Council Meeting 7/2002

Meeting 7/2002 of the Monash University Council was held between 5.00 pm and 7.50 pm on Monday, 11 November in the Council Chamber, Administration Building 3a, Clayton Campus

Mr P H Ramler AM, Deputy Chancellor, Presiding

Dr J M Hearn, Deputy Chancellor

Professor P LeP Darvall, Vice-Chancellor

Professor A W Lindsay, Chair of Academic Board

Ms A Crook AO, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources)

Professor G Bouma, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development)

Professor M Evans, Director, Planning and Academic Affairs

Mr D Pumphrey, Heidrick and Struggles

Mr T Calder, Director, Secretariat and Executive Services

Apologies were received from Ms Penny Hutchinson and Associate Professor Louise Adler.

At meeting 6/2002 (15 October), Council approved requests for special leave from meeting 7/2002 (11 November) for Mr Jerry Ellis, Mr John Hutchinson and Mr Glenn Barnes and approved requests for special leave from meeting 8/2002 (9 December) for Mr Glenn Barnes and Mr Paul Ramler.

(Secretarial note: Mr John Hutchinson was present at the meeting.)

Items 1.1 Apologies, 1.2 Special Leave, 1.3 Starring of Items, 1.4 Approval of Non-Starred Items, 1.5.1 Appointment of the Vice-Chancellor, 1.5.2 Vice-Chancellor’s Issues and Speculation, 2 Confirmation of Minutes of Previous Meeting, 3 Chancellor’s Business, 4 Vice-Chancellor’s Business, 6.2 Proposed Course Fees for Australian Students (2003) and International Students (2004), 6.3 Restructure – Biocomm International Ltd, 6.8 Receipt of Proceedings of Resources and Finance Committee and 8.4 Report of the Returning Officer – Council Elections were starred and discussed at the meeting.

Council resolved on the motion of the Chairman:

‘that all items on the agenda not starred be adopted without discussion, and the action recommended be taken or the information therein noted’.

Mr David Pumphrey of Heidrick and Struggles briefed Council on progress to date regarding the selection of a new Vice-Chancellor.

Following Mr Pumphrey’s progress report, Council reconfirmed the evaluation and feedback role of the expert panels in the selection process and noted that the chairpersons of the expert panels would provide feedback to the selection committee prior to the committee meeting with candidates.

Council members were invited to meet with Mr Pumphrey to discuss the attributes required of a new Vice-Chancellor. Appointments would need to be arranged via the secretary to the Vice-Chancellorship Selection Committee, Mr Peter Marshall.

RESOLUTION CL7/2002/177

Council noted the advice of Mr David Pumphrey.

(File RMOR1999/064)

A confidential paper titled, Briefing For Monash Council – Shooting incident 21 October 2002 was emailed to members and tabled at the meeting.

The Vice-Chancellor provided members of Council with an update on the incident. Mr Ramler, on behalf of Council, praised the efforts of all involved in the incident and thanked Professor Darvall, Dr Lee Gordon-Brown, Associate Professor Brett Inder, Mr Alastair Boast, other staff and students who assisted, members of the security staff, members of the Crisis Management Team, and all those who provided essential services.

Council expressed its condolences to the families of the deceased students and wished the injured a speedy and full recovery.

Council discussed the provision of support services to students, the security of key personnel and, noting that the alleged offender was not an international student, language standards of students from non-English speaking background.

The Deputy Chancellor, Mr Paul Ramler AM, introduced the item noting that aspects of the issue had appeared in the press and that Council members had received a number of emails from a variety of interested parties. Reminding Council members that their role was one of governance and not management of the University, Mr Ramler invited the Vice-Chancellor to update Council on the issue.

The Vice-Chancellor, noting that the matter was before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, informed Council that part of the business of managing the University was the ongoing conduct of review of subjects and courses to ensure that they were both academically and financially sound and attractive to both prospective and current students. Recent examples cited by the Vice-Chancellor included Classics at Clayton which attracted a strong reaction from a variety of interested parties and the consolidation of engineering to Clayton from Caulfield which attracted a far more measured response.

In reference to the undergraduate engineering course at Gippsland, Council was provided with the major reasons for the proposed withdrawal of the course.

Major features of the proposal were: in 2003 there would be no intake of students with an ENTER score of below 70, no intake into Interdisciplinary Engineering (a low demand course), no intake into engineering undergraduate programs at the Gippsland campus in 2004, Mechatronics would transfer to Clayton, and all students in the pipeline would be assisted to complete their course via the provision of some merit-based scholarships to study engineering at the Clayton campus and scholarships to assist with living expenses for those students who transferred to the Clayton campus.

Commenting on the Gippsland campus, the Vice-Chancellor informed Council that since the merger with the University, $36 million had been spent on major and/or minor capital works, eight of the ten faculties ran courses at the Gippsland campus including many new and exciting courses and, while the University was committed to the Gippsland Education Precinct, the ongoing subsidy to the campus of approximately $5 million per annum meant some hard decisions had to be made.

During discussion, members expressed a range of concerns regarding the proposed withdrawal of undergraduate engineering programs from Gippsland noting particularly that important decisions needed to be based on a sound and thorough process and if a perception existed that the process was inadequate, then the outcome(s) of the review should not be implemented until the issue of process was resolved.

Responding to the comments of Council members, the Vice-Chancellor provided further comment on the consultation process, the Gippsland region and the need for the management of the University to make decisions that benefit Monash albeit unpalatable to some sections of the Monash community.

Following further discussion the Vice-Chancellor, noting that the University would also be responding to the recommendations put in place at the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, offered to seek further input to the advice already received, including further discussion/consultation with the Faculty of Engineering, staff, students and community representatives and to provide Council with a progress report at the December meeting.

RESOLUTION CL7/2002/178

Council noted the report of the Vice-Chancellor dated 30 October 2002 on the affixing of the Common Seal to documents executed under Seal pursuant to Statute 8.1, Section 2.1.5.

(File RMO1997/0889)

Authorised observers were admitted to the meeting following confidential items.

• Monash University becoming a member of Monash Health Research Precinct Pty Ltd (a company limited by guarantee);and

• Mr J E Matthews, Director of Finance, being appointed as a director of the Company.

• approved the ranges of proposed course fees as shown on the reported fee tables;

• authorised the Vice-Chancellor to approve the detailed fees consistent with these ranges as well as any adjustments to existing fees, plus or minus 10%; and

• approved the change in fees policy to allow an annual adjustment to all fee paying students, as outlined in the report.

• the restructure of Biocomm; and

• subject to receipt of documentation to the satisfaction of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Resources), entering into the Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement, thereby acquiring shares in Biocomm, the Member Services Agreement, and any other documentation necessary to give effect to this transaction.

• Monash University becoming a member of Virtual Reality Observatory of Melbourne Inc., and

• the positions on the Committee of Association be filled by Jon McCormack from the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering and a nominee of the Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology.

• approved Monash University’s membership of the new entity, Australia and New Zealand School of Government Ltd (a company limited by guarantee); and

• noted that the Heads of Agreement issues previously presented to Council had now been resolved and that the ANZSOG Heads of Agreement, Constitution and Members’ Agreement had been cleared by the University Solicitor’s Office.

• approved the revised membership of the AFCC which is a Chairperson (a member of Resources and Finance Committee), the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources), or her nominee and the student member of Resources and Finance Committee; and

• endorsed the terms of reference of the AFCC and the guidelines for the Campus Service Councils.

• Associate Professor Serge Demidenko – Chair of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University Malaysia.

• Professor Alan Bishop – Emeritus Professor.

• Professor Mark Cooper – Honorary Professor, Department of Medicine, Central and Eastern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

• Associate Professor Andrew Mackinnon – Professorial Fellow, Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

• Professor Christopher Selby Smith – Professorial Fellow, Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics.

• Professor Francis Trindade – Emeritus Professor.

• Dr Steven Wesselingh – Honorary Professor, Department of Medicine, Central and Eastern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

• Council approved, subject to review of all agreements and proposed constitution by the University Solicitor’s Office:

  • Monash University becoming a member of Nanotechnology Victoria Ltd; and

  • the nomination of Professor Barry Muddle of the School of Physics and Materials Engineering as a director of the company.

The next meeting of Council is scheduled to be held at 4.30 pm on Monday, 9 December 2002 at the Clayton Campus.