As is usual for the last Senate meeting of the year, the contribution of general staff members who during 2007 reached the milestone of 25 years service with UQ was celebrated in a ceremony at the Mayne Centre. Eighteen staff members received a gift from the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, watched on by colleagues, family and friends and a goodly number of Senators.
Tributes were paid to John Hay's contributions and he in turn thanked members of Senate for their advice and support, not forgetting the staff who provide the secretarial support to the meetings.
The University's Strategic Plan and Faculty Operational Plans for 2008-2010 were endorsed in order to meet a reporting deadline, but the issue of the extent of Senate involvement in the planning process remains. The Vice-Chancellor-in-waiting, Paul Greenfield, advised that he intends to write a directions paper in January 2008 for circulation to Executive Deans, Heads of Institutes, etc, ahead of a Senate retreat in April. A number of members expressed their concern at (a) waiting until April to input, and (b) possibly being presented with a fait accompli. Prof Greenfield replied that he was willing to make his draft paper available to Senators in February, but believed that giving Senators a "blank sheet of paper" would not be useful.
I am one of a number of Senators who believe that Prof Greenfield simply needs to be given the opportunity to update a list of issues and that Senate should meet for a day or two to discuss them and that this input should then go into the drafting of a Plan, which the Exec Deans, etc can then have a go at before it comes back to Senate.
We shall see what transpires in the New Year.
The Planning Committee gave its first report-back. The report was simply noted at this stage, with the following recommendations:
Members of Senate were invited to submit further suggestions to the Secretary and Registrar, so I'll be passing on the ideas I've had and/or received from you.
The major changes and consultation foreshadowed in my last report have been delayed. Consultation will now occur in first semester 2008 for changes to be implemented either later in the year of from 2009.
However, some of the changes did sneak through in the Annual Report on the Paid Parking Scheme. The changes concerned are the less-contentious and generally positive changes, so I didn't have a major problem with the content. Permit fees rise by 5% - certainly a lot less than the annual rises of recent years.
I was however concerned about the process by which these changes came to Senate. I contacted traffic supremo Prof Trevor Grigg before the meeting to ask how the changes were selected to come forward to Senate. It seems that he and administrator Anthony Fletcher chose the more innocuous changes, but did not keep the Traffic & Parking Policy Advisory Committee, which includes staff reps, informed. I said that I believed TAPPAC should have been consulted about which changes were OK to go forward rather than be held back for wider UQ community consultation.
The changes approved by Senate are, in summary:
Douglas Porter presented the budget on behalf of the Finance Committee. At the macro-level, UQ is able to cover its costs, but this assumes that the only wage rise in 2008 will be the 3% on 1 January 2008 and that annual rises thereafter will be 3% (this is obviously management's ambit position). Enterprise Bargaining kicks off shortly for general staff, to be followed by academic staff.
While it was claimed that a slightly greater proportion of available funds is going to the Faculties and Schools than to central services, Andrew Bonnell, elected by and from the academic staff, rose to say that many Faculties and Schools are struggling to stay in the black and that staff are working harder than ever just to stop going backwards, which is not great for morale. Student:staff ratios continue to be of major concern. I agree with him. While most of the problem lies with the Federal Government's failure to properly fund universities, UQ needs to keep an eye on how much money is going into new buildings and Institutes.
Members had been surveyed between meetings and the results were in. The 68% response rate was similar to the last time the survey was done in 2005. Members were satisfied with most aspects of Senate, but the areas where criticism occurred are:
Arising from the survey, a self-improvement plan for Senate is to be developed. Initially this was to be done by an inner clique, but at the suggestion of Senator Bob Wensley, it was widened to include an extra external senator, a staff member and a student.
Other business was routine/confidential, such as reports from sub-committees, rule changes, professorial appointments, honorary degrees, etc.
