This issue primarily contains talks presented at the annual meeting in Bellingham, Washington. Since some of our members could not attend, we hope to share with them some of the flavor of that meeting. For those who were there we hope that it will bring back pleasant memories of an enjoyable weekend. Erni Newbrun, Executive Director, is doubling as Editor for this issue and would welcome any offers from interested journalists willing to help prepare the newsletter. Phone him at (415) 731-7421 and make him an offer.
Enclosed is a slip for you to write your name. Please send it with a cheque for $25 (U.S. currency please) to cover annual dues, if you have not already done so for this year. This barely covers the cost of the three newsletters and a T shirt for paid-up members. It will make Gillian Beattie, our treasurer, very happy!
(Presented by Prof. Derek Anderson, Deputy Vice- Chancellor, University of Sydney.)
To set the scene for this brief "state of the nation report," I need to summarise some of the consequences of the changes wrought on the Australian higher education system in the wake of John Dawkins' (1987-91) occupation of the federal higher education portfolio.
The pressures on the University following the conclusion of WW II hostilities -- the student population in 1947 jumped virtually overnight from 3,000 to 10,000 -- were as nothing compared with the impact of the Dawkins-inspired institutional amalgamations in 1989. In that year the enrollment grew from 19,000 to more than 30,000 students, and the number of faculties increased to seventeen with the inclusion (from the old CAE sector) of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Sydney College of the Arts, the Institute of Education and (most recently) the Orange Agricultural College. The University of Sydney is now a significantly large and complex educational enterprise, with about 30,000 students, more than 2,500 academic staff, nearly 3,000 support staff and a (1995) consolidated budget of $A534M.
Following the initial round of amalgamations, which saw an original 19 universities expand into a so-called Unified National System of 36 public universities, each university had to negotiate its enrolment profile with the federal Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET, now DEETYA with the recent addition to the portfolio of Youth Affairs.)
The Department created a Relative Funding Model, designed to produce a financially 'level playing field' across the sector, which substantially disadvantaged older and generally research-active universities. Other governmental initiatives included three annual (1993-95) rounds of a Quality Assurance exercise; a greater emphasis on public accountability for government-based funding; and merit and equity targets to be achieved. These bureaucratic imperatives initiated a further shift from collegially-based decision-making to a greater emphasis on managerialism, fuelled further by an industrial relations environment with an employer (read Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee) organisation (the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association, AHEIA) negotiating at a national level with the principal academic union (the National Tertiary Education Union, NTEU.) Not least, a national review, the Hoare Report, on institutional governance and management has raised questions about the composition of governing bodies and the efficiency of current management structures in universities.
If the University of Sydney felt the sea-change of its external environment was putting it under considerable pressure, its self-made internal environment was not running far behind. The University engaged the Boston Consulting Group in 1992 to review the effectiveness of its central administration, a review that led to the assignment of each faculty to one of four academic groups (Arts & Humanities, Health Scinces, the Professional Faculties and the Sciences), each supported by devolved administrative support services. The review also saw the 'downsizing' of much of themiddle management in the central administration, but for all the review-engendered activity and loss of morale, the significant savings forecast by the Boston Group have yet to be substantially achieved.
Moreover, any increased efficiency emanating from the review did nothing to prevent the University severely under-enrolling for two consecutive years, which led to it being 'fined' by DEET for breaking a negotiated enrolment 'contract'.
Creating a transparent consolidated budget in which revenue matches the strategically agreed objectives of the University has required a major consultative and insightful effort from the recently formed Budget Advisory Committee. Enterprise bargaining, in which salary and wage justice cannot be supported from current income streams, has emphasised yet again the importance of generating new discretionary revenue streams to fulfil the University's stated strategic goals.
Not the least important internal pressure faced by the University was the sudden resignation in mid-1995 of Vice-Chancellor Don McNicol, and the consequent quest undertaken by the Senate to secure a replacement when several other Australian universities were competing simultaneously for chief executive officers. (In the event our new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gavin Brown, a Scottish mathematician and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, took up duty on 1 July 1996. His inaugural address can be located on the University's WWW Homepage.)
Notwithstanding the turbulence and uncertainty the University has faced in recent time, it has made great strides in positioning itself as an internationally renowned research-active university for the twenty-first century.
Despite a minor hiccup in the outcome of the first Quality Assurance round, it was the only University in the country to have its teaching programs described as 'outstanding' and overall gained the greatest sum (ca. $A12M) of total quality funds distributed to any one institution. The rolling triennial consolidated budget and the associated Capital Management Program have both become properly strategic exercises, focussing on commonly agreed goals and action plans designed to achieve development of a research-intensive, postgraduate training institution built on an exemplary undergraduate base.
The University is one of three Australian institutions to introduce from 1997 a graduate medical degree. Other developments include a raft of double degree programs which permit students to embrace disciplinary combinations such as commerce or engineering together with languages; specifically tailored scientific programs which are available to aspiring environmental or medical scientists; and the Master of Teaching which provides a unique program for budding educators.
International education is flourishing, with 1800 students from 86 different countries outside Australia now enrolled in Sydney. A growing twinning relationship is in place with Malaysian partners through the Kolej Antarabangsa (International College) located in Penang, where students can enrol for half their B.Com. or B.Ec. program, or a complete MBA or MIntS degree course.
The Australian Technology Park at Eveleigh (adjacent to Redfern Station), in which the University holds a one-third partnership with two other Sydney-based universities, is already flourishing as an incubator site for new Australian technologies. More traditional research activity has been boosted by a decision to invest an additional $A21M over the next five years in encouraging senior academic visitors, post-doctoral fellows and post-graduate students to undertake their studies in Sydney.
While the University has turned a significant corner in many respects, it continues to face many challenges, not least under the new Coalition government that came to power in March. The Howard ministry was quick to discover a significant black hole in the casting of the 1996-97 federal budget, and the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Senator Vanstone, has been quick to emphasise that the higher education sector must contribute to the savings necessary to plug this gaping hole. The introduction of a three-tiered HEC Scheme will almost certainly dampen demand for university-level education, restricting therefore the likely utility of introducing (the now legally permissible) domestic fee-paying students from 1997 onwards. Cutbacks of 5% in operating grants over the next triennium, notably in the absence of any salary supplementation, will almost certainly lead to significant industrial action and possible large-scale staff redundancies.
These issues and remaining problems all acknowledged, the University can be said to be examining itself in a constructive way and is increasingly focussing on what needs to be done to position the University most effectively for the new millennium. The Academic Board has been reviewed and will shortly take on its new mantle as the principal academic advisory body to the Senate and Vice-Chancellor. The current Academic Groups are likely to be transformed shortly into a series of Academic Colleges with devolved budgetary responsibility and administrative support services, charged to maximise their fitness to meet the inevitable challenges ahead. Already a member of the 'Group of Eight' research-differentiated Australian universities, the University of Sydney is determined to play a significant leadership role in the fast evolving domain of international higher education.
In creating and expanding that leadership role, the University will need to develop significant partnerships and alliances to foster its manifold contributions to the communities it must continue to serve, including the education of the best minds of the cohorts of each generation as well as maintaining its fundamental obligations to scholarship, research and technology transfer.
The University regards its alumni as one of the principal constituencies to engage in such partnerships, and I very much hope SUGUNA will continue to support and involve itself in the University's affairs as it seeks to create a prosperous and rewarding future for all its students, past and present; its staff; and members of the many communities on which it so heavily depends.
With respect to the past we have enjoyed five years of dedicated leadership by Dr. Bill Lew from 1990 to 1995, we have weathered the transition to a new "administration" consisting of myself as Execitive Director, Gillian Beattie as Secretary/Treasurer and Gerry Bassell as Editor of our Newsletter. We are here to stay irrespective of who Are the officers of SUGUNA. Our current paid membership is about 70 which is of some concern as many more are receiving the Newsletter, at least once a year, and our membership dues are not covering the considerable cost of printing and mailing and sending the annual T shirts from the retreat to paid members.
We are proud of our alma mater, the last issue of the Sydney University Gazette featured : "1996: Our Graduates Lead the Nation" namely John Howard (Ll.B. '61) elected Prime Minister, Sir William Deane (B.A. '51, LL.B.'54) appointed Governor-General, Dr. John Yu (M.B., B.S.'65) Chief Executive of Children's Hospital at Weastmead selected Australian of the Year and Justice Michael Kirby (B.A.'59, LL.B.'62, B.Ec.'66, LL.M.'67) appointed to the High Court where he joins to other SYdney University Graduates. In addition the Federal Government quality review placed the University of Sydney in the top band for research outcomes, research management processes and research improvement.
On my way to Bellingham Edith Lew (Bill's perspicacious wife) warned me that every organization has a bony skeleton consisting of four types of bones including:
What about the future of SUGUNA? We need to be more than a "club" for annual retreats at nice locations with golf courses and tennis courts. We need to reach out to younger graduates, to host/mentor visiting graduate students and post-docs from the University of Sydney by net working. We need to have regional meetings for dinner or lunch for those who cannot afford to travel very far or have young families and cannot spend a whole weekend away from them. We need to reach out via new connections, make use of the World wide web/ internet, but the bottom line is still personal contact. If everyone of you here were to contact five alumni friends who are not currently paid up members and ask them to join or rejoin, we would be on a firmer financial footing. To boost attendance at our meetings we need to encourage our friends to come also and most importantly to actually participate. We have many outstanding alumni here in North America who are aware of the reputation and influence of Sydney University and who would like to identify with it. Let's get them involved.
I chose to go to the conference in Bellingham for a number of reasons. These included seeing another part of the continent, enjoying some stimulating presentations, and renewing some friendships made at previous SUGUNA get-togethers. The underlying reason, however, was to link up again with the university that made such an impact on my life in the six years I spent there in the sixties. By "link up," I mean to learn what is going on now at Sydney University and what is planned for its future. Certainly Derek Anderson (Deputy Vice Chancellor) and Sylvia Bell (Director of Community and Alumni Relations) were illuminating in this regard
As a veterinarian I try to keep up with ideas/approaches in my chosen profession by attending a couple of conferences and a number of seminars each year. However, there is something to be said for putting the multi-disciplinary event on one's agenda. For much the same reason I am member of a local business group made up of various professions. I enjoy learning about concepts in areas other than my own specialized realm.
The SUGUNA conference delivers this in full measure at both the presentations and in the camaraderie at the social and sporting events. Those of you considering a thought provoking (and fun) minibreak in'97 -- come to Ottawa, Canada.
Bellingham, Washington, on the active seismic rim of the Pacific Ocean Basin, has a long geological history of active tectonic movements dating back more than 250 million years. This activity is the result of the accretion of large masses of eastward moving oceanic plateaus and island arc ridges which were pushed against and incorporated onto the outer edge of the westward moving North American plate. Much of the gold production from the western part of the North American Cordilleran originates from finely disseminated gold in the oceanic sediments and associated basic volcanics in these accreted terranes.
The story is complicated by the asymmetrical stress fields which have resulted because the North American plate and several Pacific Basin plates are colliding at different angles so that, because of the irregular shape of North America, parts of the collision are oblique and other parts are more nearly at 180�. This accounts for the lateral shear of the San Andreas fault system which has saltations, or jumps in its displacement, with very large magnitude earthquakes encompassing meters of surface displacement, in contrast to the deeper, nearly vertical overriding shear forces to the north in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, which have more frequent, but usually less strong earthquake forces.
As the accretionary process is ongoing, the audience was warned of possible earthquake activity during their stay in Bellingham. They were reminded, however, that historically, major Bellingham earthquakes have been in the range of 5.0 to 5.5 (Richter Scale) but are not expected to be catastrophic. Australians are known to have adjusted well to this environment.
Each year SUGUNA recognizes members who have made distinguished contributions in the broad fields of science and human endeavors. At the SUGUNA meeting in Bellingham this year,Professor Ron Bracewell was made the 1996 awardee. Prof Bracewell has been the Lewis M.Terman Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University California since 1974. Ron Bracewell obtained a B.E. ('42) and an M.E. ('48) from the University of Sydney and obtained his Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1949. He has been on the Stanford faculty since 1955 and has received numerous honors and recognition, including the University of Sydney's inaugural Alumni Award (1992) for Community Service.
In many ways, Ron Bracewell's accomplishments capture typical Australian characteristics of independence, versatility and innovation. His early research work in radio astronomy that involved reconstructing astronomical images was so significant that it was adopted for use with medical CAT scanners. The CAT scanner has entered mainstream medical practice as a vital new diagnostic tool. In 1992, Ron was elected to the Institute of Medicine (not engineering!) of the US National Academy of Science, becoming the first Australian to achieve that distinction. He was also awarded in 1994 the IEEE Heinrich Hertz Medal "For pioneering work in antenna aperture and image reconstruction as applied to radio astronomy and to computer assisted tomography".
One of Ron's crowning achievements was delivery of the 15th BUNYAN LECTURE in Stanford University's Astronomy Program February 27, 1996. The purpose of the annual BUNYAN lectures - normally given by an invitee from outside the University - is "to contribute to the spreading of knowledge about cosmology, by encouraging original research into the nature of the Universe and into the origins and destiny of man, and by making available the results of that research to a wide audience." Past contributors have been Carl Sagan from Cornell, world renown in his work in understanding of cosmology .
Ron's peers at Stanford University broke precedent by inviting him ( as a non-outsider and close to his 75th birthday) to give the 1996 BUNYAN LECTURE on the daunting subject : "THE DESTINY of MAN". It is encouraging for us that Ron's truly insightful analysis of this subject predicted an optimistic, if uncertain, prognosis for the destiny of man.
Ron Bracewell's current interests are in continuing community service by seeking to increase public awareness of scientific knowledge, especially in finding ways to include scientific knowledge into political decision making, from international forums down to local communities.
Having learned of the serious financial difficulties now facing the University from Professor Derek Anderson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, members of SUGUNA were reminded by Phillip Smith, Chairman of the University of Sydney, USA Foundation, that the Foundation's Annual Appeal will soon be mailed to all North American alumni. The Annual Appeal offers graduates and friends an opportunity to indicate their preferences for support and provides much needed funding for the University and its students. The Foundation can provide US tax deductibility and is fully registered with the IRS as a charitable (501(c)(3)) organization. Deductibility for Canadian taxpayers is also granted.
Other opportunities for giving to the Foundation include gifts of appreciated assets with the possible establishment of life income arrangements for the donor and the saving of capital gains taxes.
We recommend that anyone with questions about a gift to the Foundation should contact either Phillip Smith at (412) 963-7910 or John Semmler (foundation Secretary) at (607) 277-8860. You may write to them c/o 102 Haverford Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238-1620.
SUGUNA and the Foundation hope you will consider a gift this year when you receive your 1996 Annual Appeal mailing.
Frank Poyas Ph.D. ('95 in Australian /New Zealand history at University of Sydney) at Pennsylvania State University operates the official www Virtual Library for both Australia and New Zealand. Thanks to Frank's good offices SUGUNA is now on the internet. Our address is http://cac.psu.edu/~fbp1/suguna (note it is the number "one" after fbp not the letter "l"). You can browse on our page for an alphabetic listing of current members with their degrees and city and zipcode address, announcements (such as the next year's meeting site), past NewsLetters , etc. From our page you can also open the "University of Sydney News" which is published 44 times per year and includes articles about teaching, research and administration as well as feature articles. You can read about "What's on in Sydney" and if so inclined can even access The Sydney Morning Herald
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