Prior to the formal meeting of Senate itself, Senators listened to a presentation from the Director, OMC, on the Insight Project. Senators appreciated hearing the frank findings of research into UQ's image with its prospective student market.
Senators were informed that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education had written to say that the Higher Education Workplace Reform Requirements had been revoked as a condition of a proportion of funding, effective 8 August 2008. Yay!
Academic staff elected member Andrew Bonnell informed Senators of concerns in the NRAVS Faculty that the "eyes would be picked out of the Faculty" in a future stage of development of the new Faculty of Science. NRAVS members of the Academic Board had asked that any conversation about overlap between Science and NRAVS be two-way. The Vice-Chancellor responded that "NRAVS would be involved in the decision-making" and that it would not be a cherry-picking exercise.
Senate approved the strategy, which has been to the General Staff Consultative Committee and its academic equivalent for consultation. The union representatives on the GSCC (with my input) had suggested at number of amendments to the strategy document, covering:
retention of what fairness and transparency there is in recruiting and rewarding staff, in the face of increasing pressure for secret, individual wage deals despite a skills-based classification system
flexible working arrangements for staff transitioning to retirement
implementation of a corporate staff wellness program
These suggestions were incorporated in the final policy.
After telling the GSCC that it was a "procedure" not a "policy", lo and behold Shard Lorenzo's document on staff telecommuting appears at Senate as a proposed new HUPP policy.
Senators are informed of what consultation has occurred prior to any policy coming to Senate for approval. For the Telecommuting Policy, mention was made of consultation via the Occupational Health & Safety Council, but no mention was made of the GSCC.
I rose to say that, despite short time-frames for input that made it virtually impossible for GSCC representatives to consult with their constituents, the GSCC had made a number of valuable suggestions for improvement for the policy (based on advice from the Australian Services Union of best practice elsewhere), most of which had been accepted by management. I went on to say that it is appropriate for a policy that involves the working conditions of general staff to be given due consideration by the GSCC and that the elected representatives on the GSCC and ASCC make valuable contributions to policy-making in the 'UQ People' domain.
The policy was approved.
The University's capital development program has been very significant in recent years and the wishlist for future projects is almost a billion dollars in the coming decade. Despite philanthropic donations and matching government funding and loans, there is seen to be a need to access more funds to achieve big projects like relocation of the Vet Farm to Gatton, redevelopment of the Engineering precinct, rehabilitation of the Michie Building, etc. UQ is applying to the Federal Government's Education Investment Fund.
About $45m per year is taken off-the-top in the budget for capital development. It was proposed that if $12.5m of this was used to service a loan (interest plus $5m pa reduction of principal), $150m could be borrowed on a 30 year term to boost the amount available. This kind of approach is apparently not unusual in universities.
However, the papers also mentioned that it is prudent to build up capital reserves to deal with any 'financial shock' in the future (eg, if interest rates suddenly skyrocketed). It was proposed that $5m pa, increasing over time, be put aside for this purpose. I asked where this would come from. The reply from the V-C was that an Administrative Services Audit is currently underway and that savings arising from "systems improvements" were anticipated.
I'm the School Manager representative on the Admin Services Audit reference group. A number of us on the reference group are concerned about the management agenda here. Consultants are conducting the audit (which covers admin across the whole University) and coming up with some pretty rash, ill-informed draft suggestions. These are being moderated by experienced administrators on the reference group, and we will see what comes of the final report and how much exposure it gets.
If genuine savings can be made in the administrative area without slashing and burning staff numbers for the sake of being able to service a loan for more shiny new buildings, that's OK.
Senate approved in principle the undertaking of a debt financing program as outlined, subject to the approval of the Queensland Treasurer. Senate will be informed first of any proposal to draw down on a loan. My academic colleague, Andrew Bonnell anticipates asking at that time how dividends on UQ commercial activities (shares in start-up companies, licences like Gardasil, etc) might be used to pay for loan servicing.
After a period of silence for most of the year, a report of the Centenary Celebrations Committee (which met again in July and August) was noted. The Committee seems to be on the right track in terms of identifying what should be done (although ideas to update the University's formal history and to record an oral history seem to have been consigned a low priority), but there is a lot to do in a short timeframe. A company has been chosen to undertake the fundraising campaign component. The V-C's preference is that corporate events be future-focussed, leaving the nostalgia to Faculties/Schools. An events matrix is being compiled, linking potential audiences with whatever events have been identified to date, in order to choose what will be done.
You can contact the Centenary secretariat at centenary@uq.edu.au.
Other business was routine in nature - reports from the various sub-committees of Senate, reports of professorial selection committees, prizes report, report of risk assessment for entities partly owned by UQ, etc.
