[Prev][Next][Index]
INKYTEXT 187
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
III N N K K Y Y TTTTTTT EEEEEEE X X TTTTTTT
I N N N K K Y Y T E X X T
I N N N KKK Y T EEEEE X T
I N N N K K Y T E X X T
I N NN K K Y T E X X T
III N N K K Y T EEEEEEE X X T
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
ISSUE No 187 ESTABLISHED 1993 TUESDAY 3 DECEMBER 1996
LANCASTER - LONDON - PARIS - VIENNA - NEW YORK - TORONTO - MELBOURNE - TOKYO
Vancouver Oxford Cambridge Bristol Nottingham Brighton Sheffield Leeds Berkeley
Keele Loughborough Port-Moresby Blackburn Marburg Casuarina Bangkok Olympia(Wa)
Guildford Bradford Boulder(Co) Ambleside Urbana Wellington(NZ) Preston Perpignan
Stoke Stamford(Ct) Milton Keynes Rastatt Liverpool Trieste Canberra High Wycombe
Northwich Wollongong Jersey Cowes (IOW) Ripon York Edinburgh Middlesbrough Derby
Northampton Portsmouth PaloAlto Derby Exeter Cambridge(Mass) Brasilia Wetherby
Drayton Valley Bangor Wilmslow Southampton Reading Glasgow Stanford Basingstoke
Farnborough Coventry Hong Kong Manchester Wolverhampton Stevenage Johannesburg
Riyadh Ormskirk Guangzhou Dublin Sacramento Hobart Birmingham Ingleton Durham
Mauritius Isle of Cumbrae Oslo Malvern Pisa Hull Norwich Montserrat Miami Geneva
Sydney Heidelberg Palmerston North Stockton-on-Tees Washington (DC) Rennes
Toowoomba Ferrara Auckland Cheltenham Cardiff Kyoto Bracknell Pittsburgh Hawai'i
1108 SUBSCRIBERS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please address all correspondence to InkyText@lancaster.ac.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AGENDA
Minutes, Amendments and Matters arising
1. Editorial: The Advent of Optimism
2. News: Council, new Deputy Pro-Chancellor, SU elections
3. Ian Wilkinson and Louise Young: Images of Pomland (Part I)
4. Small Ads: Car, Concerts, Transcendental Meditation, MUSTANG
5. Readers' Letters: Nutritious
MINUTES, AMENDMENTS AND MATTERS ARISING
---------------------------------------
Mr Brian Heron is 63 not 66.
The Carol Service next Sunday is at 6.00 not 6.30. The Chaplains
apologize for their error.
Network downtime has been postponed to Tuesday 10th December, 0800 to
1000.
Staff losses mean computer reception is now staffed from 9.15 to 16.45
only, with closures for lunch after the end of term.
Our baby-milk correspondent corrects his previous figure: the BMA ad.
claimed that, according to UNICEF, 4000 babies die every year in poor
countries because they are not breastfed.
If anyone in charge of anything would like expert advice on asset-debt
optimisation, an alumnus would be pleased to act as intermediary and
introduce them to UBS, who are experts in the matter. Details on
request.
1. EDITORIAL: THE ADVENT OF OPTIMISM
------------------------------------
Don't chill the Krug just yet, but things now look more positive than
they did at the start of term. Even this journal felt a twinge of
pessimism about 20 issues ago, nigh impossible though this must have
seemed to readers of standing. Perhaps you spotted it beneath the usual
veneer of bonhomie and cheery chatter.
A term is a longtime in British Higher Education. Some turns for the
better on the finance front confirm that our main worries ought no
longer to be mainly monetary. In a sense they never were.
First of these were personnel changes in Finance. What a pity that we
can't persuade the exemplary Mr Gordon to stay a bit longer. Then came
the overseas graduate admissions news, bringing a half-million windfall
in the current year. The Budget should bring us at least as much again
next year. Much confidence in some quarters about the RAE results. And
now white smoke billows forth from HEFCE and the bank.
On the last point there was never any serious doubt - nor can there
be. Yet the News Update announcing our heroes' triumph in London was
curiously muted. Prolly for two main reasons: firstly the bankers' trad
craving for confidentiality, shared by HEFCE. They don't want everyone
uttering the unforgettable line from 'When Harry met Sally'.
The second reason however must surely be management's fear that too
much good news will make it all the harder for them to win acceptance
of the further savings we still need.
Such a fear would be well-founded. If a further staff disengagement
programme was needed a month ago, such need is that much harder to
demonstrate now. Indeed to proceed, with all the mutual unpleasantness
and adverse publicity it implies, must surely exacerbate the real
problem: student recruitment.
Even as things are, prospective students and parents attending Open
Days in the next few weeks will sometimes discover that we don't know
which degree schemes we can offer them in 18 months time, and still
less which courses.
Ensuring that such students pour in next year and thereafter is even
more urgently important than building up reserves. And possibly harder.
2. NEWS
-------
THE UNIVERSITY has again refused to budge on the 1/260 question.
National AUT action is expected. See p2 of last week's THES.
YESTERDAY'S TIMES (p14) reported a study by SCIENCE WATCH journal of
the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia. It pointed
out that although most citations in total are received by the biggest
institutions (Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial), in specific disciplines
the number of citations received per paper gives entirely different
tables, a more plausible quality rating. In Physics for example, most
citations per paper are won by Glasgow, Lancaster and Sussex.
ONLY TWO NOMINATIONS for the two vacant posts of Deputy
Pro-Chancellor. David Martin's appointment terminated but he has been
nominated again. The resignation of Hunter Davies created a further
vacancy, now to be filled by Ralph William Goodall, DL.
Mr Goodall, a 65 year old Virgoan, is Chairman of MANWEB plc, Chairman
of Inveresk Plc, Chairman of the Hopkinson Group plc, Chair of the
governors of QEGS, Blackburn, past chairman of Volek plc, past
president of the Textile Institute, Liveryman of the Feltmakers
Company, freeman of the City of London. He was the 1995-96 High Sheriff
of Lancashire.
An Old Haileyburian, he did a Bsc in Textile Industries at Leeds then
an MA in Economics at Cambridge (Pembroke). He lives at Hoghton near
Preston. His hobbies are shooting, golf and Music. He is a member of
Pleasington Golf Club, Blackburn. He and Pro-Chancellor Nominate Heron
mark a symbolic turning of our back on landed Lakeland gentry in favour
of Lancashire industry.
COURT MEMBERS must also elect two members of the University Council.
These are key appointments. Only three nominations - repected and
effective past president of the Furness College and of the Students
Union, Sarah Carpenter, now a Trades Union official, is a must. The
other candidates are local Labour councillors.
THE VC CAUSED A RIPPLE at last week's low-key non-lunch with Heads of
Department. Professor Rowe (Law) prefaced a question with jocular
reference to this journal and its editor whom he whimsically described
as 'important'. Professor Ritchie prefaced his reply by taking
exception to this opening remark and distancing himself from it,
declaring once again that he 'never reads' InkyText. His audience was
composed, almost without a single exception, of subscribers. This makes
it all the harder to see whence he derives his hostility, though his
views may have been prejudiced by other 'non-readers' prior to his
arrival.
VERY POOR TURN-OUT IN LAST WEEK'S STUDENT UNION ELECTIONS: only about
3 percent of the student body seem to have voted. In the contest for
two seats on the University Council, SU Gen Sec Dave Marley won easily
on first preferences, but after all reallocations only a few votes
separated SCAN deputy editor Nick Bardsley from Emily Lomax, English
post-graduate and former SU Gen Sec, who moved into 2nd place. There
have been so many complaints about electoral irregularities that a
re-match seems likely.
FRIDAY'S MEETING OF THE UNIVERSITY COUNCIL receives a report from its
payroll reduction group. It frankly summarizes the difficulties
relating to all suggested modes of severance short of assassination.
Future efforts are to highlight the economic 'Otley' proposals,
targetting them more narrowly on chosen individuals in departments
threatened by merger, reduction or abolition. An unsigned but learned
looking legal opinion on pre-1987 academic and related contracts is
reportedly from Professor Rowe. It seems as good as you'd get from a QC
for a thousand quid or more, and concludes that staff on such contracts
cannot lawfully be made redundant. (Worth however adding HJL Hart's
caveat that visitorial jurisdiction requires only that the person
exercising it respect so-called 'natural justice' (right to a hearing
etc.).)
THE RECOVERY PLAN, project managed by Nick Abercrombie, includes 500K
or so of extra fee income in the current year (though official doubts
have since been cast on this figure). It concludes that a shortfall in
funding remains for this year. Continuation of a 3million overdraft
plus temporary repayable assistance of 1.4 million will not provide the
degree of comfort needed to avoid recent crises.
Unfortunately or otherwise, all departments targeted in the original
proposals, with one exception, now seem convinced from discussions with
Professor Abercrombie that he accepts that the original proposals
affecting them were flawed.
A NEW BUDGET FOR THE CURRENT year is to be prepared urgently.
THE REPORT ON OUR COMMITTEE STRUCTURE recommends drastic streamlining
with attendant loss of representativity. The Provost of Colleges
disappears from most senior counsels. A new management team consists of
VC, 3 pro-VCs and the Secretary (Gang of Five). A new Finance Committee
with only one academic member other than VC and Pro-VCs will be the
lynchpin. A new Estates committee will report to it rather than to
Council directly. The APB becomes the APC once again - a committee for
academic planning only, rather than an academic board concerned with
all planning, including buildings. The Budget and Monitoring committee
disappears and is replaced by a modest budget-setting body. (It was
Professor Finch's role as chair both of Buildings and Budgeting that
was the single major factor contributing to recent events, as CRILL
will eventually discover.)
AN EXTRA 32K MAY HAVE TO BE ADDED to the costs of the Ruskin Library,
and an extra 135K on the main Library extension. Both buildings are to
be handed over on 15 December, with a fitting-out period to late April
for Ruskin and till mid-January for the main Library. The Ruskin
opening do is scheduled for May 10, and 3 honorary degrees will be
awarded to mark the event. To justify itself economically it requires
the continuing recruitment of around 20 non-European graduates, or
equivalent, otherwise we are merely transferring a public arts subsidy
that formerly went to Music and the gallery. There are currently
believed to be two related graduate enrolments in English.
15K HAS BEEN FOUND to complete the surfacing of Edward Roberts Court
(Tower Avenue). It is expected that 2 of the 5 unlet premises will be
occupied by the Post Office and the Cashier's Office. Hopes that
Diggles the sandwich shop might take another.
FROM THE END OF THE MONTH there will be no staff in the Off-campus
housing office, all having been 'disengaged' one way or another. The
function is to be taken over by the Students' Union and is expected to
pay for itself.
THE UNIX FILE SERVER was again inaccessible all weekend.
STUDENT UNION PROTESTS against the proposal that there should be only
4 sabbatical officers for reasons of 'symmetry' (so that the holders
can fill the 4 student places on the University Council).
HOSTILE RESPONSES from some areas of University House to Professor
Bill Davies' document on admin restructuring procedures to be
determined and implemented by August.
3. IMAGES OF POMLAND by Ian Wilkinson and Louise Young
------------------------------------------------------
PART I: LANGUAGE, SEX AND AUTHORITY
After reading Malcolm Fielding's Lancastrian thoughts on Australia
your readers maight enjoy some thoughts on Pomland from two that spent
five months at Lancaster from January to May this year.
To a lad who grew up in North London "The North" was some mysterious
place just past Edgeware and was signposted thus on the main roads.
To be honest I did do my master's degree work at Warwick University in
1967-8 and thus became slightly familiar with an area vaguely north.
They even subcontracted some of the teaching to Bradford at that time
and we got to visit for two one week sessions. But I am not sure that
counts, as I recall little except the hangovers and losing the
marketing game as a result.
My experience of the north of England is thus... limited at best. Then
again I have not really lived in England for 27 years and my fleeting
visits were mainly devoted to appeasing my mum in Mill Hill. A six
months study leave based at Lancaster University provided the
opportunity to observe the Northern animal at close hand with side
trips to various parts including "The South".
I can't remember if the signs on the roads up there (or should I say
down there given my Australian Mcarthur Corrected map projection view
of the world) do actually say to "The South." But where would that be?
Just beyond Preston or past the big city that lost the Olympic games
twice? (Nasty!)
I was not alone in the North. My wife and fellow academic and our
daughter were with me. My wife harks from further south. San Diego
exactly by way of Sydney and is perhaps equally ignorant of the North.
Her background yields fresh perspectives. In particular the English
sense of humour or irony to be precise. She now reckons she has got
near to high s school level but worries that any comments about her
skills in this area maybe ironic. She has made progress!
This piece is about my/our impressions of the new England,
particularly the North. We are not sure if it is new as we didn't
experience the previous "old" North. But when you have opinions and you
write them down why not go for broke.
Several themes organise our impressions of an Oz-Pom and an Oz-Yank in
Pomland. They are in no particular order.
1. Language. I always new I used the word "then" too much and now I
know why. It is not a personal problem but a cultural one. Are we ready
then? Are you reading along then? Then I'll continue. The English
pepper their sentences with this word.
They also have other peculiar words. In the morning road reports they
kept referring to problems caused by traffic "contraflow." What does
this mean? Are cars suddenly going berserk and travelling on the
motorways on the wrong side of the road? We never did find out.
2. Talk and think shows. Word things lead me on to the wordiness of
England. I refer only to England as even we know something about the
limits of sample generalisation. Don't the Brits like words and
thoughts. They live so much on the inside. I guess that is not so
surprising given the weather but that issue is taken up below.
The first evidence of this are the many TV and radio shows that deal
with words and thoughts. This ranges from quiz shows such as Brain of
Britain and University Challenge that continue unabated. But also shows
like the Brains Trust. Late at night on BBC2 a group of intellectuals
respond to questions submitted by viewers. What was that issue about
power that Nietzsche thought so highly of? Is self responsibility a
moral issue? Abstract and philosophical not particularly topical.
Then (that word again) there are radio shows with cryptic questions
where the celebrity guests have to guess the news item of the week
being referred to and use the question as a vehicle for humour and
ribaldry. And the adjudicator awards points based on the answer and
humour and his own personal prejudices. Of course competing to win here
takes on new meaning and earnestness (ironically speaking).
There are TV versions of this type of show as well. The movie show
pits people like Germaine Greer against others in reviews of recent
movie releases. Two have to like it and one hate it, it seems, but the
language to express this reveals such richness of perception and
thought about the commonplace movie. The presenter keeps injecting his
own thoughts anyway as a kind of umpire ruling on which views are
correct.
What else is there? Any Questions where a panel of "experts" comments
on recent news events and is followed by Any Answers when the listeners
get to put their points of view - elegantly with few thens - and
Jonathan Dimbleby debates with them. Yes Jonathon D. Not David or the
original Richard. Is he the grandson perhaps? I can go on. There is the
perennial "Just a minute", which I remember from my youth, when a panel
are asked to speak for a minute on a topic without repetition or
hesitation. Just a delight of word games.
These kinds of shows are mainly to be found on the BBC on Channel 2 or
Radio 4 but also on Channel 4 which is commercial. They are not all
relegated to non prime time and evidently attract an audience - or do
they? I would like to see the Brits as these inward focused seething
intellectuals developing and living in a rich internal world of
imagination, deep thought and analysis.
There is some of this, as the history of English literature and
science recounts. But there are still the persistent jokes about the
four people who listen to Radio 4. I did notice a newspaper article
about the diary ratings for radio programs which are evidently not very
accurate.
Could Radio 4 be the response to some incorrect market intelligence? I
have this image of a small group of people, probably working for the
BBC, filling in loads of diaries to reflect their tastes. But I hope
not. Even Absolutely Fabulous makes reference to it in disparaging
offsides about Boooring people who won't come out and party cos they
would miss some interesting chat show on Radio 4.
Is it that the Brits are not or are environmentally challenged and
hence stay inside and watch the telly more and this leads to a greater
incidence of mainstream programs of this ilk? Even the pubs are full of
quiz and trivia games machines, not to speak of pub trivia team league
contests.
3. Sexual Liberation. We always new the Brits produced amazingly weird
perverts but generally harmless and quirky. It is still a country where
an infidelity committed by a government minister leads to sacking. In
France it would possibly be a political advantage.
I grew up in the hang up years before the 60's really got going. Now
there are rave parties and much more openness between the sexes. But
the humour does still tend to have an anal quality to it. However,
signs of liberation abound.
The Girlie Show is a case in point. On TV late on Friday or Saturday.
This is where young attractive women do unto men what men have sort of
been doing to women for yonks. They discuss the details of men's and
women's sexual and social behaviour. A segment I like are the scenes
from the women's toilet where ordinary folk give details as to their
sexual preferences. The audience is mixed and both sexes love it. It is
raunchy, female and great.
Then I was up late one night and turned on the TV for the Gay show.
The young woman presenter handled proceedings (not literally) which was
entirely made up of male gays having "beauty" contests and discussing
other riveting things pertaining to their world. Fun stuff and not what
I expected in Pomland. What would my mum of made of all this? She would
have hummed and haahed but been amused.
4. Attitudes to Authority. "We don't do that round here" This is a
major and telling argument in the UK. In Australia it wouldn't work,
you have to spell out the grounds and expect an argument. But maybe it
is a symptom of the class structure. Brits seem more respectful of
authority and history (?) and see it in more places.
Brits seem to expect the government or authorities to take care of
them and things and this goes with this deference to authority and
precedent - both god and bureaucracy work in mysterious ways. Letters
to the paper often sought guidance from government.
One manifestation is the issue of grants for University attendance.
These have been frozen at an earlier level and the Oz style loan system
is coming in. But there is very much the mentality that the government
should provide it. One person argued to me that people at Oxbridge
should actually get a larger grant because they are expected to work
harder and read more and so don't have time to go and earn money on the
buses or waiting tables. However, with staff-student ratios the way
they are and only 10 week terms perhaps there are elements of greater
subsidy there anyway.
I grew up in this tradition. But now that Britain is expanding uni
education to more general European and American levels full grants
aren't possible. But there is going to be resistance because the
culture surrounding unis and who should pay is clear.
[Part II: "Foreigners, Service, Humour and Death" next time.]
4. SMALL ADS
------------
LUNCHTIME CONCERT
Thursday, December 5th
Jack Hylton Music Room
12.50pm - 2.00pm
Lancaster- based jazz musicians-
Laura Wilcoxon(vocals)
and Trio (piano,bass,drums)
Programme will include Jazz standards and show-tunes
by Cole Porter, Gershwin, Romberg, Carlos Jobim and
so forth.............................swing and latin, light and easy!
---------------
MUSTANG, a band playing 'modern' country music, and featuring Paul
Graves of the Academic Registrar's Office on guitar, will be performing
at the John O'Gaunt on Wednesday 4 December.
--------------
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION
FREE INTRODUCTORY TALKS AT THE CHAPLAINCY - QUIET ROOM
Monday 2nd Dec 1996 starting at 12.00; 1.00 and 3.00
Wednesday 4th Dec 1996 starting at 12.00; 1.00 and 2.30.
---------------
5. READERS' LETTERS
-------------------
By way of explanation, the "Net Liquid Assets : Total Expenditure"
line in the Uni accounts of 15.4 days means the university has a net
overdraft position of 2 calendar weeks. This may be 3 "working" weeks
seeing as the university is keen on 260 day working years. By way of
comparison Eurotunnel is running at around 4 "working" months, with
debts in total equivalent to around 3 years of revenue. In that case,
the banks were offered a swap of debt-for-equity. Perhaps a
debt-for-equity swap could be considered for UoL - eg swap the
overdraft for ownership of Furness (well what do you expect from a
Fylde graduate?).
Chris Rogers - Usual disclaimers apply
-------------------------------------
If the university is unwilling to relinquish ownership of particular
assets it may consider securitisation - this is the process by which a
series of cash-flows (eg profits from rents) are sold, often to banks
in return for cancellation of debts. This also avoids the potential for
accusations of asset-stripping.
Yet another option is the BOT or POT approaches to development
(Build-Operate-Transfer and Purchase-Operate-Transfer). These allow
the building or operation of new facilities to be carried out at no
capital cost to the institution as the builder makes its money through
the operation phase.
On the subject, how much was the Hazelrigg site released for, and is
this part of a sale-and-lease back arrangement? I do hope the
University didn't shift it for "fire sale" prices.
Anyhow, I usually set more store by cash flow statements than profit
and loss accounts - after all, cash is king.
----------------------------------
Basically a minus 15.4 days ratio of Net Liquid Assets to Total
Expenditure means that if the university closed completely for 15.4
days and did not spend a thing during that time its books would
balance. It's not a good figure but it's not totally out of keeping
with the picture over quite a wide range of higher education
institutions these days.
Gareth Williams
Institute of Education
[NOTE: Professor Williams is a leading authority on Higher education
funding and administration in Britain. (Ed.)]
--------------------------
What a crazy idea to move to an eight unit degree. If we needed do
anything at all we should be looking at 12 or 24 units. 8 only has
factors of 2 and 4. 24 units would allow joint degrees (2x12); triple
majors (like Combined Science 3x8, rendered impractical in an 8 unit
system); fairly substantial minors (8 units); lesser minors at 6 or 4
units and even 3 (nearly the old "free ninth unit") plus the
opportunity for the odd one or two unit courses, possibly of the
"transferable skills" type.
But this is all mere arithmetic. It scarcely affects content,
especially when at present we allow 1/2 and 1/4 units so effectively
allowing subdivision down to as little as 3% of a Part II. You can cast
any content into such fine subdivisions.
Further: we do not have a properly modular structure. Our units of
assessment are not necessarily the same as our units of teaching - how
closely they are tied varies from subject to subject. For example in
Chemistry we have 30 modules in Part II.
These generate directly five units of assessment. Finals generate the
other four. We believe that our subject is linear, each module building
on those before and that our students leave with an exam class which
reflects far more on how they have developed by the end than on how
good they have been on the way through. Other disciplines have
different relationships between teaching and assessing. So what - it's
what is appropriate to the discipline.
Far more pertinent, however, is why change at all? We have a pretty
good degree of flexibility now. Any change would create work - every
course would need justifying again and redocumenting. Most of our
departments that have been assessed so far have been adjudged excellent
in teaching. Just leave us to teach our presently excellent courses.
The present crisis is the time to look hard at the bits that are not
working well, not at those adjudged to be excellent. We must
continually press this point - what's not broke, don't mend. What is
broke, radically overhaul.
Colin Peacock (Chemistry and Acting Director Combined Science)
----------------------------------
The VC blames the timing of the RAE announcement for calling off the
special Senate meeting, yet that is really only a reason for postponing
it. To put such major issues as getting rid of some of our colleagues
on the agenda of an 'ordinary' meeting merely ensures that most things
will not be fully debated as usual.
------------
Intending to buy some video tapes for using over Christmas? At the
moment Sainsburys' 5 x 3 hour BBC blank tapes 13.99 + 750 points
(seemed quite good value to me.)
[NOTE: To me too, even if the tapes (Nicam stereo compatible) seem
over-priced a rebate of 7.50 (or 24 quid in airmiles) is pretty decent.
Another mystery of Marketing. (Ed.)]
CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES TO TOMORROW'S GRADUANDS