While students may be most familiar with academic staff, the University of Melbourne is maintained by countless workers who service, clean, patrol and administer its the infrastructure, allowing so many of us to learn and research. 

I’m sitting at a table in a corner of Professor’s Walk Cafe, surrounded by the hum of students chatting and the hiss of the steam wand. Yo, an international student who has been an employee at the cafe for two years, sits right in front of me. His overall demeanour is calm, with relaxed shoulders and friendly eyes.

Professor’s Walk Cafe has always been a small yet vital hub of campus life. Conveniently located next to the Baillieu Library, students and staff alike seek refuge within. However, at the heart of this hub, keeping this cafe running, are the staff members. Yo begins his day at 7:30am, “I always come ten or five minutes early at least, I turn the coffee machine on, prep the sandwiches and the muffins because we get new deliveries each day so it stays fresh. During the day I do my orders from around 12 to 2 o’clock, so I am busy on my laptop. I then do my rostering, so I stay ahead and don’t get confused.” He ensures the cafe is supplied with the food we eat every day, that staff are fulfilling orders in an efficient manner and that customers are happy with the service they are provided.

Yo emphasises maintaining a positive work atmosphere for both staff and customers. “Attitude is number one here because it impacts the whole team. The work behind the counter goes beyond making coffee - baristas put care into every interaction and it makes all the difference when customers reflect that back.

By virtue of being an employee at a popular spot on campus, Yo has access to a unique window into campus life.

“We have data and statistics and stuff, because it impacts our ordering levels … I have to at least do it around how many customers that are going to be around the cafe.”

He notes that closer to Easter fewer students are around, yet around SWOTVAC “the library is packed” and caffeine orders increase in ‘crazy’ amounts with students ordering closer to 5pm. “Last year the Uni wanted us to open late since uni students stay late, so they wanted us to extend our hours.” Yo expressed incredulity at the prospect of working for 11 hours.

Yo was also particularly impressed by the encampments he witnessed last year. ”This is my second year in Australia so far … it was crazy to me because I have never seen that before and how everyone was together and it was not chaotic, it was organised, people were doing it properly.’’

As an international student from Indonesia, Yo has at times struggled to make rent with the 24 hour cap on working. But after two years at Professor’s Walk, 17 April will be Yo’s last day.

Now that he has completed his diploma in hospitality, Yo has found work at a restaurant in Southbank as a cook. He hopes to “become a good chef and pursue

[his] career in a commercial kitchen.”

Coffee culture in Melbourne is huge, and on campus, it’s even larger. Without baristas and hospitality staff like Yo, campus life would be very different.