Old lecture theatre awakens medical alumni

An appeal to restore a heritage-listed lecture theatre within Australia’s oldest medical school has drawn an unprecedented national alumni response from medicos across the country.

More than $145,000 has been raised in just three months from former graduates of The University of Queensland’s prestigious School of Medicine – well in excess of any previous alumni fundraising project.

The response puts the School well on target to reaching its ambitious goal of $300,000, the amount needed to restore and upgrade the historic E S Meyers Lecture Theatre within Mayne Medical School.

Faculty of Health Sciences Executive Dean and appeal director Professor Peter Brooks said the generous response was both indicative of the worthy cause at stake and an encouraging sign for medical alumni endeavours across Australia.

“I think it almost goes without saying that Australian medicos haven’t always embraced the spirit of alumni in the same way that, say, America has,” Prof Brooks said.

“There simply hasn’t existed that sense of history and camaraderie that is necessary to any alumni cause. And there are lots of reasons for that, not least of which is our relative youth as a nation.

“What this appeal is showing is that the tide is changing. It’s showing that given the right project, Australian medical alumni are more than happy to give back to the institutions that laid the foundations for their career and which are shaping the doctors of tomorrow,” he said.

“The E S Meyers Lecture Theatre has proved the perfect vehicle to bridge the divide between the past and the future of medical education in this country.”

The fundraising appeal has also drawn strength from the quality and diversity of its alumni – among them, international award-winning comedic author and former UQ medical graduate Nick Earls.

Nick addressed attendees at the appeal’s official launch in June and is looking forward to being part of the upgraded theatre’s official unveiling in 2002.

For more information about the appeal or to make a donation, please contact Saira Champion at the UQ Development Office on phone (07) 3346 3905.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
CARRIE SCHOFIELD ON (07) 3346 4713
or SAIRA CHAMPION ON (07) 3346 3905.