dinners, following which contributions were made, originally in support of the small Civil Engineering Library.  Many of these graduates had come to occupy senior positions in public and private engineering organisations.  The even larger (81) graduation year of 1950 was the similar ex-service year with respect to the Second World War and they also made donations after their annual dinner.

Professor Roderick was approached by representatives of these years in particular with regard to how they might assist the School of Civil Engineering.  The result of these discussions was the formation of the SU Civil Engineering Graduates Association in 1959.  It was decided that support for this organisation would be helped by the occasional publication of a newsletter. After discussion with a member of the Department of Classics, the name: “Acta Structorum” was chosen for this publication, this being a play on the somewhat more famous: “Acta Sanctorum” (“The Work of the Saints”).  The first president of the Association was Cecil A. Hawkins who was a senior engineer with the Department of Main Roads, New South Wales.

The Association decided that the best approach to providing assistance to the School, especially in funding new equipment, was by setting up a formal, concentrated appeal.  In the absence of any prior in-house expertise in such matters, it was decided to employ a firm of fund-raising consultants: the National Fund Raising Counsel.

The constitution of the Association was arranged so that there would be a year representative for each of the preceding forty or more years of graduation.  They would constitute the General Committee from which a much smaller Executive Committee would be formed. As would be expected, the year representatives would, with assistance from a few others, take the lead in canvassing for contributions from fellow members of their respective years.

The benefactions record of the University discloses that this 1960 appeal raised a donation to the University funds of 36,300 pounds which the Reserve Bank of Australia inflation calculator indicates would have been worth $1,055,013 in the year 2017. But it must be remembered that this is the net sum after the very substantial commission, as is customary, had been deducted by the fund-raising consultant.

This “General Equipment Appeal” made it possible for extensive purchases of equipment across all sectors of the School of Civil Engineering operations. A few small black plaques acknowledging the efforts of the Association may still be seen affixed to some items of apparatus that have not yet been discarded. It was noted that the sector of activities that had benefited most in proportion to its size was surveying where there was an almost total clearance of antique surveying instruments and related items after purchase of up-to-date versions. The benefaction record shows that the graduates of 1924 and of 1950 continued to make their annual donations to the School.

Shortly after the above successful appeal, the Association was in discussion with senior staff of the School of Civil Engineering as to how continuing support of the School’s activities could be arranged and the means by which industry could be involved, both by direct financial assistance and by technical collaboration.  This theme was stimulated by the fact that there now existed two or three University foundations, the most prominent being the Nuclear Research Foundation primarily in support of the School of Physics and which was promoted by the dynamic Professor Harry Messel.

Many Civil Engineering Graduates had now reached positions of influence both in the private sector and in government instrumentalities, the latter being predominant in that period in history. These connections were utilized to the fullest, with the result that the Post-Graduate Civil Engineering Foundation within the University of Sydney was launched at a meeting in Sydney Town Hall in February 1968.  Membership was on a continuing basis with annual subscriptions for Governor and Member organisations in industry.  Although the Foundation was entirely separate from the Association, the constitution of the Foundation included an ex-officio seat on its council for the current president of the Foundation in recognition of the extensive work that Association personnel had put in during the early promotional period.

In the early days of computers, the School of Civil Engineering was heavily reliant on the University’s main facilities located in the Basser Computing Laboratory of the School of Physics.  Because of the increasingly heavy workload of the School and because commercially available computers were becoming manageably smaller – one small room rather than a few large rooms – it was decided by the Association to set up another appeal: this time for computing facilities and with a target date of 1975.

The particular item decided on was the Prime 300 which, in the jargon of the time, was defined as a “minicomputer”.  Rooms 365 and 366 in the Civil Engineering Building, hitherto known as the honours class drawing office and the photo-elasticity laboratory respectively, were used with the main part of the hardware fitting within the latter room and the larger space used for work stations.  The appeal was successful and the C. A. Hawkins Computing Laboratory was opened, as stated on the bronze plaque, by the University’s Chancellor, Sir Hermann Black, in 1975. The consultants: National Fund Raising Counsel were again used for this appeal. 

The Prime computer had placed the School of Civil Engineering in the forefront of engineering computing capability but, after a decade of use, it became clear that the increased sophistication of programs needed major expansion and upgrade of the facilities if keeping pace with contemporary standards was to be achieved.  A third appeal by the Association was then proposed for this purpose, with a target date of 1988.  The appeal chairman was 1949 graduate John M. Muir.

From the earliest stages it was appreciated that this appeal would be undertaken with a number of disadvantages relative to the previous ones and that the landscape had changed considerably.

(i) The worldwide recession had taken place in 1975.  Locally this affected the private sector rather than the government-related organisations and, in turn, individual engineering employees as potential donors.  (Fortunately, a high proportion of donations to the 1975 appeal had been made by earlier pledges of periodic payments, with the University acting as “banker”.)

(ii) There was another widespread recession in 1981, this time affecting the resources sector.  The consequences were severe for those organisations that had been drawn into this once-attractive field.  There were company failures including those with which the School was acquainted.

(iii) The decision had been made to dispense with the services of a fund-raising consultant so that no professional expertise in this activity was available.

(iv)  From a public relations and advertising point of view, the idea of targeting an “upgrade” does not sound as exciting or attractive as seeking to purchase a complete computer when there was great public enthusiasm for the promise of computers.

(v) The large increase in numbers of undergraduate student appeared to open up a greater number of potential donors but this seems to have markedly diluted the loyalty factor.  In addition, there were competitive appeals now appearing throughout the University.

To overcome these problems, it was decided to make use of the University’s annual major equipment fund.   The negotiator on behalf of the School was Associate Professor Howard B. Harrison who successfully obtained the agreement of the University to provide a matching grant for whatever was collected.  (It is likely that the University looked with particular favour on an academic body that made the effort to obtain substantial outside funds in contrast to most of the mendicant departments which usually sought one hundred per cent funding.)

The appeal was successful and the computing facilities were upgraded – but with very little leeway. Conditions had indeed changed.

A fourth appeal was launched in 1999. No specific target was in mind other than for the purchase of general equipment. Until about this time, annual gatherings of the graduates had been held, usually in February, involving guest speaker, but the per capita enthusiasm for such activities was seen to be fading. Much privatisation and outsourcing had taken place which generally had an adverse effect. The Association funded the endowment of the Civil Engineering Graduates Prize, awarded in the second year of undergraduate studies. The Civil Engineering Graduates of 1950 also funded a prize in their name, to be awarded in the third year of studies.

The Association donated the four seats (originally five) that are in the Civil Engineering courtyard.