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UNSW staff electionsNominations open on Monday 20 March 2006 for staff positions on the UNSW Council and the Academic Board. All five staff member positions on Council, four academic and one non-academic, are up for election. The term of office is for two years from 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2008. The positions available on the Academic Board are for 12 professors and 12 non-professorial academic staff. The term is also for a two year period, from 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2008. There are also positions available on the UNSW Union Board of Directors for one life member and three ordinary members. Where necessary, ballots will be conducted for all of the above positions. Nomination forms will be available online from Monday 20 March 2006, at www.elections.unsw.edu.au Completed original nomination forms must be lodged with the Returning Officer before 5.00pm on Thursday 6 April 2006. Further information on the elections can be found at www.elections.unsw.edu.au UNSW Asia design winnersUNSW has announced that Sydney architectural firm Johnson Pilton Walker (JPW) has won the second-round design competition for UNSW Asia’s new campus in Changi, Singapore. JPW will work in partnership with Singapore-based firm Team 3 to design the Science and Engineering Laboratory building, which will provide undergraduate teaching facilities, research labs and office accommodation. A selection panel including Kerry Hill, architect of the Master Plan for the new campus, unanimously selected JPW’s design from a short list of five finalists. “The panel commended the design for its sensitivity to the campus Master Plan,” said Professor Greg Whittred, President of UNSW Asia. ”It’s a simple and elegant building that blends well with the landscape and is in keeping with the campus’s focus on ecologically sustainable principles.” JPW has won national and international architecture awards for major projects such as Governor Philip and Macquarie Towers in Sydney, the Museum of Sydney and the Asian wing of the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2005 the firm was selected to design Australia’s new National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. It also designed the Rupert Myers Building at UNSW’s main campus. Team 3 is a long established firm in Singapore with experience in designing laboratory research buildings. The Changi campus will welcome its first students in 2009, with UNSW Asia commencing in 2007 in temporary accommodation at the former campus of Republic Polytechnic. Workplace injuries take a fallUNSW has achieved significant success in reducing the number of workplace injuries on campus, with figures from the Risk Management Unit showing a 28 percent drop in workers compensation claims in 2005. Compared with 2004, muscular stress injuries were down 23 percent, vehicular accidents dropped 33 percent, the number of employees hit by objects decreased by 29 per cent and repetitive motion injuries fell by 37 percent. Of those injuries sustained, the majority were less severe - which resulted in a reduction in lost time. “This is a major achievement for the University and so many staff are responsible for the result,” said Harry Rosenthal, Senior Manager with the Risk Management Unit. “I would like to thank the voluntary OHS committee members and emergency officers who established programs in faculties and divisions to address areas of safety concern. “Such employees are leading the cultural change by donating time, skills and dedication to the welfare of their fellow employees,” said Mr Rosenthal. UNSW’s professional safety, emergency and rehabilitation staff also played a significant role. “These staff members analysed, developed and implemented strategies which targeted painful and long term injuries, such as repetitive motion,” he said. Mr Rosenthal said that faculties and divisions conducted risk assessments, closely monitored loss experience and sent over 3,000 employees on safety or emergency training in 2005. UNSW: an employer of choice for womenUNSW has been awarded an Employer of Choice for Women citation by the Federal Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA). The University is one of 116 employers across the country to receive the award for 2006. According to EOWA, these are employers with policies and practices that support women across the organisation and that have had a positive outcome for both women and the organisation itself. UNSW was singled out for its Gender Equity Project, with the Agency noting that women had increased representation among academic staff by three percentage points since 2002. In 2004, women were successful in 10 out of 12 applications for promotion to associate professor and in 2005, women were appointed to four out of nine newly created senior positions. UNSW initiatives commended by EOWA include the career advancement fund of $10,000 to help female academics returning from maternity leave to re-establish their research careers, scholarships to improve women’s PhD completion rate, and a fund for additional childcare costs incurred by female academics presenting papers in Australia and overseas. American scientists to speak on climate changeTwo eminent American scientists will take part in an academic dialogue on climate change at UNSW on Thursday 23 March. Professor Stephen Schneider and Dr Terry Root, both of Stanford University, California, will converse on the facts of climate change and academia’s contributions to ways of addressing emerging global problems. Climatologist Professor Schneider has authored or co-authored over 450 scientific papers. Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of climate and weather and author of The Genesis strategy: climate and global survival, he has served as a consultant to Federal agencies and White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush Senior, Clinton and Bush Junior administrations. Dr Root is a Senior Fellow in the Centre for Environmental Science and Policy at Stanford University. Her research interests include ecological analyses of the distribution and abundance patterns of species on a continent-wide scale and the influence of global warming on the biogeography of species. Robyn Williams, science journalist and broadcaster with the ABC, will moderate the discussion. Tea and coffee will be provided in the foyer following the presentation. Careers Expo off and racing at RandwickStaff are invited to attend the official opening of Careers Expo 2006 to be held at Randwick Racecourse on Thursday 23 March. The event will be held off campus for the first time, in order to accommodate a record number of participating organisations. One hundred and twenty companies will be showcased on the day and more than 4,000 students are expected to attend. “Academics put in a lot of hard work teaching students and Careers Expo can provide an opportunity for them to see how highly sought after our graduates are”, said Lene Jensen, Manager of Careers and Employment. “Careers Expo highlights the calibre of companies seeking to recruit from UNSW.” Participating organisations this year include Boral, BP Australia, Allianz, Unilever Australasia, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sinclair Knight Merz. For a full list of organisations and their profiles go to: http://www.careers.unsw.edu.au/student/expo/2006/attending.aspx What: UNSW’s Careers Expo 2006 Careers Expo is open to all UNSW students from 4–6pm and for final year students from 1–6pm. Final year students who have attended an Expo preparation workshop can attend ‘Priority hour’ from 12-1pm. For more information go to: http://www.careers.unsw.edu.au/student/expo/ Fresh start for UNSW’s community ensemblesTwo University community ensembles, the UNSW Orchestra and ‘The Pipers’ Wind Band (collectively known as the LIME – Large Instrumental Music Ensembles) will in future be administered under a single Steering Committee of stakeholder representatives. Until now, they have been managed by student volunteers. The new Steering Committee was launched with a short performance by members of the UNSW ‘The Pipers’ Wind Band in the Council Chamber last week. The Committee will have its inaugural meeting on 21 March. “The creation of the LIME Steering Committee aims to ensure a secure organisational and financial future for the ensembles,” said Dr Emery Schubert, one of the founders of the Orchestra and an academic from the School of Music and Music Education. “The UNSW Orchestra is the longest-running community orchestra on any University campus in Australia. Many thousands of people (including many non-university people from surrounding suburbs) have listened to our performances since we began in 1989.” The UNSW Orchestra is a full symphony orchestra that draws its players from students, alumni and staff across all faculties. The Wind Band, founded in 1991, also draws its woodwind and brass players from students, alumni and staff. The Orchestra’s first concert for 2006 will be held on Tuesday 16 May from 7.30 – 9pm in the Clancy Auditorium. It will feature Mozart, in honour of the 250th anniversary of his birth. The Pipers Wind Band will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Shostakovich with a free lunch hour concert from 1.10 – 2pm on 11 April in the Clancy Auditorium. For more information on the LIME, contact Emery Schubert, e.schubert@unsw.edu.au. To receive an email announcement before each concert, email Eric Sowey, e.sowey@unsw.edu.au |