NAAUC goes to ANU

We were welcomed at ANU by a series of locked doors of Burton & Garran Hall (B&G) and unanswered mobiles. This probably wasn’t the start that Pip and I needed to build out confidence for our first NAAUC on the road program together. However, from this point the few days in Canberra only got better!

Luckily for us, we were mistaken for first years and were swooped up by a friendly Senior Resident and he soon got us in touch with members of the residents committee. As this was my first experience inside a self-catered college I was very excited to see how it would all work. Two members of the residents committee Jack and Joel wasted no time in introducing us to some B&G hospitality and whipped us a delicious lunch and they even threw in a free cooking lesson too.

With full bellies and new cooking advice- ‘Have wine with every meal’, Pip and I were ready to get to work. Freya our wonderful ACT rep quickly arranged tours for us at each of the halls at ANU and introduced us to their presidents. There was amazing contrast between each of the halls at ANU, with some being catered, some being self-catered, some were controlled by ANU and others weren’t even on campus. However, what I did learn very quickly was that these halls all had one aspect in common. Each had an amazing community feel and the people were all friendly and welcoming.

Over my few short days in Canberra I came to love this strong community aspect of the ANU halls and the hospitality of its residents. Never in my many years on the college scene have I seen such an accepting groups of halls and colleges. They did more than just accept all types of people of different races, backgrounds, sexualities and religions; they really embraced these differences and the diversity and depth it gave to their colleges.

To all the ANU people who attended the NAAUC sessions thanks for having us! Also, massive thanks to the guys and gals of B&G for feeding us, giving us number one laksa, sacrificing your beds, but more importantly showing us what a great hall you have and how good all the ANU halls are. I can’t wait to go back to ANU to see it all again and hopefully even visit the famous Mooseheads .