4 December 2017

Routine matters

Reports from the Vice-Chancellor, President of the Academic Board and key Senate Committees on happenings since the last Senate meeting. Approval of the UQ Strategic Plan 2018-2021, the St Lucia Campus Master Plan and the UQ Preliminary Budget 2018.

Professional Services Transformation

The V-C's report indicated that valuable lessons had been learnt from ESS activity to-date that "policies and systems need to be well-evolved ahead of structural change as opposed to in parallel or even subsequent to it."

With the resignation of ESS Director, Andrew Hannan, and what the V-C calls the "natural evolution and transition" of the ESS program, the University is establishing a Strategic Program Office "to be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic/major projects framework." One of the expected outcomes is to "improve program and project governeance across the organisation through the application of a consistent framework and decision-making process."

Glad to see that someone has picked up on the risk management deficiency I spoke of at the February and April 2017 meetings.

Gender Pay Equity Report

A revised report, providing context for the raw data on which I reported in my August 2017 meeting report, is coming to Senate in the New Year.

Appointment of Senate appointees

Three of the members of Senate are appointed by the Senate itself. Well, sort of. In the past the new Senate was invited to come up with names and submit them the the Membership and Remuneration Committee to make final recommendations back to Senate for approval.

Intersestingly, this, the final meeting of the outgoing Senate, was presented with three nominees the Membership and Remuneration Committee had already come up with.

Whilst Senators were supportive of the three nominees (two of whom are returning members), some members spoke of the value of diversity on the Senate, such as having an indigenous member or a scholar independent of UQ, as opposed to yet another business person.

One member specifically requested that Senate go back to the procedure of letting the new Senate come up with names to submit to the M&R Committee.

Another case of corporate overreach?

Senate remuneration

Genunine variety of views expressed on this topic, with robust debate.

The proposal that was passed, unamended in the end, is I think a fair and reasonable one. It recognises the professionalism and workload that comes with being a Senator. It treats members of Senate, from students to corporate captains, equally - an important construct. It provides good options for those who do not wish to take the money personally. Expect a policy to be born soon.

That's all folks

Immediately following the meeting, the annual Senate Dinner at Customs House was held. As is traditional, the Chancellor paid tribute to outgoing members of Senate, who were called forward one by one. This plaque for departing Senators was a nice gesture along with kind words from the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor (and a bottle of Cointreau 😋).

So after 3 four-year terms and 4 elections by my professional staff peers, it's farewell from the Senate for me. It was an honour to serve and to occasionally be a thorn in the hierarchy�s side. I saw and heard some interesting things and learned from the debates and my committee work. I hope I helped in a small way to make UQ greater. I'm glad that my successor, Rebecca Hurst, was the candidate I campaigned for in the election.

It's been at times challenging, frustrating, uplifting, happy, sad and fun. I hope readers of my blogs have found them useful and maybe had a chuckle occasionally. Cheers!