ANU Vice Chancellor Ian Young has stuck his head over the parapet to make the case again for what they’re trying to do at the School of Music.
A lot has been said and written about the proposed changes to the ANU School of Music over past weeks.
Much of the talk has revealed the passion our [...]

In February we were intrigued by the Library Service’s efforts to knit the world’s biggest bookmark.
Knitted bookmarks being not particularly useful at the best of times and even less so when 4km long. (I would go so far as to say 20cm of yarn is a more useful bookmark than anything you could knit).
Today they’re [...]

I mentioned two weeks ago about passes of the International Space Station over the Canberra area this week. I didn’t get this ready in time for Monday’s pass though sorry. However we a rare treat coming up this week.
The Soyuz spaceship will also be visible as it chases down the ISS, while taking the next [...]

The Canberra Times reports that the mass sacking of School of Music staff is now not going to go ahead and instead there’s going to be a redundancy program to trim numbers by a still hefty third.
All other parts of ANU facing cuts will no doubt be planning their own rowdy protests to apply pressure.
[Photo [...]

Orangedrummaboy has sent in pictures from today’s protest in defence of the School of Music and these words:
The usual quiet of the ANU campus was intruded upon by a large, loud though peaceful march, protesting the cuts proposed for the School of Music.
After meeting in Union Court for music and speeches of solidarity, the [...]

What are your thoughts on paying full school fees for your children and then being shamed into taking time off work to help out with normal school activities (reading, maths, etc)?

Thanks to Captainblack for the tip, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts is reporting that the School of Music head Adrian Walter is heading their way.
These appointments take a long time to work out normally.

Many things are ‘rotten in the state of Denmark’  … I am desperately hoping that the CEO of CIT Adrian Marron will take on the recent media reports not as a threat but as an opportunity to cut out what’s rotten. And believe me, there is a lot of rot! CIT has allowed corruption and [...]

The Save the School Of Music concert’s live stream is up and going now.
They plan to keep the music going for the next 24 hours until the big protest tomorrow.
If you’ve got pictures of video of the concert of protest send them into images@the-riotact.com .
UPDATE: Huzzah for embed code, you can watch it here now [...]

[ 19 May, 2012; 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. ]

This in from the ANU:

The John Curtin School of Medical Research CLINICAL RESEARCH OPEN DAY

We invite you to come to our clinical research open day. View the newly opened clinical research suites with a guided tour of the laboratories and talk to a researcher about our studies on early childhood and adult obesity.

Learn about our [...]

The Illawarra Mercury is throwing the toys out of the pram over a little publicised decision to build a Manufacturing Technology Innovation Centre in Canberra’s CBD.
The $29.8 million project will allow researchers and firms to collaborate to devise new techniques and products.
It is the latest addition to Enterprise Connect’s national network of ‘‘innovation centres’’.
The announcement [...]

The ABC reports that Professor Adrian Walter, presiding over the stricken ANU School of Music, has gone on indefinite leave but ominously has the Vice-Chancellor’s “full support”.
Professor Young says the decision for Professor Walter to take indefinite leave was unexpected.
“Adrian Walter has been under enormous pressure,” he said.
“At a meeting not with me, but [...]

Libraries ACT are making a mad scramble for relevance with eResources for students:
“Libraries ACT is bringing the library to the students, whether that be at home or somewhere else, and connecting them with primary sources and quality information in all school subject areas,” Vanessa Little, Director, Libraries ACT, said today.
“Libraries ACT’s eResources will help reduce [...]

We’ve had these thoughts sent in by an informed reader who chooses to remain anonymous. The potential concern about the audit performance of the School of Music is certainly food for thought.
The announcement of job cuts and program changes at the ANU School of Music last week was viewed as a drastic turn of events [...]

If you’ve got a spare half hour you can enjoy the complete spin package surrounding sacking all the staff at the School of Music. ANU’s posted the press conference to YouTube with this note:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington and Head of the ANU School of Music Professor Adrian Walter give this press conference on [...]

The Australian brings news that the privacy commissioner has been through the emails sent to ANU’s climate scientists and found they don’t actually contain a death threat.
Timothy Pilgrim was called in to adjudicate on a Freedom of Information application in relation to Fairfax and ABC reports last June alleging that Australian National University climate [...]

“All academic and general staff positions in the School of Music will be declared vacant”
This in from a source. It starts out sounding all flexible and modern and then BAM, you’re all sacked.

UPDATE 03/05/12 12:05: We now have the staff email:
[Staff.all] ANU School of Music
staff.all-bounces@anu.edu.au [staff.all-bounces@anu.edu.au] on behalf of VC [vc@anu.edu.au]
Sent: Thursday, [...]

Chris Bourke has announced what was already clear, that the merging of UC and CIT is too hard for this Government.
Minister for Education and Training Dr Chris Bourke today reported to the Legislative Assembly that, “Further
work on exploring collaborative arrangements between Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) and the University of Canberra has been placed on [...]

The ABC reports that ANU is going to take a more gradual approach to trimming the fat.
In an email to staff this afternoon, Professor Young conceded the timeline for the savings had been ambitious.
He said any forced redundancies would now only come as a last resort.
“It is likely that this process will result in significant [...]

This is one of those things that starts of being cutesy but can be infuriating if you start to think about it.
It’s a bit like the way housing has become a lottery where the Government takes care of a lucky few through a variety of media release worthy schemes and leaves the rest to rot.
Chief [...]

I thought readers might be interested in seeing the wonderful new mosaic at Birrigai.  
It depicts the history of life on Earth and is around 50m long!

The ongoing PR woes of the University of Canberra continue this morning as their PhD student Lynne Minion goes for another trot in The Australian (you can get around the paywall via google.
On Thursday, following Parker’s arrival home, UC issued a media release defending its conduct, claiming that English expression was only one component [...]

ANU has published to YouTube an hour and a half of Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Kraus in conversation here in Canberra with this lengthy note:
Critically-acclaimed author and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and world-renowned theoretical physicist and author Lawrence Krauss discuss biology, cosmology, religion, and a host of other topics at this event entitled ‘Something [...]

Congratulations to Marie-Alice McLean-Dreyfus (second from the left). ANU has announced that she has been selected to attend the G20 Youth Summit in Washington. Marie-Alice is a fourth year Bachelor of Arts and Asia-Pacific Studies undergraduate who will be joining five other young Australians attending the Summit this June. They will be making up the [...]

Woroni’s brave satirisation of Vice-Chancellor Ian Young has had another outing to explain the planned cuts saying in part:
As part of the draft discussion paper released to ANU staff today, it is proposed that the $40 million figure be reached by a combination of sub-prime loans, drug-dealing and jewel heists to be planned and executed [...]

Jim Waterson is leaving ACT education.
After acting like Oprah and delivering Ipads to principals Jim is leaving us.
Although Ipads are unsupported IT devices that teachers and students cannot get departmental support for, Jim feels good that he was cutting edge in his tenure.
While his clear out of senior executives who seemed to [...]

The Australian is running more leaks out of the University of Canberra journalism school, this time a tutor Lynne Minion expressing her displeasure at being asked to pass Chinese exchange students:
Crispin Hull, a former Canberra Times editor, and course convenor, advised a UC tutor to pass two students in their journalism assignments, despite her objections.
Hull [...]

Not naming any names, but I keep seeing people coming up from the University of Canberra revelling in the title of “Assistant Professor” who are yet to complete their doctoral thesis.
I’m curious as to what, if anything, our learned readers make of this?

WorkSafe ACT has announced the publication of their report on bullying at CIT:
“The WorkSafe ACT investigation found that the CIT had breached its responsibilities under the Territory’s health and safety legislation,” said Mr McCabe.
“WorkSafe ACT’s inspector determined that the CIT does not have an adequate system for preventing or responding to allegations of bullying and [...]

The Australian National University has announced Dr Ken Henry (formerly of Treasury) is going to be the go-to guy for public policy at ANU:
In a major new boost to ANU’s longstanding role in national public policy research, teaching and outreach, Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young announced today that a renamed and expanded Crawford School of Public [...]

The UC Monitor is advising their students to get down for some free ticket goodness:
The University of Canberra Brumbies have been busily preparing themselves ahead of this Saturday’s big home game against the Rebels.
The game is being promoted as ‘Tertiary Student Day’ and free tickets will be available for University of Canberra students. [...]

This is the last 19 hours of UC journalism lecturer Julie Posetti’s twitter feed:

The weight of comments are whipping up yesterday’s story in Crikey which does no favours to UC or Ms Posetti’s colleague Crispin Hull.
In fact we were tipped off to the issue by Ms Posetti’s tweet.
One can only imagine tings are going to [...]