Archive for October, 2008

Senator Bob Brown, Leader of the Australian Greens, who inspired an Armidale audience last night with his vision for restoring and preserving the health of the planet, began by praising the farmers of Caroona who have mounted a blockade against mining exploration on the Liverpool Plains.

“It’s wonderful to see people defending their patch,” he said.

Speaking at the University of New England’s Earle Page College, Senator Brown explained that he had visited Caroona earlier that day with the Federal Member for New England, Tony Windsor.

Although the priority for the future of mankind is food and water, he said, “the law is with those who want to pull coal out of the ground to pollute the atmosphere”.

Senator Brown emphasised the urgency of stopping atmospheric pollution. “And it’s not so difficult,” he said. “If we stopped logging native forests, Australia’s greenhouse emissions would drop by 20 per cent.”

His lecture last night, titled “Coal or Cool? Australia in an age of catastrophic climate change”, was the 25^th in the series of Earle Page College Annual Politics Lectures. In introducing him, Emeritus Professor Graham Maddox, one of the initiators of the lecture series, referred to Senator Brown as “an icon of Australian politics” and “the conscience of our nation”.

“Climate change is not coming,” Senator Brown said. “We’re in it. And there’s one constant: the news gets worse.” His central message was the need to act now to preserve the health of the earth “in the interests of those who come after us”; to act “with a sense of requiting this marvellous planet from which we come”.

In reviewing the gifts that “this marvellous planet” had bestowed on him, he included his schooldays in Armidale, with its New England environment. “Armidale has a very special place in my heart,” he said.

After the lecture UNE’s Deputy Chancellor, Scott Williams, moved a vote of thanks to Senator Brown, saying that his talk had been “a real treat”, providing “great insights into the message and the man”.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Senator Bob Brown displayed here was taken during the formal dinner at Earle Page College that preceded the Politics Lecture. It expands to include the Master of the College, Mr David Ward.

Ever wonder if you’re turning into your parents? According to research from the University of New England, there’s a 41 per cent chance you could be.

A team of researchers led by psychologist John Malouff aggregated the results of hundreds of studies on human behaviour and found that 41 per cent of human behaviour — good or bad — could be accounted for by genetics.

The results were published last month in Current Psychology.

“While there had been many studies done on specific behaviours such as alcoholism or smoking, we were interested to see if we could put a figure on the genetic influence on behaviour in general,” Dr Malouff said. “We looked at a whole range of normal and problem behaviours, and what we found was that again and again the genetic component of these behaviours tended to clump around the 40 per cent mark.

This makes genetics perhaps the single most powerful influence on a person’s behaviour over their lifetime.

“If you look at what we know about what causes behaviour, it’s hard to find another chunk so large. While a short-term situation may have a strong influence on behaviour, in the long run genes are very important,” Dr Malouff said.

He hastened to add, however, that genes were “not destiny”.

“An example I give to my clients is hair colour. Hair colour is genetically determined. You’re born blonde, redheaded, brunette. You can change that, but you have to keep working at it. Unless you dye your hair every couple of weeks, it’s going to revert to its natural colour. Behaviour is similar. People need to keep working on their bad habits or behaviours if they want to change them, especially if they are predisposed to continue them.”

So the next time you find yourself nagging the kids like your mum or knocking back that third tinny like your dad, remember, there’s something you can do about it. But it might not be easy.

For more information, contact Dr John Malouff on (02) 6773 3776 or Leon Braun (UNE public relations) on (02) 6773 3771.

The 30,000 users of the University of New England’s indoor swimming pool will soon be kept warm with water heated by new solar energy and heat recovery systems.

The NSW Department of Climate Change and the Environment, through its Public Facilities Program, has granted the University $250,000 for the installation of the heating equipment and an associated education program. Carmel Tebbutt, the NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, announced the grant at the recent Climate Change Forum in Armidale.

Colin Barry, UNE’s Energy Management Officer, said the project would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 tonnes a year and save 20 per cent of the energy currently used in the pool facility. “Combined with its educational component, it will also be a showcase of the technology for the many other indoor heated pools in the New England region,” he said.

UNE is a signatory to the International Talloires Sustainability Declaration, under which universities around the world aim to educate professionals and other graduates in being environmentally responsible, and to incorporate an awareness of sustainability issues in their academic programs. It was the UNE Talloires Declaration Implementation Committee that submitted the application for the grant.

The project will install solar energy collection and heat recovery equipment within the swimming pool building at Sport UNE, and then evaluate and monitor the performance of the technology.

The project team comprises Colin Barry, Mike Quinlan and Graham Johnston (representing the capital-works aspect of the project) and Dr Susen Smith, Carol Davies and Dr Darren Ryder (representing its educational aspect).

Dr Smith, Lecturer in the School of Education, said the project would provide an on-campus example of sustainability initiatives that could be incorporated into the University’s curricula and demonstrate UNE’s commitment to the Talloires Declaration. “It’s been wonderful to work with such a dedicated team of UNE personnel to secure a grant that will support the Talloires Declaration Implementation Committee’s goals of greater sustainable practice, research and teaching across UNE,” she said.

“The presence of successful solar energy collection and waste heat recovery strategies within the University will be a powerful tool for encouraging the uptake of solar energy throughout the region,” Dr Smith added. “And the project’s educational component will promote sustainable energy practices by being incorporated into academic courses and community-based programs such as ‘Education for Eco-engagement’ (part of the UNE TalentEd Enrichment Program, supported by funding from SiMERR NSW).”

UNE’s Faculty of The Professions supported the development of the grant application by providing funding that enabled Carol Davies to be employed as a research assistant. Ms Davies conducted research supporting the application, and the development and implementation of a University-wide survey. “UNE, with its unique rural environment, human community and technical resources, is in a position to become a leader in the field of sustainability, and is gaining a reputation for excellence in this area,” she said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Colin Barry and Dr Susen Smith displayed here expands to include Dr Darren Ryder (right) and David Schmude (Acting Executive Officer of Sport UNE) with swimmers Kathleen and Michaela. It was taken at the Sport UNE swimming pool.

A leading authority on New Zealand local government visited the University of New England last week to discuss research collaboration with UNE’s Centre for Local Government.

Mike Reid is the Governance Manager of Local Government New Zealand, an organisation that provides policy, advice and training to local government councils throughout New Zealand. His discussions with the Director of the UNE Centre, Professor Brian Dollery, and its Deputy Director, Bligh Grant, centred on issues of local government sustainability.

Professor Dollery, a widely published authority on Australian local government finance and reform, said: “The UNE Centre for Local Government has been collaborating for some time with Local Government New Zealand in general – and Mike Reid in particular – on various questions in contemporary local government. There are great similarities between the local government systems of Australia and New Zealand, and so there is much that can be gained through a comparative analysis.

“Mike has an unparalleled knowledge of local government reform in New Zealand and we are delighted and privileged that he has been able to visit us in Armidale. He and I are in the process of developing a framework for an edited book on sustainability in local government that considers not only financial sustainability, but also other aspects of the problem such as the sustainability of local communities and environments.

“Mike has already contributed chapters on New Zealand local government reform to two of our most recent books. One of these, Local Government Reform: A Comparative Analysis of Advanced Anglo-American Countries (edited by myself, Joseph Garcea and Edward LeSage), was published in July 2008, and another is forthcoming.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH published here, showing Professor Brian Dollery (left) with Mike Reid, expands to include Bligh Grant, Deputy Director of the UNE Centre for Local Government.

An outstanding postgraduate student at the University of New England has won a national award for research that will help school students who have difficulty with basic mathematics.

Anne Bellert has won the Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA) Tertiary Student Award for 2008. This is an occasional award through which LDA recognises significant research in the field of learning difficulties.

In a carefully-designed trial, Ms Bellert implemented and assessed an intervention program called QuickSmart that gives students confidence in the automatic application of basic skills in mathematics. Her research report, after documenting the successful outcome of the trial, emphasises the importance of helping students struggling with basic mathematics to develop the use of these automatic procedures.

The judges commended Ms Bellert’s research for its applicability to students with learning difficulties in a wide range of classroom situations.

Anne Bellert, who works for the Catholic Education Office of the Lismore Diocese, is a PhD student in the UNE-based National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR). Her academic supervisors, Associate Professor Lorraine Graham and Professor John Pegg (the Director of SiMERR) have led the development of the QuickSmart program over the past eight years.

Dr Graham said Ms Bellert’s work provided thoroughly documented evidence of the effectiveness of the QuickSmart program in “making a difference to students’ school performance”. “This is important and useful work, given the impact of school failure on individuals’ aspirations and society,” Dr Graham added.

The President of LDA, Dr Ruth Fielding-Barnsley, presented Ms Bellert with the award during a ceremony in Brisbane at the end of August. In accepting the award, Ms Bellert presented a brief overview of her research, acknowledging the support of her family and her supervisors. She thanked LDA for providing “motivation and encouragement” through the Tertiary Student Award.

Her award-winning research paper will be published in the LDA journal, the Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows the President of Learning Difficulties Australia, Dr Ruth Fielding-Barnsley (right), presenting the Tertiary Student Award to Anne Bellert.

A botanist from the University of New England has returned from London after completing a year-long appointment as Australian Botanical Liaison Officer (ABLO), based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Associate Professor Jeremy Bruhl (pictured here) is the first person from a university to have been appointed by the Australian Government to the position of ABLO – the representative at Kew of the Australian and New Zealand botanical communities.

Dr Bruhl found the role of ABLO “a great experience”. “It takes you to wonderful places and circumstances,” he said. “There’s the location itself: Kew Gardens has one of the largest and most important herbaria in the world, with more than seven million dried and pressed plant specimens – including 350,000 “type” specimens (i.e., the actual specimens referred to in the original descriptions of the species).

“Kew’s Jodrell Laboratory is a leading centre for the study of plant anatomy and development and molecular systematics. It has a strong team of world-class botanists, and its library provides fantastic access to botanical literature – from medieval herbals to electronic research journals. Kew also has very rich and diverse art, archives, and economic botany collections, and the Gardens themselves have a larger collection of living plants than any other botanic garden in the world. All this makes Kew an international hub for students and researchers, welcoming many visitors every week.”

“As ABLO, you get a broad range of inquiries,” Dr Bruhl explained. “One botanist asked me to check the length of a part of a plant collected hundreds of years ago and kept in Linnaeus’ herbarium. I got requests for literature not held in any Australian library – requests that took me to obscure journals and fascinating old monographs. Several tasks were to help find specimens for use in ABC and BBC films and television programs. I also had to track down the earliest collections of some species made in Australia – for use in court cases hinging on whether a particular plant was ‘native’ or ‘naturalised’.

“The ABLO is the facilitator of research visits to Kew by Australian and New Zealand botanists, historians, and botanical artists, who may need – along the way – to handle plant specimens collected by Banks and Solander at Botany Bay in 1770, or specimens collected by Robert Brown in the early 1800s or Darwin in the 1830s.”

The work of dealing with botanical inquiries from Australia and New Zealand takes up half of the ABLO’s time; the other half is devoted to the pursuit of their own research, using all the resources that Kew has to offer.

Working in a Jodrell molecular laboratory, and collaborating as team leader with scientists at Kew and the NSW Herbarium, and in Western Australia, South Africa and Hawai’i, Dr Bruhl was able to take his career-long study of evolutionary relationships within the sedge family (Cyperaceae) to a new level. “We showed quite clearly the taxonomic limits of a major Southern Hemisphere tribe (Schoeneae) of the sedge family,” he said, “and that many of its larger genera are in need of reclassification.”

He achieved this result through a process of extracting DNA from ground-up plant samples that he and his colleagues have collected from around the world, sequencing several gene regions and using these data to estimate evolutionary relationships. “It’s the first broad-ranging analysis of the Schoeneae using this approach,” he said.

In another study, conducted with the help of a scanning electron microscope and in collaboration with colleagues at the Jodrell Laboratory, Florida International University and the Botanic Gardens Trust Sydney, he investigated the flowers of a species of sedge that have always puzzled botanists. “We were able to get a picture of the plant’s floral development, and to hypothesise that the structures that look like flowers are really clusters of flowers,” he said. He presented the results of both these studies at the 4^th International Monocot Conference, in Copenhagen, in August this year, before returning to Australia with his family.

As well as having constant access to the Kew herbarium, Dr Bruhl had the opportunity to visit significant herbaria throughout Europe. These included the herbaria at the Natural History Museum and the Linnaean Society in London, the herbarium of Cambridge University, and herbaria in Edinburgh, Paris, Prague, Barcelona, Zurich, Florence, Leiden, Lund, and Copenhagen. He also went on a week-long trip to Brazil with a colleague from Kew to present a talk at the Brazilian Botanical Congress at San Paulo and join a small international group of Cyperaceae colleagues on a few days of fieldwork on the Brazilian Shield, near Diamontina.

“The ABLO position, which is maintained and co-funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study of the Commonwealth Government, provides a highly useful resource for Australian and New Zealand botanists,” Dr Bruhl said, “and, of course, is a fantastic opportunity for professional development for the individual. It’s a tribute to UNE that it was the first university to support a staff member on the year-long sabbatical to Kew. I am particularly grateful to my colleagues in UNE Botany, the Botanic Gardens Trust Sydney and the Australian Museum for dealing with my teaching during my absence.”

Dr Bruhl is the Director of the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium (NE) at UNE. During his year as ABLO, he was able to see how some of the great European herbaria approach the organisation of their collections. “I’ve been reflecting on that experience, and its possible application to what I do here,” he said. “There are lessons to be learnt, but our smaller size – about 80,000 herbarium specimens – has given us more chance to develop NE into a model herbarium.”

“At Kew and the other institutions,” he said, “it was wonderful being with so many taxonomic botanists who understand the importance to society of our work in the scientific discovery of species and the study of their relationships. I guess the challenge that remains is to convey to the public and politicians that the job is far from done, and that the maintenance of natural and agricultural systems depends on that knowledge.”

Jeremy Bruhl will present a talk about his experiences as Australian Botanical Liaison Officer tomorrow (Friday 24 October) at 12 noon in the Paul Barratt Lecture Theatre.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Associate Professor Jeremy Bruhl displayed here expands to show him in the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (Photo by Barbara Makinder.)

The history and folklore of the Australian “coo-ee” will be examined in a public lecture at the University of New England next week.

The lecture, on Friday 31 October, will contribute a fresh perspective to the study of bush culture and its influence on the development of an Australian national identity – a study pioneered by the former UNE historian Russel Ward in his influential book The Australian Legend.

As the 2008 Russel Ward Annual Lecture, the event – at 6 pm in the A2 Lecture Theatre in UNE’s Arts Building – will honour the memory of Professor Ward. Titled “When the bush rang with cooees”, it will be presented by the Sydney-based author and academic Richard White.

“The broad relationship Russel Ward established between notions of the ‘real’ Australia and the bush (its workers, its values, its customs and routines) still stands,” Mr White said. “We can see it at work in Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin, and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. This lecture examines another contribution the bush made to Australians’ understanding of themselves: the cooee. Here was another aspect of everyday bush culture that came to exemplify national sentiment – and sentimentality.”

“The cooee moved from its everyday use in the bush to being a focus for national meaning in parlour songs and bush yodels, in jewellery-making and scouting lore, in nationalist rituals and advertising campaigns,” he explained.

Richard White, who teaches Australian history and the history of travel and tourism at the University of Sydney, is currently writing a history of the cooee. His publications include Inventing Australia, The Oxford Book of Australian Travel Writing, Cultural History in Australia, and On Holidays: A History of Getting Away in Australia.

UNE’s School of Humanities, which presents the Russel Ward Annual Lecture, will mark this year’s 50^th anniversary of the publication of The Australian Legend by issuing a special volume of the Journal of Australian Colonial History. “The volume will be dedicated to an assessment of Ward’s career, and in particular a reappraisal of The Australian Legend,” said the Journal’s editor, Dr David Andrew Roberts.

“The volume, to be launched on the afternoon of the lecture, is based on papers presented at the Australian Historical Association’s conference held at UNE in September 2007,” said Dr Roberts, a Senior Lecturer in History at UNE. “It contains contributions from a range of leading historians – including UNE’s Emeritus Professor Alan Atkinson, and Ward’s old nemesis Humphrey McQueen.

“Members of Professor Ward’s family will be attending the event – including his son Charlie, who has contributed some memories of his father to the special journal volume.”

Family members of foundation lecturers at the New England University College – the precursor of the University of New England – were among the guests at the opening of an exhibition illustrating the home lives of those first families.

The exhibition, prepared by UNE staff members and mounted in the University’s Dixson Library, is the brainchild of four of those family members.

Speaking at the opening on Thursday 9 October, Jenny Browning, the daughter of foundation philosophy and psychology lecturer Duncan Howie, said the initial idea for the exhibition had arisen about four years ago in a conversation with three other “pioneer children”: Cathy Davis, Peter Crossley and Yvonne Voisey. “Peter (the son of Ralph Crossley, foundation lecturer in German) was very enthusiastic about the idea,” she said, “emphasising that we had to ‘tell the women’s story’.”

That story, as revealed in the exhibition, is one of “pioneer” women – tirelessly supporting their trail-blazing husbands while negotiating their way in and around the highly-stratified society of rural Armidale.

The New England University College was established as a college of the University of Sydney 70 years ago – in 1938. Numbers of staff and students were small in the early years, and the families of staff members formed a close-knit group. Ms Browning recalled how her own mother – Ella Howie – had formed a close relationship with the mothers of the three other instigators of the exhibition. “We children were like cousins,” she said, “and the others’ parents were like aunts and uncles.”

Another of that group of children – Cathy Davis, daughter of Consett Davis, foundation lecturer in botany and zoology – was also at the exhibition opening. She recalled how her mother Gwenda, herself a lecturer in botany and zoology, had – as a working mother – taken her along on many botanical excursions.

The exhibition includes historic photographs of staff, students and College buildings, and personal and household items illustrating the lives of the “pioneer” families. One of those families – that of Frank Letters, foundation lecturer in Classics and English – is represented by items including books and music. (Frank’s wife Kathleen was a well-known musician.) The four daughters of Frank and Kathleen Letters were all at the exhibition opening.

The guests at the opening included several lecturers from the early days of the University College. Keith Lewis (for whom UNE’s Lewis Chemistry Lecture Theatre is named) was one of those. He came to the college as a lecturer in chemistry in 1942, and retired from UNE as an Associate Professor in 1981. Another was Wes Taylor, lecturer in Mathematics and Physics (and a former student) at the College, who retired from UNE in 1987, also as Associate Professor. In 1958, Dr Lewis and Dr Taylor were the first PhD graduates of the University of New England, which had gained autonomy in 1954.

Professor Alan Pettigrew, the Vice-Chancellor of UNE, welcomed the guests to the opening function, mentioning that one of them – Paul Barratt, son of the “pioneer” student Paul Barratt who later became Professor of Psychology at UNE – had come all the way from Melbourne.

Professor Pettigrew thanked the UNE staff members who had researched, designed, and assembled the exhibition. They include Christine Bryan (the University Curator), Bill Oates (the University Archivist), Dr Philip Ward (Archives Officer), and Michelle Arens (Art Collection Manager).

Mr Oates, who also spoke at the opening, said the exhibition had been made possible by the “community” that the College – and then the University – had fostered. Speaking as an archivist, he said: “This is a moment in time when we stop, reflect, and exhibit.”

The exhibition will be on display in the Dixson Library for the rest of the year.

THE IMAGE displayed here is from a photograph of three of Frank and Kathleen Letters’ daughters hung in the Dixson Library as part of the exhibition.

Final-year theatre students at the University of New England are preparing to display their directing skills to the Armidale public in UNE’s annual season of short plays.

The 2008 season, titled Hopes Before Dark, comprises 11 plays, each running for about 15 minutes. Hopes Before Dark begins today (Friday the 17^th of October) and continues on Monday the 20th, Wednesday the 22nd, and Friday the 24^th of October. Each day’s program, beginning at 5.15 pm, offers a different group of two or three plays.

“The choice of material varies greatly,” said Sue Fell, a lecturer in Theatre Studies at UNE. “There are excerpts from classic comedies and thrillers alongside adaptations of novels and short stories.”

“This is when advanced students get to put all they’ve learnt onto the stage of a real theatre – the UNE Arts Theatre – and be publicly ‘examined’,” Ms Fell said. “We (their teachers) sit in the audience, and so, too, do ‘Mr and Mrs Public’.

“They have to work as professionals; it’s risky – and exciting.”

She explained how the annual event “builds the culture” within UNE Theatre Studies by engaging first-year students as stage managers and sound and lighting crew. “It also connects the University to the wider community,” she said, “by drawing its actors from throughout the University (both students and staff members) and the Armidale community (including high-school students). It’s the public profile of Theatre Studies.”

“Only one of the pieces – Historia, on Monday – comes with a ‘coarse language and adult themes’ warning,” Ms Fell said. “Everything else is suitable for all ages and tastes. And the starting time of 5:15 pm sharp means you’ll be out of the Arts Theatre by 6 pm – a great way to end the day and be home in time for dinner.”

Entry is by gold coin donation at the door. The program for the season is:

FRIDAY 17 October
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, directed by Jamie Exworth. This is the story of a daughter’s struggle to care for her sick and disabled mother and what happens when the pressure becomes too much.
Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton, directed by Sarah Harrison. A Victorian thriller – with a touch of humour – about a devilishly charming husband, Mr Manningham, who attempts to drive his wife insane in order to keep a long-dead secret buried.

MONDAY 20 October
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, directed by Amy Euston. This looks at the scene in which Lysander and Demetrius are both attempting to woo Helena, while Hermia looks on in confusion. It’s a light-hearted look at relationships, accompanied by some classic songs, in a modern setting.
After The Theatre by Anton Chekhov, directed by Nindiy Meyer-Gleaves. A tragi-comedy about a teenage girl who wants her life to be as dramatic as the play she has just seen. Faced with a choice, she sets herself to decide which man she wants.
Historia by Noelle Janaczewska, directed by Sam Francis. This is a story about the innocent discovery of sexuality and self; a tale of love and lust, lies and deception, and – most importantly – discovery.

WEDNESDAY 22 October
The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, directed by Kylie Baker. An opportunity arises for a servant, Truffaldino, to earn a few extra dollars, simply by waiting on two masters while each is ignorant of the other. Truffaldino is almost caught out many times and blames all the mistakes on a fictitious servant called Pasquale.
The Cagebirds by David Campton, directed by Richard Shannon. Physical, absurdist comedy (using sticks, rope and the actor’s imagination) centered on the idea that “stone walls don’t make a prison”.
Psychic Attack, from A Mouthful of Birds by Caryl Churchill & David Lan, directed by Michelle Lawrence. A play about possession, and a woman’s struggle with the spirits of her mind while her husband turns a blind eye.

FRIDAY 24 October
Dinner for One by Lauri Wylie, directed by Cathryn Ricketts. A rich lady is celebrating her birthday. All her friends have died, and her butler, wanting to ensure that her birthday is enjoyable for her, pretends to be all of them. Drinking alcohol for four people while preparing and serving the meal, he gets extremely intoxicated.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare, directed by Nikki Crow. This gothic, shrill, dark-humoured slice of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is Phantom of the Opera meets Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – full of irony, quick wit and eccentricity.
A Hope in Hell, directed by Alanna Proud. Based on the graphic novel series The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman, this piece is stylised, dramatic and moody. The characters are distinct, extreme and complex; the dialogue is sparse.

The University of New England is establishing a social support group for students with young children.

At the moment there are almost twice as many women as men enrolled as students at UNE. “That means there are more mothers than ever before at UNE – mothers who are balancing their studies with family commitments,” said UNE’s Student Experience Liaison Officer, Mr Ed Campbell.

“Part of being a university student is learning to juggle competing demands such as study, work, and social life,” Mr Campbell said. “But imagine the challenges involved in doing all of this with the responsibility for a small child. That’s why we’ve established Mums@UNE. We expect that most members of the group will be mothers, but Dads are welcome too.”

Mr Campbell, the coordinator of the Mums@UNE project, said social support was extremely important in student life – particularly for parents with young children whose commitments often made it difficult to participate in extra-curricular academic and social activities available to most students.

“It’s easy to feel left out of activities and social events because they are not always designed with toddlers and young children in mind,” said Irene Lemon (pictured here with her daughter Shenoah), a first-year student and mother-of-one who is a founding member of Mums@UNE. “To have a network of parents to share concerns and achievements with will be very valuable to my studies and to the quality of my education.”

Mums@UNE has found widespread support across the campus, with Services UNE providing access to the Chancellory within the Boolominbah Collection as a meeting venue, and the University’s child-care centre, Yarm Gwanga, helping to alert parents to the group’s existence.

The first informal meeting of Mums@UNE is being held at “Booloominbah” on Monday October 20 from 9.30 am. Anyone who would like to attend can send an e-mail to mums@une.edu.au. “Children will be most welcome,” Ms Lemon said.

While students can contact the group through e-mail or by approaching the student services organisation Student Assist on campus, it will be managed through the social networking Web site Facebook.

“Students don’t have to join the Facebook group to be members,” Mr Campbell said, “but we’ve found that social networking sites provide an enjoyable way of quickly and easily staying in touch with others in the group, sharing information, and finding out about the wide range of services available through the University.”

For more information, e-mail mums@une.edu.au or contact Ed Campbell through Student Assist on 02 6773 2897.