Archive for October, 2009

There were many warm wishes for Professor Alan Pettigrew yesterday when the staff of the University of New England said farewell to him and his wife Ann on his retirement from the position of Vice-Chancellor.

“We’ve had a wonderful time here and we’ll miss the place,” Professor Pettigrew said during the farewell function on the lawns of “Booloominbah”.

After the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Webb, had thanked him, on behalf of the University, for all his achievements as Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pettigrew said that those initiatives had been successful “only because other people wanted to move forward”. He encouraged the staff to build on what they had achieved together, saying: “I think we’ve sown the seeds of a strong future for the University.”

Among those achievements, Professor Webb mentioned the creation of a new senior management team for the University, the establishment of UNE’s School of Rural Medicine within the Joint Medical Program, the charting of a new strategic direction for the University through wide consultation with the staff, a process of academic renewal that has allowed for the creation of important new courses, and the restructuring of the Faculties in a way that promotes interdisciplinary collaboration. Professor Pettigrew was Vice-Chancellor of UNE for almost four years.

Professor Webb said that Professor Pettigrew had maintained “equanimity, generosity – and even humour” through difficult as well as through good times, and that in this he had been “an incredible role model”.

Professor Webb paid tribute to the dedicated support of Mrs Ann Pettigrew for her husband and the University, and her committed involvement – alongside Professor Pettigrew himself – in the life of the wider Armidale community. Mrs Pettigrew, too, was warmly farewelled by individual members of staff.

Among the many parting gifts that Professor Pettigrew and Mrs Pettigrew have received is a framed photograph – presented to them during yesterday’s function – of “Trevenna”, the Vice-Chancellor’s residence at UNE.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Alan Pettigrew displayed here was taken at a farewell dinner for him at UNE during the week.

The Chancellor of the University of New England (UNE), Dr Richard Torbay, announced that UNE had appointed Professor James Barber as its Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer following a special meeting of UNE Council. Professor Barber is expected to commence the position in February 2010.

Professor Barber (pictured here) is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, one of Australia’s largest universities. RMIT is also one of Australia’s most respected ‘dual sector’ universities. He is a Company Director on a number of national bodies, including Open Universities Australia (Australia’s leading provider of fee-paying online degree programs), Jesuit Social Services Australia and Graduate Careers Australia.

Professor Barber is a distinguished academic. After completing his PhD in experimental psychology, his research shifted into the applied fields of drug addiction and child welfare. His research record includes minimal interventions in the secondary prevention of drug addiction, and evidence based social policy and child welfare.

He is a winner of North America’s Pro Humanitate Medal for his research in child welfare and a winner of the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Flinders University. Prior to moving to university senior executive positions in the higher education sector, Professor Barber’s roles included that of Reader and then Professor of Social Work (La Trobe University and the University of Tasmania), Professor of Social Administration (Flinders University) and Dean of Single Department Faculties (University of Toronto).

Professor Barber has significant international education experience, most significantly taking on the additional role of interim President of RMIT International University of Vietnam. He has worked in regional universities and has a commitment to their important contribution in providing access to education, and also in driving economic prosperity and enhancing the morale, culture and identity of their regions.

The Chancellor welcomed the appointment of Professor Barber. “The search for an outstanding candidate for Vice-Chancellor involved an exhaustive recruitment process that yielded extremely high quality candidates”, Dr Torbay said.

“Professor Barber was the preferred choice of our Selection Committee, and I am very pleased that the University has made this appointment. His experience and credentials are precisely what this University needs at this time. I have great confidence that he will provide astute leadership and direction – not just to the staff, students and management at UNE, but to the New England community more broadly.”

Professor Barber said that he looked forward to his appointment. “I have been impressed by the enthusiasm and vitality of this University during my brief visits. I look forward to meeting staff and students early in the new academic year, and with the community in the region and beyond. My wife Mary and I welcome the opportunity to be associated with UNE.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Barber displayed here is courtesy of RMIT.

For media enquiries, contact Michael Kauter, UNE Media Adviser, 02 6773 3872 or 0429360498.

Six Bhutanese Members of Parliament visited the University of New England last Friday in recognition of the Bhutanese Government’s long and productive relationship with UNE.

The delegation, led by the Speaker of the National Assembly of Bhutan, Mr Jigme Tshultim, included three other members of the National Assembly as well as the Speaker of the National Council (the Bhutanese House of Review) and one other member of the National Council. They discussed future developments in the Bhutan/UNE relationship with the Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, and their UNE host, Associate Professor Tom Maxwell, and met Bhutanese students over lunch.

“We have had a long relationship with this university,” Mr Tshultim said, “and we are looking forward to continuing cooperation.” That cooperation, he said, would see an increasing number of Bhutanese students studying at UNE.

He went on to point out that many important positions in the Bhutanese Government and civil service are already occupied by UNE graduates. These include Lyonpho Zangley Dukpa (Minister of Health), Dasho T. S. Powdyel (Minister of Education), Mr Tshering Tenzin (another member of the National Assembly), and Dr Jagar Dorji (a member of the Upper House). Dasho Pema Thinley, Vice-Chancellor of the Royal University of Bhutan, holds a First-Class Master’s degree from UNE and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Education degree in 2004.

Professor Pettigrew said that the University’s mutually rewarding relationship with Bhutan was, among other things, an example of the contribution that UNE – Australia’s oldest regional university – could make in countries facing the challenges of regional development.

About 40 Bhutanese people have gained postgraduate qualifications from UNE since the relationship began in the early 1990s, and more than 130 teachers at rural and remote schools in Bhutan have been trained in the UNE School of Education’s Bhutanese Multigrade Attachment Program, which ended in 2008.

There are currently five undergraduate students from Bhutan at UNE, majoring in subjects including physics and mathematics. There are four postgraduate students, three of whom are completing PhDs in the School of Education via mixed mode.

Mr Tshultim said UNE’s School of Education had provided particularly valuable training for Bhutanese teachers by giving them experience in rural schools.

Dr Maxwell said that, since the relationship began, at least 17 UNE staff members had worked in Bhutan. “Several consultancies and development projects with Bhutan’s Ministry of Education and the Royal University of Bhutan have taken place,” he said, “and more than a dozen scholarly papers in collaboration with Bhutanese academics have been published.”

He added that, while most Bhutanese graduates from UNE had been students in the School of Education, recent graduates had included several students from the School of Environmental and Rural Studies.

During their six-day program in Australia, the Bhutanese parliamentary delegation visited the Australian Parliament and met the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, and members of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. The delegation also visited Charles Sturt University.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Mr Jigme Tshultim and Professor Alan Pettigrew displayed here expands to include the other members of the delegation and Associate Professor Tom Maxwell (far left).

Professor William (Ned) Friedman flew all the way to Armidale, NSW, from Boulder in the United States for two days of fieldwork in pursuit of a species of plant unique to north-eastern NSW.

“There aren’t many places in the world I’d go for only two days,” he said. “But I’d come here for just one day.”

Ned Friedman is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A leading authority on plant morphology and embryology, he has a particular interest in the evolution of flowering plants. And the plant he flew to Armidale to see – a direct descendant of an ancient lineage of flowering plants – could reveal some vital secrets of that evolutionary process.

Before coming to Australia, Professor Friedman had examined records of the plant – Trimenia moorei (a bitter vine) – sent to him from the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium at the University of New England and available through Australia’s Virtual Herbarium, but he had never seen a living specimen. The species – the only Australian member of the family Trimeniaceae – is a woody vine or liana that climbs to a height of 10 metres.

Professor Friedman’s host at UNE was the Director of the Beadle Herbarium, Associate Professor Jeremy Bruhl, and it was Dr Bruhl and the Herbarium’s Curator, Ian Telford, who took him to see the vine in its forest habitat. “They led me directly to the plants,” he said. “It’s been amazing; everything’s happened spectacularly.”

Dr Bruhl – accompanied by Tilly Eldridge, a young English botanist from the University of Manchester who is visiting UNE for three months – had undertaken a reconnaissance trip to the New England escarpment to ensure that the plants were in flower and with young fruit. The two days of fieldwork by the four botanists took them to the Cunnawarra, New England, and Gibraltar Range National Parks, and then back to UNE Botany for the preparation of samples for transport to the United States.

“Darwin called the origin of flowering plants ‘an abominable mystery’,” Professor Friedman said. “In a fraction of the time that it’s taken for the conifers, for example, to reach their modest level of diversity, flowering plants have taken over the world. What led to this explosion of biodiversity?”

This is the question that he’s hoping a study of Trimenia moorei (pictured here) will help to answer.

His particular interest is the evolution of endosperm – the tissue that nourishes the embryo in the seeds of flowering plants, and that nourishes humankind in the form of flour (wheat endosperm) and related foods. “Flowering plants provide between two-thirds and three-quarters of our caloric intake worldwide,” he said.  “In fact, without endosperm we humans wouldn’t have evolved.”

A deeper understanding of the evolution of endosperm could have major implications for both plant breeding and human nutrition.

Professor Friedman hopes to return to New England before the end of the year to observe, in a later stage of development, the plants he saw flowering in spring. He has a double incentive for the return visit, as UNE is hosting, over the first few days of December, the annual conference of the Australian Systematic Botany Society – “a tremendous opportunity,” he said, “for me to interact with the plant evolutionary biology community in Australia.”

Clicking on the Trimenia moorei image displayed here reveals a photograph of (from left) Ian Telford, Tilly Eldridge, Associate Professor Jeremy Bruhl, and Professor Ned Friedman.

More than 60 students from the University of New England’s Robb College will be planting 4,000 trees for Landcare on Friday 30 October.

The tree planting will take place along Dumaresq Creek at the intersection of Dumaresq and Markham Streets. During this, the College’s first  tree planting day for Landcare, the students will plant native trees that are resistant to drought and that, in the years to come, will encourage wildlife (particularly birds) into the area.

James Downie, President of Robb College’s Junior Common Room, said: “This is a way for Robb students to come together as a team and build collegial spirit while giving something back to the community by participating in a worthwhile venture.”

The tree planting day is part of Robb College’s program of service to the local community and environment. This year the College has raised more than $10,000 for a family in need (the Wilson family) through its annual Project Week initiative.

“Robb has certainly had an environmental focus this year,” said Trent Pohlmann, Assistant Head of Robb College. “Our tree planting day follows climate change activist Tim Flannery’s visit to Robb College last month for our annual Rural Focus Dinner.”

Members of the community will be welcome to volunteer their time to help the Robb College students with the tree planting, which will begin at 9am on Friday.

The University of New England’s Professor David Brunckhorst has received a major international award for his work over more than two decades as a world leader in conservation planning.

Professor Brunckhorst, the Director of UNE’s Institute for Rural Futures, travelled to the United States last month to receive the Natural Areas Association’s George B. Fell Award. The presentation was at a banquet for 300 guests during the Association’s annual conference in Vancouver, Washington State.

The award, which the Association presents annually to someone it considers “a giant in their field”, recognises “exceptional career-long achievements in the natural areas profession”.

Professor Brunckhorst has made an important contribution to the planning of nature reserves – and their integration with sustainable agriculture – both in Australia and abroad.

In the early 1990s, as Secretary and Principal Scientific Adviser to the House of Representatives Committee on the Environment, he achieved the establishment of a National Reserve System, which aims to develop an ecologically representative network of protected natural areas around Australia. In doing so, he obtained not only unanimous bipartisan support at the Federal level, but also collaboration between the Federal and State Governments.

He has been an adviser for reserve projects in Canada, Germany, South Africa and the UK, and was a co-author of the Seville Strategy – the 1995 revision of UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserve Program. For all this work – and more – he was awarded a UNESCO Medal in 2000.

Professor Brunckhorst is internationally renowned for his pioneering work in “bioregional” planning – planning that promotes the mutually-sustaining interaction of human society and the natural environment within regional contexts. Much of his research activity at UNE has been focused in this direction, and his book Bioregional Planning: Resource Management Beyond the New Millennium (Gordon & Breach / Taylor & Francis, 2000) is used as a text in several countries.

“No matter how many protected areas you create, they will never adequately protect all species and ecosystems,” he said. “We need far more innovative ways of collaborating for conservation across private and public tenures of land ownership, and combining such conservation with sustainable land use.”

Eminent scientists and policy makers from Australia, Canada, the United States, Europe and South Africa nominated Professor Brunckhorst for the George B. Fell Award, the announcement of which came as a complete surprise to him.

After being presented with the award, Professor Brunckhorst gave public lectures at the University of Idaho and the University of California. In introducing him at those lectures, Professor Michael Scott, Leader of the US Geological Survey’s Biological Sciences Program, said: “Through his strong leadership, David Brunckhorst has continued his innovative and visionary approaches, which now focus on integrating conservation and environmental planning with working agricultural landscapes and communities.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Professor Brunckhorst with the George B. Fell Award.

A team from the University of New England’s Duval and Drummond & Smith Colleges will, for the eleventh consecutive year, take part in the annual Hawkesbury Canoe Classic this weekend.

Each of the 27 paddlers from the DDS Kayaking Club will be accompanied to the Hawkesbury by a landcrew member, and many other supporters will travel with them.

This will be the 32nd Hawkesbury Canoe Classic, an overnight paddle of 111 km from Windsor to Brooklyn Bridge on the Hawkesbury River.

The gruelling paddle is challenging yet extremely rewarding, and has raised more than $3 million for medical research, with the major charity being the Arrow Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation. The UNE team spends more than half of the year training and organising fund-raising events in preparation for the event in late October.

Armidale has had a strong representation in the Classic for many years. The Armidale School (TAS) has provided many dedicated paddlers over more than 25 years, and this year the combined forces of TAS, PLC Armidale and the New England Girls’ School (totalling around 74 paddlers), together with the DDS Kayaking Club, will amount to about 25 per cent of the Classic’s paddlers.

The big support crews work hard through the night to keep the paddlers fed, warm and enthused, as the event requires considerable mind power to paddle through the pain and the blisters. “It’s all worth it in the end,” said Trent Lukins, past paddler and current landcrew member. “It’s an amazing feeling when you cross that finishing line and you know you’ve done it for yourself and for a good cause.”

The first paddlers will leave Windsor at around 4 pm tomorrow (Saturday 24 October) and pass 21 safety checkpoints during the overnight paddle. It takes most paddlers between 10 and 15 hours to complete the course.

Edwina Ridgway, Principal of Duval and Drummond & Smith Colleges, who has attended the event over the past 11 years, said:  “Attending the Hawkesbury somehow really does get into your blood. Only 24 hours after the event even the most exhausted paddler is plotting for a place in the team for the following year – to better their time or secure one of the single kayaks.  There’s such a ‘buzz’ about this annual event that one can’t help but be delighted to just be part of the team.”

For more information on the event, go to: www.canoeclassic.asn.au

Clicking on the image displayed here reveals a photograph of UNE’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, farewelling the DDS Kayaking Club team today before their departure for the Hawkesbury.

More than eight teams from the University of New England will take part in an exercise program that will chart their progress on a virtual walk from Italy to Denmark, visiting universities affiliated with UNE along the way.

They will announce their participation in the “10,000 Steps” program on Monday 26 October, when the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, launches UNE’s involvement in Safe Work Australia Week (25-31 October).

During the launch, at 12:30 pm in UNE’s Central Courtyard, healthy refreshments will be served and Sport UNE staff members will be available to answer questions and give advice.

The 10,000 Steps program encourages people to count the steps they take during the day as part of a team effort. Using pedometers donated by the University and MBF, the teams from UNE will be able to convert their real walking into virtual progress along a 2,597-km itinerary through Europe, requiring a total of approximately 3,000,000 steps.

“The University is committed to the health and wellbeing of its staff, and participation in 10,000 Steps is the latest in a suite of strategies – comprising UNE’s Work Health Program – that support this commitment,” said Bronwyn Pearson, Deputy Director of Human Resources Services at UNE.  “We encourage everyone to join a team and have some fun while clocking up the kilometres.”

As an incentive, Sport UNE is offering all 10,000 Steps participants who are still active after three weeks of the program the opportunity to attend a free Total Body Workout (TBW) class each week, commencing in mid-November and going through until the week before Christmas. They will also receive a complimentary Sport UNE voucher when they attend each TBW class, which will entitle them to a free gym session, group fitness class or pool visit. Kathie Hunt, Sport UNE’s Operations Manager, said Sport UNE hoped that this incentive would motivate UNE staff to “stick with their exercise” and make it “an enjoyable part of their lives”.

“Activities such as 10,000 Steps contribute to improving the safety culture in workplaces,” said Daphne McCurdy, UNE’s Occupational Health and Safety Officer. “Safety culture is more than just a matter of ensuring compliance – it’s about providing an inclusive environment that has strategies in place to ensure the work health and wellbeing of all staff.”

Published reports reveal that 54 per cent of Australian adults do not exercise enough, 60 per cent of those over 25 are overweight and 30 per cent have high blood pressure, the prevalence of heart failure is burgeoning, and the prevalence of diabetes has more than doubled since the 1980s.

The 14 Local Aboriginal Land Councils of the State’s Northern Region and the University of New England will tomorrow sign an important Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve teaching and research opportunities in Aboriginal affairs.

In a joint announcement, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Alan Pettigrew and the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council Deputy Chair and Chairman of the Northern Regional Forum, Councillor Tom Briggs, said the initiative was a significant breakthrough.

“It ushers in a new era of co-operation whereby programs to increase the capacity of Aboriginal people to participate equitably in the regional economy as a result of enhanced educational opportunities,” they said.

“We are committed to developing more appropriate higher education courses in the fields of Aboriginal culture, language and health, social and economic attainment and to enable mutually beneficial staff and student mentoring programs.”

Councillor Briggs said the MoU compliments a similar agreement recently signed between the Northern Regional Forum and the New England Institute of TAFE.

“These agreements bring to fruition the dreams and aspirations of many people,” Councillor Briggs said.

“Over time it will deliver a whole new range of higher educational opportunities for Aboriginal people in the New England Region.

“Our 14 regional land councils welcome these opportunities.

“There is no doubt that education is one of the key pathways to turning around Aboriginal disadvantage.”

Professor Pettigrew said that the University was committed to ensuring that the intent of the MoU was realised.

“We want, sincerely, to play our part to make higher education more attainable and attractive for Aboriginal people.”

“Everyone is committed to making this MoU work – and work well,” Professor Pettigrew said

Professor Pettigrew and Councillor Briggs and the Chairpersons of the 14 Local Aboriginal Land Councils will sign the joint MoU at a ceremony at the University of New England tomorrow, October 22.  It will take place in the University Dining Room, Booloominbah from 2 to 3 pm.

Students and staff of Indonesian at the University of New England are once again offering a taste of Indonesian culture to the UNE and Armidale communities.

They are preparing a range of authentic Indonesian food – including satays, fried rice, fried noodles, and spring rolls – to be served as part of UNE’s Indonesian Cultural Night for 2009.

The event, on Thursday 22 October, will also include the screening of the recent multi-award-winning Indonesian film Laskar Pelangi (“The Rainbow Troops”) with English subtitles. The film show is free of charge.

Laskar Pelangi is the inspiring story of how children from a poor school triumph over their well-endowed competitors through motivation, determination, and creativity.

The event will take place in and around Lecture Theatre A2 in UNE’s Arts Building, where the Indonesian meal will be available from 4.30 pm for a cost of $10. All proceeds from the meal (together with any additional donations that people might like to make on the night) will go to assist the victims of the recent disastrous earthquake in West Sumatra.

The screening of Laskar Pelangi will be at 6 pm.

Dr Zifirdaus Adnan, Convener of Indonesian at UNE, said the annual Indonesian Cultural Night provided a valuable experience for students of Asian culture – and for members of the general community. He said that mutual cultural understanding was increasingly important with the strengthening relationship between Indonesia and Australia.