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BHP
chairman appointed chancellor of MonashMonash University has enlisted the services of one of Australia's most notable corporate and community leaders to guide it into the next millennium.
The Council of Monash University this week announced that Mr Jerry Ellis (pictured), the current chairman of BHP, would commence as chancellor of the university for a three-year term beginning 15 February 1999.
The announcement follows the impending retirement of Mr Bill Rogers, who has served as Monash's chancellor since 1991.
Vice-chancellor Professor David Robinson said Mr Ellis was a distinguished Australian who exceeded the criteria required for the role of chancellor.
"Mr Ellis has a clear understanding of the university environment and the core values of a university. To that he adds a capacity to represent Monash at the highest levels in dealings with corporate and government organisations. Like that of Monash University, his perspective is international as well as national," Professor Robinson said.
"His work will continue on from that of Mr Bill Rogers, who has made an invaluable contribution to Monash over the past seven years."
A Rhodes Scholar, Mr Ellis was elected chairman of BHP in May 1997 after a 30-year career with the company. He recently announced his intention to resign as chairman in the first half of next year. He joined BHP in 1967 and worked his way to the pinnacle of Australian corporate life. He has also been involved on several boards, including as chairman of Sandvik Australia and as director of the ANZ Bank and the Museum of Contemporary Art, responsibilities which he will continue while at Monash.
In earlier years, Mr Ellis studied at the University of Western Australia, and later completed a degree in engineering science at Oxford, graduating with first class honours. He has also served on the councils of the universities of Newcastle and Wollongong.
Mr Ellis said he was delighted to be invited to join a university renowned for its innovation and global outlook at a time when the demand for higher education was so strong.
"However, now is a testing time for universities, particularly as they face increasing financial challenges. But Monash is a dynamic and innovative institution that has been successful in extending its educational activities, both in Australia and internationally," he said.
"I expect to see Monash continue with its successful development as a research-intensive university of international standing.
"University education provided me with many wonderful opportunities. To be involved with the university sector as chancellor of Monash is both an honour and an opportunity. I am hoping the task will enable me to repay society in a modest way for the good fortune I have enjoyed as a university graduate."
The views of all staff are being sought to assist in the redevelopment of the Monash website.
A series of interviews with staff are currently being conducted, and from this week a survey will be available online to log the needs and opinions of current users, both within Monash and externally.
If you are interested in providing the website redevelopment team with feedback on how you use the Monash website and what you like and dislike about it, you can find a link to the survey at www.monash.edu.au. The survey will be available online until Friday 4 December.
Working party chair and manager of Marketing Services & Public Relations Ms Cathy Kirkham said she hoped staff would take the time to complete the survey.
"Staff opinions are important in ensuring that the changes we make to the Monash homepage satisfy user needs and lead to a more effective, easy-to-use site," she said.
Five new books by Monash Arts faculty academics are set to shed new light on different aspects of Australian culture.
The works, by Professor Graeme Davison, Professor Barbara Caine, Associate Professor Jennifer Strauss and honorary associate Dr Brenda Niall, were launched last week at Clayton campus by deputy vice-chancellor Professor Peter Darvall and Professor John Rickard from the faculty's National Centre for Australian Studies.
Professor Darvall said that having five works published at the same time was "a milestone for Monash".
The books, all published by Oxford University Press, have themes ranging from Australian feminism to literature and history.
From left: Ms Pam Williams; Professor Barbara Caine,
general editor, Oxford Companion to Australian Feminism;
Associate Professor Jennifer Strauss, co-editor,
Oxford Literary History of Australia, and editor,
Family Ties: Australian Poems of the Family; Ms Helen Doyle;
Dr Brenda Niall, co-editor, Oxford Book of Australian Letters,
with joint editor Mr John Thompson; Professor Graeme Davison, co-editor,
Oxford Companion to Australian History; Mrs Helen Thomson;
Mr Peter Rose, publisher, OUP; and Professor John Rickard.
Mr Con Duyvestyn from the School of Applied Sciences (and previously Department of Chemistry) is retiring after 26 years of service to the university.
Colleagues and friends of Con's are invited to a farewell function on Thursday 10 December at 11 am in room C1.02, Administration building, Peninsula campus.
After the function, everyone is invited to join Con for drinks and lunch in the Seahorse Tavern Dining Room from 12 noon.
If you would like to attend either functions or contribute to a gift, contact Ms Jenny McGrath by 30 November on extn 44365, or call in at room G2.17 (Mondays, 10 am to 2 pm, or Tuesdays to Thursdays, 10 am to 4.30 pm).
It seems Monash Memo mistook a Dracunculus for a Helicodiceros.
The big stink at the Botanic Garden on Monash's Clayton campus is in fact the work of the two plants, not the Dracunculus alone as reported in last week's edition.
According to horticulturist Rob McClure, it was the Helicodiceros that earned widespread notoriety after featuring in a recent television documentary by naturalist David Attenborough. It showed how the plant, in its native Corsica, could really cause a stink to survive by out-ranking even the smells produced by nearby colonies of millions of seabirds.
The prowess of Dracunculus was also overstated. This plant uses its odour and deceptive appearance to trick blowflies for the purposes of pollination, but does not, as reported last week, lure them to their death.
Dracunculus and Helicodiceros and related fly pollination type plants are among a thousand interesting, rare and unusual species from 121 families from all over the globe represented in the Monash Botanic Garden.
Staff, students and visitors can discover the absolutely correct information about the garden during a lunchtime guided tour led by Rob this Thursday (12 November).
Walkers should meet at 1.15 pm at the main entrance of the Biology building (17).
A colourful brochure/guide to the gardens with a key to all the plants is available from the Biological Sciences main office.
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