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INKYTEXT 332 PART I
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THE JOURNAL READ BY PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE VICE-CHANCELLORS
RUSKIN'S 181st BIRTHDAY
Issue No 332 Tuesday 8th February 2000
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Editorial correspondence should be sent to InkyText@lancaster.ac.uk
Subscription requests to Inkytext-distribution-request@lists.lancs.ac.uk
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AGENDA
Minutes and Matters Arising
1. Editorial: The Nurse-led Unit
2. News: Congratulations, Physics, Court, Keele, Physics, Party report, Prof
Osborne, Clubland rivalries, Estates, Ruskin Reviews.
3. Ruskin in Venice - Exhibition Review
Part II follows and contains
4. Paris Itinerary (IV): Conclusion - Evening entertainments and final tips
5. Readers' Letters: Disneyfication, Suzie Maynard, Peter Sylvester,
Apologies for absence, Translating Beowulf, Lancaster anagrams, Marcus
Merriman, Court and Statutes.
6. Small Ads: Another Cleaner wanted, House-sitter available, Concerts,
Free Teak sidebard, House to let, Ski Salopettes wanted
MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING
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The Venue had its 10 000th customer on Friday. The evening food,
savoury fillings in pitta bread or baked potato with salad, is now
available all day at weekends. (1.85 and 2.00 - the chicken, smoked
bacon and sweetcorn is quite good, likewise the veggie tikka; the
others are too cheesy for those watching their cholesterol).
1. EDITORIAL: THE NURSE-LED UNIT
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This Friday sees the next meeting of the working group set up by
Council to investigate student concerns about the workings of the
proposed unit. It will be chaired by Pro-VC Whitaker.
This meeting will be faced by an impasse, for after information
received at the recent face-to-face with the area health authority, the
student members are mandated to stop the thing going ahead in its
present form. They may even get support from the lay members.
Last time round Mr McGregor defused the situation by proposing a
six-month moratorium on the scheme. This was welcomed by members, who
were nonetheless mildly startled, given the vehemence with which Mr McG
had claimed at Council that the unit should not even be discussed
there, arrangements for health provision being a purely administrative
matter.
In that belief, he had been supported by fairly scathing and
dismissive interventions from Mr Heron and Mr Cann, who rounded on the
students and insisted, wrongly, that they had been consulted. Where,
one asks, in the minutes of which meeting of which constitutional body
is this consultation recorded?
One hopes they now recognise their errors. At most one may charitably
suppose that the matter fell between two SU executives as they changed
over in the summer, but both presidents deny ever agreeing to the
thing, let alone accepting its go-ahead after consultation with
colleagues.
Wisely so, as it now turns out and the top table's interventions at
Council were ineffective, for Council wisely saw that there were indeed
contradictory claims and questions remaining unanswered.
This journal stands second to none in its admiration for nurses and
totally agrees with Dame Betty Kershaw, chair of the RCN and driving
force behind Nursing 2000, who argued at Court that the future of
medical care lies in entrusting more intervention to those often
over-qualified and under-used professionals.
But the proposed free-standing 2-bedded unit, now physically in
existence, with nurses who cannot even win a priority appointment with
a doctor let alone prescribe, is surely not a prudent use of resources.
All over Univeristy House one can witness the unseemly spectacle of
erstwhile enthusiasts distancing themselves from the project and
suggesting someone else to blame.
Rather than playing a traditional game of 'Hunt the Scapegoat', might
it not be best to cut our losses and turn it into new, central,
luxurious if slightly cramped, accommodation for the Counselling
Service?
2. NEWS
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CONGRATULATIONS TO INKYTEXT READER PROFESSOR JOHN RICKARDS, Pro-VC and
head of the Business School at Monash University, who has been
appointed VC of Southern Cross university in northern NSW. He recently
celebrated his appointment on Burns Day with a meal in La Madrague,
Melbourne's leading French restaurant. The wines included Krug,
Grange-Hermitage, Chateau Lafite and Chateau Yquem.
CONGRATULATIONS TO FRED BOTTING (English) who has left for Keele,
where he becomes the youngest professor of English in the country.
ALSO BELATED CONGRATULATIONS to Profs Barton, Flowerdew, Harman,
Johnson, Lewis, Segal, Sherry, Smyth and Wigmore. Most of these would
non-Senators never have known about if the info had not been printed in
the Annual Report. Are new chairs so ten-a-penny that they no longer
even warrant a press release?
TURF WARS IN CLUBLAND: so important has the student market become for
club owners in Lancaster and Morecambe that there are reports of
various blandishments being offered to influential figures in return
for exclusive support. Also suggestions that the SU entered into a
contract with the Carleton which Liquid is trying to entice them away
from. Details please.
LAST SENATE: Prof Rowe took issue with the suggestion that this was
"wimpish". A glance at the minutes suggests he is right. The
concessions won on future respect for the requirements of CRILL are
valuable (though limp 'pressure of time' excuses like we got this time
will always be possible one fears).
KEELE UNIVERSITY IN 55M DEAL: According to the Telegraph, Keele
University has sold the rental income from its student accommodation
for the next 30 years to a finance company in a 55.5 million deal. The
money will fund maintenance and refurbishment, repay outstanding loans
and fund future capital projects. Paul Rigg, the university's director
of finance, said a new company, Owengate Keele plc, would use
international bond markets to revolutionise the campus's finances.
It obviously means the SU will hjave to negotiate annual rents with the
new firm though....
(See http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/rg/pr/pressrel/finance.htm)
FORMER LANCASTER CLASSICS LECTURER AND DEAN OF COUNTY, PROFESSOR
MICHAEL OSBORNE, VC of LaTrobe University, Melbourne, chair of the
International Committee of the Australian CVCP, winner of the Greek
Government's Aristotle Award for services to Hellenic Civilisation,
Fellow of the Australian Academy, honorary professor in three Chinese
universities, corresponding fellow of the Academy of Athens, honorary
fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering, visited campus last
Friday, en route from Barcelona and Brussels to Cyprus, and stayed in
Lancaster House Hotel. He was taken on a brief tour of The Venue, the
Ruskin Library, the new Library extension and Cartmel Bar and was
suitably impressed by each of these, not least the Cartmel bar-maids.
He later attended the Inkytext Readers's Party and went on to Lonsdale
Bar. His impressive biography is one of the selling points of his
university. It can be found at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/bio/index.html
INKYTEXT PARTY REPORT: Many thanks to all who apologized for
non-attendance. No need really - and we were sorry not to have you.
Fridays don't seem a busy day at Lancaster.... Two VCs attended, the
Vice-Chancellor of LaTrobe University and Professor KJ Morgan, former
VC of Newcastle (NSW) University. The Principal of County and the
Director of the Peter Scott Gallery were also present along with
various founding readers. Dr Gilbert was entertaining as ever and even
Dr Lazarus popped in but would have nothing to drink. Apologies were
received from the unofficial archivist and others - see Readers'
Letters. Met Tom Barney of Linguistics for the first time.
Very disappointing attendance really but it's the quality that counts.
Sometimes one despairs of the English - you can't even give free beer
away to them. Thanks to County Bar for the skiffs and to Dr Jason Khan
for the wine glasses. Many thanks to Ralph Steadman for selecting
Willem Breuker's arrangement of Haydn's Concerto for Trumpet and
Orchestra (3rd Movement). A revelation. Just the thing to introduce
jollity in a superior party. In fact his whole selection is
recommended.
COURT REPORT: Hilton Dawson won election to Council but was not
present at the meeting. Reasonable attendance nonetheless. The Chair,
Deputy Pro-Chancellor David Martin, announced that he is retiring this
summer to sail around the world slowly. One wishes him well but for us
this is a matter of great regret and some anxiety. It must be hoped his
successor is not yet another East Lancs businessman. The _ouverture_
towards Cumbria needs exploiting.
This was the theme of several questioners at Court, including
Geraldine Smith MP, who regretted that we don't lobby MPs more. Dame
Betty Kershaw, wife of Professor Ian Kershaw, prize-winning biographer
of Hitler and standing best-man to Prof Geary, remarked that the Annual
Report didn't have many black or female faces and suggested our equal
opps policy had some way to go. Prof Diggle said even staff users of
the Health Centre were unhappy about the idea of a nurse-unit divorced
from any doctors.
The usual populist misunderstandings about membership of the
university were entirely to be predicted. Graduate student rep Eric
Greiff (sp?) complained about graduate representation and the surcharge
for payment of grad fees by instalments. Some buck-passing on the NLU.
The SU film for freshers was genuinely appreciated and Mr Bardsley's
motion respectably defeated. Everyone could go to lunch feeling fairly
satisfied with something.
YET ANOTHER MEETING OF THE ESTATES COMMITTEE seems to have been
cancelled. Great pity. Some time we'll surely find out how much the
nurse-led unit cost us and what the final payment on the Library
extension was. To say that the latter was much less than Laings were
initially demanding is rather disingenuous - it would obviously always
be so - what we want to know is how much was it. No longer a sensitive
commercial matter, surely.
TONIGHT SEES A RUSKIN FOUNDATION DINNER in the Tallow Chandlers Hall
in London to celebrate Ruskin's birthday. Speaker will be Sir Nicholas
Serota.
CONGRATULATIONS TO PHYSICS on yet another amazing TQA performance
(23/24). The School of Physics and Chemistry that is the only Lancaster
department to have gained JIF and JREI support. (A big equipment grant
obtained by our Polymer Division... wonder where the equipment is going
to end up?)
Despite this, and now having also gained a satisfactory TQA result -
Physics is mentioned only in negative terms in the Corporate Plan, and,
they complain, with some inaccuracies attributable either to
incompetence or malevolence.
The 1997 review advised closure of the Applied Physics Division, which
was done. Physics was advised to concentrate on what we are good at:
raising support from research councils. Which is what they are doing.
Nor are their forward-looking plans mentioned. For example, the LHC
programme at CERN, where some of their number are Coordinators or in
other major leadership roles. Parts of the detector systems have been
designed/developed here and prototypes are being built in their
workshop. The accelerator comes on line in 2005, data taking will
continue for 5-10 years, and analysis will probably run to about 2020.
This is *real* forward planning....
SATURDAY'S GUARDIAN carried a substantial and balanced introduction to
Ruskin, really a preview of the forthcoming Tate exhibition. In
Saturday's Telegraph Alain de Botton, a fan, reviewed John Batchelor's
biography. In Sunday's Telegraph John Gross reviewed the same two
biographies tackled by Chris Woodhead previously: Batchelor's and the
2nd vol of Tim Hilton's Life. In The Observer Peter Conrad, not a fan,
produced a heavyweight and scorching indictment of man and ideas. In
particular he suggested that even Ruskin's plans for idealised social
reforms belong with Carroll's Wonderland or Barrie's 'Never never land'
- immature and child-like realms from where reality is excluded.
DOES CHRIS WOODHEAD NEED MONEY or has he time on his hands? After last
week's Ruskin in the Mail he now reviews a book about being buried
alive in Sunday's Telegraph and provides a life-saving tip if ever you
are trapped in an avalanche - spit to see which direction is down
before you start digging.
3. EXHIBITION REVIEW: RUSKIN IN VENICE
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This term's show in the Ruskin Library runs until 26 March. For
non-Ruskinians it's more interesting than some of its predecessors,
prolly because Venice is an exciting place, and capable of intriguing
us more than even the most eminent of its commentators. But then it
might be because we're getting to know more about him....
It opens with the most famous engraved portrait of a young-looking
Ruskin by Heinrich Ulrich, a handsome and intelligent open face with
suitably Victorian sidewhiskers making him look a bit of a young fogey.
Look carefully at the eyes, nose and mouth? Does it not remind you of
someone...?
Yes, the mature youth of Professor Wheeler is latent in that face. No
relation, of course, but a reminder that one grows to resemble one's
subject as others to resemble their pets. (In younger moustached days I
was once said to be a 'dead ringer' for Proust, specially with a
centre-parting.)
Ruskin's liking for Venice is bound up with his taste for the Gothic,
and his often unfinished drawings of stilted archivolts and the like
were intended to be engraved by such as Thomas Shotter Boys for the
illustration of his books.
In the Second gallery one brightens up for instantly we can spot some
fluent pieces on the walls. The powerful head of Noah catches your eye
at once. Alas, on looking closer one discovers that all the eye-catching
items are by other people: John Wharlton Burney, Angelo Alessandri,
Albert Goodwin, Raffaelo Carloforti, Thomas Can't-read-my-writing, all
younger artists commissioned by Ruskin to do illustrations that were
later intended to become engravings for his books, in this case mainly
Stones of Venice.
But there are lots of good book-plates and a couple of pleasant enough
studies of the Grand Canal and a gondola.... but sad because there are
never any people in them....
Worth a visit anyway. And Happy Birthday. Perhaps this really is the Dawning
of the Age of Aquarius.
PART II FOLLOWS