A new degree program in social work at the University of New England has received official endorsement from the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW).

At its most recent meeting, the AASW Board of Directors granted provisional accreditation of the program which, coordinated by UNE’s Dr Myfanwy Maple (pictured here), will begin next year.

In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, the President of the AASW Board, Mr Bob Lonne, says: “The Board notes the consultants’ commendation of Dr Maple and the University of New England development team for delivering a comprehensive Bachelor of Social Work program with a regional focus.”

Professor Pettigrew said the endorsement by the AASW was a tribute to Dr Maple and her interdisciplinary team at UNE, to the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of The Professions, Professor Victor Minichiello, and to the region’s community agencies and social workers, who had given such “tremendous support” to the program.

He said the commendation of the program’s “comprehensive” nature, along with its “regional focus”, was confirmation of the University’s success in designing courses – including those in nursing, medicine and criminology – applicable to employment anywhere in the world, while specifically addressing workforce shortages in rural and regional Australia.

UNE’s Bachelor of Social Work program will be eligible for full accreditation by the AASW after the graduation of the first cohort of students in 2012.

The consultants’ report to the Board refers to the “readiness both within the University and within the community for a UNE Bachelor of Social Work program”.

“Integral to the development phase,” the report says, “has been the engagement of local social work practitioners who have had considerable input into the detail of the program, and curriculum principles and sequence. There is evidence of a wide range of social work practitioners in central and northern NSW committed to UNE social work conceptualisation and to the integration of social work practice and education.”

“The curriculum has deliberately been designed to be student-focused and flexible,” it continues. “The combination of on-campus and online allows for skill and knowledge development in both face-to-face and distance modes. In both modes students will be encouraged to build on their own life experiences, and to be reflective and critical while becoming independent and creative.”

Researchers at the University of New England have received funding from the Australian Research Council to investigate the effectiveness of several strategies for reducing wood smoke pollution in Armidale.

“In July and August of this year, air particulate pollution in Armidale exceeded the National Environmental Protection Measure advisory standard on 28 occasions,” said UNE’s Associate Professor Don Hine, one of the chief investigators on the project. “This indicates the need for such research in Armidale.”

Based at UNE and conducted by the University in partnership with Armidale Dumaresq Council, SmartBurn Australia, the Australian Home Heating Association and the Firewood Association of Australia, the three-year project will develop and evaluate a community-based social marketing campaign targeting Armidale residents. The project will also provide the first large-scale field test of SmartBurn – a small canister that can be placed in wood heaters to improve combustion and reduce particulate emissions.

“We will monitor airborne particulate matter and health complaints over the three-year period to determine whether the interventions are effective in reducing overall levels of wood smoke pollution and health complaints,” Dr Hine said.

“The first year of the project will focus on defining the scope of the air quality problem by collecting baseline data,” he explained, “and identifying the major barriers that prevent residents from reducing their own wood smoke emissions and from participating in broader community initiatives to improve air quality.

“Simply educating people about the negative health effects of wood smoke pollution and proper wood-burning practices will not be sufficient, in most cases, to induce them to change their behaviour. Psychological and economic barriers must also be addressed.

“For example, in a study recently published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, my colleagues and I found that many wood-heater users were very reluctant to trade in their heaters, even if they perceived the potential health costs – to themselves and the community – to be high. We found evidence to suggest that many wood heater users have strong positive emotional associations with wood fires that seem to over-ride their rational assessments of risk.”

The researchers will begin by conducting a series of focus group interviews with a broad cross-section of the local community to solicit opinions about the perceived magnitude of the wood smoke pollution problem in Armidale, and the best way of managing the problem. “At this initial stage of the project, we are particularly interested in speaking to members of the community who currently use wood heaters, or who have recently switched from wood to other types of heating systems,” Dr Hine said. “We are also interested in speaking to seniors and other residents who are concerned about this problem.”

People interested in participating in the focus groups can contact Dr Navjot Bhullar at UNE on 6773 2546, or e-mail her at nbhullar@une.edu.au.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here, showing Associate Professor Don Hine in front of a wood-burning fireplace, expands to include the other two members of the UNE research team - Dr Navjot Bhullar (left) and Dr John Scott (second from left) - with Mr Euan Belson, Environment and Health Manager, Armidale Dumaresq Council.

Does the legal concept of a “duty of care” make it easier to solve environmental conflicts over farming? An experimental court case at the University of New England yesterday can be seen as a step towards answering that question.

UNE’s Moot Court, within the School of Law, became the “New England Land and Environment Court of Appeal” for the hearing of a hypothetical appeal case involving the alleged degradation of wetlands by a farmer.

The Hon. Keith Mason AC QC (pictured here), former President of the Court of Appeal of NSW, presided over the hearing, in which the farmer and the Attorney General were represented by opposing teams of lawyers – some of them specialists in environmental law. The legal participants in the moot court hearing travelled to UNE from Sydney, Lismore and Gunnedah, as well as from Armidale.

Their inquiry focused on the concept of “duty of care” as it relates to farmers’ environmental responsibilities. “The main issue was whether the legal concept of a ‘duty of care’ is an effective and fair way of managing environmental disputes,” Mr Mason said.

“Everybody agrees that we have a long-term duty to look after our land so that the environment is sustainable,” he continued. “But would it be fairer to have just a general ‘duty of care’ for farmers, or a more detailed regulatory framework?”

“While farmers would probably prefer a general ‘duty of care’ to a lot of regulation,” Mr Mason said, “it could leave them more open to being sued.”

“Although the concerns of farmers are focused on their farming interests,” he added, “they aren’t narrow or selfish concerns.”

Mark Shepheard, a CRC for Irrigation Futures research student at UNE, organised the hearing as part of his PhD project investigating the role of the “duty of care” concept in managing conflict about farming and the environment. The project is being supervised by Professor Paul Martin, the Director of UNE’s Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, and Associate Professor Mark Lunney from UNE’s School of Law.

For yesterday’s hearing, Mr Shepheard created “legislation” (based on current laws in Queensland and South Australia), and outlined the background to the case and the courtroom scenario. “We took the kind of legislation that exists, and looked at the problems that could arise when it’s applied in the courtroom,” he said.

Mr Shepheard agreed that support for the “duty of care” concept was widespread throughout the community. “But how does a farmer translate that concept into practical measures?” he asked. “Yesterday’s experiment has taken a significant step towards answering that question by identifying some of the problems involved in explaining ‘duty of care’ in practical terms.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows the Hon. Keith Mason AC QC presiding in UNE’s Moot Court yesterday. Clicking on this image reveals a photograph of Mr Mason with Mark Shepheard, the research student who organised yesterday’s moot court hearing.

The University of New England is making it easier for students to find out when and where their classes will be held.

The University’s new timetable system, which goes “live” on the UNE Web site today, uses simpler terminology than the previous system and is easier to navigate around.

“I was looking for a system that was clear, simple, and easy to follow,” said Julie Fookes, UNE’s Timetable Coordinator. “Although nobody had reported having problems with the previous system (in place since 2005), we carried out a survey about a month ago and discovered that some things were being misinterpreted.”

Ms Fookes said that the new system avoided confusion by adopting the same terminology for teaching periods as that used by the academic staff – for example, “Semester 1 Week 1 (S1.1)”, and “April Residential School Week 2 (R2.2)”.

Unit and course timetables for students, teaching timetables for lecturers, and schedules for regular and “ad hoc” room bookings all use the same new terminology and “help” features.

Among those features are questions that students are most likely to ask – in the way they are most likely to ask them. For example, by clicking on the newly-included question “Where are my classes?” at the top of a unit timetable, students arrive at a new help page leading to a clearly marked map. By clicking on “When are my classes?” they go to a calendar showing the days and times of the specified classes. On a page presenting the bookings for a particular room during a teaching week, the questions “When is the booking?” and “Where is the room?” lead, respectively, to a calendar and a map.

Another new feature of the system is the insertion of a UNE banner at the top of every page to help prospective students keep track of the university Web site they are visiting. To the right of the banner is a direct link to the “AskUNE” site for answers to all timetable questions. A reminder to check for timetable updates has been moved from the bottom of pages to a more prominent position near the top.

To reach the timetable pages, click on “Information for: Current students” at the left of the UNE Home Page, and then scroll down the “Information for Current Students” page to “Timetables”.

A team from the University of New England has won the award for the “most inspiring community engagement” project at the 2008 national championships of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE).

Five members of SIFE UNE – Sam Harris (President), Tara Stokes (Treasurer), Miriam White, Dan Beransconi, and Joanne Grogan – travelled to Brisbane in July for the SIFE National Conference and Championships. There they competed with representatives of SIFE teams from 23 other universities around Australia by presenting the outcomes of this year’s projects to an audience including the Chief Executive Officers of major companies.

Robyn Marshall, the UNE lecturer who is the team’s Faculty Mentor, accompanied the students to Brisbane, along with UNE’s Dr Peter McClenaghan, the National Program Consultant for SIFE Australia.

SIFE is a global organisation supported by some of the world’s leading corporations. It encourages students from all areas of study to engage in community-oriented projects in order to share the knowledge they have gained at university and learn more about “real-life” free enterprise.

For their award-winning project, the SIFE UNE team is helping members of the Parents’ and Citizens’ Association at Minimbah Primary School in Armidale to develop skills in fund raising, budgeting, and the conduct of meetings. “Changing the world one step at a time” was the motto attached to the project.

“The ‘Minimbah project’ has been a great success,” Joanne Grogan said, “with a series of barbecues at the Markets in the Mall to raise much-needed funds for the purchase of a large message sign for the school. We are continuing with this project by creating an ‘agenda folder’, which contains many valuable worksheets and processes for the school – including meeting agendas, minutes, financial statement worksheets, fund-raising ideas, and many other valuable resources.”

“This has been further extended by the State Government’s agreeing to produce and distribute the folders to not-for-profit schools and organisations across the State,” she added.

The “community engagement” award brought with it a $2,000 cheque and a 10 kg block of chocolate (pictured here with some of the team). “We raffled the chocolate off at UNE’s recent Open Day,” Ms Grogan said.

The UNE team also won a special “financial literacy” award for its “Careers Aware” program. As part of this program the students were involved in the organisation and presentation of a “Corporate Cocktail Evening” at UNE earlier this year, hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. This award was accompanied by a $500 cheque.

Ms Grogan said the SIFE organisation had been so impressed with the UNE team’s achievements that it had decided to sponsor Scott Finneran – a long-term team member of SIFE UNE – to attend the SIFE World Cup in Singapore early next month. Ms Marshall will accompany him.

“This is a great opportunity, as it involves spending a week with CEOs from around the world, attending presentations by teams from more than 50 countries, and the chance to advertise UNE and SIFE Australia,” Ms Grogan said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show members of SIFE UNE with their prize chocolate bar before its auction on Open Day. They are (from left) Tara Stokes, Rebecca Whale, Scott Finneran, Robyn Marshall (the SIFE Faculty Mentor), and Jo Grogan.

The author of an award-winning romance novel just published in Australia is writing a PhD thesis at the University of New England.

As Darkness Falls, by Bronwyn Parry, won a “Golden Heart” in the annual Romance Writers of America competition for unpublished manuscripts last year, and was quickly sought by the leading international publisher Hachette Livre.

“Bronwyn Parry” is the pen-name of Bronwyn Clarke (pictured here), who has lived in the Armidale region of NSW for the past 20 years and is a former employee and current research student at UNE.

“The past 14 months has been a pretty exciting time,” she said at the local launch of As Darkness Falls in Armidale earlier this month.

She said the amount of publicity surrounding the success of As Darkness Falls in the “Golden Heart” competition had been “amazing”, and had led to her being approached by Hachette. “It was a strange experience to have a publisher contact me to see if I would take them on,” she added.

As Darkness Falls is a romantic suspense novel in which two detectives search for a child abducted from a town on the edge of the outback. “While the town and its characters are purely fictional, the setting is inspired by the landscape of the Pilliga region,” the author said. “I love regional and outback Australia, and exploring the combination of the emotion of a romance and the intensity of a suspense plot with the drama of the Australian landscape.”

A reviewer of As Darkness Falls has remarked on its “powerful portrait of a small community slowly destroying itself”.

Ms Clarke, who has an Honours degree in English and History from UNE, spoke about the romance genre of fiction during the book launch at Dymocks Booksellers Armidale. “Romance is a genre that confirms values,” she said. “It’s about emotion – and a journey towards intimacy. It affirms the centrality of love in our lives.”

For her PhD, she is researching online “communities” of romance readers and writers, and their perspectives on the genre. She explained that these online “communities” varied widely in their focus: from enthusiasm for a particular author to academic explorations of the genre. “Today’s romance writing ranges from purely entertaining fiction to deeper, more complex novels looking at serious issues,” she said. “And the readership is evolving along with the genre.”

Bronwyn Parry’s next novel – the second in a loosely-linked trilogy – will be published by Hachette Australia in 2009.

The History Council of NSW has awarded its Max Kelly Medal for 2008 to Dr Grant Mansfield, an Honorary Research Associate at the University of New England, for an essay on price-fixing in Australia during the opening months of World War I.

Dr Mansfield (pictured here) graduated from UNE with a First Class Honours degree in 2001 and a PhD earlier this year. Last year’s winner of the Max Kelly Medal was the Sydney barrister Timothy Castle – also a recent graduate of UNE.

Dr Mansfield’s winning essay, titled “The costs of war: patriotism and price fixing during the opening months of the Great War in Australia”, covers part of his PhD research. It explains how some Australian business people took advantage of the war by immediately increasing the prices of goods such as sugar, bread and meat.

“These were domestic goods, and their prices shouldn’t have been affected,” Dr Mansfield said. “There was no excuse for it – and that’s what people were saying at the time. In this respect, Australians didn’t all enter the war with the purest of patriotic feelings.”

Dr Mansfield is the 12^th recipient of the annual award, which  includes a $500 prize as well as the medal. It is designed to encourage historians at the beginning of their careers. The Max Kelly Medal honours the first elected President of the History Council of NSW, Professor Maxwell Kelly (1935-1996).

Dr Mansfield said that, to be the second UNE graduate to win the award in successive years, and to be ranked with people such as last year’s winner, Timothy Castle, was “very pleasing – both for myself and for the University”. He was presented with the award at Government House in Sydney earlier this month.

After living in Armidale for the past 15 years, and working in recent years as a casual history tutor at UNE, he is about to move to Canberra in pursuit of a career as an historian.

Science teachers from secondary schools in the New England and North West regions of NSW are gaining an insight into the science supporting local primary industries.

A “Teacher Professional Development” event today and tomorrow is taking teachers to primary industries and research laboratories in Armidale, Guyra and Tamworth. It is part of the national Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE) program, established in 1998 to address a nation-wide shortage of skilled young people entering agricultural science careers.

The PICSE program has six activity centres hosted by universities across Australia. The NSW activity centre, established at the University of New England in 2007 and managed by Susanna Greig and Associate Professor Robin Jessop, ran a successful pilot program in 2007-08.

“Following positive feedback from the teachers and students involved in the pilot program,” Ms Greig said, “and with the continuing support of our industry partners and UNE, the program is continuing in 2008-09 and has expanded to include more schools, businesses and industries from the New England and North West regions.”

This week’s “Teacher Professional Development” event is a prelude to events for high-school students in January 2009 that – through PICSE Industry Placement Scholarships – will enable the students to explore career and research opportunities in agricultural science, and to gain experience working with scientists in agricultural research and industry.

The teachers’ event includes an information and discussion session tomorrow morning on the advantages of – and concerns about – ethanol production. It will be provided by ethanol producers and scientists from CSIRO, UNE and the Tamworth Agricultural Institute. Tomorrow afternoon at the Tamworth Agricultural Institute Dr Robin Gunning will explain the use of the “gel electrophoresis” process in investigating resistance to insecticide.

A tour of Top of the Range Tomatoes at Guyra this morning illustrated the science behind the large-scale production of high-quality tomatoes. Then, returning to the UNE campus, the teachers learnt about genetic technologies supporting the Australian beef industry and the fermentation process in the digestive tract of ruminant animals, and visited Veterinary Health Research.

Associate Professor David Lamb from UNE and Stuart George from Petersons Armidale Winery are leading a tour of the winery’s cool-climate vineyards this afternoon, focusing on novel developments in the protection of grape vines against frost.

Ms Greig said that the teachers who attended the pilot Teacher Professional Development event last year had found it both relevant and useful. “The PICSE program has been a long-awaited resource for many science teachers, and I hope to see the program continue to run for many more years,” one of them had commented after the event.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show (from left) Susanna Greig, Karen Dickenson from McCarthy Catholic College in Tamworth, Jim Belford from Warialda High School, and UNE’s Professor John Nolan. Professor Nolan is explaining the function of the ruminant digestive system with the help of a model sheep rumen.

This year’s fund-raising program at the University of New England’s Earle Page College reaches its climax this weekend with the 29^th annual Earle Page College Coast Run from UNE to Coffs Harbour.

The Coast Run program, which has included the sale of discount cards sponsored by local businesses, a public “Fashion Extravaganza” and auction, and fund-raising events within the College itself, has raised more than $30,000 so far this year for the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI).

Forty-five Earle Page students set off from the College early this morning on the 220-kilometre Coast Run. At the starting line Professor Graham Webb, the Acting Vice-Chancellor, congratulated the Coast Run Committee – and the Coast Run Convener, Kamal Sohi – on raising more money for the CMRI than in any previous year. Professor Webb then fired the starter’s gun, and he and the Master of Earle Page College, David Ward, ran part of the initial stage with the students. The Armidale Dumaresq Mayor, Councillor Peter Ducat, presented the runners with a message of greeting to the Mayor of Coffs Harbour, which they will deliver on their arrival at Coffs Harbour Jetty tomorrow afternoon.

Brent Gregory, who founded the Coast Run when he was a student at Earle Page College and who is now a lecturer in UNE’s School of Business, Economics and Public Policy, was there to encourage the Earle Page runners. His daughter, Myee, is one of them.

Mr Ward said that – as well as raising large sums of money for charity – the Coast Run allowed for the achievement of personal (and committee) goals, and the development of camaraderie among the participants.

“Since its inception in 1980, the Coast Run program has raised more than $300,000 for the CMRI,” Mr Ward said, “and the College is recognised as a significant donor to the CMRI’s charity fund raising. All of the activities are generously supported by the business houses and community members of Armidale, and we are grateful for their support.”

The New England Credit Union is the major sponsor of the Coast Run, and other sponsors include the Bananacoast Credit Union (Coffs Harbour), Armidale Framing and Art Supplies, The Armidale Express, Laing and Simmons (Port Macquarie), and UNE.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows the Coast Run Convener, Kamal Sohi (wearing the Vice-Chancellor’s colours) setting out on the Coast Run with her fellow Earle Page students.

UNE colleges raise funds for a wide range of charities

Fund raising for charity is a common pursuit among the residents of UNE’s college system. Last month, students at St Albert’s College raised more than $1,600 for the Armidale Community Oncology and Cancer Support Unit. The “Albies Week” events – including a golf day, car wash, and College Ball – brought the funds raised this year at St Albert’s College to $8,500, with the majority of the money going towards cancer-related charities including the NSW Cancer Council and the Leukaemia Foundation.

Also last month, students at Robb College raised more than $3,500 for the disability service provider Integrated Living Armidale during the College’s annual “Project Week” fund-raising exercise. Robb College’s annual fund-raising program includes involvement in the Salvation Army’s “Red Shield” appeal, and community-based projects such as – this year – an appeal that helped to send a young Armidale boy, Dylan Hardey, to the United States to be assessed by specialists in the rare medical condition Jacobsen’s Syndrome.

College fund-raising activities this year have also included the raising of about $2,500 by students at Austin College for the local Police & Community Youth Club.

A study by a University of New England linguist has revealed how methods of cross-examination used in Australian courtrooms can disadvantage Aboriginal defendants and witnesses.

Dr Diana Eades said her study – the first of its kind – examined “the ways in which courtroom talk is used to legitimise the overpolicing of Aboriginal people and to continue the neocolonial relationship of control over them”.

The study, recently published as a book titled Courtroom Talk and Neocolonial Control, focuses on the cross-examination – during a Brisbane courtroom hearing in 1995 – of three Aboriginal boys who were prosecution witnesses in the case of six police officers charged with their abduction.

“It shows how, by the use of propositions and assertions in cross-examination, the three boys were portrayed not as victims of police abuse, but in terms of difference, deviance, and delinquency,” Dr Eades said.

The book, which contains 98 extracts from the courtroom hearing, reveals that a pervasive strategy in the cross-examination of the boys (aged 13-15) was one of bullying and shouting until they finally agreed to the propositions being put to them. “Despite the obvious fact that the answers were given under great duress, and therefore not given freely, the legal process interpreted them literally,” Dr Eades said.

“Such examples,” she continued, “reveal one of the problematic assumptions that underlie courtroom rules of evidence: lawyers can take words or expressions from their cross-examination questions and attribute them to the witness. Even if the witness has given only a one-word answer – such as ‘Yes’ – to repeated and harassing questions, this answer can be replaced in the lawyer’s closing address with the words from the question, and then reported as if they were the witness’s own words.”

In an earlier book (Aboriginal English and the Law, Queensland Law Society, 1992), Dr Eades showed a number of ways in which mainstream methods of lawyer-client communication can cause problems when the client is an Aboriginal person. Courtroom Talk and Neocolonial Control (published by Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin) widens the perspective to the larger historical, social and political context of the ongoing struggles between Aboriginal people and the police.

“The legal process is meant to protect citizens from abuse such as that which might be inflicted by individual police officers,” Dr Eades said. “But this book exposes ways in which courtroom language can be manipulated and witnesses linguistically tricked.

“The book concludes by asking whether Aboriginal people can ever expect justice in cases of police abuse and, more broadly, whether we can expect an end to neocolonial control over Aboriginal people without far-reaching changes to courtroom rules of evidence.”