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INKYTEXT 350 PART I
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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 Palo Alto 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 Chester-le-Street
Rastatt Boston Bermuda Annapolis Huddersfield Manigod Orleans Poolewe Brasilia
Jyvaskala San Jose Galgate Uxbridge Kingston Colchester Malvern Antartica
St Just Tunbridge Wells Montpellier Salford Southport St Louis Florence Ely
THE END (Part I)
Issue No 350 5th May 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
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
AGENDA
Minutes and matters arising
1. Editorial: Big Issues
2. News: Death, Birth, Wedding, Peacocks, Francesca Gibson, Ernie Phillips,
Keith Devlin, Deputy Pro-Chancellor, Estates Strategy, Funding LEC,
Chemistry, Standard & Poors, Badminton, Argentinian Tango, Student Jobs,
Union Learning Fund, New Approaches to University Teaching.
3. The Birth and Sad Demise of Mardis: a lesson in how not to do it.
4. From the Peacock throne to the Rooster's roost: Current exhibitions.
PART II CONTAINS
Late News
5. Readers' Letters: Bob Chaplin, Ken Pennington, Louis Barfe, Bob Bliss,
Tom Barney, Rebecca Leam, Sarah Carpenter, Jessica Abrahams at the Savoy,
Dave Boyle, Canute, Steve Pumfrey, Lindsay Newman.
6. Memoirs of an e-zine editor: Conclusion.
MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING
---------------------------
Votes in the Arts and Humanities election should reach Simon
Cresswell by 4.00 pm today.
Professor Tinker, like Davina Chaplin, was born in Westcliff. Excellent
obituary by Peter Lyon in yesterday's Independent.
Marcus Merriman, 60 on Wednesday, underwent confirmation in the Church
of England in Manchester yesterday evening.
The Editor is rumoured to intend to stand for a place as a Senate
appointee on the University Council. The rumour is true.
From the Public Arts Policy minutes of 29 March 2000 (PAPC/99/387):
"The Vice-Chancellor invited members to note that the university would
not pursue the recommendation of the UNIAC report to appoint an overall
autistic director."
The olfactory plug-in called for here has actually been developed at
the Weizmann research centre in Israel and at MIT. No news yet of the
wine transmitter and synthesizer.
Today is the start of Roses Weekend which this year takes place at
Lancaster. Good luck to all participants.
One should of course always be wary of ILOVEYOU messages from
strangers. More importantly all campus users should still seek to
eradicate the W97M/thus.a virus on pain of losing their hard disk
contents later this year. See http://www.lancs.ac.uk/virus/ for Dave
Bleasdale's ever invaluable advice.
1. EDITORIAL: BIG ISSUES
------------------------
The above masthead listing the spread of readership, resurrected by
request of Vincent Golden, stopped in 1996. The Christmas issue that
year (189) announced that it would be dropped as part of the
University's other austerity measures and to meet the 3% efficiency
gains required by the budget.
A pity perhaps. From the beginning eminent political strategists
suggested that the masthead was what gave people pause when they were
minded to 'put a stop to' the publication. With such a geographical
spread and eminent readership it was likely that high-handed
interference with freedom of expression would cause comment - perhaps
elsewhere. Mention in the THES and The Guardian helped too.
Actually, as a paranoid precaution, lest there should be any
interference with the editor's computer account, backup copies of
prepare early issues ("Here's on I made earlier") were stored on the
free accounts so generously hosted by universities with missionary zeal
in Ohio, Finland and Taiwan.
The editor has chatted for hours with the natives but never ventured
to any of these places. These facts are a salutary reminder of the
globalisation of higher education and its consequences and the ways it
is being been inevitably driven by the advent of networked computing.
In taking leave of this medium it is worth pondering the enormous
distance that society has traversed since 1994, when, at our European
Day, I gave an excited and impassioned lecture (or so I thought) on the
wonders of discovering Europe by 'gopher'. It was attended by five
polite people, including Emily Fay and Charles Alderson. I explained to
a colleague who had asked what I was talking about that gopher was a
means of consulting files on someone else's computer network without
the need to know the numeric address or how computers worked. "But why
would anyone but a criminal want to do that?" he asked.
I think he knows the answer now. Even as I spoke the WWW was
developing the same seamless and invisible routines in multimedia. The
results of it all are now providing vast profits and trendy talk for
people who mocked it all then and in some cases even now.
One nagging worry is that our own leaders are even now not the most
computer-literate members of the university. Surveying the membership
of UMAG one notes a distressing number who still delegate keyboard
contact to their secretaries. What, on the other hand, has been
gratifying is the number of staff who, as we pursued our OPD (one per
desk) policy commented to the installers of their machines and ethernet
that what they were looking forward to was access to Inkytext.
Our own computer service is still woefully underfunded but strives
magnificently to cope with inadequate material resources and personnel.
In Barry Forde we have a network prophet of genius, in Janice Macklin a
manager of quiet energy, in John Gallagher an on-the-ball and
in-the-know administrator, in Susan Armitage an energetic and
imaginative teacher. How Steve Bennett and the technical staff cope I
simply do not know. Departed staff were at least as eminent.
Thanks are due to all of the above, and, in no particular order, to
the Postmaster (Alan Philips) and Norman Paterson for mailing services,
to Prof Shepherd without whom etc., Jeremy Boreham, the Academic
Registrar, Pro-VC David Martin, to unofficial archivist Barry
Rowlingson, and to the maths department for unwittingly hosting it, to
founding subscribers Colin Peacock, Peter McClintock, Alan Thompson,
and Mike Pacey, to Vice-Chancellors Osborne and Morgan and to Professor
Martin Trow for lending intellectual eminence to the subscription list,
to Vincent Golden for introducing me to Dilbert, to Fiona Frank for
prolific advertising (don't forget those flower baskets) to and all
contributors and providers of news. It's been fun. Mostly.
A parting thought from Alfred North Whitehead, the distinguished
American philosopher of education:
"So far as the mere imparting of information is concerned, no
university has had any reason for existence since the popularisation of
printing in the fifteenth century. Yet the chief impetus to the
foundation of universities came after that date, and in more recent
times has even increased.
The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection
between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the
old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university
imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this
is the function which it should perform for society. A university
which fails in this respect has no reason for existence."
2. NEWS
-------
SECOND YEAR LAW STUDENT GUY CHECKETTS (Lonsdale) died of septicaemia
in Blackpool Victoria on Saturday morning while being operated on for a
gangrenous appendix. He was 22 and had just become engaged to be
married. Bouquets of flowers and written tributes have appeared on the
grassed courtyard of Lonsdale. We send every sympathy to his shocked
family and friends. The funeral is at Carlton crematorium on Monday.
CONGRATULATIONS TO LINDA HENDRY (Management School) and Phil Hendry
(Physics) on the birth of a sister for Tim. Anna was born on Saturday
28th April at 17:04, weighing 8lb 7.5oz (3.84kg for those terminally
addicted to SI units!).
CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES to Dr David Allan (St Andrews),
formerly of Independent Studies and University House, and to Katie
Price, who are to be married in Canada this summer.
BEST WISHES TO ALAN BOLTON (administrator in the Management School)
who has left for a similar post in Leeds, thus depriving the school of
its only MBA. (Others in the University are Peter Elliott and Hilary
Holt. Also Shelley Willson was, and is now a consultant re-engineering
admin processes at Manchester Univ.)
CONGRATULATIONS TO KEVIN SHERRATT who leaves for London at the end of
June, for a job with a leader in Digital TV systems (suppliers to Sky
and other companies in the states and East)... Also to Dave Ingles who
is being interviewed in Cambridge next week for the post of
communications engineer with the British Antartic Survey.
CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR JANET FINCH, VC of Keele University, who
is to be awarded an honorary doctorate by Edinburgh. Professor Finch is
a member of the board of the QAA.
STANDARD & POORS PRESS RELEASE (23rd September last) announced the AAA
rating of our debenture stock. It noted "Management's aim is to
continue to consolidate its academic reputation by pursuing promising
research areas, while improving the university's financial position by
generating operating surpluses of 5%"
However it also struck a note of caution: "Lancaster's credit quality
is constrained by the limited improvement to its financial performance,
and the inevitably fragile nature of some of the changes that have had
insufficient time to become institutionalized. [...] However the
challenging financial situation in the UK university sector, although
improved from the past couple of years, could place pressure on its
ability to meet its demanding targets consistently.
Lancaster's recent capital expenditure program [SIC] has resulted in a
high total debt burden, representing over 57% of total income and
relatively high debt-service costs, with an interest payments-to- total
expenditures ration of 6% in 1998, from 2% in 1995"
LEC (ENVIRONMENT CENTRE) BUILDING: huge money problems here. Alarm
bells should be ringing. (This is where we came in....) The Pro-VCs
have repeatedly stressed that the university's 4 million pound
contribution should be considered as underwriting and that the IEBS
should continue to seek outside capital funding. No signs of this
coming. Worse - rumours that there may be a request for Council to
approve additional sum from our hard won and newly acquired surpluses.
Part of the problem is lab refurbishment costs (conversion of Faraday
for biologists) rumoured to total 600K even when cut down.
DEPUTY PRO-CHANCELLOR: still no news of a replacement for David Martin
when he leaves us this summer. It is rumoured that an attempt may be
made to seek an appointment by nomination without giving the University
Court its right to an election. Surely not. Such a move is likely to be
opposed by democratic watchdogs on Court.
ERNEST PHILLIPS RETIREMENT PARTY culminated in the presentation of a
pair of skis, an apt gift for an active retirement. The VC and Mrs
Ritchie attended the event in Lonsdale Bar, as did former colleagues
including Donald Smith, George Cockburn, Arthur Davies and Winnie
Clark. Mr McGregor paid entertaining tribute to Ernie, tracing the
development of the university during his 32 years here. Ernie replied
wittily, noting that at least he had 6 months to plan his retirement
whereas some finance officers only get a couple of hours. He will
continue to advise on estates strategy next term.
ONGOING CHEMISTRY STUDENTS are still causing headaches for Pro-VC
Whitaker. We'll see at registration next week how many choose to change
intended major (or perhaps go elsewhere). Scepticism on the part of the
Chemistry staff about proposed arrangements for teaching advanced
courses, and whether the courses proposed would gain Royal Society of
Chemistry approval.
FRANCESCA GIBSON: It is just over a year since Francesca's death (19
April 1999). On reading a recent article in The Guardian about two men
who had lost their wives to ovarian cancer and who set up an
association to research into its causes and cures (ROC, Research into
Ovarian Cancer), her friends Dee Reynolds, Michela Masci and Allyson
Fiddler thought that donating to this charity could be a very positive
way to remember Francesca. We are writing to InkyText to invite other
readers who wish to support ROC to send donations (by cheque) to:
Research into Ovarian Cancer (ROC), PO Box 3872, London SW15 1XR (0181
789 1406). (A copy of the article, 'Is Mass Screening the Answer to
Ovarian Cancer?' may be consulted in Lonsdale B13.
Additionally her colleagues wish to remember her with a memorial, in
the form of a tree or a bench on campus, or books for the library, or a
book prize for students, depending on the funds raised. For
contributions, suggestions or further information please contact:
Michela Masci, Italian Studies, DELC, Lonsdale College, Lancaster
University, Lancaster, LA1 4YN; tel 01524 593007; e-mail
M.Masci@lancaster.ac.uk. <mailto:M.Masci@lancaster.ac.uk.> Cheques can
be made payable to: Francesca Gibson Memorial Fund."
PROFESSOR EMERITUS NINIAN SMART makes a welcome return to his old
department on Monday 8 May. His lecture on "HOW TO STUDY CHRISTIANITY"
will take place in Furness Lecture Theatre 2 from 4.30-6.00pm
KEITH DEVLIN: The University of Missouri-St. Louis's annual Spencer
and Spencer Systems Endowed Lecture in Mathematics is this year being
given by Dr. Keith Devlin, late of Lancaster and now of St. Mary's
College of California and Stanford University. Keith's topic will be
"The Math Gene: How Did Humans Acquire the Ability to Do Mathematics?"
Bob and Paulette Bliss are invited to dinner with Keith before the
lecture, no doubt in honor of the Lancaster connection. They will
attend the lecture, in hopes perhaps of discovering why some of us
humans don't seem to have the gene in question.
STUDENTS ARE URGENTLY REQUIRED TO WORK evenings and weekends to
undertake telephone surveys in Lancaster offices, immediate start.
Excellent rates of pay, flexible working hours to suit. Also urgently
needed speakers of Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Danish for
particular project starting 8th May. Please contact Linda Crossley at
Teleconomy on Lancaster 382788.
NEW APPROACHES TO UNIVERSITY TEACHING: This nationally advertised
intensive course endorsed by the National Postgraduate Committee has
been adapted to form part of the postgraduate training programme. It
will take place between 3-7 July & 10 July 2000. This will give locals
the opportunity to take part. It has been found to be an excellent
preparation for postgraduates and others planning an academic career.
The overarching theme of the course is the development of confidence
and the ability to inspire learners.
For further information, contact: George Green (Ext 93413) or Julie
Rossall (Ext 93430) Independent Studies Email g.green@lancaster.ac.uk;
j.rossall@lancaster.ac.uk
UNION LEARNING FUND: the joint bid by campus Trade Unions and HEDC to
the Union Learning Fund has been successful. We now have 27K to support
a comprehensive learning needs analysis across the University, carry
out a study into the feasibility of establishing a Learning Centre for
staff use and train 15 members from the five unions to become workplace
learning advisors. This is the first application to the ULF from an AUT
association.
FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS OF THE SQUASH LADDER, enthusiasts have created a
Badminton Ladder. (http://domino.lancs.ac.uk/pub/badminton.nsf/)
ARGENTINIAN TANGO WORKSHOP 7.30 - 9-30 pm Sunday 7th May with Federico
Mazanderani of London. Venue: Gregson Centre, Moor Lane, Lancaster
Cost: 8.00 / 5.00 (concessions). Level: beginners
No partner needed. You will need shoes in which you can swivel on the
balls of your feet - trainers/Doc Martens are not recommended! The
plan is to continue with workshops once a month and have weekly or
fortnightly practice sessions between.
Contact: Jessica Abrahams email j.abrahams@lancaster.ac.uk tel: 01524
38 39 40.
3. THE BIRTH AND SAD DEMISE OF MARDIS: A LESSON IN HOW NOT TO DO IT.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
It started as a mission. It ended when accountants realised that it
was continuing to make losses and, if it ever did make money, it would
never be enough to justify their hassle. A bit like British education
really. Or even this journal. The story of Mardis is a pretty exemplary
fable. Especially for a place that hopes to make money from involvement
with business and the exploitation of intellectual property rights.
Mardis ceased trading on April 11th. For the past couple of years it
had been staffed by a secretary, a sales and marketing person and a
part-time manager, production and maintenance having been largely
contracted out.
Local users and purchasers assure us that they like the new product
(Eclipse) very much and that if sales have fallen off that has much
to do with delays in repair under warranty.
The university recognizes its responsibilities under warranties which
still have two or three years to run and will be putting in place
arrangements to fulfil them. Overall losses are guessed at about 250K.
Board members (currently Prof Abercrombie, Prof Sommerville, Mr McG,
Peter Fielding and Dr Nielsen) regret the situation, but some feel
earlier closure might have been desirable but was avoided for largely
sentimental reasons.
MARDIS began in 1985 as a special needs project with the support and
blessing of VC Philip Reynolds, George Cockburn, Harold White and Doug
Shepherd with Ken Pennington as project director. For the next 4 years
development of computer software and hardware for the disabled took
place, culminating in 1989 with the launch of ORAC a portable
communication aid. From day one Mardis paid for itself from product
income. Commercially it was a great success. In its first three years
the turnover climbed to 585K with net profits of 130K, a return of some
22%.
Much praise in the technical and disabled press for the product which
at that time seemed well ahead of its competitors in various ways.
MARDIS at this point was made one of the highlighted beneficiaries of
our disastrous 1990 development campaign, and its passionate and
imaginative promoter, Ken Pennington devised a series of further
projects for development which were enthusiastically welcomed by the
disabled community. It is perhaps worth speculating on what might have
happened at this point had Mr Cann and the University chosen to invest
1 million in MARDIS rather than the Ruskin Library.... But alas.
Harold White devised a mechanism whereby 20% of the profits were put
into a fund for special needs students on campus. He then retired and
was replaced by Mr Savory and Prophecy. At the end of 1992 MARDIS took
over the registration of ISCOL Ltd. It soon found itself being charged
for financial services it didn't want plus salary charges for Mr
Pennington who was really performing a labour of love in addition
to his own job. The profits accumulated by MARDIS over previous years
were no longer available to it.
As part of this change the company was capitalised by the purchase of
70K of of shares and a 70K loan repayable over 5 years at a fixed
interest rate of 10% (prior to this they always started each year with
nothing).
After 2 year of moderate profitability things took a turn for the
worse in 1995-96. No single factor was to blame: ageing products,
increased competition and reduced NHS funding for the purchase of
equipment all played a part.
As things continued to deteriorate the techicians, Rob Zloch and Neil
Parry, who had every faith in their new product, hired an accountant to
value the firm and made a management buy-out offer on February 7th
1997. This was formally acknowledged on 15th April(!) when a letter
from the then chairman (Dr Hannaford) said the board found this
"interesting" but thought some aspects required further discussion. The
position of Mardis had worsened over the intervening two months and on
30th April Rob and Neil felt they had to withdraw their offer.
By this time the University/Board decided that it needed an
independent review and Dr Nielsen was called in to to a 10 day
"technical appraisal". If misjudgment occurred at this point that can
only be know by those privy to the contents of his report, presumably
the Board. The Company Secretary assures me that it was not decided to
run the firm down at that time, and that closing then, or selling it on
Rob and Neil's terms, would inter alia have written off large volumes
of stock, some of which has been 'shifted' in the past two years.
That is what makes the events of these two years so perplexing.
Continuing meant research and development in a new product. Dr Nielsen
was taken on at consultancy rates for two days a week and Rob and Neil
were given a year's notice during which they tried to complete
development of the Eclipse, their new model.
Several discussions about their future involvement with MARDIS took
place but unfortunately a mutually satisfactory agreement could not be
reached. Rob and Neil thereafter set up their own company, Morphonics,
in White Cross, and will launch their new product at the national
Communications Matters fair in the George Fox building in September.
The last accounts lodged at Companies House (1997-98) show stocks
valued at 46K with a loss on the year of 93K and cumulative losses of
155K. Mr Fielding assures us that net losses were substantially reduced
last year.
Mardis was the brainchild of Ken Pennington. Ken argued, convincingly,
that the university would profit more from Mardis by manufacturing it
itself. With hindsight someone like Professor Davies argues that that
was the time to sell the thing on and perhaps profit from royalties.
Perhaps it is true that a single product company selling on smallish
margins has a limited life-cycle. It certainly seems that 100%
university owned companies are less than desirable, if only because
commercial bodies are eligible for a much wider range of governement
and European assistance. More importantly because universities have to
be risk averse with public money, and business start-ups are inevitably
risky.
MARDIS nonetheless, more than much else, is something that in its
formative years Ken Pennington and Lancaster had reason to be proud of.
We lose it with sadness.
[A letter from Ken appears in Part II.]
4. FROM THE PEACOCK THRONE TO THE FARMYARD ROOST: CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Have you found the South Room of the Library yet? Now is your chance.
What is normally a staid square room, whose locked glass cases house our
edition of D'Holbach and D'Alembert's Encyclopedie and an astonishing
collection of railway books, is now a feast of colour.
Dr Newman's devotion to the peacocks manifest itself in a display of
remarkable diversity: feathers, printed papers, china, jewellery and
book plates trace the history of the PAVO (a member of the pheasant
family) from India and antiquity through Islam and art nouveau.
This encyclopaedic and informative display also traces the genealogy
and life of our own peacocks, fed in winter and summer by Dr Newman. It
is on for the rest of the month. Not to be missed.
Less colourful but splendidly presented is the German government
exhibition on Pauline Modersohn-Becker and the Worpspede group which
has just opened in the Peter Scott Gallery. It is on until June 2nd.
Worpspede is a little place outside Bremen where a group of artists
settled at the start of the century. They wanted to escape from
traditional academic concerns and return to nature. They admired much
in Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh, and Modersohn-Becker repeatedly
visited Paris in the early years of the century.
Paula Modersohn-Becker was born in 1876 in Dresden but her family
later moved to Bremen. She took art lessons there and then in London.
Later, she completed a teachers' training program to alleviate her
parents' concern about her future livelihood then she went to Berlin to
continue her art studies. In 1898, she settled in Worpswede and, three
years later, married Otto Modersohn, one of the resident artists.
They had a daughter together, but, poignantly, Modersohn-Becker died
three weeks after giving birth to her. She was thirty-one years old. By
that time, she had produced more than four hundred paintings as well as
many etchings and drawings. She was best known for her touching
paintings of elderly peasant women and self-portraits. She also painted
intriguing landscapes and still lifes.
Lots of prints and drawings by her and other members of this expressionist
group.
THE END (PART II) FOLLOWS SOONISH