In addition to the meeting proper, members received two presentations:

1. from David Henderson, CEO UniQuest, about UniQuest.
2. from Dr Peter Langford of the Voice Project, Macquarie University, on the 2011 UQ Staff Engagment Survey

Key messages from the Staff Survey (which was taken before the admissions scandal):

• results have improved on the 2008 survey;
• staff are generally happier than at other universities and are at the upper end of the G08;
• there is scope for improvment in consulting staff about decisions that directly affect them and for greater visibility and communication by senior management;
• workload remains an issue, including cultural attitudes to work-life balance and support of staff wellness;
• career planning for professional and research staff warrants attention.

Routine Business

Rule changes, draft annual report, reports from Senate sub-committees, honorary degree nominations, progress reports against strategic plan targets, School and Institute Performance Framework reports.

2012 Budget

The operating result for the next three years is looking OK, thanks to the shelving of a couple of new building projects. None-the-less, the V-C wants to reduce costs, talking of:

• curbing the growth in the number of professional staff positions
• reviewing professional staff by function across the University and benchmarking against other organisations
• reducing the number of small organisational units (given all OUs have fixed operating costs)
• streamlining the executive portfolios
• dealing with academic staff under-performance where it exists

Staff Club

A number of members, including myself, spoke to the loss of amenity due to the folding of the staff club and whether the university would consider investing in something that would provide a venue to entertain business visitors and enhance the work-life balance and collegiality of staff and graduates. Reference was made to a petition with 1,200 signatures which had been sent to the Senate by concerned staff a couple of days prior to the meeting. I asked that a sub-committee of Senate be formed to consider options.

The Chancellor maintained that the matter was one for management rather than Senate and that forming a sub-committee was inappropriate. Although he was challenged on this by an external Senator, his view prevailed with the silent majority. The EDO contrasted 1,200 signatures on the petition to 1,700 members on the Club's books at the time it ceased trading due to threatening insolvency.

The EDO said that entertainment for high-level visitors could still be provided in a number of boardrooms with kitchens around the campus, by org units hiring in caterers for the event. Information on the venues would be more widely distributed. Otherwise, he said, a number of UQ staff had worked with the Club committee for three years, but no viable solution to keeping the venue going had been found - even with an investment in refurbishment there was no gurantee it would break even. The V-C suggested that people possibly did not want the kind of venue the Club had been anymore, noting the proliferation of more-relaxed dining options on the St Lucia campus in recent years. It was noted that the newly re-opened Wordsmiths was going more upmarket and was licenced and that Darwin's was going to be licenced too.

However, the EDO said that management would consider any business case for an operation that aimed to replace what the Club had provided. A group of staff is working on an option at the moment.