'The holiest campus', its decline and transformation: The University of New England, 1946-79

Journal of Religious History

Volumn 21, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 318-336

  Beer, D R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61049425726     PISSN: 00224227     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9809.1997.tb00743.x     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. But see Mark Hutchinson, 'Religion and University Education in Australia: Debates over the Introduction of Chaplaincies to Macquarie University', Journal of Religious Hisrory Vol. 17. No. 3, June 1993.
2. C. N. Katz, F. M. Katz and W. B. Olphert, What Happens to Students: A Study of Students at the University of New England 1961-1964, [Armidale] 1965, pp. 74-5.
3. See UNE Archives, A371, UNE Council Minutes and Business Papers, 1938-68, The Annual Report of Council (published till 1971 in the UNE Calendar). For simplicity the abbreviation UNE will be used to refer to both the university and its predecessor institution, New England University College (NEUC), where appropriate.
4. Roger Thompson, Religion in Australia: A History, Melbourne 1994, pp. 89-134;
5. Ian Breward, A History of the Australian Churches, Sydney 1993, pp. 134-202;
6. David Hilliard, 'Popular Religion in Australia in the 1950s: A study of Adelaide and Brisbane', Journal of Religious History, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1988.
7. Rowan Ireland, The Challenge of Secularization, Melbourne 1988, p. 1.
8. For discussions of secularization in Australia, see Ireland, The Challenge of Secularization;
9. Richard Ely, 'Secularization and the Sacred in Australian History', Historical Studies, Vol. 19, No. 77, October 1981;
10. John McCallum, 'Secularization in Australia Between 1966 and 1985: A Research Note', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, Vol. 23, No. 3, November 1987;
11. Brian Graetz and Ian McAllister, Dimensions of Australian Society, 2nd ed., Melbourne 1994, pp. 139-66;
12. Ian McAllister, 'Religious Change and Secularization: The Transmission of Religious Values in Australia'. Sociological Analysis, Vol. 49, No. 3, Fall 1988;
13. Practice and Belief: Studies in the Sociology of Australian Religion, Alan W. Black and Peter E. Glasner (eds), Sydney 1983.
14. especially Gary D. Bouma, 'Australian Religiosity: Some Trends Since 1966';
15. Religion in Australia. Sociological Perspectives, Sydney 1991;
16. and Hans Mol. The Faith of Australians, Alan W. Black (ed.), Sydney 1985.
17. [Walsh], 'The University Student '67', p. 124;
18. Neucleus, 9 April 1965. p. 2 (editorial);
19. Mungo MacCallum, 'Wrights, Whites and Frights: Town and Gown in Armidale', Nation. 28 November 1964.
20. A. Barcan, 'Changes in Student Outlook', Quadrant, Vol. I. No. I, Summer 1956-57;
21. Jim Spigelman, 'Student Activism in Australia', Vestes. Vol. XI, No. 2, 1968;
22. Malcolm I. Thomis, A Place of Light and Learning: The University of Queensland's First Seventy-Five Years, Brisbane 1985, pp. 177-83;
23. A. H. Willis, The University of New South Wales: The Baxter Years, Sydney 1983, pp. 141-55.
24. Neucleus, 9, 30 March 1950.
25. No statistics are available for other Australian universities.
26. Katz, Katz and Olphert, What Happens to Students, pp. 34, 39-40, 85-6;
27. Thompson, Religion in Australia, pp. 1 13-15.
28. MacCallum, 'Wrights, Whites and Frights';
29. UNE, Orientation Handbook, Armidale 1959, p. 61 ('It has been said that religion is the most talked about topic on campus');
30. National Library of Australia [Hereafter cited as NLA], ASCM Papers, MS 980, Box 138, Reports of visits to Armidale: Joan Chadwick 29 April-6 May 1946 and 25 June-3 July 1947, Hayden McCallum, 25 June-2 July 1947 and 24-30 April 1948, and Frances Paton. 12-16 Julv 1949.
31. NLA, ASCM Papers, MS 980, Boxes 91-2, Minute Book, Statistics and Notes, 1960-[sic]. In 1960 membership of SCM at the University of Melbourne was 317 and at UNE 55. For comments on the interpretation of membership figures, see note 45.
32. Mrs Janice Knight (née Waterford) (Armidale, 3 July 1996), a student involved in the Newman Society at UNE in 1956-57 and, as a UNE administrator's wife, in St Albert's College in the 1970s;
33. National Library of Australia [Hereafter cited as NLA], ASCM Papers, MS 980, Box 138, Reports of visits to Armidale: Joan Chadwick 29 April-6 May 1946 and 25 June-3 July 1947, Hayden McCalium, 25 June-2 July 1947 and 24-30 April 1948, and Frances Paton, 12-16 July 1949.
34. I have been unable to locate the records of UNE's Newman Society. Except where otherwise stated, this article's account of that organization rests on notes of telephone interviews with: Rev. Father T. Fitzgerald, OP (Adelaide, 28 June 1996, supplemented by diary entries and cards of interview), Roman Catholic chaplain at UNE 1954-57 and Master of St Albert's College, 1969-79;
35. and Gary Scarrabelotti (Canberra, 13 November 1995), a leading Roman Catholic student, 1970-73, who lived at St Albert's. I am grateful to them and to Dr John Atchison, President of the UNE Newman Society in the mid-late 1960s, for their assistance. Father Fitzgerald's cards of interview reveal that in the years 1954-57 there were seventy-two Roman Catholic students at UNE and seventy-one at the Armidale Teachers College, of whom 64 per cent were members of the Newman Society. As chaplain, Fitzgerald also conducted religious activities outside the Newman Society.
36. Michael Orpwood, Chappo: For the Sake of the Gospel. John Chapman and the Department of Evangelism, Russell Lea, 1995, pp. 33-4;
37. Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity [Hereafter cited as CSAC] Archives, IVF Collection, especially Box 2, UNE 1957-63
38. J. O. Rymer to Charles Troutman, 28 April 1958, and Box 80, InterVarsity Papers, General Committee, Report from UNE Evangelical Union January 1964 and I. Hore-Lacy to I. Burnard, 27 April 1964;
39. interview with George Battese (Armidale, 10 March 1994); information from Dr Greg Stanton; Stuart Piggin, Evangelical Christianitv in Australia: Spirit, Word and World. Melbourne 1996, esp. pp. 188-9.
40. Based on figures in John and Moyra Prince, Out of the Tower, Sydney 1987, p. 47.
41. UNE's faculty, gender and denominational mixes do not seem to have been significant. See UNE Archives, UNE Papers, The Annual Report of Council (published until 1971 in the UNE Calendar); K. C. Dempsey, 'The Religious Attitudes of First Year University Students', Australian Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 2, No. 3, December 1966;
42. K. C. Dempsey. KC, and Millicent Poole, 'Changes in Religious Attitudes and Behaviour Among Students at the University of New England', Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 5, No. 3, October 1970;
43. K. C. Dempsey, and Jennifer Pandey, 'The Religious Practices of First Year University Students', Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1968;
44. David Watkins, 'Changes in the Religious Practices and Beliefs of Students at an Australian University: 1965-1977', Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 14, No. 3, August 1979;
45. Breward, A History of the Australian Churches, p. 235;
46. D. S. Anderson and A. E. Vervoorn, Access to Privilege: Patterns of Participation in Australian Post-Secondary Education, Canberra 1983, p. 49.
47. Anderson and Vervoorn. Access to Privilege, pp. 91, 134-9, 147;
48. Hans Mol, Religion in Australia: A Sociological Investigation, Melbourne 1971, pp. 89, 121-3;
49. interviews with Fletcher, Battle and Drysdale. I am indebted to my former colleague, Dr Bruce Mitchell, for information drawn from his survey of past UNE students conducted in 1983. Mol's figures, as opposed to his interpretation of those figures, support the view that the countryside and towns of more than 1.000 inhabitants were more devout than metropolitan centres in Victoria. This result is consistent with data he provides for Newcastle, N.S.W., and surrounding areas, for Australia as a whole, and overseas.
50. C. N. Katz and F. M. Katz, 'Changes in Students at University', Vestes, Vol. VIII, No. 1, March 1965, p. 14. Many must have had a moral rather than a formal concept of membership.
51. Svdnev Morning Herald, 30 March 1963, p. 2.
52. UNE Archives, A311 and A31 la. New England Area Council of ASCM and ASCM in UNE, Minute Books; interviews with Battle, Fletcher and Drysdale.
53. Katz. Katz and Olphcrt. What Happens to Students, pp. 82, 99-100. 122;
54. Joan Mansfield, 'The Social Gospel and the Church of England in New South Wales in the 1930s', Journal of Religious History. Vol. 13, No. 4, December 1985
55. and Bruce Mansfield. 'Thinking About Australian Religious History', Journal of Religious History, Vol. 15, No. 3. June 1989, pp. 342-3.
56. Interview with Peter Battle.
57. Interview with Neville Fletcher.
58. Particularly Protestant Christianity (and UNE was more Protestant than Australian society at large). The developments outlined in this paragraph are discussed fully in D. R. Beer, ' "Friendship is as Traditional at U.N.E. as Wisteria and Roses": Student Attitudes and Student Life at the University of New England. 1946-1964',Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 81, Part 2, December 1995. pp. 213-30.
59. Especially among Arts students. Interview with Peter Battle;
60. F. M. Katz and Millicent E. Poole, 'Student Activities in a Residential College Setting', Vestes, Vol. XIV, No. 1, March 1971, p. 23.
61. Dempsey and Poole, 'Changes in Religious Attitudes and Behaviour Among Students at the University of New England';
62. Dempsey and Pandey, 'The Religious Practices of First Year University Students'.
63. Compared with 54 per cent in 1961-64. Watkins, 'Changes in the Religious Practices and Beliefs of Students at an Australian University', p. 213.
64. I have traced the emergence of characteristically 1960s attitudes in 'Doing a Van Winkle? Student Activism and Attitudes at the University of New England, 1964-1969', History of Education Review, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1996.
65. See, e.g. Bill Yolton, 'The Christian Presence in Australian Universities', Crux, Vol. 71, Nos 5-6, October 1968-January 1969, pp. 11-12;
66. Michael Horsburgh, 'The Rev'd Norman Charles Webb', [University of Sydney] Gazette, Vol. 23, No. 2, October 1995.
67. Bruce Wilson, 'The Church in a Secular Society', in The Shape of Belief : Christianity in Australia Today, Dorothy Harris, Douglas Hynd and David Millikan (eds), Sydney 1982.
68. Interviews with Rod Noble and numerous other radicals of the late 1960s and early 1970s (Armidale, 30 September-2 October 1989, interviewer Tracy Lyon). The transcripts are being prepared for publication in book form.
69. This issue is discussed at length in Beer, 'Doing a Van Winkle?'.
70. NLA, MS 2412, AUS Collection, Series 9, Box 52, First Annual Council. Sydney. February 1971, Council Reports, Vol. 2, Report of the New England Local AUS Secretary, p. 3.
71. Neucleus, Vol. 27, No. 2, 20 March 1973, p. 2 (editorial).
72. Circulars of 1973 in possession of Rod Noble.
73. Watkins, 'Changes in the Religious Practices and Beliefs', p. 215.
74. Some care is necded in interpreting membership figures. In 1946 SCM at NEUC had to be persuaded of the importance of getting its supporters to commit themselves to formal membership, and it never seems to have entirely abandoned its casual approach to registration. Given this laxity, absolute membership numbers may be misleading but variations in membership provide rather more reliable evidence of variations in the strength of the organization. For EU, on the other hand, membership was always vital since it required a commitment by applicants to accept Christ as Saviour. However, two difficulties arise: EU was chary of revealing its membership numbers (for a variety of reasons), and, at least in the 1960s, membership of UNE EU did not require annual renewal, which means that the surviving rolls almost certainly exaggerate effective membership.
75. NLA, ASCM Papers, MS 980, Box 228, John Wells, Report of visits to Armidale, 15-19 July 1967.
76. Orpwood, Chappo, pp. 38-42.
77. Betteridge was not an evangelical as that term was then understood in the Armidale diocese, but his background was evangelical: his views were 'open' rather than fundamentalist. Born in New Zealand, he had been associated with the EU at the universities of Canterbury and Otago. After leaving Armidale, he became general secretary of the evangelical Church Missionary Society and, still later, principal of another evangelical institution, Ridley College, Melbourne.
78. NLA, ASCM Papers, MS 980, Box 228, John Wells, Reports of visits to Armidale. 15-19 July 1967 and 27 June-3 July 1968;
79. Yolton, 'The Christian Presence in Australian Universities', p. 12.
80. NLA, ASCM Papers, MS 980, Box 228, John Wells, Report on visit to Armidale, 27 June-3 July 1968.
81. Information from Dr John Atchison (Armidale, 24 June 1996). For an account of the Apostolate, see Vincent Buckley, Cutting Green Hay: Friendships, Movements and Cultural Conflicts in Australia's Great Decades, Ringwood 1983.
82. For the claim, see, e.g., UNE, Orientation Handbook, Armidale 1958, p. 50: oral evidence from discussion at a Religious Studies Seminar, St Albert's College, UNE, 17 October 1995 (notes taken).
83. Membership list in possession of Dr Graham Mackay.
84. This was more than the usual self-lacerating attempt to inspire members: the traditional first-term camp was not held; only three EUers attended the missionary weekend held in May; the group showed 'no desire to pray together': there was a 'disappointing' response to the regular Sunday Afternoon Meetings; the mission held that year was arguably the least successful to that date. UNE EU, Minute Book, Secretary's Report, 27 July 1971 and General Report, 'Why Week', 5-12 July [1971] by David Mills; NLA, ASCM Papers, MS 980, Box 228, Report on visit to Armidale by the Acting General Secretary [Jim Siemon], 24 February-6 March [no year, probably 1970 or 1971].
85. UNE EU, Minute Books, President's Report [John Fowler], 27 March 1974.
86. EU members pointed particularly to the increasing strength of the college system, which was a problem for religious and other societies that were small, and to the pressures of study under the recently introduced semester system.
87. Prince, Out of the Tower, pp. 49-57;
88. see also CSAC Archives, IVF Collection (uncatalogued).
89. The history of MYF can be traced in detail through the Uniting Church Archives, North Parramatta, Records of Wesley [Methodist] Church, Armidale. especially Boxes 3-4. Attendances at its meetings seem to have been in the thirty to fifty range in the mid-late 1960s.
90. St Mark's Chapel had existed previously as a small, uncomfortable weatherboard building. The structure opened in 1971 was commodious and gave an immediate and continuing impetus to the activities associated with it, i.e., the work of the Anglican chaplain.
91. St Mark's increasingly drew evangelical Anglican students away from EU, leaving the latter only the small number of Churches of Christ, Baptist, some Presbyterian and similar adherents as its constituency.
92. The Roman Catholic chaplains were attached to St Albert's.
93. UNE Archives, UNE Council Source Book 1, No. 27, pp. 7257-60, Report to University Council from the Chaplains' Department, July 1966 and pp. 10181-2, 24 June 1968; No. 28, p. 10719, Chaplains' report for second term 1968; No. 29, p. 11653, Chaplains' report Lent term 1969; No. 31, p. 12486, Chaplains' report for second term, 1969 and p. 12817, Chaplains' report for third term 1969; NLA, ASCM Papers, MS 980, Box 228, Report on visit to Armidale by the Acting General Secretary [Jim Siemon], 24 February-6 March [no year, probably 1970 or 1971]: UNE, Orientation Handbooks.
94. For its part St Albert's was informed during the 1970s by Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World): Roman Catholic religious activity on campus was arguably more outward-looking than in the 1950s. However, Roman Catholicism was very much the minority among the Christian sects on campus throughout the period covered by this article, and in the 1970s it appears also to have been less successful than in the 1950s in appealing to the broader university (as well as to the Catholic students as a body). (Telephone interviews with Gary Scarrabelotti, Fitzgerald and Knight.)
95. New York 1978.
96. Compare, e.g., the views of Thompson and Breward as cited in note 7.
97. See also Wilson, 'The Church in a Secular Society'
98. A. W. Black, 'Introduction' in Black, Religion in Australia, and Ireland, The Challenge of Secularization.
99. One illustration of this religious subculture was New Skins, a small, short-lived, intellectual group of Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics and others who, though moderate and basically conventional in outlook, wished to respond - open-mindedly and without clerical influence - to the currents of theological liberalism that had emerged particularly from Vatican ll. They put out a small roneoed newsletter or discussion sheet in 1971 and the following year changed to a seminar pattern, publishing some of the papers in Neucleus. See Uniting Church Archives. North Parramatta, Records of Wesley [Methodist] Church. Armidale. Box 5, New Skins (folder of printed material): telephone interview with Gary Scarrabelotti.
100. Bruce Mansfield, 'Thinking About Australian Religious History', pp. 331-5.
101. Little is known about the religious life of the overseas students who attended UNE in this period, except that some at least brought their faith with them and practised it as best they could. Christians among them gathered together in the Overseas Christian Group, which for a time was loosely associated with EU.
102. One, Rod Noble, came to UNE after a trip around the world, conversion to Buddhism and an extended period in a Buddhist monastery had failed to answer the religious questions that dominated his life. The other. George Campbell, was a Roman Catholic seminarian who had found that he could no longer believe in a Christian god. (Interviews with Noble and Campbell, Armidale, 30 September-2 October 1989, interviewer Tracy Lyon.)