Ballarat title has noses out of joint

The University of Ballarat featured in the Higher Education section of The Australian on April 21, 2010 over a current hot potato, academic titles. Assoc. Prof. Jeremy Smith (from our School and champion of the NTEU), is concerned that gifting TAFE heads with the academic title of Assoc. Pro dimishes the pursuit of the academic pathway. VC Prof. David Battersby responded by stating that "it is unclear to me how any of these actions diminishes the the importance of the associate professor title".

Prof. Battersby has also responded to this issue in his VC's Blog. The entry is titled 'The Role of the Head of School' (April 21, 2010). It's certainly worth reading in conjunction with the Higher Ed story, as Battersby takes the time to unpack Senior Management's rationale for such a move - an opportunity he doesn't get in the Higher Ed. Having said that, Jeremy Smith's points amount to little but a soundbite and I wonder if this issue will be followed up by the Higher Ed community.

I've tried to link in with the VC's Blog previously, but as it is strictly an internal access blog, I am unable to place it in the right hand coloumn of Noteworthy Blogs in BSSH Bloggers (which is an external blogger site). I suggest people book mark it in their favourites to keep abreat of developments at UB. Meanwhile, here's the link to the piece in the Higher Ed:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/ballarat-titles-have-noses-out-of-joint/story-e6frgcjx-1225856114245

Overhead projectors & other Extinction Level Events

An extinction level event is usually classified as a catastrophic disaster in which the world as we know it is altered beyond our ability to survive the changes, indeed beyond the ability of other biologicals to survive the changes (and yes, I did make that word up). Think Tunguska and the end of dinosaurs and the subsequent arrival of the Ice Age. OK, yes, I am prone to exaggeration on the point of overhead projector removal at the University of Ballarat, and I haven't adequately demonstrated my rather tenuous link with extinction level events, but, hey, it seems like no one else in the University is listening to the people who still use these in classrooms. I'm not alone, I know of at least..er...one other staff member in my School who uses them on a regular basis. I feel like a dinosaur, a dinosaur waiting for the meteor strike. I'm a dinosaur on the edge!

Antiquated they might be (the overhead projectors, not dinosaurs like me) compared to mobile technologies but when you're modelling PHILO 1002 Logic & Reasoning on the fly, and have interactive lectures and tutorials in which student information needs to be added as you demonstrate, the old fashioned overhead projector is a winner. Plus I love using those snazzy coloured markers.

It's a technology that is already present, that is, you don't have to buy what you've already bought. It's reasonably reliable too, that is...if the bulb works, if the arm is still attached, if the power cord is still attached, if someone hasn't nicked off with it (like someone did 5 mins prior to my tutorial in week 5 - even though I had a legible A4 note on the glass plate) and if someone hasn't written all over the whiteboard with permanent marker...and done nothing about it. Ho-hum, back to the drawing board.

UB Pulse: tachycardia or myocardial infarction?

It's a good effort...if we were in the secondary school sector or possibly even TAFE. Oh wait, we are! The UB Pulse staff survey website promises to maintain a good working relationship, that staff feedback is needed, and that the results will be used to accurately gauge all manner of maladies and lead to action. I've mentioned previously that I'm teaching Logic & Reasoning this semester. Naturally, fortuitously, perhaps even ironically, this week's topic on hidden premises seems relevant to claims of UB having a pulse. There are, however, rules to attributing hidden premises, and they are firstly that one should do so only when the argument is either weak, completely invalid or utterly mysterious without attribution of the hidden premise; secondly, when attributing the hidden premise improves the argument's validity (an appeal to the Principle of Charity); and lastly, when there is reason to think that the author believes the hidden premise.

Take a look at the claims made above (taken from the web site's front page) and spot the hidden or implicit premises at work. Having spotted a number of hidden premises on the front of the survey, and having filled in a number of previous staff surveys over the last five years and seen little genuine effort to address serious issues, I'm not exactly filled with confidence about what this new survey might bring. And I'm not game enough to start unpacking whether it's all about UB having a pulse or the staff having a pulse. I'll leave that up to you to decide. Let's assume that something in/of the University has a pulse, and this is a survey about the state of that pulse. That way, we remain civil, if not collegial.

Now I know you're not enrolled in Logic & Reasoning (although you could if you really wanted to. Alternatively, you could gift someone else in the University with an enrollment, say, someone in Senior Management?) so, back to the survey. I might be guaranteed anonymity in filling the survey out as the FAQ page assures me, but I can't return and add things to the list. If I do, I'm told that I've already filled the survey out. I get one shot and one shot only to list and describe UB's strengths and weaknesses (only three of each?).

In my survey opportunity - throwing anonymity to the wind, given we have such a poor budget for it anyway - I griped about the heavy centralisation of IT generally, and the abysmal UB web presence specifically. I'm convinced that Ian Wright and his team are fighting with one arm tied behind their backs on this. UB's website is just plain embarrassing. Staff information is grossly out of date, crucial information is absent, and this is unacceptable given that a regional university such as UB is super reliant on what should be a formidable Internet presence in the highly competitive HE market.

I also commented quite freely on the lack of diversity in food choices on campus (another no-no when encouraging International students or acknowledging that many staff are vegetarian, coeliac or kosher), and I put a plug in for gardeners. With such a beautiful semi-bush location for our Mt Helen campus, why don't we have gardeners, horticultural students or our sustainability mob looking after and planting native vegetation - such efforts would employ locals, demonstrate a commitment to the workplace as habitat (for all manner of creatures, including undergraduates and staff) that has moral worth, and surely have a number of positive impacts on well being. The grounds, as they are, are positively slovenly. I'm confident that organising staff/student busy bees in conjunction with state/council re-vegetation programmes would be a successful endeavor.

I do like the health metaphor, it's just that I don't know whether UB's pulse will be gravitating towards tachycardia or the inevitable myocardial infarction we all dread given the current climate (not limited to UB, of course). At the bottom of the survey is the disclaimer that states "If we don't hear from you, we can only assume that your pulse rate is perfect". I wonder what you will be suggesting in your valuable feedback on UB Pulse? Will you be asking for a better security presence on campus (given we now start work earlier and finish later)? Better lighting in the car parks? Get your skates on and fill in (another) survey. Go on, you know its good for you!

http://www.ubpulse.com.au/

May Book Group

This coming month on May 9th, we meet to tackle a larger chunk of Ulysses. In the older Penguin edition we're reading until p. 425; in the newer Penguin edition, read until p. 561. We finish just prior to the passage beginning "The Mabbot Street entrance of nighttown" . We commence at 2:00pm at The Known World bookshop in Sturt St, where the coffee machine is back on and the hot chocolate can hold its own.