ACADEMIC BOARD MEETING #1/93 3 Feb 1993 [I will attempt to keep this short.] After some of the heat and drama of last year, the first meeting for 1993 returned to the usual levels of pomposity and posturing. The one item from the Faculty was the approval to proceed with the Chairs in the Business Systems and Computer Technology Departments. These were approved after a few words from Professor Bellamy (it is custom for the Dean to speak to such proposals). The only concern was whether the words "Caulfield" and "Clayton" would appear in the Chair titles. They will not. Some of the other items: o a few minutes flurrying over the Open Learning and Year Thirteen initiatives. The latter had popped into existence between AB meetings, and there were the usual howls from the people who prefer that such things only occur after months of discussion and several working party reports. o the (Federal) Opposition's policy on tertiary education was tabled, and a working party of AB was set up to examine it and prepare comments. [Since then the election has been called for 3 days after the next AB meeting, so I suspect our considered comments will not matter much.] o 45 minutes of wrangling over the new approach with the (~$75,000) VC's Research Travel Grant. In the past this was whacked up between all staff going OS to give a paper. Last year it was about $250 per head. DVC Porter has propsed to make larger awards to a smaller number of people. This brought howls of protest from the humanities areas, who claimed that the $250 was the only travel support they ever got from the University. o a promise of an extended discussion period on the principles to be applied to the 1994 budget. Nothing else on the agenda seems worth particular comment. Jim Breen