Recollections of a Junior Director at the Australian College of Physical Education (ACPE)

Founded in 1917 The Australia College of Physical Education (ACPE) has had a fragmented history and passed through several iterations before findings its home today 2020 at 10 Parkview Drive, Sydney Olympic Park.

However, this was before my time. My involvement with ACPE came about as a result of my father Peter Cornish and his business partner Robert ‘Bob’ Dunnet purchasing the business. The specifics of this expert and well-timed purchase are outlined elsewhere, needless to say there was a clear opportunity seen by both men to provide better education to more students provided in a more nurturing atmosphere and Peter and Bob took on the challenge to provide these facilities and opportunities for ACPE students.

These men took a struggling university that was ready to close its doors to a thriving institution that still stands today as a monument to their hard work. Changed and altered as it may be by subsequent owners the fact remains that ACPE would not exist today, not be instructing students and not creating outcomes for those students in so many areas of study if it weren’t for these two men and to Peter and Bob the credit is fully due.

My personal involvement in ACPE came some years after the purchase. A Board seat came up, and for me an opportunity arose. Bob’s son Ben was already a seated member and so I was afforded the opportunity to sit alongside him and to learn from and with him as a colleague and friend.

I recall quite vividly receiving the phone call from Peter. I had been cleaning the public toilets at the service station, (an experience every human being should have to go through at least once in their life) where I was employed at the time whilst studying.

From these humble locales it was quite a shock to be invited to sit at the top end of the corporate world with men who seemed like gods to me, when in fact I had not yet dipped a toe into anything of the like. I was studying, working nights life far removed from anything that had been discussed or in my mind even considered.

Apprehensions aside a few days later I caught a taxi to 8 Figtree Drive, Sydney Olympic Park. The first time I had ever been to the College or Olympic facility.

I had been working and so was dressed in my service station attire, presumably reeking of petrol and other auto fluids. Workplace health and safety not really being a concern of my employer at the time.

None the less I stood outside the College for quite a while. Perhaps it was nerves or a step I was slowly working up to. Students were walking around in their tracksuits. Busily running from that class to this and here I was, it must have been quite a sight.

At some point someone noticed me lurking outside, I believe it was Max Hector, trademark smile on his face greeted me, instantly putting me at ease and I was ushered into a large room in the basement of the building around which a number of well-dressed men were seated including my Father Peter, his business partner Bob, his son Ben and other assorted men of great knowledge and skill. This was serious business and I was not at all ready for it but this seemed clear to all in attendance and no pressure was applied as I was given time to find a kind of grounding.

I referred to myself as a ‘Junior Director’ because that was what I was. In my mind I considered it a cadetship learning at the feet of masters of the various industries from which the team of Directors and employees of ACPE came. All successful in their own right they came together to do what was needed and first saved and ultimately made ACPE thrive.

Peter expert in education, Bob in construction and property investment and management, Ben also in property, Kim Kilroy a master of finance who worked closely with Ross Gurney to create a dream-team of finance and economics. Every line was checked and every angle covered. Then the magnificent efforts and incredible personality that Max Hector would bring to the room often creating levity and reason and always concerned with the welfare of the College and his students.

It was a fascinating time. I was learning the mechanisms required to oversee an organisation that taught students to become teachers and leaders in their own right. I was learning while they were learning.

Slowly I found my voice and was at times able to add perspective to discussions that most specifically involved the student body that was made up of the younger generation of which I was a part. My experience in tertiary studies was a good comparison to hold against the excellence that was being developed at ACPE.

While my experiences were reasonably good at the institutions I attended there was no Max Hector who knew each student by name and there was not the general feeling of goodwill toward the institution. The Institution was there to deliver courses, which they did well enough; but that is all they did. I was a number, one of many who either passed or did not. There was no pastoral care but at ACPE every student had a name, a face and a direction and it was gratifying to learn over the years, as I did that we were able to afford these opportunities to more and more students without losing that very special quality that so few institutions have.

But this is not all that ACPE did for its students.

As a part of the team I was able to offer a kind of generational insight at a time when the learning model was moving from the old written modalities to hard drives, laptops and WIFI. A strange time and a tectonic shift in the way in which courses were delivered. The Board, Staff and all in sundry made this huge transition without a hiccup. Another great achievement.

It was also my honour to be involved with the ACPE Foundation which also afforded the University the chance to provide students with grants and other assistance that individuals would not have otherwise been afforded or able to access. Equality being one of ACPE’s great assets.

Another opportunity spawned from the fact that I didn’t drive a car until later in life and so while I would generally catch a taxi to the meetings I, much to the chagrin of my fellow Directors typically got a ride home from Olympic Park to my home at the time in Neutral Bay.

This was real one on one learning time. I can recall several trips home with Peter where the evenings events were clarified, minor and major points were cleared up and I was able to understand more the next meeting. I would like to think that I offered some insight during these discussions that added to their thinking but I don’t believe I can take that credit.

The next week John Lang would be kind enough to drive me and I would glean other advice and Bob the following week and so on.

I am not sure if this was by design or simply my good luck, either way all this time I was soaking up the information and learning as ACPE expanded as the quality improved and opportunities increased.

Even a layman such as myself could see the finances improving with excellent management by men like Kim Kilroy and Max Hector. The right team was in place and it meant ACPE simply started to roll. Enrolments jumped, numbers jumped, Fee HELP was introduced, it was an exciting time to be a part of a team that was making a difference. And as the dollars rolled in they were reinvested in the students. New opportunities were created and ideas explored.

Then there were the Awards Nights that truly are the best example of this.

Again, for me personally, as a junior these were nerve wracking events. We Directors (myself included) would sit on the stage and face the crowd as the degrees and awards were bestowed upon the recipients.

I recall the first year was not too bad from my point of view. There was maybe a couple of hundred in attendance? The event was quite brief and when all was said and done there was none of the wonderful ceremony that would come with later years.

As the years progressed, so did the student numbers and so did the ceremonies to the point where the halls got bigger and the crowds, out the door on some occasions. Parents would bring cameras to capture the moment their son or daughter received their awards but we were in all their shots. As a young man this seemed surreal and entirely undeserved however it was an incredible thrill to see so many young people cross the stage and step off into their futures.

Though it seemed strange to be sitting on stage in such a state surrounded by men and women who were far more qualified and of importance in these students lives than I had been. Of special note their tutors, instructors and mentors. It was also clear on those nights that without those sitting at Board level none of the rest is possible and I suppose this is where the link becomes quite clear.

Without good, or even great management and governance at the top of tertiary institutions then the rest cannot be guaranteed.

In my experience, able to see and work for the team I did we would work line by line. Every financial, social and student welfare matter was considered, discussed and discussed again. ACPE was taken from bankruptcy to financial stability and it was all done from the top down by a strong team of experts in their fields, first by doing their best for the day to day activities of the university and then extrapolating that model and looking outward to other opportunities for the students and toward the future.

ACPE for me was a time of growth and a time of bonding. It was the first time I had worked with my Father Peter and for me that was by far the greatest benefit. Also, heavily influential was the advice and patience of men such as Bob and Ben Dunnet, Kim Kilroy, Ross Gurney. On top of that people such as Max Hector and his Academic team helped me understand the need to provide a rounded and full education, but also that something simple such as the introduction of tours for potential students could turn the whole fiscal model around. Lessons we should all learn.

But more than that what I saw both around the Boardroom table and in the energy of the students and staff was a love for the college develop as the college did and a drive to make it work. The students believed in the outcomes and the teachers had the skills to get them there. I hope that remains true today.

Touring the facilities at 8 Figtree Drive, Sydney Olympic Park for one of the last times in 2008/2009 it was impossible not to witness the transformation that had occurred.

I had stood outside that College those few years before and felt the energy of a place in decline. Touring as we did on that last day (I believe it was to see the new dance floor) one could not help but be swept up in all the activity. The smiles on the faces and the sweat on the brows of those students who by now will have gone on to great things.

Joshua Cornish B.A, (SCU), Dip.Jour.

September 2020.