the making to its former president, Archie Hallett. For Dr. Hallett, who took on the post of president in 1977, has seen the campus develop from a mere blueprint into the glorious facility now located atop the crest of College Drive, Paget. "We started this exercise in 1978 when we purchased the Stonington property at a price which is today, a steal,'' he said. "It wasn't entirely a complete unit at that point; we added a bit more and bits were taken off elsewhere by the previous owner, but this gave us the four pieces of property which made the total that we now have.'' Building began with Stonington Beach Hotel and what is now called South Hall with the Hospitality Division the first section to move over to the new site. "We actually opened the hotel on the 1st of September of 1980,'' he said. "South Hall wasn't quite finished at that point, and it dragged on for another six weeks or something like that. And then there was a hiatus in terms of building because the Government decided to turn its attention to other things. Housing was the issue of the day at that point and I was warned that we would not get any money for new buildings until a bit later. We didn't really bargain for the fact that it would last about eight years, but in any event we finally got started in about 1986 and then in 1987 New Hall was completed. "We first moved some of the administration over and then we were able to move a number of the business studies people, the secretarial division and things like that.

The next building was the Student Centre which was tacked onto the end of South Hall. Prior to that was, in a sense, what was an enlargement of South Hall. That was completed in 1988 and gave us our big cafeteria. The College Centre was completed in '91 and the library and then the playing field in '92.

So as you can see, since 1988 it's been pretty well a standard progression. We haven't really halted. And it continued with the West Hall in 1993 and the parking centre, storage and slathouse in 1995.'' This year's completion of North Hall and the Technical Education Centre saw the final touches added, he said, although there are still bits and pieces which need to be done. "So all in all, we've spent Government's money and some of our own as well that we earned from the hotel -- a total of 44 million of which two and a half million was simply on the purchase of the land. It's gradually coming together and I think that now, with us all in one place, you don't have the headaches of trying to administer two campuses that are so far apart. That had always been a headache in my time, but now Dr. Cook and his successors will have a much easier time of it only having to deal with everybody all in one place.'' "We've got a single address, but I still get a few people asking, `You still at Robert's Avenue?' and I have to tell them, `No, we're not anymore.' But habits will take a little while to change and people are getting used to the fact that everything is now over here; taxi drivers and members of the general public. But over a while, it'll come.'' Dr. Hallett, who resigned as College president in 1992, served in that post for 15 years. During that time, he explained, one of his greatest objectives was to maintain those standards which had been established by his predecessor, Mansfield Brock Jr. "When I took over the college it had only just been formed officially three years before, by the College Act of 1974. The first chief executive officer, as he was called in those days, was Mansfield Brock Jr. and he did an heroic job in trying to pull together the three disparate things that they had before -- the 6th form centre which dealt only with academic affairs and those interested in college entrance; a hotel and catering college emphasising waiting, cookery and housekeeping skills with a little bit, but not much management, and then there was the old commerce marketing technology which had grown out of the old technical institute. The commerce part was added as sort of a commercial sixth form which had been set up at some time previously. "These things were all now welded together supposedly under one administration and it was the heroic job of Mansfield Brock -- who began to work things out, to get them to a standard. He told them, `We're a broad college, we're going to have a whole spectrum of activities ranging from academics to college entrance to downright practical things such as teaching people how to look after your car, to be a plumber, be a waiter or to be a secretary.' And he began setting objectives for the different programmes, the courses that were given, and so on. And so when I came, most of that welding was done.'' One of the difficulties he did have to overcome, said Dr. Hallett, was the way in which the College was regarded by Bermuda's secondary schools and members of the public. "When the College was first started, its image, in the eyes of a lot of the general public, was that of just another school. People thought, `Well now I can take my choice. I can go Berkeley or I can go to Saltus or the High School or Warwick Secondary or wherever, or I can go to the College.' And what we had to try to do was create an image; to let them in on the fact that that was not the case, that we were the stepping stone beyond high school. "And to begin with the schools didn't like us very much. They had a prestige built up over the years where their graduates went straight into the industry whether doing bookkeeping, secretarial work or whatever. They had a long prestige and then Continuous stuggle for local acceptance to the College to do advanced work and gain secretarial skills. The schools didn't like the idea of having the College put in place what had once been their traditional role. What we had to try to do was persuade the schools that their job was less training straight for industry and more training for college entry. "I think most have changed now but it's been most difficult getting Bermudians used to having a thing of this sort here. We had to get them used to thinking in terms of what the College can offer and the way it does things I guess; we had to rely on what I call the `Stalactite Principle.' Stalactites grow in the cave and the water continually drips and eventually the stalagmite, which is the thing on the bottom, will grow. Similarly, you have to continually go on with the message. You have to keep on saying it over and over and over again. And every time you say it, there's one more person that understands what you're saying. It takes time, but eventually, they themselves act as drips by spreading the word.'' Another initial challenge, said Dr. Hallett, was having the curriculum accepted by four-year programmes abroad for students wishing to transfer credits. "We have a unique situation where we have to be essentially, all things for all people,'' he said. "We have to get people accepted into the United States, Canada, England and the West Indies and each one is slightly different in terms of what their education system is at university level and how you meet it. What we did was use Canada as a reasonable norm. It's a little tougher to get into than many of the US schools but not quite as tough as some of the English ones. But (current College President, George Cook) advised us. He was then in the academic studies department as it was called and developed what is essentially our current programme and got it accepted by universities abroad. "Because we're not a part of the continental US and we're not a US possession, the processes of accreditation are not available to us -- and in brackets I might say that is to our advantage because accreditation is rapidly becoming an almost ancient term as it is used in North America -- and so we couldn't use that process to get the students abroad. What we had to do was to go on an institute by institute basis. A student would say, `I want to go to University X', and Dr. Cook would promptly write to University X sending copies of our curriculum, our marking standards and all those things which were relevant to persuade University X that Joe Bloggs would be acceptable to them as a student. And fortunately, although it was very hard work particularly at the beginning, it began to develop itself. Once the universities began to experience the people we were sending, they started turning to us and saying, `Please send us more because we like the quality.' That made it a lot easier and once you could say to a University Y that this student will be accepted by University X, the university would start thinking, `University X is going to get all the students. We want to get a few too'.'' However, said Dr. Hallett, such principles only work with those institutions interested in having foreign students. On different occasions, he said, students were rejected for the mere fact that technically, Bermudians are only educated to Grade 11 unlike US students which study through to Grade 12. "They wouldn't go any further, and we discovered that in those places, they had no interest in foreign students.

But eventually it began to work on its' own and now, there's no problem although you still get the odd one. Colleges in the West Indies unfortunately, have never really been too good a thing. I know it used to be that if they took students from the Islands they would get grants from those Islands in proportion to the number of students. If somebody came in from outside like Bermuda, they didn't see any money coming in so they weren't particularly enthusiastic. And we guessed that that was probably one of the major reasons why we were not able to get too far (in getting our students accepted).'' One stigma is still applied against the College today, said the former president.

And unfortunately it is one which is unlikely to change. "I think the strike against the College, and it's one which it will always have; one that it can't get away from, is that local people always believe that there's a better bargain to be had somewhere else; the fence is always greener on the other side of the fence and the fence in our case is the Gulf Stream. That's something that every place has to deal with and Bermuda particularly so. It's almost a social distinction to some extent amongst a number of parents. You can imagine them coming out of church for example with one asking the other, `What's happening to your Darlene?' The other one responds, `Oh, she's going to go to the College. She'll be starting there in September. What are you doing about your Susan?' To which the first replies: `Oh, she's going abroad '.'' PHOTO Layout of the Bermuda College campus located on College Drive in Paget MINI SUPPLEMENT SUP