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You've heard of Race Around the World, now there's Race Around Monash - an informative, enlightening and entertaining look at all aspects of student life at university.
The video, launched last Friday by Monash's Transition Program coordinator Dr Mark Peel and Academic Board associate chair Professor Merran Evans, looks at the good days, the bad days, the fun, the disappointments and the triumphs of university life.
Six current Monash students were given a video camera, a week, and the task of telling their story and sharing their experiences and feelings about studying, working and playing at uni.
Dr Peel said the video was one part of Monash's commitment to helping prospective students make informed decisions about their university choices.
"A number of studies into transition issues conducted by Monash have consistently discovered that secondary school students preparing to begin university are really interested in hearing from current students about their experiences."
Race Around Monash provides a first-hand view of what student life in the 90s is all about, including balancing a part-time job with study, being separated from your school friends and facing a dramatically different learning environment to secondary school.
The 55-minute video will be sent to all Victorian secondary schools. It is hoped that the video will be used during class time, at information evenings and for students to take home and watch with their parents.
Go racers: Dr Mark Peel and the Race Around Monash crew.
The Science and Medical faculties have joined forces to establish a new Biomedical Electron Microscopy Facility for leading-edge biomedical research at Monash.
A project group, led by Physiology department chairman Professor Warwick Anderson, has secured a $715,000 major equipment grant from the UK-based Wellcome Foundation to develop the unit at the Clayton campus.
The collaborative effort, believed to be the first of its kind between the Science and Medical faculties, involved Biological sciences department head Professor Margaret Clayton, Microbiology department head Professor Ross Coppel, Professor Phillip Nagley of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department and Dr Ben Adler of the Microbiology department.
Professor Anderson said the new facility would replace outmoded equipment currently located within the participating departments and is expected to help significantly advance Monash's role in the biomedical research field.
Until now, he said, Monash lacked the essential equipment for ultra-structural techniques to undertake advanced research in this area.
"The grant will fund the purchase of an electron microscope with a high resolution digital image capture system, and advanced image analysis hardware and software, as well as cyro-tissue preservation equipment," he said. "The money was specifically given for equipment and will just cover the costs of the equipment together with extra funds raised by the departments and the ARC Research Infrastructure Program.
"We are now seeking additional funding for laboratories essential for housing the equipment which we expect to house in either the Anatomy or Biological sciences departments."
Professor Anderson said it was expected that, when established, the new Monash Wellcome Biomedical EM Facility would be further developed to provide advanced technological services and training.
"The current dilemma is, however, that it is not possible to actually purchase the electron microscope until a suitable location is provided. This is due to the fact that once the microscope is installed, it cannot be relocated."
From left: Professor Anderson, Professor Nagley, Professor Coppel and Professor Clayton.
Monash has entered into a contract with SAP Australia to supply the university's new state-of-the-art computer-based administration system.
Monash vice-chancellor Professor David Robinson and SAP Australia's managing director, Mr Anthony Harris, signed the contract at Monash last week.
The finance, human resource, payroll and student administration functions are set to be integrated into the new system, which will replace more than half of the 80 systems currently operating in the university.
The cost of the system, including licensing fees, internal and external implementation, training and computer hardware, is about $20 million.
SAP's R/3 Enterprise Resource Planning Software was chosen after an extensive selection process to operate Monash's administrative system, which manages 45,000 students, 5000 staff and a $500 million operating budget across seven campuses.
The introduction of R/3 will mean that university staff, particularly managers in both academic and general areas, will be able to access timely and accurate management information. The new student system from Deakin Software Services, known as Callista, will be integrated with R/3.
Among its key features, R/3 will provide online access to:
It is anticipated that the Finance and Human Resources systems will be operating with R/3 in mid-1999, while the student system will be in place by mid-2000.
Mr John Julian, the project director, said the implementation process would include in-house training sessions for general and academic staff.
Springvale Legal Service marked its milestone 25 years of service in Melbourne's south-east last week with a distinctly multicultural celebration featuring Tanzanian music, food from around the world and lots of fun.
More than 150 people, including Monash Law faculty and centre staff, students, former volunteers and local community members, attended the celebration where Chief Justice of the Victorian Supreme Court Mr Justice Phillips cut the birthday cake.
Hundreds of Monash students, including those undertaking the law subject 'Professional practice', as well as students from other disciplines, have worked in the busy community legal centre since it opened in 1973.
Many of the volunteers have gone on to become some of Victoria's and Australia's most prominent jurists, including members of the bench, barristers, corporate counsel and partners of major law firms.
Under supervision, the students provide legal services and advice to locals who are mostly unable to afford private legal representation and are ineligible for legal aid.
Last year the centre assisted more than 4400 people from Springvale and the surrounding suburbs and the caseload is growing, according to centre coordinator Mr Adrian Evans.
The increase, according to Mr Evans, is due to a complex range of factors, mainly increasing poverty among low income groups and a reduction in legal aid for all income groups.
Mr Evans said the multicultural theme of the centre's anniversary celebration reflected the diversity of the service and its clients.
"There are 137 multicultural and language groups in the City of Greater Dandenong and the surrounding municipalities. About 23 of those groups are significantly represented in our client statistics," he said.
"For Monash law students, this diversity is a real strength. The experience of working with clients with multiple problems and from many cultures helps prepare graduates for the realities of legal work in an increasingly diverse and complex society."
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria
Mr Justice Phillips with Afro Oz at the
Springvale Legal Service anniversary party.
Dr Maria Jaschok, a Fellow of Oxford University's Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies, is currently on a three-month visit to Monash's Arts faculty.
She is the first of six overseas and interstate academics to visit the faculty this year and next year under its Visiting Scholar Scheme.
The faculty has allocated $25,000 to the scheme, which aims to foster further
collaboration between Monash researchers and colleagues at other Australian
or overseas universities and to strengthen the
faculty's research profile.
Dr Jaschok is working with staff from the Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research and the Department of Anthropology and Sociology. A key purpose of her visit is to assist in internationalising the faculty's research into the management of religious diversity and understanding the way women negotiate situations of religious, ethnic and cultural minority.
Dr Jaschok is already involved in collaborative research with Professor Gary Bouma, Dr Maryanne Dever and Dr Denise Cuthbert.
In second semester next year, Professor Mihir Bhattacharya, head of the School of Media, Communication and Culture at Jadavpur University in India, will work with Arts faculty staff on the project 'South Asian Response to Western Representations of Asia in the Context of Increasingly Globalised Discursive Categories'. Dr Fiona Magowan from the University of Adelaide will next year work with Dr Bain Attwood of Monash's History department on the origins and significance of the 1963 Yirrkala bark petition to the Commonwealth Parliament, commonly regarded as the beginning of the campaign for 'land rights'.
And the Department of Geography and Environmental Science will next year welcome Professor James S. Clark of Duke University, North Carolina, Professor Peter Daniels of the University of Birmingham in the UK and Professor Li Xiao-jian, dean of the College of Environment and Planning, University of Henan, PR China.
Monash's Law faculty is next week hosting the grand final of a prestigious international university mooting competition.
The Manfred Lachs Space Moot Court Competition, to be held on 1 October, coincides with the International Astronautical Congress from 28 September to 2 October at the World Congress Centre.
Mooting teams of law students from the universities of North Carolina and Helsinki will fight it out for the title of grand finalist at the Banco Court of the Melbourne Supreme Court at 2 pm on 1 October.
Final judging of the moot is by three members of the International Court of Justice - Judge Christopher Weeramantry, vice-president of the World Court, Judge Vladlen Vereschchetin and Judge Abdul Koroma, who are also taking part in the international congress.
The judges will be guests of Monash's Law faculty and will attend a formal lunch next Tuesday hosted in their honour at the university.
The moot competition is widely known throughout the US and Europe. Finalists, a team from a university in the US and one in Europe, meet each year in a different location for the judging. Plans are now under way to establish an Asian round of the competition.
The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and the International Institute of Space Law established the competition in honour of the late Manfred Lachs, a world renowned jurist who was a member of the International Court of Justice until 1986 and a past president of the Court.
Interested Monash staff are invited to attend the competition and a cocktail reception afterwards at the Supreme Court Library. The event is free, but participants must register to gain entry. To register, contact Ms Pearl Noronha on extn 53396 or email pearl.noronha@law.monash.edu.au
Monash's Travel Liaison Office is presenting a series of information sessions for staff in October on the university's new travel arrangments.
The sessions will run for almost an hour and American Express International, Kistend Travel Pty Ltd and Qantas Airways will be available to answer questions.
University Travel Liaison Manager Ms Sally Addison will also be available to answer questions on internal travel policy and procedure.
Qantas has donated door prizes of general admission tickets to the 1999 Grand Prix and these will be offered at each session.
Sessions include:
* Peninsula:
6 October, 10.30 am, conference room C1.02.
* Caulfield:
6 October, 2.30 pm, Clayfield room.
* Clayton:
7 October, 11 am and 12 noon, lecture theatre S3 (Science building)
* Parkville:
12 October, 2.30 pm, room C1-1.
* Gippsland:
13 October, 11.30 am, Crofton Hatsell Room.
Third-year Monash drama students are presenting a funny and provocative interpretation of Boccaccio's 14th-century tales.
The production, The Decameron Project, runs at the Drama Theatre, Clayton campus, until 26 September and at Theatre Works, St Kilda, on 27 September.
It retains the storytelling format of Boccaccio's novella and deals with notions of morality through differing genre forms of comedy for each tale.
Interwoven into the performance are traditional renaissance ballads, and as a complete contrast there are several addresses by respected members of the community on 'morality' and 'civic duty'.
Speakers who have donated their time include Professor Carl Wood, Justice Frank Vincent, Professor Louis Waller, The Reverend Tim Costello, Rabbi Ronald Lubofsky and Ms Felicity Hampel, QC.
Their addresses will subsequently be published in a book, with the proceeds of sales being donated to the Smith Family.
Director and designer Mr Michael Coe, a lecturer in Theatre Craft at Monash's Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, devised the concept for The Decameron Project in a bid to return the theatre to one of its original functions - that of a public forum.
Mr Coe said the approach of the play was unique and the stories covered a range of genres, from Shakespeare to modern-day soapies.
Third-year students have adapted the production and are performing the stories as part of their 'Drama in production' course.
Tickets for the shows, which start at 8 pm, cost $12 ($8 concession). To book, contact the Monash Box Office on extn 51111 or Theatre Works on 9534 8986.
Monash Magazine, the university's bi-annual flagship magazine, has won an Association of Development and Alumni Professionals in Education (ADAPE) award.
The magazine, produced by University Marketing & Development, was selected by ADAPE's Victoria/Tasmania chapter judging panel as the state finalist for the publication award in the Tertiary Alumni/Community Magazine Award.
The magazine is now in the running for the national award to be presented at ADAPE's national conference this month.
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