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INKYTEXT 309
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Issue No 309 Monday 23rd August 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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AGENDA
Minutes, Amendments, Matters Arising
1. News: Marriage, Appointments, Visitors, Admissions, Focus, Catering, QAA.
2. Readers' Letters: Cycle track, John Clare, Modals, Graduations, Paul
Bagguley.
3. Small Ads: Houses and flat to let, Buteyko, Italian exchange, Furniture,
Cross-Bay walk.
Minutes, Amendments, Matters Arising
------------------------------------
Sorry - forgot to change the date last time.
The 117 first year computing students at Edinburgh whose work was
investigated for plagiarism have been found guilty of copying. They
have had that part of their work marked down accordingly. Some
therefore have to re-sit.
1. NEWS
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CONGRATULATIONS TO ZOE POUNDER & SIMON BOX whose wedding took place on
21st August in Redworth Hall Hotel, Redworth, Nr. Newton Aycliffe.
BEST WISHES TO PROFESSOR MARIA SHEVTSOVA on her appointment to a chair
in drama at Goldsmith's. Prof Shevtsova, the dynamic and cosmopolitan
professor of performance studies, has been with us all too briefly and
her departure is much regretted.
BEST WISHES TO ALAN ELLIS who is holding his own leaving do later this
week. Worryingly there is no news of his replacement.
CONGRATULATIONS TO SANDY STEWART (Philosophy), currently Research
Professor in the History of Philosophy, who has been appointed Honorary
Professor in the Philosophy Department of the University of Aberdeen.
CONGRATULATIONS TO KEELE VC JANET FINCH on being appointed a Deputy
Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire.
ADMISSIONS STAFF are quietly confident and the process was almost
unaffected by AUT action. The meeting of the Deans last Wednesday to
consider the preliminary outcomes was concerned about the overshoot in
Marketing. In order to maintain the balance of faculties they cut back
in other management school departments, to the displeasure of other
management school heads. Engineering is unlikely to make its initial
quota and Physics is a problem (display ad in the press). Other
sciences are relatively buoyant. Some uncertainty remains in the system
until one discovers which of one's insurance offers are coming.
INDEPENDENT STUDIES, whose consultant MA recently figured in the THES,
is making great headway on deals with The Guardian for post graduate
support, books and research projects. More anon.
THE FOCUS 'TEAM BUILDING' course which the heads of trading activities
recently attended got a somewhat mixed response. The actual activities
entertained those involved, who admitted to finding them quite
revealing and instructive (as one would when well fed and lodged).
However many found rather demoralising the response to their final
presentation of the Director of Resources, who attended the final
session. Another reminder of the potential tensions between accountancy
and entrepreneurship.
YET ANOTHER ACADEMIC YEAR BEGINS with the 'gift shop' and the former
SPAR bookshop premises lying derelict. Money has been set aside for
converting one or both of these into a catering outlet, subject to a
satisfactory business plan, but work has not yet started. Student
habits are set at the start of the year but no news on new catering
initiatives.
RUSKIN : the working party on relations, financial and other, between
the Ruskin Foundation and the university met with a view to considering
how Professor Wheeler might be replaced. One idea seems to be the
establishment of a Ruskin MA from which such a post might be funded.
THE ANNUAL OPERATING STATEMENT is the replacement for the annually
revised planning statement. It is mercifully briefer but just as cruel
to the English language. You can catch it on the Planning Office pages.
THE DEPUTY VC has been managing the university in the absence of the
VC in Australia.
NUMEROUS COMMENTS on how poor conference business seems to have been
this summer. Happily bar opening is still seen as a service and not
purely a trading activity....
RECENT VISITORS TO CAMPUS include former bookshop manager Alun Thomas
and his wife Anne, emigres to the Dordogne who have recently moved
house (but only a few miles). Also Debating Society mainstay George
Yeoman, teaching English in Slovenia and now recovered from his
illness. Former Director of Property Services Mike Haslam, who is to be
project manager for the new JIF building, has also been visiting his
old department. Likewise his predecessor, Donald Clark, reason unknown.
THE QUALITY AUDIT AGENCY gets a most welcome and most critical
scrutiny in this week's THES. (Its board includes Prof Finch and Dr
Martin Gaskell of NEne College.) Highly recommended. In the Sunday
Times, Nottingham's energetic VC Sir Colin Campbell makes a thoughtful
call for the 'privatisation' of universities, arguing that they deserve
their freedom no less than buses, trains, gas, water, etc.
2. READERS' LETTERS
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Your correspondent's suggestion of a "keep left" convention on the
Bailrigg cycle path is sensible. I find doggedly keeping to the left
and politely signalling oncomers to do the same works. But cyclists
can't keep left on a narrow path with sharp bends - bikes don't go
round corners, they sweep and loop (laws of gravity and momentum).
There are regular skids in the autumn on wet leaves; I know one family
that came off and hurt itself there.
The near-hairpin bend on the section near that house with the
Berlin-wall style fencing was put there because the greenhouses etc.
were in the way. Now they are gone, it would be simple to cut off the
corner of that plot to make a gentler, safer curve. The land on the
other side might be sold to the owner of the house, paying for the
work. He'd have to move his fence, of course, but it might be as well
to make approaches now before the floodlights and guard towers go up.
Robert Poole.
----------------------
Did you see the article with Geoff Leech in it on the front page of
The Independent on Friday? Followed by an interview on Radio 4 on
Saturday morning. Letters from others, pro and anti, in the Independent
today - British and American English (the Americans are encroaching on
our modals, God damn them!) Geoff reported the results of some of his
latest corpus research comparing a recent corpus of British Enlgih with
one constructed about 30 years ago.
Should get the letter-writers to the Telegraph going too, I would have
thought. Nice quote in the original article about having to be
fatalistic about changes to Brit E being dominated by the Americans -
like baseball caps and Kentucky Fried Chicken, the man said. Bound to
get him into hot water with the blimps, I would have thought! Lor knows
what the Academie Francaise might say.
Mick Short
[NOTE: Forgot to mention that. Fascinating stuff. I LOVE modals and
can invest a 'may' or a 'might' with meaning entirely wasted on most
listeners alas.... But yup, a mans's gotta talk like a man's gotta
talk. The confusion between duty and obligation is more unfortunate and
surely needs to be maintained. Can still hear my Latin master's voice
over the years asking (a propos the gerundive) "But MUST you do what
you OUGHT, boy?" (Ed)]
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Whatever do you mean by 'The Daily Telegraph table of teaching quality
assessment was the usual methodologically primitive John Clare affair'?
Are you referring to the Northamptonshire poet? If so, then it seems a
very odd analogy to make. Granted he didn't bother much with
punctuation and so may possibly be thought of as methodologically
primitive, but the poetry that resulted was very distinctive and often
first-rate stuff. I can't believe you would apply those epithets to a
league table of academic performance!
Gerry Cotter
[NOTE: No possible confusion between the admirable Northamptonshire
poet and the Daily Telegraph's despairingly down to earth education
correspondent! Apologies - didn't spot the homonymy, or the possibility
of a Clare fan among our readers! (Ed.)
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On the subject of Graduation ceremonies: Obviously I've never been to
one but I can roughly imagine the procedure and find the prospect
deeply boring. I think we should adopt Birtwhistle's "Panic" as the new
national anthem with words by John Hegley. Instead of the Princess
Whateverhernameis we can have Spike Milligan or, even better, Paul
Merton. Then. instead of a college strawberry and tea thingy everyone
goes on a bender in town. Last one back gets their first
rescinded......
Huw Owen
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It is gratifying to see so many former Union presidents doing well in
the real world. Pope McGreal has achieved one of his lifelong ambitions
and is now a dresser for the Welsh National Opera, Liz Matthews is
rising through the ranks of MI6, Guy McEvoy is running the Basingstoke
Council Public Sanitation Department (with great aplomb, or so I am
told by my chums at Sewage Digest) and now I read in your journal that
Mark Elkins has found employment driving a TV detector van (Tell me,
Mark, how DO you make the roof rack revolve like that?) in the Oswestry
area.
However, all of this is as nothing compared with one of the great
questions of our time: whither Paul Bagguley? His incumbency in the hot
seat may well have been nasty, brutish and short, but a great many of
those who drank with, laughed with and - let us not be coy - lent money
to this god amongst men would like to know what became of him.
Can anyone help me locate the Bagg-atollah?
Louis Barfe
PA to Dr Bengt Vollenberg,
Vice Chancellor - The Forest Gate Institute of Sexual Research (postal
orders accepted), London, E7
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3. SMALL ADS
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HOUSE TO LET - Scotforth area, three bedrooms, garden and garage.
Staff or mature students preferred. 430 pcm. Telephone 01782 564753 or
01782 717954 ext 335.
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TO LET: 1 ATTRACTIVE LARGE ONE BEDROOM FLAT in South Lancaster
(Greaves area) - 5 minute drive from Uni. Quality modern furniture
(Fully furnished). Washer/Dryer, Microwave, large fridge-freezer
included. Secure entryphone system. Allocated parking space. Kitchen,
Bathroom, Entrance hall, large lounge, double-bedroom. Available from
early september. Would suit post-grad couple or Staff. 350 pounds pcm.
Contact Guy on 01524 64971 or guy.mcevoy@virgin.net
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VERY CLEAN AND PLEASANT TWO-BEDROOMED HOUSE near station with all mod
cons, suitable for non-smoking technical, technical-related, or
academic staff, serious research students, administrators, etc. for one
year let. Must be seen. Phone 05124 35494, 01223 355984, or 0181
5398119.
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To find out how asthma can be controlled with less medication come to
a Free Talk
BUTEYKO & ASTHMA
An introductory evening on Buteyko & good breathing practice
for people who want to know more about the Buteyko method
and for those who simply wish to pick up some useful tips
on healthy breathing.
Thursday 2nd September 7 pm
Friends Meeting House, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster
For more information ring Wendy Haddock on 01659 50628
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ITALIAN 12-YEAR-OLD BOY SEEKS BRITISH BOY for exchange (learning the
languages, visiting respective countries, corresponding, etc.). Please
contact Michela Masci (M.Masci@lancaster.ac.uk)..
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COOKER AND FURNITURE FOR SALE: gas cooker, excellent condition =A345,
large sofa bed and matching chair 40 pounds, 2 wardrobes 15 pounds
each, tall black shelving unit, low black shelving unit with glass
doors, nearly new shower curtain with pole, phone Shan on 01524 66505
or 07901 664141 (mobile) or e-mail i.porter@lancs.ac.uk
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CROSS BAY WALK, HEST BANK TO GRANGE-OVER-SANDS Sunday 5th September,
1:30pm Organised by North Lancashire Friends of the Earth A bus leaves
Lancaster bus station at 12:55. Return by train from Grange. For more
information call Jonathan Mills, 389069
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WANTED: ACCOMMODATION FOR TWO PERSONS during October and November. I
am a visitor to the Biological Sciences Department. Gustavo Gudesblat.
g.gudesblat@lancaster.ac.uk.
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MAKE THE MOST OF THE SILLY SEASON - MORE NEWS NEXT TIME