Earle Page College is a residential college of the University of New England

University of New England, Australia

The University of New England is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales....

 located in Armidale

Armidale, New South Wales

Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The college accommodates roughly 300 students.

History

The college is named after Sir Earle Page

Earle Page

Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:...

, former Chancellor of the university and Prime Minister of Australia . It originated in 1963 as an all male set of houses in town. On the current site was a collection of houses used as accommodation. Most Page students who were living in town had to travel to the campus for all meals by public transport. After its opening, students slowly moved into the current buildings. The college began as an all male college and in 1973 females where admitted to the college.

College infrastructure

The college is made up of 4 blocks, A, B, C & D blocks, with a total 10 floors. There is a Bot, Mid & Top floor on each block. There is not Bot B however, as this space is taken up by the laundries and other facilities. Bot D and Mid D are combined into one conglomerate floor known as Mod D. Each floor has its own bathrooms. Attached to the blocks include 2 laundries and drying rooms, a computer room, an internet room, a gallery, a library, an exercise room and a music room. The college also has a dining hall, with a capacity for around 500, which serves residents 3 meals a day, a Junior Common Room, a Senior Common Room and a college shop run by students of the college.

When women were allowed into Page, all troughs were to be filled in, however, the men of Top D protested and placed their mattresses over the door to the bathroom, preventing the work from being completed. This is the last physical attribute of the college's all male heritage.

Inter-college competitions

In 2006, Page came 2nd in the Sir Frank Kitto competition and received respectable placings in both the males' Presidents Trophy and females' Mary Bagnall Trophy. In 2008, Page came 1st in the Sir Frank Kitto competition and achieved 1st in the Mary Bagnall Trophy and 3rd in the Presidents Trophy.

SCR committee

The members of the Senior Common Room, some resident and some non-resident in the college, support the life of the college as a whole in a variety of ways, including academic, material, social and personal.

JCR committee

The Junior Common Room Committee are the peak student body, elected directly by the college residents. All other college committees, including Sports, Coast Run, Musical and SFK, report directly to the JCR committee. The committee operates through the payment of a subscription fee paid by most students, which subsidises college functions, pays for PT and MB sports and an annual major project.

Formal dinners and JCR functions

Yearly formal dinners include:

• Introductory Dinner
• Arts Dinner
• Politics Dinner
• Parents Dinner
• Sporties Dinner
• Valedictory Dinner

Guests at Politics Dinner have included Hon. Bob Hawke

Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

 - Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard

John Howard

John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....

 MP, The Hon. Amy Malcolm, Peter Garrett

Peter Garrett

Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...

, The Hon. Amanda Vanstone

Amanda Vanstone

Amanda Eloise Vanstone is a former Australian politician and a former Ambassador to Italy. She was a Liberal Senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government. After her resignation from the Senate in 2007, she served as the Australian...

, The Hon. Philip Ruddock

Philip Ruddock

Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...

 and Senator Natasha Stott Despoja

Natasha Stott Despoja

Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja AM is an Australian former politician and former leader of the Australian Democrats. She was a Democrats senator for South Australia from 1995 to 2008...

.

Other functions run by the Junior Common Room Committee include:

• Annual College Ball
• Block Functions
• Silly Season (Term 3)

The Junior Common Room Committee also co-ordinates the O-Week Calendar. These events include: Aussie Night, Trivia Night, Traffic Light Party, Toga, Bush Dance, Surf Carnival and the O-Week Closing ceremony.

Musical

Every year since 1973, EPC has produced a musical over a 3 night period during parents weekend.

Coast run

Every year since 1980 the college has conducted a fun run from Armidale to Coffs Harbour to raise funds for charity, the Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI). The Fundraising activities include the sale of a Discount Card for use within Armidale, an annual Fashion Extravaganza, Charity Auction, inter-floor sports and events, and the run itself. In 2005, the group raised over $23,500 with the introduction of the Charity Discount Card . In 2006, its 27th year, the group raised over $25,000, which was a record for the event. In 2007 this record was broken, with over $30,000 raised over the entire year, and again broken in 2008 with over $35, 000 raised. In 2010, the committee raised $45,000.

In all over $400,000 has been raised for Children's Medical Research by this means .

Memorable college events

• 1963 - Earle Page College was opened as a men's college
• 1967 - The motto of the college, "Each Prove Himself", was created.
• 1968 - First "Iskra" published.
• 1972 - A referendum was held in the college to decide whether the college should become a co-educational. The referendum was passed.
• 1973 - The first year women where admitted to college.
• 1981 - The last year freshers were required to do 'phone duty' from the single line entering college. The phone was operated by freshers who patched the calls to students on other floors. Later that year phones were installed on all floors.
• 1983 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria for which some freshers did a 'wall sit' on their floor to raise money to send to victims; College Master, Allan Huggins, organised a deal with a rental company which allowed all floors to have televisions in their common rooms.
• 1986 - Due to a huge intake for the University, over 100 students were housed in motels and hotels for most of first semester, and every available space in college was used - common rooms were separated into two section to house more members. The students living in town were brought to college for breakfast and dinner in buses, and paid the same amount as people living in college; Prime Minister Bob Hawke attended politics dinner.
• 1987 - D-Block, a block generally reserved for post grad students, overseas students and mature age students, was opened to the general college population.
• 1988 - Amy Jean Bayliss, daughter to Admin Assistant Anne Bayliss, visited the college.
• 1996 - Earle Page had so few residents they closed down D-Block for the year.
• 1997 - There was a bomb scare at Politics Dinner, which turned out to be a prank.
• 1999 - the college won both the Mary Bagnall and Presidents Trophy sporting competitions.
• 2001 - Two residents (Mary Jones & Tamar Scobie) were killed in a car accident in May and gardens in the main courtyard were built in their memory; A new web page was created.
• 2003 - 40th Anniversary of Earle Page College.
• 2006 - College SCR member and former Pagite, Dr. Peter Hemphill, died. A memorial garden and plaque was dedicated to his memory and service to the college.
• 2007 - Earle Page College won the Mary Bagnall Trophy for only the second time in its history. The Annual College Ball was also moved out from the college grounds and held at the Armidale Ex-Services Club for the first time ever. The Annual Earle Page College Coast Run raised a record $30,000 for the Children's Medical Research Institute.
• 2008 - Earle Page College places 1st in both the Sir Frank Kitto (SFK) and Mary Bagnall (MB) competitions, and places highly in the President's Trophy (PT) competition. Sam Loxton
  Sam Loxton
  Samuel John Everett "Sam" Loxton OBE is a former Australian cricketer, footballer and politician. Among these three pursuits, his greatest achievements were attained on the cricket field; he played in 12 Tests for Australia from 1948 to 1951...
  
  , of Don Bradman's 1948 Invincibles is the guest speaker at Sports Dinner, and Senator Bob Brown
  Bob Brown
  Robert James Brown is an Australian senator, the inaugural Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens and was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia...
  
  , leader of the Greens Party is the guest speaker at the annual Politics Dinner.
• 2009 - 30th anniversary of the Coast Run.

Masters

• 1963-1963 - Penny Marsh
• 1963-1975 - Albert Bussell
• 1976-1979 - Dr. Edmund Barrington Thomas
• 1979-1988 - Allan C. Huggins
• 1989-1991 - Carole Tisdell
• 1992-1994 - Phillip Raymont
• 1995-1999 - Gregory C Eddy
• 1999-2010 - David Ward (1999 as acting master)
• 2010-present - Andrea Gledhill