Senior Management Committee Meeting 4-2004

Meeting 4/2004 of the Senior Management Committee was held at 2.15pm on Tuesday, 1 June, 2004 in the Council Room, 1^st Floor, University Offices Building 3a, Clayton campus.

Professor Richard Larkins - Vice-Chancellor, Presiding

Professor Stephen Parker – Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Professor Alan Lindsay – Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Professor Brian Mackenzie – Pro Vice-Chancellor, Gippsland

Professor John Redmond – Dean, Faculty of Art and Design

Professor Homer Le Grand – Dean, Faculty of Arts

Professor Gill Palmer - Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics

Professor Sue Willis - Dean, Faculty of Education

Professor John Sheridan – Acting Dean, Faculty of Engineering

Professor Ron Weber - Dean, Faculty of Information Technology

Professor Arie Freiberg - Dean, Faculty of Law

Professor Edward Byrne - Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Professor Rob Norris - Dean, Faculty of Science

Professor Max King - Director, Research Graduate School

Mr Stephen Davey – Divisional Director, Facilities and Services

Mr John Levine – Divisional Director, Financial Resources Management

Mr Alan McMeekin - Executive Director, Information Technology Services

Mr Peter Marshall - Divisional Director, Student and Staff Services

Mr Renn Wortley - University Solicitor

Professor Merran Evans - Director, University Planning and Research and Director, Monash University Centre in London

Professor John Harris - Director, CeLTS

Professor Rob Willis - Academic Director, Caulfield

Professor Phillip Steele - Academic Director, Berwick & Peninsula

Ms Janet Gaffey – Manager, Research Grants and Ethics Branch

Professor Edwina Cornish, Ms Alison Crook, Ms Cathrine Harboe-Ree, Mr John Matthews, Mr Tony Pollock, Professor Tam Sridhar and Professor Graham Webb.

• Professor John Sheridan, Acting Dean - Faculty of Engineering.

• Dr Sid Nair - Quality Advisor Research & Evaluation, CHEQ for Item 4.2.2

• Ms Di James - ITS Flexible Learning and Teaching Program for Item 4.3.1

• Mr Reynold Dias – Deputy Director, Financial Resources Management for item 4.5.4

• Mr Gerard Toohey – Manager, Student Administration for item 4.5.4

• Mr Neil Pope – Employee Relations Consultant for item 5.1

The Minutes of Meeting 3/2004 of the Senior Management Committee held on 14 April, 2004 were confirmed.

The Vice-Chancellor informed members that a proposal to expand current equity programs, provide financial assistance to disadvantaged students and the introduction of a pilot program based on schools clustered near Monash campuses, would be considered at the next meeting of the Vice-Chancellor’s Group.

The Vice-Chancellor outlined to members Monash’s bid for additional load at the Peninsula and Berwick Campuses.

Members were advised that the report of Mr David Gilmour on the South Africa Campus had been finalised and following consideration by the Vice-Chancellor’s Group, would be widely distributed.

Members were informed that Dr Nelson had visited the office of the Peninsula local member and the Berwick Campus where encouraging discussions had taken place on the benefits to all stakeholders of creating vibrant and flourishing campuses.

Members noted the advice that the key objectives in the 2004 Annual Plan included responding appropriately to the Higher Education Support Act (2003), developing a clear vision of being "multi-campus" and improving the alignment of resourcing decisions with teaching and research objectives.

Members were advised that planning was progressing for the new campus now to be located on a flat site with room for future expansion and the proposal to develop a Medical School scheduled to be considered by Council at its July meeting.

Members noted the varying types of reviews carried out within faculties and agreed to provide the Centre for Higher Education Quality with any omissions or corrections to the Summary of Reviews 2002-2004.

RESOLUTION

Senior Management Committee noted the advice of Professor Stephen Parker and members agreed to provide to the Centre for Higher Education Quality any omissions or corrections to the Summary of Reviews 2002-2004.

Professor Stephen Parker introduced the item noting that the focus for discussion was to identify the appropriate management response to the outcomes of the MEQ and consider a number of recommendations included with the agenda paper.

During discussion, it was suggested that the imposition of more compliance related tasks would detract from student centred activities and that a more appropriate process would be to include an action plan in the Faculty Operational Plan. Further, members noted that there were a number of common outcomes across faculties that could possibly be addressed in a generic response.

Following further discussion, Professor Parker noted the advice of members and advised that he would refer members’ concerns to Professors Evans and Webb in order to develop an appropriate response that facilitated completion of the quality cycle while reducing the impact on the resources of faculties.

RESOLUTION

The proposal that each faculty, campus and support service divisions prepare an action plan outlining issues that they have identified from the MEQ was referred back for further consideration.

RESOLUTION

Senior Management Committee approved the recommendations as detailed in the document Ethical Principles for Institutional Surveys.

Ms Di James was in attendance for this item.

Following an introduction by Professor Alan Lindsay, Ms James outlined to members the progress on the Semester 1 trial and noted that the Semester 2 pilot and rollout had been reduced in scale.

In response to a question, members were informed that it was anticipated that the majority of subjects would be migrated to the new version by the end of 2005.

RESOLUTION

Senior Management Committee received and noted the report on the WebCT Vista Implementation Project.

Mr Peter Marshall introduced the item and outlined to members key aspects of the Advancing Indigenous Employment Policy and related strategy document.

During discussion, members suggested that the proposed approach may place a heavy burden on the Advancing Indigenous Employment Co-ordinator, the timeline for advertising should be defined and the Co-ordinator only sit on selection committees when there is an indigenous candidate.

Further, members noted the advice that the low retention rate from previous programs was largely the result of employers snapping up Monash trained staff.

RESOLUTION

Senior Management Committee approved the Indigenous Employment Strategy.

Following an outline from Mr Marshall, members provided the following comments:

• selection committees at off-shore campuses should also include an academic staff member from the appropriate discipline area;

• selection committees for academic staff vacancies should include more than one panel member trained in selection procedure; and

• members discussed the status of "confidential" referee reports.

The Vice-Chancellor requested the University Solicitor to provide an opinion on the matter at the next meeting of the Senior Management Committee.

RESOLUTION

Senior Management Committee noted and commented on the Recruitment and Selection Kit.

RESOLUTION

Senior Management Committee noted the advice of Mr John Levine on Adjustments to course fees for returning students.

Mr Gerard Toohey and Mr Reynold Dias were in attendance for this item.

Mr Levine introduced the item and advised members that while utilisation of teaching space was low but variable across campuses, increased utilisation of space would benefit all stakeholders and help reduce costs relating to space.

During discussion, the following issues/queries were raised:

• a member queried whether pedagogy would be constrained by the fit-out of space - members were informed that the fit-out and space scheduling would not constrain the type of teaching for a particular teaching space;

• matters that could be further elaborated included whether faculties that had funded fit-out of special purpose teaching areas would be compensated via a "rent rebate" or similar process and that the policy may not give sufficient consideration to the non-Clayton campuses and their extended teaching hours;

• transition to the new approach would need to consider "out-of-hours" teaching support such as IT support;

• a member queried whether the ad hoc use of space for non-teaching purposes would incur a space usage charge; and

• issues relating to the use of special purpose space such as laboratories and the option of a faculty ‘owning’ the space and running it profitably and more cheaply.

Concluding the discussion, the Vice-Chancellor noted that the issue of space management needed to be considered at a University-wide level and that the proposal should proceed in consultation with faculties.

RESOLUTION

The proposal as detailed in the document Centralising Management of Teaching Spaces proceed.

A paper titled Enterprise Bargaining Round 4 Heads of Agreement Status was tabled at the meeting.

Mr Neil Pope was in attendance for this item.

Mr Peter Marshall outlined to members the status of the Heads of Agreement negotiations including those areas where the parties had reached a level of agreement and those matters where either or both parties still had outstanding issues.

During discussion, members raised issues relating to employment of casual staff, student evaluation of teaching performance, workload levels and the level of salary increases under discussion.

RESOLUTION

The Senior Management Committee noted the advice on the progress of enterprise bargaining negotiations.

The next meeting of the Senior Management Committee will be held at 2.15 pm on Tuesday 13 July 2004 in the Council Room.

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At the conclusion of the meeting, the Vice-Chancellor informed members that this was the last meeting of the Senior Management Committee for Professor John Harris due to his impending retirement.

Members noted with acclamation the contribution of Professor Harris over his long and distinguished career at Monash.