NCV Christmas Aussie BBQ

Because the NCV is mainly for postgraduate students the building is never without residents or staff. In this our first year, over 60 residents were still in the building over Christmas. As a result Carmen and I hosted a Christmas BBQ in the main Common Room for those who were still here and weren't sharing the day with relatives or friends in Australia.

We had a fairly typical Aussie lunch:

• Halal steak (this isn't typically Australian, but NCV has some Muslim residents so we always cater with Halal meat), lamb, chicken, and beef sausages
• Great salads (some Cairney specials - thanks Carmen!)
• Aussie Pavlova (made by Carmen) and traditional Christmas pudding cooked by Trevor and his daughter Louise (a family tradition)

We had about 25 who turned up for lunch and it was a very special time together.

Above: Carmen's Aussie Pavlova and traditional English Pudding (on the side)

We hope that every friend of New College as well as alumni and current residents have a lovely Christmas and New Year.

NCV Christmas Aussie BBQ

The Importance of Community: Why the NCV is special

New College Village is more than just a place to live; it is a place where people make friends for life, where you will find academic support, and where the Senior Resident team led by Carmen and me will support you when struggling in any way. There are a number of ways that this type of community is shaped:

1. We have an excellent team of Senior Residents (see my previous post here) who do after hours duty, get to know everyone on their floors, plan social activities, and look out for everyone.

2. We have an excellent team of 6 Academic Tutors who offer advice and support in relation to life on campus, how to negotiate and understand the various academic programs and courses at UNSW, where to go for academic help, rules and regulations about study at UNSW, and general advice about writing, research and meeting University assessment requirements.

3. The ethos of NCV is reflective of the history of care and concern for residents modelled at New College over 40 years. This is led by the Master and the Dean.


4. We have an air conditioned building designed to support community with many common areas, courtyards, a games room, a business centre, reading room, main common room with piano for the musical and so on.

5. We have a rich social program including many planned activities like BBQs for the whole community (here), academic seminars with outstanding scholars and professional leaders (here), supper every Monday night from 9.00 till 11.00pm hosted by the Senior Residents on each floor (here), formal dinners where we dress up, share good food and hear from an outstanding speaker whose life is inspiring (here). As well, residents organise themselves numerous activities such as the NCV Choir, the Gold Week Concert (here), movie nights, video gaming in the common room, sports activities, trips away, potluck dinners, outings to the city of beach and so on.


Our aim in building the New College Village has been to create a unique community for postgraduate students enrolled at UNSW. Many universities around the world attempt to provide designated postgraduate accommodation (although very few in Australia). However, not many universities have seriously given priority to support and community building. Drawing on experience living in graduate housing in the USA and my knowledge of the best of the postgraduate colleges in the United Kingdom, I developed a design brief that sought to:

• create spaces for residents to meet with each other in varied contexts - 2 common rooms on each floor with lounges, coffee making facilities and in 7 of these cable television; a large games room; two outdoor courtyards; a rooftop terrace; a reading room; a business centre; a main common room; a convenience store and barbecue facilities outdoors.
• ensure that as residents move through the building there are frequent mingling spaces;
• our wonderful location close to key campus-based cafes, restaurants and the graduate lounge (just 100 metres away);
• offer residents the privacy of their own rooms and ensuites, but at the same time provide common space for mingling. All apartments and clusters of studio apartments have generous shared space for sharing meals or just spending time with other residents;
• provide well a equipped business centre that is for the use of all residents to support you in your studies;
• offer internet services that you'd expect in a modern building with data access to all rooms;
  
• incorporate state-of-the-art external design features that ensure that this building has outstanding acoustic features, leading to quiet rooms.
  

The NCV also has many other things going for it that will make life comfortable and interesting, including air-conditioned ensuite rooms; a special membership option for the outstanding University gymnasium and indoor pool (just 200 metres from the front door); a bus stop at the front door that provides access to all the sights of Sydney; some of the world's finest beaches a 20 minute walk away or a short 5 minute direct bus ride.


Added to the obvious strengths of the building, and the many programs that support community life, are the 319 different people who live in the NCV and are all at UNSW to learn from each other. The NCV gives you an opportunity to live among postgraduate students from every Australian state and territory and ever continent of the world. We have residents from 55 nations who bring rich cultural diversity that makes the community and exciting place.

If you'd like more information the NCV website will give you extra information and will allow you to make an online application.

The Importance of Community: Why the NCV is special

Monday Night Suppers

I have just returned from Monday night supper. At NCV we have a regular supper every Monday evening starting at 9.00pm. They are hosted by the Senior Residents on each floor. The NCV provides the food (cake, donuts, fruit etc) and the residents make tea or coffee or bring their own drink. Carmen and I usually work our way down from the 7th floor calling in on each group. Tonight was a great chance to meet some of our 40 new residents who have joined us from Thailand, USA, China, Indonesia, Australia, Iceland etc. A female engineering student from Iceland, now that's diversity! All of the 40 new residents who joined others mid-year are postgrads studying an incredible array of subjects - planning, biology, international relations, finance, arts management, environmental engineering, medicine, economics (to name a few).

Above: Level 6 residents enjoying supper

Above (& Top): Some of the residents of Level 3 enjoying supper together

Monday Night Suppers

Meet our residential team

New College Village is a community not just a building. We have 315 residents (actually we have 322 because there are six married couples in the building including Carmen and me). Central to the way the community is built and sustained is our residential team consisting of 6 Senior Residents, 1 Residential Tutor, a live in Dean (that's me this year) and a team of 6 academic tutors (I'll do a separate post on this group later).

The residential team is spread throughout the building. Our six senior residents live on separate floors (2-7) and a residential tutor lives on the smaller first floor (as do Carmen I). The residential team has a vital role at NCV. They work in four main areas:

• They serve as after hours duty officers to handle problems that arise, allow access to visitors and deal with residential matters
• They spend time geting to know all residents on their floor so that they can offer personal and academic advice when necessary.
• They encourage social activities by hosting weekly suppers, planning other events and working with the Dean to plan NCV wide activities.
• They act as a vital link between the Master/Dean and the residents, communicating issues that need to be addressed and informing residents about NCV news and events.

The team is made up of seven people plus Carmen and me. The team members come from varied countries and are pursuing varied courses of study. They are an important part of our work at NCV in maintaining a strong, vibrant and suportive community.

Residential team: Shelley, Sheau Fang, Arun, David (front row), Bala, Kanya, Trevor (middle row), Kirti (back).

Meet our residential team

Getting used to living in the new building

There have been some amusing moments in our first few weeks living in the NCV. I was at reception yesterday and one of our residents raced up to me with the words: "I've just done something VERY silly, I've dropped my wallet down the garbage chute when getting rid of my rubbish" To which I replied, "let's go and see if we can find it".

Down to the garbage compactor room we went to work out how you find and extract a wallet from the garbage. "Let's try rotating the garbage compactor and we'll see what we find." I pressed the appropriate button tentatively (never having operated it before) and waited. It whirred into action and there it was on top of a bin filled with well wrapped garbage.

Fanny was one very pleased resident who will probably not make the same mistake again. Fanny decided that she wanted a record of this event (as you can see below).

Getting used to living in the new building

Support at the NCV

The New College Village is meant to be a home away from home, not an apartment block. As a result, we will have strong support in place. This will take a number of forms:

Senior Residents (SRs)- the NCV will have a Senior Resident on each floor. These people will usually be upper year doctoral students who will take responsibility for a floor and its residents. The SR will be the person that you can go to with day-to-day questions, academic problems and issues. If they can't answer your questions they will know where to go to get the extra advice or support that you need.

Academic Tutors (ATs) - the NCV will also have residents who also serve as Academic Tutors. Their role will be to offer advice and support in relation to life on campus, how to negotiate and understand the various academic programs and courses on campus, where to go for academic help, rules and regulations about study at UNSW, and general advice about writing, research and meeting University assessment requirements.

The Master - I will live in the building and will be available to offer advice of an academic or personal nature. I am an Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and have extensive experience as a superviser of PhD and Masters students and have been an active research in the social sciences for over 30 years.

University support units - key staff at NCV will be able to direct you to the many units on campus that offer support to postgraduates students.

College Fellows - the College will have a variety of fellows who will have a relationship with the NCV. Fellows will visit the NCV to provide talks and seminars and offer general advice and support.

Residents - because the NCV will be a community it is hoped that residents will help each other. The building has been designed to facilitate inetraction and the various programs that we will have in place will also help to enable residents to support each other. Being part of the NCV will be a privilege. Part of each resident's repsonsibility will be to seek to support and help others.

New College has a long tradition of support to residents; we want each resident of the NCV to have the benefit of a community that offers help and support in many and varied ways.

Support at the NCV