ACADEMIC BOARD REPORT 7/97 - 22 OCTOBER 1997

Yesterday's Academic Board meeting started out looking as though it would
amazingly brief. The agenda papers were limited (a mere 130 pages), and
only a single item was starred for discussion; the VC's report. The chair,
DVC Lindsay expressed delight at this and asked us not to let discussion
expand to fill the time available.

Board members ignored him, and spent about 80 minutes on the one item.

Docklands. VC Robinson and DVC Darvall spoke at some length about the
proposal from a consortium of Monash, RMIT, VUT and Deakin and a developer
to develop a thingo in the "technology" precinct at the Docklands.
Apparently the consortium was practically the only bidder, and is now the
sole "preferred bidder". It is to be focussed on siting collaborative
ventures, etc. etc.

Zuid Afrika. A bit more detail was revealed about the move into SA. What began
as a foray by the "two Johns" (i.e. Rickards & Rosenberg) looks like
growing into something major, with Monash considering a campus in northern
Johannesburg with a large DE tie-in with a private company already doing a
lot of IT education is SA. It seems to be getting a lot of government
support, as it ties in with rapidly improving the secondary and tertiary
education scene for blacks in SA, especially as the "traditional" leading
universities (Wits, UCT, etc.) seem to be more interested in
asset-stripping the impoverished (formerly blacks-only) universities such as
Fort Hare.

There was the ritual bleating from the Arts Faculty about being left out,
and Dean Quartly listed some of the offerings they had (she mentioned
Cultural Studies and Gender Studies) which were clearly in great demand out 
on the veldt.

Cooperation with Melbourne. The VC revealed that deep and meaningful chats
have been going on between Monash and Melbourne at the VC/DVC level, and a
draft protocol has been prepared for the two Councils to formalize the end
of the "phoney war". He even expressed surprise that people (outside the
universities, of course) had ever formed the impression that things were
tense.  All the time he spoke, DVC Darvall, who 2+ years ago used to
interject: "the Enemy!" whenever you-know-where was mentioned, sat there
nodding and agreeing. Ah well, in these days when the KGB and CIA are
indulging in staff exchanges, anything is possible.

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Time permitting, I thought I'd start appending to each report a brief
pen-portrait of an Academic Board personality, and to kick it off, I'll
start with Professor Louis Waller.

Waller is a Monash institution, and is now approaching retirement. In my
book collection I have, for some obscure reason, the papers of a symposium
held in Wangaratta in 1967 on Ned Kelly. By far the best was by Waller,
who is described, accurately, as a newly-appointed professor at Monash, and
a rising star in the legal world. It is hard to relate that now to the
crusty gentleman who sits in the front row every meeting with a rather
sour expression. (I am reminded of George Reid's famous complaint about
Isaac Isaac's facial expression in the early days of federal parliament.)

Many will know of Waller from the part he has played in the wider
community, chairing studies and reporting on things like In-vitro
fertilization. Within Monash, he led the review which resulted in the
re-establishment of the DVC-Research office a few years ago. He is an
occasional contributor to debates, and everyone shuts up and listens when
he does. I well remember a few years ago when Joe Monaghan was pursuing
Wade and Logan over something, I think it was the legality of holding
graduations off-shore, and Waller weighed in. "Oh", said Joe, "you know
something about law, do you?". Waller's face was a study.

With many of the characters of the past; Day, Linehan, et al. moved on, a
lot of the spark has gone from the Board. When Louis Waller goes, he will
sadly take a large share of its quality.

Jim Breen
23 October 1997

PS: After my last report, I was asked if I kept these documents archived.
I do, and just in case anyone wants to indulge in nostalgia, what would be
more fitting, in a Faculty like ours, that a WWW page for my Academic
Board Reports.  So here it is:

	http://www.dgs.monash.edu.au/~jwb/aca/