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INKYTEXT 303 Part I
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"Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness: come down into the
green valleys of silliness" Ludwig Wittgenstein
GRADUATION WEEK AND THE SUN IS SHINING
Issue No 303 Monday 5th July 1999
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Editorial correspondence should be sent to InkyText@lancaster.ac.uk
Subscription requests to Inkytext-distribution-request@lists.lancaster.ac.uk
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MENU
Minutes, Amendments, Matters arising
1. Editorial: A Touch of Class
2. News: New Secretary, Pre-School Centre, Catering Report, UMAG, Careers,
Failure, Voice Mail, County Anniversary weekend, Summer Wine Party.
3. Events: Gargling with Jelly, Electric Love.
PART II FOLLOWS SHORTLY
and contains
4. Inkytext Works Outing Diary
5. Small Ads: Job, House for sale, Flat to let, For Fiesta, Motorbike,
Wedding Dress, Accommodation wanted, Room in house, Volvo for sale,
Bowland College Posts, Flat in Edinburgh for festival.
6. Readers' Letters: Defence of Nick Bardsley, Phone numbers, Green travel,
Chain Mail, Cyclists.
MINUTES, AMENDMENTS, MATTERS ARISING
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Chef Chris Holmes has made a good recovery and is now out of hospital,
but has been instructed to convalesce for a while yet.
The Principal designate of Bowland is Louise Banton. Louise Branson
(French/Russian, County, 1977) was Sunday Times correspondent in Moscow
and later in Beijing and New York. (Present whereabouts unknown so she
may not have heard of Saturday's anniversary celebrations.) Apologies.
Benjamin Sanrey, now 6 weeks old and weighing 2.5 kilos, has recovered
from his major abdominal micro-surgery and is at home in Lyon feeding
voraciously. (He was born on 15 May measuring 45 cms and weighing 1.86
kilos. His mother is Sarah Clifft (French, County, 1990)).
Mary Gavagan, Director of the Peter Scott Gallery received a cheque
for 3000 pounds and an exquisite hand-made certificate from Sir Nigel
Hawthorne at the Serpentine Gallery last Tuesday. This was the Scott
Gallery's Japan Festival prize, a reward for the magnificent 'Japan: a
northern focus' exhibition.
The Dean of Humanities casts doubt on the rumour that Prof Wheeler is
not to be replaced.
Lou Armour was in the SBS not the SAS.
The network will be down in Bowland Annexe and University House
between 8.00 and 10.00 tomorrow morning (Tuesday), and Exchange mail
will be down between noon and 18.00 on Wednesday.
1. EDITORIAL: A TOUCH OF CLASS
------------------------------
"Congratulations: I'm delighted to tell you you're second class".
There is something amusingly English about congratulating almost all
the nation's hard-working and successful students by telling them this
after 3 or 4 years of study and a mutually exhausting examination
process.
Even in Scotland most students once upon a time studied for an
'ordinary' degree, which at least had the merit of classlessness.
Elsewhere in the world it's a matter of passing or failing, and there
is perhaps rather more of the latter... This makes the mere joy of
success all the greater. Assessing the 'quality' of that success is
mainly of interest to those seeking higher degrees and scholarships.
Once we used to single out the brightest for reward. Now that most
students get Upper 2nds it is more a matter of humiliating others by
designating them as 'lower' than their friends.
Quite who benefits from such discrimination is less clear. For a while
some personnel managers halved the numbers of applications they needed
to read by decreeing that a IIi was required. The effect of this has
been to make II2s a badge of failure...
Such an outcome is grotesque and absurd. Along with the fatuous use of
degree class as a performance indicator it has had the further
consequence of inflating the numbers of borderline candidates squeezed
into the upper class.
This in turn destroys any 'meaning' or message that the II1 might
have. When, some 40 years ago, the second class was divided, the
intention was that some distinction should be given to those of the
best candidates who narrowly failed to get a first. Such people, with
their couple of 70s and a string of 67s, are now lumped together
indiscriminately with those who manage 4 60s and a 59 raised by
reference to other factors.
The amount of academic time devoted to discriminating between a 58 and
a 60, the volumes of passion that are then spent on deciding whether a
given array represents a 'II1' or a 'II2' is wholly irrational given
the new meaninglessness of such broad groupings. That time would be
vastly better spent on further learning by teachers and taught.
Hierarchical naming systems are invidious at the best of times,
especially since some of us still confuse them with measuring systems
just because the names used appear to be numerics. When they cease to
have a clear significance it is time to do away with them. In all other
aspects of life a profile is accepted as more informative than a
synoptic and necessarily more contentious summing of its constituent
parts.
Determining how many angels can stand on the point of a needle is a
question of exemplary rationality compared to deciding whether a
student should get a 2i or a 2ii. That classic Thomist discussion was
used to debunk scholasticism by would-be empiricists. The distinction
between 2i and 2ii is now a model of scholasticism in the most
pejorative sense.
2. NEWS
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CONGRATULATIONS to Rose Cantley, Departmental Officer in the Maths
Department, who has successfully combined studying part-time with a
full-time job, and will be graduating today with a BA (Hons) in
History.
BEST WISHES TO FIONA AIKEN who took up her post as University
Secretary and leader of admin Team A on Thursday. A month-long
induction programme has been prepared for her. [She has been told by
the VC that this journal is worth a glance from time to time, but had
to postpone the planned trip along the Silk Road because of the Kashmir
situation.]
WELCOME TO DAVID EVANS, who joined the Careers Service two weeks ago
as a new advisor and was a guest at Wednesday evening's annual SU
reception at which the new SU sabbaticals and the senior officers of
the university are introduced to each other. Excellent and over-copious
catering by Shelley's of Ffrancis Passage.
BEST WISHES TO PETER ELLIOTT, Student Union Manager, who becomes new
Dean of County College in succession to Chris Kenny-Levick, to whom
best wishes are also extended on the occasion of his retirement. Chris
is planning on more yachting in Chichester or Brixham and trips to the
famous house in Limoux he shares with Prof Macdonald and Prof Laybourn
Parry (Nottingham).
THE CATERING REPORT by Focus Healthcare consultants is now in the
public domain, though without the annexes sent privately to Mr
McGregor. A summary next time. As consultants' reports go it is very
good indeed, unusually grammatically correct and with very few spelling
mistakes. The contents are also remarkably sensible, astute,
perceptive, sympathetic and thorough, mainly re-emphasizing in detail
what former Lonsdale Catering manager Ian Scott and others have been
saying for years. It is implicitly critical of recent decisions on
franchising and closure, and includes a critical appraisal of all
possible courses of action.
VOICE MAIL has been down yet again for over a week, and has had a
series of interruptions this year that are now inconvenient and
worrying. The Switchboard is doing its best but is Siemens (who have a
new account manager starting tomorrow.) It is not clear why repairs are
taking so long, unless the problem is related to the sheer volume of
use to which it is now subjected. (This was the cause of the repeated
interruptions to the ACC student voice mail which was notoriously
under-powered.) [NOTE: Can one attach an answering machine to an office
extensions socket? (Ed.]
THE 2ND INTER-COLLEGE SUMMER WINE PARTY was held in Furness on Friday
evening and was a highly convivial affair, lubricated by plenty of red
Anjou and Sauvignon from the famous Furness wine cellars. Catering was
again by Carrs of Lancaster (recommended - the sandwich bar opposite
Waterstones). Conceived last year to impress the value of colleges on
lay members of Council, but since the event did not this time coincide
with a council meeting the attendance of council members was rather
disappointing.
Guests included the Mayor, and her Mayoress, Sylvia Rogerson (mother
of Helena Thorley), wearing chains of office, and the admirable Cedric
Robinson, Queen's Guide to the Sands, and his wife. The VC and Mrs
Ritchie were present and in relaxed mood, as was new University
Secretary Fiona Aiken and Dr David Allan, visiting from St Andrews. A
few conspicuous Univ House absentees were noted.
This event looks set to survive and is a successor to the infamous
VC's Summer Wine parties of the Hanham years. [Prof Ritchie is proud of
having reduced the VC's entertainment expenditure by about 95 percent.]
COUNTY COLLEGE 30th ANNIVERSARY celebrations this weekend were blessed
by sunshine and crowned by a dinner for 200 in the elegantly-lined
giant marquee on County Field. Thereafter dancing continued in the quad
around the (thriving) oak tree and its Ralph Gibson memorial bench, to
music by Captain Rhino and the Bighorns and the Andy Hoskins disco
experience.
Four former JCR presidents were present, one of whom, Quentin Wright,
unveiled the new honours board in the lounge. Guests of honour were the
chair of Lancs County Council, Cllr Ruth Henig, Dean of Humanities, and
Cllr Hazel Harding chair of the Education Committee with Cllr Nikki
Penney, chair of Fire Services and chief executive Gordon Johnston,
plus principals from other colleges, the Deputy VC and Pro-VC Whitaker.
Toasting the college, Dr Henig remarked that the fact that Lancashire
was able to make such a gift to the university 30 years ago showed how
much had changed in local government in the intervening years, such
largesse now being inconceivable. Professor David Denver, replying to a
toast to the guests, pointedly spoke of the value of colleges, with an
eye on the Deputy VC, who is known to be sceptical about the value for
money they represent.
Some 30 1974 graduates and spouses also attended this weekend's Silver
Jubilee alumni weekend.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PRE-SCHOOL CENTRE subject of an unusually
fulsome OFSTED report on its provision for four year olds. Excellent
speech and language development and much high quality maths work.
Promotion of knowledge and understanding of the world is impressive
with visits arranged to explore the environment. Mime, movement and
music, and creative work is of a very high standard. A knowledge of
other religions and cultures is being developed through a study of
festivals and customs.
NEW MBA STUDENTS are reported to include the son of Prof Abercrombie,
the Deputy VC, who is expected to be resident in the Graduate College.
Hopes (prolly vain ones) in some college quarters that this might
influence the Deputy VC, thought to be hostile to the college system on
financial grounds.
MICROSOFT MAIL CLOSURE: The Microsoft Mail system is closing down on
September 30 1999. ISS have now upgraded to Exchange all but a few
dozen users. The crunch time is rapidly coming.
If you are a user of Microsoft Mail and have not yet contacted ISS,
please do so immediately, or if you know that a colleague or secretary
is a user of the system, please get them to act at once - telephone
Jayne Crook in ISS on 92242 right away.
Anyone not processed by September 30 will have to wait their turn for
technician time, and WILL lose ALL their old mail and address book
entries.
UMAG responded to a paper from the Librarian and the Dean of
Humanities on the future of the Ruskin programme. The VC has formed a
group (Sir Christopher Audland, Tony Cann, Jeff Richards, John
MacKenzie, Ruth Henig and the Librarian) to consider strategic options
for the future development of the Ruskin project. The relative
responsibilities of the Foundation, the Management Board and the
University re fundraising and recurrent costs are an item of
contention. So is the potential for investment in academic programmes.
The Research Committee and the V-C's Reserve will provide 8k in the
next financial year. Proposals for funding fixed term appointments to
the APC appointments group for immediate action. Or non-action.
PUBLIC ARTS: UMAG approved the report and recommendations made by
UNIAC on the Public Arts. The Vice-Chancellor is chairing a project
team including representatives of Finance and Estates, the Director of
Recruitment and Marketing and the Dean of Humanities to act on the
UNIAC recommendations. For an interim period the contract of the
Nuffield Theatre Director would be extended to include responsibility
for programming and marketing professional work in the Arts;
facilitating projects, residencies and conferences in the Nuffield
Theatre and the Great Hall; acting as the licensee for all matters of
health and safety in the Theatre, Playroom and Great Hall; and helping
to prepare a strategic plan for the Public Arts.
CAREERS: UMAG considered a lengthy statement from careers as its
contribution to the Corporate Plan. It proposes the integration of
careers considerations in departmental curricula as apparently sought
by the increasingly bizarre Quality Assessment bodies.
No problem about agreeing that there should be 'a clear statement in
the corporate plan of the policy intention to develop in students
personal, transferable and career management skills which will increase
their employability'. Beyond that it all gets a bit surreal, with calls
for closer collaboration between the Careers Service staff and academic
areas to develop and deliver career management skills-related
programmes relevant to their courses; academic staff training in the
design and delivery of career management skills provision of work
experience provision of tuition in key transferable skills
Happily, UMAG also noted that expansion of 'employability' skills
would be competitive with time available for delivering the academic
curriculum, already felt to be limited in some areas (especially since
we have just cut it by 11 percent in Part II for next year). The
Director of the Careers Service also again stressed the need for
additional space and a more visible location
THE HEDC SYMPOSIUM 'FAILING STUDENTS IN HE' takes place on campus on
July 15 and 16. Places still available - a disappointing take-up by
Lancaster academic staff.
[NOTE: this may in part be because some of us feel failure is a
positive and helpful thing, and really involves reorienting students
towards activities and institutions to which they are better suited.
Unfortunately the government's facile and foolish attempt to use lower
failure rates as a performance indicator is yet another example of the
ways in which current policies are drivbing standards inexorably
downwards whilst claiming the opposite. (Ed.]
The programme starts at 11 am on the 15th July and finishes at 1 pm on
the 16th July). It is organised jointly by Lancaster's Higher Education
Development Centre and Counselling Service The symposium is designed
with practitioners in mind: anyone who, as a teacher, Counsellor,
advisor or policy maker comes into contact with students who are
failing or who have failed University.
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS TRAINING Monday 12 July, 10am - 4.40pm (Lunch
provided). Places available: 25. This training is the first in a series
of sessions for all members of a college, including academics, tutors,
college officers, and support staff (clerical, porters, security,
domestic assistants.) The main aim of the day is to help staff develop
an understanding of how to help students with mental health problems.
To book a place please contact Kerry Gibson, Staff Development, ext
92391 or email. For more information about the programme for the day
please contact either Claire Edwards ext 92039 or Sylvia Brennan ext
92082
LAST WEDNESDAY'S MEETING OF UMAG was cancelled due to lack of
business.
3. EVENTS
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The Grand Theatre Lancaster
presents
The Lancaster Footlights Club production of
'GARGLING WITH JELLY'
a comedy for children
by Brian Patten.
Wednesday July 7th - Saturday July 10th
at 7.30pm.
All tickets 4 pounds 50, concessions 3 pounds 50.
Enquiries tel. the box office on 64695.
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"Tonight let's all make love in Lancaster"
.... at The Gregson Centre
Saturday July 10,
9.00pm.
An acoustic festival of electric love featuring The Pier Group, The Puma
Sutras, The Wisemen and Steven Hugh Jones.....
2.50/1.50 entry
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PART II FOLLOWS SHORTLY