issue 30

30 November 2007

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'Truth: lies open to all'

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Every fortnight.

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CONTENTS: editorial, news in brief, do not print, Senate report, inauguration, public arts, Wallups's world, letter

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EDITORIAL

LINE BREAKS

You may wonder why subtext sometimes arrives in your inbox with apparently random single line breaks inserted into perfectly good paragraphs - or even in the middle of sentences. Let us assure you that this is not because our legal advisors have ripped out chunks of text as the presses are rolling, in order to save us from litigation or worse. Neither is it because we are careless with the 'Enter' key; we care passionately about spelling, punctuation, style and layout here - the 'subtext style guide' plug-in for Microsoft Word has been installed on all of our terminals, and gently guides us away from the worst excesses of bad English with increasingly powerful electric shocks.

No, when an edition of subtext leaves our warehouse we can assure you it looks really gorgeous. All editions are lovingly hand-composited using the labour-intensive old hot-metal and linotype method (the whole operation looks a bit like the Coke Happiness Factory advert made by Psyop - see http://tinyurl.com/yqumru). We carefully select fonts and layouts to suit the piece. You would not believe how lovely a Senate Report looks in copper-plate handwriting. Wallups's World emails are presented in that glowing green Locoscript font that was used on the old Amstrad PCW8256. Sometimes we compose an item like concrete poetry, with paragraphs tailing off like 'The Mouse's Tale' in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Sometimes we manipulate font colours so that alarmingly three-dimensional Magic Eye images of the occupants of D Floor University House loom out from the page. For the last three issues the subtext logo itself has in fact been a witty visual pastiche of the logo for the Subway sandwich chain. And sometimes we just print one big fat character per page, just for fun (1000 point usually does it).

Because, you see, it all matters not a jot, tittle, em or en. After we wave it off tearfully at the warehouse door, each issue has to pass through the maws of the Majordomo mailing list manager, which sends it out to our 800+ readers. The software is well-named: like any good seneschal or bailli defending his fortress, it unceremoniously strips all who enter of any small arms, colour, images, font tags, special characters, indenting or justification; basically, any character is kicked out of them. It then recomposes the text in Courier (you can imagine the glint in its eyes). And finally - just because it can - Majordomo inserts line breaks to cut each line off after a maximum of 70 characters, without anaesthetic, before kicking the issue out the back door in the general direction of your inbox. What a transformation. No legally dodgy parodic logo. No Magic Eye images. No concrete poetry. Just short ranks of monospaced characters lined up neatly down the left side of the page looking like newly shaved army conscripts.

But the story's not over yet. Oh no. Then the issue arrives in your inbox and you view it in a web client like Microsoft Outlook. And Microsoft is a very different operation to Majordomo. It wants to plump up your cushions, get you all comfortable and wish you a nice day. So it tries to take out all the line breaks that that nasty Majordomo has put in, so that the words will 'line wrap' nicely across the screen like happy civilians - none of this military line up affair. But unfortunately its willingness to help is not matched by its competence, so it occasionally leaves in one of Majordomo's new line breaks.

So, dear reader, don't blame us for the rogue line breaks. Look at the top of your issue of subtext. Does it say 'extra line breaks in this message were removed'? Right-click on this message and you get the option to 'restore line breaks'. Do this and you can at least see what it looked like when it left Majordomo's brutal hands. It's just a shame that there's no button to restore all the other visual delights that you're missing.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

GMB Protest

According to the GMB website (see http://tinyurl.com/2esjcq), the Union's planned protest at the Personnel Today Human Resources Awards ceremony in London on 22 November went ahead, despite Lancaster's Professor Paul Sparrow having dropped out from the ceremony. We reported in subtext 29 that the controversy surrounded Professor Sparrow's shortlisting of the Automobile Association's recent restructuring for an award, despite what the Union claims was the unfair targeting of disabled and sick workers for dismissal. Apparently the University of Lancaster contacted the Union to say that, since Professor Sparrow was not now taking part in the ceremony, there was no need to also stage a protest event at the University, as the Union had also threatened. According to the Union, the University also insisted that because Professor Sparrow judged the entries 'blind' he did not know that the entry came from the AA, and that the criteria for the award did not include issues such as industrial relations. The Union reports that 'a date is yet to be fixed for the demonstrations at Lancaster University and GMB has asked the Vice-Chancellor to meet with GMB's disabled members who were sacked by the AA'.

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Professorial Promotions/Pay Review

subtext joins others in congratulating those eleven individuals who have been awarded distinguished professor status. They are: Professors Swapan Chattopadhyay and George Pickett, both physicists; Professors Robert Fildes, David Otley, Ken Peasnell and Cary Cooper from the Management School; Professor Ruth Wodak, Linguistics and English Language; Professors John Urry and Bob Jessop, both sociologists; Professor Peter Diggle, now of the recently formed School of Health and Medicine; and Professor Bill Davies of LEC. More information on all can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2x4j3p.

Such openness is to be welcomed and, after all, we are celebrating international distinction and achievement. We now await the publication of those who have been deemed worthy of Band B (senior professor). See the Senate report below.

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Furness Beer and Cider Festival

The 7th of December sees the opening of the 7th beer and cider festival. Campus socialites and Epicureans alike will be heading in the direction of Furness College Bar to sample some of the 40 real ales and 5 ciders on offer. This very popular annual event commences at 12 noon and continues over the weekend for those with sufficient stamina. An Oompah Band playing in the quad will welcome the first guests.

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New Secretariat website

Readers with a little time to spare might care to browse the new Secretariat web site that went live on 15 November, (http://gap.lancs.ac.uk). The fascination is in seeing what information has been selected to appear, and what withheld, and how current are the minutes of the different bodies. A substitute for all the information previously found in the Staff Handbook it most certainly is not. If this is the best transparency the University can muster, then there is a long way to go.

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Pleasantries and Platitudes

The Vice-Chancellor's recent lunch meeting with College Principals is said to have been a cordial affair, largely because the difficult issues of college space, funding and their general role within the University were avoided. 'Placatory remarks with no understanding of core issues' is how one participant described it. Reassurances were offered and it may be that this is the beginning of a dialogue. The Colleges will have a better chance of exploring what is expected at the forthcoming 'awayday' on 5th December when the VC will be present, at least for part of the time.

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PLEASE DO NOT PRINT

Stop. Don't print this out. As a contribution to environmental sustainability subtext has removed the injunction to 'download and print' from its masthead. So you don't have to do that any more. Just visit us on the website occasionally, that will be fine (or just write now and again, if that's not too much trouble). Far too many trees are being cut down each year to make paper that is used once and then immediately discarded: of the 12.5 million tons of paper produced in the UK every year, 4.4 million tons still ends up in landfill. We should all be trying to reduce this - and at the University we could really be doing much better.

Take cover sheets for example. If you're a student and you print this issue out from an ISS computer lab or the library, sitting on top of your neatly printed copy of subtext in Courier font size 10 will be a cover sheet (no charge). And at the University approximately 600,000 such cover sheets are printed out per annum, at a cost of over £15,000. Hopefully, some of these will be turned into scrap paper, but even so, are they really necessary? If they weren't there, would students really be wandering off with one another's printouts, any more than they might be already?

And what about the paper itself? In the twelve months up to the end of November 2007 the University ordered 33,400 reams of paper for general departmental use across the campus. Each ream contains 500 sheets, and each sheet weighs about 5g. Even a bunch of arts and social science graduates can work out that that's 83.5 tons of paper per year, or nearly 7 tons per month (and that doesn't even include the paper used in the library, the Management School or Folio Print). And how many of those 7 tons do you think consist of recycled paper? The answer is just 1. So if you print in your department, don't be fooled by the bucolic naming of the reams of A4 'Elements' paper that are piled up in your print room. It's all made from virgin pulp – yes, from 'sustainable forests' approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, but still.

Now, there's little excuse for this nowadays. It's no longer the case that recycled paper has to have a texture like Shredded Wheat, or send clouds of harmful dust into the workings of printers and photocopiers. The technology has moved on dramatically in the last decade, and such problems are a thing of the past. Recycled paper can now be produced that is all but indistinguishable in terms of quality from 'grade A', unrecycled paper; many institutions, such as Tesco, BT, Barclay's and the Bank of Scotland, all now use recycled paper as standard.

And now subtext learns that a group of universities belonging, like Lancaster, to the North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium (NWUPC - see http://www.nwupc.ac.uk/) have already switched to using recycled paper. Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, Chester and Stafford have all started to use Ep4, the 80% recycled paper used by Tesco et al., as their default paper, and the Manchester Universities are considering following suit. It's a shame that Lancaster wasn't amongst these 'early adopters', but we clearly ought to join them.

However, there is also another issue about how Consortium can use its combined purchasing power to try to accelerate change in this area. Many universities belonging to NWUPC are generally unhappy with the terms and conditions that the Consortium has negotiated with its paper suppliers. The price charged for paper has risen significantly over the last year – but also questions have been raised about the pricing of recycled paper in particular.

Manufacturing paper from old paper is a slower process than making it from wood chips, so the costs do tend to be higher. But the cost of recycled paper is set artificially high by the paper industry. They treat recycled paper as what economists call a 'Giffen good' – an inferior product which people will buy more of if you inflate its price. In effect, they see paper recycling as a green industry to cash in on, in which consumers' ethico-political values ensure that they will pay premium rates. Thus, if departments switched from standard paper to 80% recycled Ep4 paper, their paper costs would rise by 13% - but if they switched to the 100% recycled 'Evolve' paper, under the current contracts the price rise would be a whopping 23%.

It's clearly time that the Consortium started getting tougher with the paper industry, to try to force the pace of change towards sustainable practices. But in the meantime, remember: subtext is not worth the paper you're thinking of printing it on.

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SENATE REPORT

Senate met on the 21st November at 2pm in the Management School. First, the Vice-Chancellor presented his information on 'matters of significance' in a style that made it very difficult for anyone to comment or ask a question - and no one did. The matters of significance included at least one - implementation of the new professorial pay framework - that could have been expected to prompt questions, but all Senate was told was that 40 professors had been allocated to Band 2 (the group formerly known as 'Senior Professor') and 11 to Band 3 (the 'Distinguished Professor' group). The identity of the latter was subsequently revealed in LU-Text, but nothing more has been officially said about the Band 2 group, though (for example) how they are distributed across the Faculties, and how many are women, are arguably important issues for judging the effects of the new policy.

Senate heard the first question as part of the new system of Senators' questions (there was only one submitted), and this raised an issue of procedure. Initially, Senate had been told that there would be a guillotine to stop extended discussion of any issue raised in this section, and after some discussion in the previous Senate, this was presented as guidance rather than a hard and fast rule of 15 minutes discussion, implying answers would be opened to debate. However, in this meeting, the VC presented the question, invited the University Secretary to give an answer, and asserted that the questioner had the opportunity to ask a supplementary question, with no indication that further questions from other Senators would be recognised. The answer itself was pretty waffly and did not fully address the strategy issue it raised, and the University Secretary in answer to the supplementary question did little more than state that the University is currently considering the appointment of a Director of Marketing (which, incidentally, seems to be causing some tension and debate at University House).

On Section B of the agenda, items thought to require discussion, there was in fact virtually no discussion until the section on 'University policies'. This meant that the process which led to the appointment of the Dean Designate for the School of Health and Medicine was not discussed, although (as emerged in exchanges after the meeting) senior staff who might reasonably have expected to see the internal advertisement of the post had not seen it. The draft policies (Collaborative Teaching Provision, Student Support, Students' Charter and University Faith) were the subject of comments and questions, in the face of discouragement from the Chair (Deputy Vice-Chancellor Bob McKinlay, the VC having left the meeting at 3pm), who took the view that Senate was not the right forum in which to make detailed points about the wording of the documents. Another point made after the meeting was that this was the only opportunity most Senators would have to comment on soon-to-be published policy statements, and that it was therefore entirely appropriate to try to improve the drafts by pointing out errors of fact and obscurities of expression.

It may yet be early days, but there does seem to be some concern that the recently adopted Senate Review Procedures, if they are to be effective, require a more appropriate response from the top table.

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INAUGURATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CUMBRIA

The University of Lancaster was strongly represented on Saturday 24 November at a ceremony to inaugurate the new University of Cumbria at Carlisle Cathedral, and to install Dr Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, as the founding Chancellor. On a wild and cloud-tossed day, the cathedral stone had already acquired its autumnal chill, but the generous space of the chancel and the presence of many guests from all over the region provided an excellent backdrop for the theatre of institutional transition from S. Martin's College and the Cumbria Institute of the Arts (as well as the Cumbrian campuses of the University of Central Lancashire) to a single unified institution.

There were some nice touches. In a long and elaborate ceremony, the insistence of the newly installed Chancellor that those present should applaud the Grant of Arms and the dedication of the Mace, and sing a rousing 'Happy Birthday' to the new university, brought smiles to all faces. There was a deep welcome for an institution that would seek to meet the complex needs of a complex region, and the fusing of the two separate colleges was nicely encapsulated in a deeply felt and fluent speech from Euan Cartwright, the vice-chairman of the new university board but also chairman of the former Cumbria Institute, and in the taking in to the new body the honorary fellows of both colleges. Afterwards a buffet lunch at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery enabled everyone to exchange greetings and congratulations, and to wish the officers of the new university success in the tasks before them.

Marion McClintock

November 2007

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THE PUBLIC ARTS

It has recently become clear that the continuing budgetary squeeze on the public arts at Lancaster is attracting criticism from within and outside the University. It is understood that letters are being written to the Vice-Chancellor by influential external supporters worried at what is happening and questioning the University's commitment to this important, if neglected, area of our activities, within the locality and the region. The VC has established a small group to look at budget-setting arrangements for the public arts. It is due to report to him in December.

The public arts providers - concerts, theatre, art gallery - are of very long standing at Lancaster. The Ruskin Library, with its triple objectives of research, public access and education, came later, organisationally as part of the Library. All the providers offer high quality: the Nuffield Theatre has a tradition of recognition and awards at the Edinburgh Festival, to which it has added two more, as reported in LU Text, the concert series is justifiably termed international, the Peter Scott Gallery has two distinguished collections in-house, as well as strong touring exhibitions, and the Whitehouse Collection at the Ruskin Library is the core repository worldwide of materials relating to John Ruskin and his circle.

Despite these distinguished credentials, and the value the University derives from them, for staff, students and visitors internally, and as part of the institutional reputation in the North West, the original three providers (the Nuffield, Concerts and the Gallery) have a history of being passed round organisationally that extends back well beyond any subtext memory. They are known, after other twists and turns, to have been part of Board D (Humanities) and then became trading accounts for some years. When the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts was set up by Senate, they were included under that umbrella, and hence in the scope of the new FASS. The governance structure for the public arts was the subject of a paper (VC/07/R110) presented to Senate at its recent meeting. One of its recommendations was for a Public Arts Strategy Committee, with a remit to take forward the public arts mission. This is generally to be welcomed. With other proposals it should help solidify the FASS involvement and clear a route for a public arts strategy body accountable to Council.

Perhaps it is the fate of operations like these not to fit easily into any particular structure, but subtext is clear that whatever arrangements are put in place, they should support the public arts, give the professionals in charge the means to run their respective operations, and give them a reasonable take on their future. There should surely, as subtext has heard suggested, be no possibility that at least one of them is now in the second quarter of the current financial year with no agreed budget, considerable uncertainty about staffing, and doubt about the level of service that can be provided. If even a small amount of the sums invested in other forms of brand and reputation around the University were applied to them, they would be better able to carry out their commitments at the high standard we have come to expect and admire so far.

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WALLUPS'S WORLD

FROM: Nigel Wallups, Vice-Chancellor, Lune Valley Enterprise University (LuVE-U)

TO: H.R. Sips, Knowledge Consultancy Services, LuVE-U

SUBJECT: Let's ban learning

Dear Dr Sips,

In committee meetings, one word that has reportedly come up now and then is 'learning'. This word is clearly out of place at a university. So I would like to implement a change: let's ban the word 'learning' at Lune Valley Enterprise University.

We ban this word, cut it out from the dictionary, and remove it from Wikipedia. The word is a relic from another time, before universities were universities. We do not need 'learning' anymore to build and grow. But we do need to replace the word in our promotional materials since punters may expect to see it. Perhaps, instead of 'learning', we could write that we are 'enhancing knowledge potential', 'promoting the future', or 'building consumers for tomorrow'. Better yet, we might use a Latin phrase in place of learning, perhaps as our new motto: 'nemine contradicente' ('with no one speaking against').

Why have learning when we can have a prospering university? Our students should be rewarded as consumers - all good businesses do that. We need to help them do well in a way that helps us do well. What better way to do that than to award more firsts, and more 2:1s? The achievement looks good on our graduates' CVs, and it looks even better in League Tables. And we all know what that means – more money. We can improve performance without improving our teaching, and without any change in student achievement - everyone gains.

If we can simply agree to conduct our business this way - without learning - then there truly would be an esprit de corps at Lune Valley that would be second to none.

Onward and upward. Please set up focus groups and market research studies at once to test the idea.

Yours sincerely

Nigel

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LETTERS

Dear subtext,

May I correct and clarify your piece headed 'Dean of Faculty'? The current situation is that I have been offered the post of Dean of the School of Health & Medicine (not 'Centre for Medical Education', nor a 'Faculty'). This will be announced at Senate next week and is subject to confirmation by Council. Yes, the post was advertised internally. The appointment panel was chaired by the VC, and included the PVC for Research, the three current Heads of Department (of the entities making up the new School), and a Council member. The process was set out in previous Senate papers, and discussed at Senate. The FASS Policy and Resources Committee (PRC) next week has as an item on the process of seeking a new Dean - this is all clearly set out in the Faculty constitution.

Good wishes to you all.

Tony (Gatrell)

Dean, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, 16 November, 2007

[Eds: We apologise for the slip over the name of the new school. We're also happy to be reassured that the advertisement was circulated internally; presumably the Senate senior members to whom we spoke get so many emails that they just didn't spot it.]

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The editorial collective of subtext currently consists (in alphabetical order) of: Lenny Baer, George Green, Gavin Hyman, Bronislaw Szerszynski and Alan Whitaker.