LA TROBE Bendigo's new campus director says she will be striving to make the university a key part of the city's plans for the future.
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Dr Julie Rudner, an associate professor in the community planning and development program, started in the campus director role in January after working at the university for more than 11 years.
She took over former head of campus Robert Stephenson, who left the role in July last year after taking a voluntary redundancy.
Dr Rudner said despite the uncertainty in the university sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, she hoped La Trobe would play an important role in Bendigo's future.
"I want La Trobe to be part of the growth of this city," she said. "I want to see how we can contribute to the betterment of people's lives in community and economic development."
In the past 18 months, there have been numerous rounds of voluntary redundancies at La Trobe as the university tries to manage through the pandemic.
Dr Rudner said the university had been frank that there would be more job cuts across the campuses. She acknowledged the "tumultuous" period would be painful for staff and students.
"I think the whole university sector is going to have a tough couple of years," Dr Rudner said.
"The rules have changed two or three times to stop us from getting JobKeeper, so that's had a huge impact on especially casuals but also on the finances of the university.
"Then recently, there's been a nine per cent reduction in funding from the federal government, which has also had an impact.
"So in that sense, there's had to be a complete reorganising of the university.
"However, I think that we definitely will get through this and Bendigo will grow. But it may not grow in the way that people necessarily expect."
Dr Rudner said La Trobe was continuing to invest in the Bendigo campus, with the new library and new courses in the engineering and health programs.
She said the university wanted to ensure it remained accessible for people of all backgrounds and circumstances.
"Our growth will be online," Dr Rudner said. "It's going to allow people to study who may not have been able to in the past.
"We will have face-to-face classes, and it's not like face-to-face will be eradicated, it's just about finding new models that increase accessibility.
"It's not going to be easy. But by taking what we've learnt and bringing it into the future, as a university we will be very strong."
Dr Rudner said she also had a personal passion for making higher education more accessible to people.
The 49-year-old was born in Canada to a middle class family, and while her parents all completed some form of higher education, the recession of the 1980s made life difficult.
"Our family lost the house and both my parents were unemployed," Dr Rudner said. "We were lucky there was a welfare system but there were times where we didn't have food. It was very tough."
Dr Rudner said the drive towards education was important, even during that difficult period.
"Growing up, my mum always said education is your freedom," she said. "Back then she would say, I'm not raising my daughters for the 1970s, I'm raising them for the year 2000.
"So it was really important and education was highly valued. I've continued in that way."
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Dr Rudner bucked the trend when she completed high school. Instead of going straight into university, she went on a three-month trip to Australia. That short holiday was quickly extended.
"I stayed away for a year and a half," she said. "I hitchhiked my way across Australia. I got a working visa, picked fruit and did that sort of thing, before I travelled through south-east Asia.
"I went home when I couldn't remember what country I was in."
Dr Rudner started her undergraduate in Canada before migrating to Australia and finishing the program at the University of Melbourne. She was in her late 20s when she completed her degree.
Dr Rudner then moved to the southern NSW city of Albury to work as a strategic planner.
"I didn't really know what a planner did but I applied for it anyway," she said. "It really cemented my love of regional areas and the capacity that's in the regions."
Dr Rudner said she always wanted to have a go at new experiences - including trying out for the skeleton event at the Winter Olympics.
"The way Australia does it for different sports is they break it down into different components," she said.
"Somehow I made the first broad open cut and I found myself up at the Australian Institute of Sport with these excellent athletes.
"I definitely didn't make it past the first round. They interviewed everyone and I had to admit that I was 34 years old and I was playing veterans hockey in Albury at the time."
Dr Rudner eventually moved back to Melbourne to complete her PhD, before taking the job at the La Trobe University Bendigo campus.
"I started as a lecturer and worked my way up to associate professor," she said. "I really enjoyed it. I felt like I was making a real difference."
Dr Rudner said in the role of Bendigo campus director, she wanted to work closely with people to ensure the university was the best it could be.
"I'm just trying to keep my ear to the ground on what is happening," she said. "It's about strong communication and keeping an open-door policy.
"It's also about being incredibly collaborative - asking people what they think and what their position is because everyone is so different and how they're responding to the pandemic is different.
"It's not just about managing the campus but being part of a multi-campus organisation. I see my job as supporting others to do the best they can do."
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