In Feature this morning the university’s Dean Gould describes how SCU people saved lives and how the Lismore campus became a safe haven for survivors, providing shelter and services essential in the crisis and which will be needed for weeks, months, to come.

“It’s a role not mentioned in its Founding Act, not part of the TEQSA assessment criteria, not clearly defined in the rules of progression. But it is a role that is central to its purpose, to its soul and to its community,” he writes.

Universities in general talk up community service. When push came to flood the people of Southern Cross U delivered.