DIFFERENT: THE STUDENTS WHO STAYED UP ALL NIGHT ON A WORK-IN!

The colourful newsletter that fell onto my doormat this week informed me that Falmouth University is celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year.

 

As gushers go, it was pretty impressive, with much talk of “world class” facilities and achievements, “driving positive change in Cornwall,” “cutting edge computer science . . .  revolutionising creative endeavour” etc etc.

And why not?  It can clearly boast a success story to be proud of and with more than 5,000 students enrolled there’s no denying the impact it makes on the Falmouth-Penryn area.

 

If it’s a mighty oak now, then it has grown from a very small acorn – indeed, one that for a while looked in serious danger of disappearing altogether in the 1980s.

 

Its forerunner was the long-established and much-acclaimed Falmouth School (and later College) of Art.

 

It hit the headlines in September, 1984 – when the students, from memory, would still have been in the hundreds.

 

In that month the school breathed a big sigh of relief with the news that it was no longer under immediate threat of closure.  

 

In what they called “a symbolic gesture of solidarity,” students announced that they would stay up all night on a “work-in.” (Different!)

 

They and the school’s staff set out to convince the authorities that growth rather than closure was the best policy.  

 

This was in the light of the Government’s cost-cutting National Advisory Body making it clear that it would be further assessing all advanced courses in art and design in Cornwall in a forthcoming major two-year planning exercise. 

 

School principal Tom Cross commented: “It has made us realise that the school is small and a long way from large centres of population, but that it is held in very high repute by a lot of people in Cornwall and further afield.” 

 

The level of support had been “astonishing,” he added, and a period of growth and development over the next few years was now confidently anticipated. 

 

A school statement said: “This has been a hard battle.  We are grateful for the cohesive support shown by the governors and in particular Patrick Heron, who led the attack on the suggestion of closure.”