ACADEMIC BOARD REPORT #4 - 2 JUNE 1999 [Before beginning the report on last week's meeting, two short comments: (a) many thanks for re-electing me (unopposed) to the Board for another two years; (b) in my last report I asked if the Library's Annual Report was available online. Hans Groenewegen has provided the URL: (http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/annualreports/1998/). Thanks Hans.] The meeting last week had an unusually brief agenda (only 157 pages), and surprised everyone by actually being short; only 66 minutes. Before we got down to business, the chair, DVC Alan Lindsay welcomed a smattering of new members, and farewelled outgoing members, singling out Bill Melbourne (Mech. Eng.) and Louis Waller (Law), who were leaving after a long membership. In fact Louis had already resigned and been replaced (he retires at the end of next year, making our own John Crossley the most senior occupant of the professorial stud-book. Hang in there, John.) The meeting proper began with the Vice-Chancellor presenting "Leading the Way", i.e. the next edition of the Monash Plan. As he said in his introduction, it is much broader than earlier planning documents as it attempts to set direction for the next 20 years. A copy of the "exposure draft" is available on the WWW (PDF file) at http://www.monash.edu.au/monashplan/ Picking out a few phrases, one sees: "strategic alliances with other leading educational institutions" and "increasingly internally differentiated". Then it was open for debate, except we all sat there like the proverbial stunned mullets. After a slightly embarrassed silence, Alan moved on down the Agenda. The VC then spoke of his recent trip overseas: - a Board meeting in KL of the Malaysian operation. Mostly inconsequential except that there was agreement that the name "Sunway" needed to be dropped, as it was causing some confusion with the private Sunway College. Also, there was a clear need to strengthen the postgraduate activity in KL, particularly as this would make it clear that Monash's presence was as a real university; not another twinning program. - a meeting in London of the Menzies Centre. This is currently housed at the ICS, and the VC signed an MOA which would see it move to King's College. As this received $5M in the recent Federal budget, and Monash is a major player in the Centre, the VC is keen to see it as focus of Monash's expansion into Europe. - a meeting in Paris of the European Union/Australia contact group. The VC was in the Australian delegation led by Tim Fischer, and the European delegation was led by Sir Leon Britton. In discussion on these points, the VC spoke of the UK and Germany as being the logical places for Monash to concentrate in Europe, with something starting up in Potsdam (and another near Florence, which I don't recall as being in either the UK or Germany.) Then on to the day's Future Directions Report (previously known as the Faculty Annual Reports.) This time it was John Rosenberg, who gave a very upbeat speech which received a round of applause. (Are copies of the report available on the WWW, John?) He concluded with telling points that we, as the fastest-growing Faculty, were not receiving our share of space, and that the funding formula was not reflecting the nature of our work. Good stirring stuff, and supported by comments from other faculty members. A few questions: Henry Wu asked what MITI's role would be in research - it's to concentrate initially on education services, and build up contacts. Alan Lindsay kept throwing in one-liners about how exciting and relevant the LTOP was to all this, but mercifully no-one took much notice of him. That's it. It was over. We were allowed out. Jim Breen June 1999