The Fisher Library rooftop is set to open on Tuesday 7 November. It will be open to students during the Library’s regular opening hours (9am – 8pm).
The terrace will be accessible via swipe card access through Level 5. The capacity is limited to 100 people at a time, with campus security and Fisher Library staff responsible for managing its occupancy.
The rooftop was opened after a student campaign, started by an article written by former editor Roisin Murphy last year. The article attributed the rooftop’s closure to a number of factors, ranging from rising costs of maintenance to heritage regulations to outrageous stories of students throwing volumes from the Library’s rare books collection to eager catchers below.
A preview launch event was held on Thursday 2 November, attended by senior management including Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott and Provost Annamarie Jagose, as well as USU CEO Andrew Mills.
There was also considerable student presence — including the current and past Honi editorial teams, the Senior Editor of PULP Magazine, USU President Naz Sharifi and USU Immediate Past President Cole Scott-Curwood — and members of Fisher Library staff, including University Librarian Philip Kent.
Kent opened the event, “The purpose of this gathering is to preview the new Fisher Library roof terrace for Honi Soit editors, other student leaders, fellow champions of the student experience and colleagues who have worked hard to produce this amazing facility.
“From next Tuesday 7 November 2023 we will commence our pilot of this special space, whose primary audience will be our students. We hope that it will be an oasis during STUVAC and the Exam period.”
Murphy also delivered a speech, emphasising the power of student culture and journalism in instigating change: “Much of our university’s long presence in public life is a byproduct of its unique student culture.
“Sometimes at this university we get so wrapped up in a bizarrely prevalent nostalgia – the sense that we are part of a contemporary past – that we forget the urgency with which we must address the now.”
Murphy noted how the rooftop re-opening is a sign that shared experience is still possible despite the decline of campus life in recent years.
“I started university before the pandemic, and moved into a sharehouse close to campus before the rental crisis skyrocketed the way it has.
“Student culture is no longer coincidental; our economic circumstances mean it must be closely facilitated and encouraged.
“The countless students who engaged with the campaign to open up this rooftop show that, despite a series of circumstances that’ve meant our time at university has become increasingly disconnected, there is always such potential in an anonymous collective with a shared experience.
“I’m proud that our newspaper, Honi Soit, played a part in its reopening and that our University recognised its importance. To me, it will always be testament to the collective power of students who really just want somewhere to hang out.”
