Basser College

Basser College is a residential college at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Basser College and its two neighbouring Colleges, Goldstein and Phillip Baxter, are collectively known as the Kensington Colleges.

The College has, during semesters, 133 residents of both sexes and 6 residential academic staff (the 'tutors'). The majority of students are Australian citizens, although a quota of international students (between 10 and 15 per cent) reflects the University's policy of encouraging foreign academics to study there.1

Basser College was founded in 1959, ten years after the opening of UNSW, making it the oldest residential college at the University of New South Wales. It was built in response to a need for accommodation to allow students from a rural background to compete on a level field with metropolitan students. The College takes its name from Adolph Basser, a Polish entrepreneur and philanthropist who contributed a significant amount to the cost of the College's construction.

The College is designed around two central courtyards - Girls' Quad and Boys' Quad. The majority of the rooms are divided into alcoves of four, with two front rooms and two back rooms. Typically, the back rooms are larger, and are allocated to returning residents, or "seniors", whilst the front rooms are allocated to first-year residents, or "freshers". These alcoves are thus affectionately dubbed "alcove families". In some instances, an alcove may only have two or three residents, as the space where the other room(s) should be may be a dedicated storage space, or a bathroom. Basser College is the only college on Kensington Campus for which every room has the convenience of a basin.

Until the mid-1960s, residents were all male, and segregation of the sexes into separate areas of the College continued until early 1990. Several attempts at integration were attempted though the late 1980's, with a successful referendum occurring in 1989 which was overturned by college management, only to be enforced the following year. Throughout its history, the College has tried to involve residents, as much as possible, in the decisions affecting their daily lives the most. A student-run representative House Committee continues to organize social, sporting, cultural and alumni events as well as constantly assessing and reviewing the College's state of affairs and management policies.

Basser College's facilities and amenities include: a games room, with full-sized billards table and table tennis table; a projector room with FOXTEL; computing and printing facilities; communal study areas and two common rooms.

Basser residents typically regard the College as central to their University lives, with academia tending to get in the way of what they really want to do. For the most part, this means drinking. A wide variety of traditions surround the consumption of alcohol, from the hallowed beer bong to the pisspot song, the significance of the song 'Eagle Rock' and the universal knowledge of how to pull a beer from a tap.

However, though the fridges may burst with alcohol and sinks2 may clog up with vomit, residents at Basser maintain University assessment averages well in excess of day students. This is attributable to the proximity of University facilities such as the Library, but also to the excellent academic support that a resident receives in College. Not only are tutors available across all three Kensington Colleges to assist in a wide variety of subjects, but senior College residents can help freshers with problems they have encountered in previous years. [Ihttp://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A860320]

A typical resident stays in Basser for two years (four semesters) before moving out with a couple of close friends to a nearby house or (more likely) apartment. The College is regarded as a fabulous place to become accustomed to life in a large metropolis.

Basser College has attracted media and production attention, from Australian soap opera Home and Away being filmed on location, as well as a biscuit commercial.

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