President reflects on Avondale’s history, maturity and mission
President Professor Ray Roennfeldt celebrates Avondale’s history, maturity and mission at the opening of its academic year. He presented this speech during Opening Convocation on the Lake Macquarie campus.
My mother was not the kind to celebrate. She was raised tough by a widowed mother after her father died when she was still a child. While I always knew I was loved, Mum didn’t come from a family that expressed love openly. During the last few years of her life, I used to play a game with her by saying “I love you Mum” when I said goodbye. She’d regularly answer, “Good for you!”
Mum had only about two years of formal schooling, but she was determined her children would excel at school. In Grade 8, I failed a mathematics exam, achieving a grade of 45 per cent. Mum sternly informed me I’d have to improve or there’d be trouble. After my next exam, I told Mum I’d done better. My grade: 31 per cent. It was then she took me in hand and “tutored” me in maths. Mum wasn’t much good at maths either, but her method worked. Using a maths textbook, I worked through a page of problems each evening and Mum would check my answers against the answer sheets she’d torn from the back of the book. One time I worked and re-worked a maths problem but couldn’t come up with the correct answer, so I was commissioned to take the problem to my maths teacher—he concluded the answer in the textbook was incorrect.
Avondale has changed over the years and will continue to change if it is to reach its full potential, but some things will not change. Avondale will not stray from its purpose.Professor Ray Roennfeldt
Well, Mum’s method met with success and in the next exam I achieved 100 per cent. Thinking this was worth at least some kind of celebration, I informed her with considerable pride of my success. Her response: “I’m sure there’s room for improvement.” So much for celebration of success.
Maybe Mum was ahead of her time.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Polish-born American Jewish rabbi, scholar and theologian, says we are “losing the power of celebration.” Instead of celebrating, he writes, “we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state. . . . Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions” (The Wisdom of Heschel).
So, at the beginning of another academic year at Avondale College of Higher Education, we have come to celebrate. And we have a lot to celebrate.
We celebrate our history
This is Avondale’s 118th year of continuous operation—only a handful of Australian universities were founded before Avondale. This means Avondale has survived two world wars, depressions and recessions and theological crises and power plays in our “mother” church. Avondale has not come through all that unscarred, but it is probably stronger for weathering the storms.
We celebrate our maturity
Avondale has been granted self-accrediting authority by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. It’s easy to read this and skim over what it means.
What it means:
- Avondale is considered to be of such standing it can oversee its own processes to ensure quality educational outcomes, just as universities do.
- Avondale is seen as a leader among private higher education providers. Yes, other Australian higher education providers have received self-accrediting authority, but they are functioning in only one or two fields of education.
- Avondale must maintain its standards and mitigate risks across its operations—so, while we celebrate, we do so with a sense of responsibility.
- Avondale has a growing sense of confidence to take the next step to university college status.
Avondale is growing up in other ways as well.
During the past year, Avondale staff members produced more than 100 “Level 1” publications: books; book chapters; academic journal articles; and refereed conference papers. Avondale research teams received two major Office and Learning and Teaching grants. Associate Professor Brett Mitchell, with the other chief investigators on a research project, received funding of $650,000 by the National Health and Medical Research Council. And Dr Paul Rankin graduated as Avondale’s second PhD student.
We celebrate our mission
Avondale has changed over the years and will continue to change if it is to reach its full potential, but some things will not change. Avondale will not stray from its purpose. Its mission is to foster “a Christian higher education learning community that is dedicated to serving world needs.” If Avondale loses that focus, it will lose everything.
Avondale’s mission statement includes three important words: Christian, learning, and serving.
Christian: Avondale makes no apologies for the fact that it has a Christian ethos. Yes, Avondale respects those who come from other than a Seventh-day Adventist Christian faith or even no religious background (in fact, we welcome you!), but I hope you are challenged to celebrate our wholeness—mind, body and spirit—as humans. I want for you what I found at Avondale as a student: good learning, good friends, good food and recreation, and a good God.
Learning: Avondale makes no apologies for the fact that you will have to “put in” when it comes to learning. Avondale has high expectations of its students. You should not expect to drift through your classes. I’ve been around here long enough to tell you with a fair degree of certainty that if you fail to attend classes, fail to submit your assessments on time, and fail to use Turnitin effectively, you will fail. However, Avondale has plenty of people—from your lecturers, to the Equity Officer, to the staff in the Academic Office and in Avondale Libraries—to support you in your academic journey.
Serving: Avondale also celebrates a proud history of preparing people for service to others. Avondale has nurtured thousands of people who have gone on to serve especially in the people-caring professions: development; ministry; nursing; and teaching. But service is much more than a profession; it’s an orientation. And we hope that while you’re at Avondale (no matter what course you’re completing), we can create in you a “bent” for service.
A Bible text to leave you with. It’s from Deuteronomy 31:6: “Be strong and courageous . . . for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you.”
So, Avondale in 2015: a time to celebrate.
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