Page 5 - Luce 2015

L eadership Dinner

Our 2014 Leadership Dinner: Dr Powell with Prof Gillian Triggs, University
JCH Leadership Chancellor Ms Elizabeth Alexander AM, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow Ms Erika Feller,
and Principal of Ballarat Grammar Mr Stephen Higgs
Dinner 2014 with
Gillian Triggs – An interview with Gillian Triggs

The Courage As President of the Australian Human Rights Commission,

to Lead College Fellow Prof Gillian Triggs has been very much in the
news as she focuses attention on the plight of refugee children
The audience at our annual
Leadership Dinner were fortunate in detention. Jack Tan caught up with Gillian, who was guest
indeed to hear Prof Gillian Triggs speaker at the College’s 2014 Leadership Dinner.
(1964), President of the Australian
Human Rights Commission, speak
about her ongoing work as an Jack: Professor Triggs, thank you for It was only ten years later that I found
outspoken critic against mandatory speaking with me on behalf of Luce. myself getting more involved with Janet
detention. An international law expert You were a resident student at JCH in Clarke Hall. It think it is often the case
and former Dean of the University the 1960s and since then, you have that in the early years you leave and
of Sydney law school, Prof Triggs continued to be associated with the you build your new life – you are very
also reminisced on her formative College in many capacities – as Deputy much in the new world. But as I settled
years at JCH, including undergoing Chair of Council and most recently as back into life in Melbourne after five
mandatory cooking classes, and she a Fellow of the College. Can you tell years away, I started to reconnect with
and her peers’ passionate debates us how your relationship with JCH has JCH and some of the people from my
about politics. Referring to the evolved over the years? time in College. And then I was asked to
current political climate, Prof Triggs join the Council of JCH, and I became
underlined the need for courageous Gillian: I arrived at JCH as an 18-year- more engaged, especially in my role as
leadership as essential in building a old to study law. I spent four very happy Deputy Chair.
more inclusive society. She shared years in College, even though we had
a story about her recent personal to do the Emily McPherson course in I was also involved in the appointment
encounter with a refugee girl who domestic science, which was a bit of of Dr Damian Powell, which I think
has remained stoic despite having a horrible shock! I was on the student was a big breakthrough for the College
undergone all kinds of hardships; club and got very involved in the life – it was a significant opportunity for
the one event that brought this girl of the College. I was never sporty but change. At the time, it was seen as a
to tears was her lack of access to was involved in essay competitions and rather courageous move by the Council,
education. The value of education poetry. In my second year I was Miss because Damian was quite young, and
was indeed a key theme of Prof Triggs’ Janet Clarke Hall and then became the image of a Principal of a College was
speech, as she reminded the students Miss University. It was an old-fashioned somebody probably twenty years older.
present at the dinner that it was the kind of thing by today’s standards but it Yet he was so obviously the outstanding
accumulation of every bit of one’s exposed me to events at the University. candidate. It has been a remarkable
College experience – from attending When I left Janet Clarke Hall, I worked resurgence of the College since.
guest lectures to engaging in College as an articled clerk in Melbourne, taught
sporting and cultural activities that at Monash, and then went to America to
contributes to one’s formation. do my Masters degree. … continued on p. 6
J anet Clarke Hall 5