The below is an excerpt from the third edition of the College of Business, Public Policy and Law's newsletter. It features a reflection piece written by Mary Greaney, Marketing's Discipline Administrator, who will be retiring at the end of June after dedicating 44 years of service to the College.
Mary Greaney
Marketing Discipline Administrator
I joined UCG in October 1979 and I’ve been in Marketing since 1980. That time the full complement of staff of the Commerce Faculty was located on the first floor of tower 1 – now we are struggling to find office space in the Cairnes Building!
In 1988, Jim Ward and Michael Cuddy, before they went on sabbatical, volunteered that the Marketing & Economics Departments would relocate to a wing of the St. Anthony’s building. As we drove up the beautiful tree lined entrance to St. Anthony’s we felt so remote from the main University!
We shared the building with the Franciscan Friars for three years. The Friars carried on as normal, feeding anyone who turned up at lunch time (don’t think any staff availed of the free meals!) and the aroma of cooking throughout the building; bacon and cabbage on Wednesday, fish on Fridays stays with me! Brother Rock checked the building every night and if anyone left a light on or door unlocked, he’d be down first thing in the morning to let us know.
A bell used by the Friars, and occasionally by us for the coffee call, is still located at the entrance to Economics. Those were the days when you felt hard done by if you arrived and all the parking spots around the building were occupied! A playing pitch was where the Engineering Building is now (some staff may remember our Faculty soccer team) and trees and a grotto were removed to build Aras Moyola. Several prefabs were used by the community and the afternoons were filled with music as children came to take dancing lessons.
After the three years were up, the University built a purpose built house, where the University crèche is now, for the remaining Friars and purchased St. Anthony’s for the Business School. For this to happen, the Friars graveyard, which was where the side car park is now, had to be deconsecrated and relocated. You can imagine our shock on arriving to work one day to be met by a line of hearses going out the drive! They had planned to have all the coffins removed before we arrived but things didn’t go to plan and they were delayed. There was a lot of speculation over coffee that morning until we heard what had happened!
In the ‘80s most activities were manual – exam papers were handed into the Exams Office with Marketing & Economics piloting the introduction of the White Sheets for recording exam marks. There was also a green sheet for the lecturer to do the calculations on before entering the final marks on the white sheet. How advanced we are now compared to then! Technology has brought great advances but one aspect that I miss, before email became the accepted form of communication with students, and Blackboard and sustainability replaced the printing of handouts, was the face to face contact with students, with often times queues outside the office once the announcement was made during lectures.
I have enjoyed my time in Marketing. Staff have always been very encouraging and respectful with the opportunity to develop my role with a variety of tasks, from initially doing the wages for the AnCO/FAS UCG Marketing Development programme (now the MSc Marketing Practice Programme), administrating the MBA programme for 8 years to my current role in Marketing. I had the privilege of being elected for two terms to the Governing Body/Authority and spent many years on the SIPTU Section Committee. I was honoured when Marketing staff submitted a nomination and I received The President’s Award for Support Services Excellence in 2015. I particularly enjoyed the close working relationship and friendship with Imelda and Claire in the Economics Discipline and later Gerry joined our Discipline group. I will take many happy memories with me when I close the door for the last time on the 30th June. Thank you all for your friendship and support down through the years.