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92 14
June 2012 ***************************************************** 'Truth:
lies open to all' ***************************************************** Every
fortnight during term-time. All
editorial correspondence to: subtext-editors [at] lancaster.ac.uk. Please
delete as soon as possible after receipt. Back issues and subscription
details can be found at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/subtext. The
editors welcome letters, comments, suggestions and opinions from readers. subtext reserves the right to edit submissions. subtext does not publish material that is submitted
anonymously, but is willing to consider without obligation requests for
publication with the name withheld. For
tips to prevent subtext from getting swept up into your 'junk email folder',
see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/dejunk/. If
you're viewing this using Outlook, the formatting might look better if you
click on the message at the top saying 'Extra line breaks in this message
were removed', and select 'Restore line breaks'. CONTENTS:
editorial, senate report, senate effectiveness review, Olympic delivery,
classical club night, Katharine Holmes Paintings, Thought for the Fortnight,
letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL It
was only a matter of time before academic institutions began to feel the
combined effects of the current economic malaise and the radical changes to
university finance. Unfortunately it was equally predictable that, in some
institutions, a climate of fear would be generated by managerial tactics and
pronouncements. The
latest of such horror stories concerns The
interviewees will also be asked to give their views on 'motivation'. One
suspects that this category was included by someone with a penchant for
satire. Equally, though, in some quarters the difficulties facing the sector
must seem like a welcome opportunity to embark on a spot of 'creative
destruction'; and the motivation of such individuals is likely to have been
boosted rather than crushed. As explained to subtext, the process at As part
of a campaign to resist the ***************************************************** SENATE
REPORT JUNE 2012 Was
this the shortest Senate we have ever had? Opinions vary but the consensus is
that if timing starts from when Senate actually commenced (2.05) then a new
record in brevity has been set (36 minutes, according to the subtext atomic
clock). The late start was probably due the need to wait until a quorum had
been achieved, as senators were very thin on the ground at 2.00 (no doubt due
to a combination of marking, school half-term and post-Jubilee hangovers).
This is not to say that this Senate was not worthwhile or informative. The
VC continues to impress with his relaxed and down-to-earth style of communication.
He began by thanking those senators whose term of office was coming to an end
for their services to the University. He also made a point of thanking two
senior officers, John Gallagher and Andrew Neal, who are to leave us this
summer (older hands might observe that it's a long time since this happened
in Senate). The
Academic Registrar followed with a paper on the proposed replacement for the
QAA Institutional Audit, the 'risk-based' Institutional Review. Institutions
like Next
on was the Dean for Undergraduate Studies with a brief report on
undergraduate assessment and a preliminary analysis of marking which showed
that this year was pretty much in line with last year. A full report will be
made when all the data has been collected and analysed. Then
we came to what for many was the key item on this very short agenda - a paper
from the VC on the processes for consultation to be followed in exploring the
University's strategic options. He noted that despite the fact that the LLU
proposal was now off the table, the questions and concerns relating to The
consultation mechanisms he proposed – internal meetings on future strategy
with Faculty PRCs, LUSU, Central Services etc, open
'town hall meetings' where staff can quiz the VC, a website to host the
relevant documents with the opportunity for staff to give their feedback,
external consultation with interested parties – signal a very different
approach to the one espoused by his predecessor when LLU first made its
appearance. He assured Senate that the alternative proposals and ideas that
had come from staff as a response to LLU would not be lost in this new
process. Senate was happy to endorse his paper. Finally,
after the approval of some eminently sensible amendments to p/g regulations
proposed by the Dean of Graduate Studies, this Senate came to end, leaving us
all with rather more time on our hands than we had planned for that
afternoon. ***************************************************** SENATE
EFFECTIVENESS REVIEW As
mentioned in subtext 90, the consultation period for the review of Senate
will end on 22 June, rather than 21 May as we originally thought. So those
who are now finishing their exam-marking commitments should have time to
contribute their thoughts on this important issue. The
notice in LU Text 566 confirming the consultation period began with the
ominous words, 'As part of good governance....'.
This phraseology is a familiar way of lulling the unwary into a positive view
of the proposed changes; ideally, it can dissuade the majority of readers
from paying further heed to the subject. However, as we pointed out, there
are (at least) three controversial aspects of the review: 1) There is no satisfactory rationale for any
change to the current composition of Senate, let alone a drastic reduction of
membership from 97 to 59; 2) Heads of Department will no longer be
ex-officio members of Senate, risking the possibility that some departments
will not be represented even when issues which seriously affect them are
under discussion; 3) While the Heads are rolling out, management
is swarming in. The percentage voting power of UMAG will be increased from
around 12 to 20. This suggests that the people who play key roles in drawing
up proposals – but will not necessarily suffer any of their consequences - are
best equipped to decide about their suitability. There
is no reason for anyone to doubt the Vice-Chancellor's declared commitment to
consultation; but this only makes the proposed changes more unsettling, and
increases the incentive for colleagues to set a healthy precedent by seizing
this opportunity to make their views known. The full consultation document is
available at https://gap.lancs.ac.uk/Governance/SenateEffectivenessReview/Pages/default.aspx ***************************************************** CLASSICAL
CLUB NIGHTS Regular
attenders at the International Concert Series in
the Great Hall, especially those who look down on the body of the hall from a
balcony seat, can't help noticing the high proportion of grey heads in the
audience. The artists and the
performances are excellent, but few young people are being attracted to come
and listen. This is of course common at classical music concerts across the country, and indeed in other countries too. It raises concerns for the future of the There
is evidence that it's the formality of the concerts, rather than the music,
that puts young people off. A growing number of classical musicians are now
performing not only in conventional concerts, where audiences sit silent and
immobile in rows, but also at classical club nights which are generally much
more informal: often the venues for these are jazz clubs. The performers tend to be closer to the
members of the audience, they talk beforehand about the pieces they are going
to play, and often they stay on for a drink afterwards. The performers seem
to love all of this: see for example the Wikipedia entry for Limelight, the
classical club night at Some
of the concerts in this year's Great Hall series have in fact had some of the
features of the club scene. One such was the evening with the Brodskys (reviewed in subtext 88), where the four players
sat on a podium surrounded by the audience, the programme
was chosen before our very eyes by a kind of roulette wheel, and the items
selected were then introduced by a member of the quartet before they were
performed. Members of the audience of all ages seemed to enjoy this evening,
so there would seem to be no reason to fear that a less formal atmosphere
would offend the existing audience, although there may be no certainty that
it would deliver a new one. It
has been pointed out, for example in an article for BBC Music magazine by
Richard Morrison, music critic of The Times, that having audiences sit in sepulchre-like silence is a fairly recent phenomenon. The
aristocratic patrons of Mozart and Haydn would probably have chattered away
while their symphonies were being played, and in ***************************************************** DELIVERING
THE OLYMPICS: LECTURE BY SIR JOHN ARMITT The
London Olympics will involve 36 different sports. Special venues for many of
these have had to be designed and built from scratch, at the East London
Olympic site or elsewhere. Before any
of this could start, over 100 businesses operating on the Faced
with the task of appointing a chairman for the Delivery Authority for all
this, with a strictly limited time of six years to do it, probably not many
of us would select the former Chief Executive of Network Rail. But that was
the most recent employment history of Sir John Armitt
when he took on the chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority in 2006. In his
lecture last week to the Faculty of Science and Technology, he gave a
presentation which convinced at least this member of his audience that the
Authority will in fact succeed in getting everything ready for the opening
ceremony of the London Olympics in 43 days' time, and what is more it will
have done it within the (admittedly enormous) budget. Possibly more
important, the legacy of the London Olympics should on balance be beneficial
to the With
disarming humour, Sir John described the major
factors in this project, from the But
the London Olympic Delivery project appears to have gone well - so much so
that the organisers of the 2016 Rio Olympics have
been almost camped out in ***************************************************** KATHARINE
HOLMES PAINTINGS If
you should find yourself near the town of The
Gallery is run by Mary Gavagan, former director of
the ***************************************************** THOUGHT
FOR THE FORTNIGHT (for those who missed it in the Guardian): 'The
idea of "teacher knows best" is looking back to a time when
teachers did know best' – 'Student Engagement Co-ordinator'
at According
to the same article (by Harriet Swain, 11 June), the new Quality Code for
Higher Education includes an expectation that 'higher education providers
take deliberate steps to engage students, individually and collectively, as
partners'. Some members of the subtext collective vaguely recall hearing that
this kind of thing was quite common in the 1960s, but surely there would be
disciplinary implications if we revived the tradition? ***************************************************** LETTERS Dear
subtext, I
share the concern expressed by UCU in a recent circular that proposals for
Senate reform create an imbalance in membership. However, I am troubled by
its suggestion that this means that, in diminishing the Heads of Department
numbers, there will be a bias toward 'management' among those remaining. It feels
to me, as Head of Department, that I am some kind of manager, and what we do
in departmentland is deliver what the university is
for - teaching, reasearch, third
mission. It is of note that in UCU's US equivalent,
the American Association of University Professors, a new slate of candidates
under the banner 'AAUP Organizing for Change' has just been elected to its
leadership (google it, folks). Not only does their
manifesto seek to protect collective bargaining and academic freedom. There
is a strong commitment to 'shared governance' of universities. In naming our
administrative friends and colleagues the 'university management' UCU
concedes too much of its members' authority in this respect. Bill
Cooke, Organisation Work and Technology ******* Dear
subtext, I
feel that many congratulations to the university are in order, for their most
excellent banquet of cafeteria tea and sandwiches in Ronnie
Rowlands ******* Dear
subtext, RE:
the latest subtext revelation about LUMS in Interesting
to note that LUMS' 'strategic partner' in this adventure is MSB consulting,
whose MD is an alumnus (http://www.msbconsultancy.com/our-people/managing-directors/don-porter/)
who also features at number 22 in this list: http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/2009/01/search-for-1-20.html. Many
thanks for drawing the google potentialities to my
attention. And
long may my cave, I mean the underpass remain closed
to the public. Keep
trip-trapping Trina
Troll (PhD). ******* Dear
subtext, Can
anyone suggest a sensible reason for the distance between the medical centre
and the pharmacy in Bailrigg House? Magnus
George Entrepreneurship,
LUMS ***************************************************** The
editorial collective of subtext currently consists (in alphabetical order)
of: Mark Garnett, George Green, David Smith, Bronislaw Szerszynski and Martin
Widden. |
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