The meeting had a relatively small agenda and was short. Most of the business was routine - regular reports, confirmation of senior academic appointments, Senate committee membership updates, etc.
The Vice-Chancellor spoke to a brief but informative paper on what he and the senior executive see as issues for UQ in the short (within 12 months), medium (1-3 years) and long (3-10 years) terms.
A number of members congratulated Prof Greenfield on the relevance, directness and freshness of the paper. A list of six topics suggested for discussion at a Senate retreat scheduled for 14-15 March was endorsed, and two extra items were added by members.
It was foreshadowed that, in the week following the retreat, the V-C would address an open session for all staff.
At this stage, there is nothing being proposed that could be perceived as a threat to staff. The topics are outward-looking and are focussed on growing the University's capacity to deliver on its core mission. However, the V-C's paper does indicate that some parts of the University are "doing better" than others and that some catching up is called for in areas, involving some changed attitudes and practices. The paper also professes not to be a manifesto of all changes that will be necessary (eg, the current review of the organisation of Science at UQ is separated out).
Senate gets reports of the selection committees of staff appointments at the level of Professor. A Senate member (preferable an external member) is required to be on the selection panel.
I pointed out that a number of the reports to this meeting made no mention of the Senate rep. The Vice-Chancellor replied that attempts are always made to get a Senator, but that it can be difficult over the Christmas-New Year period. One external member mentioned that on a number of occasions she'd been given one day's notice of a meeting of a selection panel, which was insufficient notice for her as a business person. The Vice-Chancellor responded that the market for top academics was becoming more competitive and that swift moves had to be made sometimes to secure a person in the face of counter-offers from competing institutions.
I suggested that it would be helpful if the reports of selection committees were more consistent in their layout and that apologies of selection committee members be recorded.
