ACADEMIC BOARD MEETING - 7 JUNE 1995

A fairly quiet meeting today; over in 75 minutes with no excitement to
speak of.

The meeting began with the VC reading a statement he had issued about a
news report in today's Australian about an alleged misconduct
investigation. His statement said that the University regretted the
report, some aspects of the report were wrong, and all due processes
under the University's statutes and the appropriate industrial Award were
being followed.

We approved 6 people to form the "Gang of 5" to meet the Chancellor to
discuss the selection of the Next VC. Mal's original list (which
included Phil Steele) was all-male, so a female was included.

DVC Darvall reported on research matters, including some (mainly
medical) success stories. He & Mal also briefed us on the preparation
for the next Quality round.

The brouhaha over Monash Mt Eliza's Overseas MBA grinds on, with the
Minister having rejected the Statute establishing it. Much tooing and
froing with the Minister's office and the MME Board, and it appears that
new documentation and agreements which make Monash's control of the
program and quality more apparent will do the trick. Perhaps not a bad
outcome.

Mal tabled a "Directions for the Future" document for discussion. He
pointed out that it was produced largely because people outside the
University expected us to have such a beastie. I felt it was 35 pages of
parenthood and apple pie, but a couple of points caught attention, such
as comments along the lines of research concentrated at Clayton and
Caulfield/Peninsular/Gippsland having a "links to the region" focus, and
a section on Information & Data Services full of future gee-whizzes, many 
of which have been available for 5-6 years.

Comments are to be in in the next week. There as no real discussion of
the document, so it is best if people respond directly to Elizabeth
Anderson.

Mal announced the rough breakup of the '94 Quality money ($4.85M), and
as Cliff predicted DITS gets the lions' share, which includes $300K for 
modems (long overdue.) $2M less some slice for the MDF is up for
research/education projects nominated by Deans.

According to the Returning Officer's report, FCIT had no nominations
for its two non-professorial vacancies for the coming two-year term.
These vacancies will now be filled by our Faculty Board. John Crossley
was elected un-opposed to the professorial vacancy. (Only 16 of the 46
vacancies were filled, so we are entirely average in our lack of
response.)

Back to your marking/paper-writing/whatever.

Jim Breen
7 June 1995