Letter from Schmitty

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Dear Woroni readers,

With the end of the year rapidly approaching I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best of luck with your final studies and exams.

I know this can be a highly stressful time for many students but I’m sure all of the hard work and effort you’ve put in over these past months will pay-off. To those of you graduating this year, congratulations and good luck on your future endeavours. I am confident that your ANU education will help you achieve your career goals. Be patient, and be persistent!

Over the course of my first year as Vice-Chancellor I have had the chance to get to know many of our students and I realise just how lucky ANU is to have such an extraordinary community of students. Students like those designing the University’s first solar car for the World Solar Challenge, like Joshua Chu-Tan who only a few weeks ago won the Asia-Pacific 3MT Challenge, like all of the ANUSA, PARSA and Residential Halls representatives who commit themselves to giving a voice and supporting so many students every year.

2016 has been a great year. In our 70th year we looked back at seven remarkable decades of transforming the nation and celebrated our achievement with the community. We also kick started a new tradition with Australian of the Year Lieutenant General David Morrison AO welcoming all new students to campus in the very first Commencement Address. We also set a new benchmark for Australian philanthropy to a university through the generous funding of two new halls of residence by Graham and Louise Tuckwell.

And there were some somber notes as well. We committed as a University to stamp out incidents of sexual assault and harassment – we still have a long way to go but we are taking important steps. This is something to which we are all steadfastly committed.

Next year will bring some exciting changes to ANU as we revitalise Union Court and strive to achieve the future vision of ANU.

Congratulations to those of you who will be graduating this year. You will always be valued members of our wider ANU community and I urge you to remain engaged with the University.

To ongoing students, I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible and hearing your ideas for our great University.

Have a safe break,

Brian

We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Woroni, Woroni Radio and Woroni TV are created, edited, published, printed and distributed. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and emerging. We acknowledge that the name Woroni was taken from the Wadi Wadi Nation without permission, and we are striving to do better for future reconciliation.