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Arts at MonashLet me elaborate on a brief statement I made at Academic Board on 3 June 1998 in relation to the further development of Arts at Monash.
But first let me make some general, and I hope self-evident, points:
The Faculty of Arts has been reflecting intensely on its range of programs, organis-ational structure, intra-institutional relations, external developments, staffing and finances over the past two years, not least in an attempt to respond adequately to cuts in load as a result of the 1996 federal budget and to accommodate the significant impact of the now internally-funded salary increases generated through enterprise bargaining. The university's overall financial position will worsen by at least $40 million per annum between 1997 and 2000 as a result of $10 million in federal cuts and $30 million in salary increases.
The unacceptably high level of staff and student anxiety and uncertainty in the faculty indicates that the time for reflection is over and for a clear strategy for future development to be agreed upon and implemented.
Comments made to me after Academic Board suggest that colleagues in other faculties, too, are keen to have a clear understanding of future developments in Arts in order that joint and complementary programs can be advanced and advertised with confidence.
As the Vice-Chancellor's Group has made clear, a range of supports and inputs both technical and financial are available to help the faculty to reach conclusions about its academic future and draw up a strategy for restoring itself to a sound financial position over a reasonable period of time.
Over recent weeks, the faculty has drawn on the advice and support of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Planning) and a number of professional colleagues in the areas of budget, finance and personnel.
For reasons of morale, academic reputation, financial certainty and the confidence in planning required by other parts of the university, I have set in train a process which is intended to help the faculty to reach a swift and agreed conclusion on academic direction and associated infrastructure.
On 10 August 1998, I wish to report to University Council that Arts at Monash has a sound and coherent future.
In order to be in a position to make such a statement, I need to have in my hands by 10 July 1998 a document which:
In relation to both the Peninsula campus and Science at Monash, I invited Mr David Phillips, my special adviser on Corporate Planning and Review, to lead a small panel to work swiftly with colleagues in those areas to clarify academic directions and associated matters. Both exercises were conducted in an exemplary fashion and universally applauded by those most closely affected, with the outcomes warmly welcomed across the university.
Given that a good deal of preliminary work has been undertaken by the faculty, I have decided that the best way forward for Arts at Monash is to make available an additional range of specific assistance to enable the faculty to conclude its task.
This will include assistance from:
John Levine (assistant general manager, Budget & Statistical Services) - a clear account of the faculty's recent, current and future financial position bearing in mind the impact of such matters as government cuts, University Council policy and the results of enterprise bargaining plus advice on future faculty financial systems and strategy;
Deborah Lampard (director, Quantitative Planning Support, Budget & Statistical Services) - a clear account of load trends in all categories of home and international students, comparative subject/enrolment ratios and other infra-
structure matters associated with academic programs;Ian Dobson (associate, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research & Development) - data on research strengths and comparative performance across the faculty and other associated matters of professional engagement;
Peter Marshall (assistant general manager, Personnel Services) - data on staffing profiles, and other personnel matters.
This material and advice will help the faculty base its deliberations on a shared and agreed set of sound data. A number of unhelpful misconceptions abound currently. Several were identified at a special meeting between the Vice-Chancellor's Group and members of the Faculty Board on 10 June 1998. I shall be addressing these in a separate memorandum to faculty staff.
I have asked both David Phillips and Professor Max Brennan, my special adviser on Research Development, to meet with the faculty to provide assistance and advice, not least in relation to the planning process. In the forthcoming faculty deliberations, it is vital for a wide cross-section of colleagues to be involved
In addition, Professor Raoul Mortley has kindly agreed to make himself available at the beginning of July for a few days to provide an external view on the faculty's emerging proposals.
Professor Mortley is a distinguished Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and a person of immense experience, having worked at the University of Strasbourg, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Macquarie University and Bond University before becoming vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle and then of Bond University.
Between now and 10 August 1998, while the faculty is completing this important task and before my report to the University Council, no new staff appointments are being made in the faculty without the specific approval of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Planning) Professor Alan Lindsay.
In addition, a short-term, targeted voluntary early retirement scheme will be established for members of the faculty who would wish to avail themselves of the opportunity to apply before 1 September 1998 and leave the service of the university no later than 31 December 1998.
The current world of higher education is complex, rapidly changing and not easy either for institutions or for their academic leaders. The pressures on the arts and humanities and on the deans of relevant faculties have seldom been more intense, as colleagues around the world are all too well aware.
I know that the help, support and wise counsel of the people mentioned in this memorandum will be welcomed by the dean of Arts, Professor Marian Quartly, and her colleagues as they move as rapidly as possible to a position from which there is a clear, academically distinguished, organisationally efficient, financially responsible and industrially sound future for Arts at Monash.
Professor David Robinson
Vice-Chancellor and President
Monash University
McIVER, Monash's high-tech video-on-demand system, is now meeting demand within the wider higher education scene.
And one of the first to tune into the award-winning educational resource is the University of Melbourne. As of this month, Melbourne has been given direct access to Monash's central McIVER video server via the Victorian Regional Network which connects both universities via a high-capacity microwave link.
McIVER allows for the simultaneous screening of a single digitised video on a number of PCs without any loss in quality. This means that many viewers, located at several computer terminals at different sites, can view the same video at the same time.
At Monash, the system is being used by students in disciplines as diverse as visual arts, languages, music and marketing. Melbourne University plans to initially use it for multimedia research before extending it to its undergraduate teaching programs.
The off-campus link is the first step in a staged national expansion program planned by McIVER's developers, ANSPAG (the Advanced Network Systems Performance and Applications Group), which is based in Monash's Centre for Telecommunications and Information Engineering.
The group's business manager, Ms Sonja Ahrens, said the second stage was to make the technology available to universities in Canberra and Brisbane. Next, she said, ANSPAG hoped to make McIVER widely available to all Australian universities with the ultimate aim of extending it off-shore to Monash's Malaysian campus and possibly to other international educational providers in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, in a major in-house collaboration between ANSPAG and the Computer Centre at Monash, McIVER and other new TV-quality video conferencing applications have been made available for the first time across a new high-capacity university-wide network linking the Clayton, Caulfield and Berwick campuses.
"Previously, these applications were only operating over a separate experimental network with sites in several locations around Monash," Ms Ahrens said.
"Although at this stage the services are still being trialled, we now have the infrastructure and technological capacity to provide video services at many locations across the university."
Current users of McIVER at Monash include Mr Deane Williams, Ms Jennifer Durran and Ms Ann Marsh of Monash's Visual Arts Department, Ms Sally Staddon of the Modern Languages Department and Ms Leanne White from the School of Communications and Journalism, Berwick campus.
"The Monash University libraries are also actively supporting McIVER and plans are under way to install some connections in a lecture theatre in the Menzies building to provide for the projection of videos, from the central McIVER video server, for use in lectures," Ms Ahrens said.
"Monash is also negotiating with Cinemedia (formerly the State Film Centre of Victoria) to make some of its collection available for educational purposes at Monash, as part of a wider trial of network delivery of video being managed by ANSPAG."
A generous $600,000 gift to Monash and the University of Melbourne will fund a modern transgenic laboratory and research into prostate cancer, diabetes and bone disease.
Mrs Eva Erdi and Mr Les Erdi (pictured centre), who immigrated to Australia from Hungary after World War II and created a successful hotel development company, have made the donation for scientific investigations into the genetic causes of common diseases.
Handing
over a cheque to representatives of both universities at a recent ceremony,
Mr Erdi said he believed in the importance of helping people.
"My wife and I are very grateful to be able to live in this country and believe in giving something back to the community ... life is all about helping," he said.
The grants have been awarded to Associate Professor Peter Fuller and colleagues at Prince Henry's Institute for Medical Research, run by Monash, and Associate Professor Jeffrey Zajac and colleagues at the University of Melbourne.
Prince Henry's Institute will receive two project grants under the gift, the first of which will fund investigations into genes controlling cell growth in the small and large bowel after surgery.
The second grant will allow investigations into the function of two steroid receptors - mineralocorticoid receptor (genes controlling salt balance and heart disease) and glucocorticoid receptor (genes regulated by steroids used in the treatment of chronic asthma).
The new research facility, to be known as the Eva and Les Erdi Medical Research Laboratory, will be located in the University of Melbourne's Department of Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
One of two specific project grants to this facility will enable research into the genetic cause of prostate cancer, specifically in the area of predicting whether genetic mutations increase the risk of the cancer.
A second grant will allow research into the cause of type II diabetes and the hormonal control of bone fractures.
Hello
CaulfieldCaulfield campus director Mr John White launched the Caulfield Visitor Guide last Friday.
The second in a new series of visitor guides produced by University Marketing & Development, the guide features Caulfield's wide range of visual arts, educational and sporting events and facilities.
Details in the guide include how to get to the campus, where to park and how to find your way around on arrival. Also included is an updated map and a profile of the campus's vital statistics.
Mr White said the guide was a good resource for visitors. It can be mailed out or be collected on arrival from key sites around the campus, including the gatehouse, the Student Union and the library.
Copies are available from University Marketing & Development. Contact extn 52067.
Australian biotechnology company Biota has opened its laboratories at Monash's Clayton campus.
At the official opening last week at the Clayton campus, the company's chief executive Dr Hugh Niall said Biota's presence at Monash would foster collaborative research links between the company and the university.
Biota, an Australian-listed company, manages the funding and commercialisation
of research into and development of new human pharmaceuticals, such as the
breakthrough flu drug Relenza TM ,
initially discovered and developed by Monash researchers.
Biota has set up its new molecular biology laboratory and a new larger chemical laboratory within Monash's Microbiology and Chemistry departments.
"Biota's scientists will benefit from interaction within the research environment of a leading tertiary institution, and Monash will benefit from having a leading-edge biotechnology company contributing to the life of its departments," Dr Niall said.
"The arrangement has engendered a collaborative relationship between Biota's research team and Monash researchers. As a result, two joint research projects are currently under way at the university."
In 1994, Biota set up a chemistry laboratory at Monash. Due to the success of that arrangement, the company this year decided to locate its molecular biology laboratory at the Clayton campus, as well as expand its existing chemistry laboratory.
Biota leases the laboratory space from the university and has access to Monash's facilities under an agreement between the Microbiology and Chemistry departments.
The new laboratories were officially opened by Federal Health Minister Dr Michael Wooldridge last Wednesday (10 June) at a function attended by health and medical officials as well as Monash vice-chancellor Professor David Robinson and deputy vice-chancellor (Research and Development) Professsor Peter Darvall.
Forget
the X-files, Monash's Rare Book Section is presenting its own spellbinding view
of the dark side.
The current exhibition, The Occult , which runs until 24 July, features books and information dealing with Western ideas of occultism dating back as far as the 17th century. One of the oldest exhibits sourced from Monash's Rare Book Collection is a book on magic published in 1603.
Rare Books librarian Mr Richard Overell (pictured left) said there had been a constant preoccupation throughout history with the occult, in all its guises, from the time-old tradition of tea-leaf reading and various forms of magic and witchcraft to the emergence of major sophisticated occult orders.
The phenomenal success of the television show 'The X-files' reflected the current level of interest in some of the images and ideas of the occult, according to Mr Overell.
Astrologist and Melbourne magic shop owner Ms Kerry Kulkens (pictured right) and her psychic daughter Ms Linda Clements, a Monash postgraduate student in the Centre for Women's Studies, were among the guests at the recent launch of The Occult .
Monash has an estimated 1000 Muslim students, both from Australia and from overseas.
Many of these students, especially those from overseas, encounter specific difficulties when adjusting to life at an Australian university. These range from finding a halal butcher to dealing with the media's focus on the jihad (holy war).
In recognition of these problems and issues, Monash International established the BAGUS Program in May 1996 - an initiative which aims to help the university community provide for the special social, religious and cultural needs of Monash's Muslim students.
The program, which is available on the Caulfield, Clayton, Gippsland and Peninsula campuses, offers a range of support services and information to make the process of adjustment as smooth as possible.
The most obvious problems facing students include finding a mosque for prayer, working daily prayers around academic schedules and finding halal ('allowed' or 'permitted' food). BAGUS is currently working towards making halal food available on Monash campuses.
Monash has also taken the initiative of ensuring that places of worship are available to its Muslim community. Islamic prayer rooms are open to students and staff at the Caulfield, Clayton, Gippsland and Peninsula campuses, and Clayton offers a mosque nearby at 16 Beddoe Avenue for Friday prayers and other meetings.
The 1998 BAGUS Handbook for Muslim Students , which is available from Monash International, includes a comprehensive list of facilities and resources available at Monash and in the local community. For copies or further information, contact Ms Elizabeth Renouf on extn 51646 or email elizabeth.renouf@adm.monash.edu.au
Elizabeth Renouf
BAGUS program coordinator
Monash International
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