ON THE MOVE campusreview. com. au
ANU UNVEILS NEW SENSATION
Songwriter and founding member of the rock group INXS, Andrew Farriss, is set to join Australian National University this year as a visiting fellow at ANU’ s School of Music. The university stated that, as its H. C. Coombs Fellow, Farriss would be passing on his expertise and knowledge to the next generation of rock musicians.
“ I am looking forward to working with students and staff through mentoring and teaching workshops, live performance and recording production techniques, with emphasis on creativity and improvisation,” Farriss said.“ I hope to help the students learn ways to stay relevant and broaden their skill sets so they can acquire jobs in today’ s rapidly changing music business.”
GOLDSMITH CHANCELLOR AT SWINBURNE
Swinburne University of Technology alumnus and financial services industry figure Graham Goldsmith has been formally installed as the university’ s new chancellor.
Goldsmith said that as chancellor he hoped“ to make at least a modest contribution to this university and to the future of all who come in contact with it”.“ I acknowledge the great strides the university has made in the last four years under the leadership of vice-chancellor professor Linda Kristjanson, and her team and look forward to working with them and assisting in whatever way possible in the years ahead,” he said.
Goldsmith is now a non-executive director of the ASX-listed Djerriwarrh Investments and SEEK, and NYSE-listed Zhaopin.
CSU NAMES FOOD EXPERT CHANCELLOR
Charles Sturt University has formally appointed food and agribusiness specialist Dr Michele Allan its third chancellor. Allan sits on a number of boards, including those of Meat and Livestock Australia, the William Angliss Institute of TAFE and the Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council.
In 2013, she was appointed by the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, to chair the Wheat Industry Advisory Taskforce.
CSU vice-chancellor professor Andrew Vann said Allan’ s“ background in rural and regional industries, deep board experience and extensive networks makes her an outstanding person to take on the role”.
NEW PVC FOR EDUCATION AT UniSA
Australian Research Council executive director for humanities and creative arts professor Denise Meredyth will join the University of South Australia in 2015 as pro vice chancellor for education, arts and social sciences.
In a statement, UniSA vice-chancellor professor David Lloyd said Meredyth, who is deputy pro vice-chancellor for research at RMIT, would bring“ a unique perspective to UniSA, having been a researcher herself, then moving into the business end of research in the ARC”.
Meredyth said she was delighted to have the chance to be“ part of a young, dynamic organisation that is making its mark”.
“ I’ m impressed by how the university has brought to life the ideal of practice-based learning, challenging students to build experience outside the classroom.”
UNSW NAMES DEAN OF MEDICINE
Vice-dean of medical sciences at Oxford University professor Rodney Phillips is set to return to his native Australia to join the University of NSW as its new dean of medicine, replacing the outgoing professor Peter Smith.
Phillips, who left Australia 30 years ago, will take up the role in the middle of this year.
Vice-chancellor professor Fred Hilmer praised the appointment as a“ sign of how well regarded the faculty is internationally. It signals a new chapter in its development”.
“ Oxford’ s medical faculty is one of the top two in the world and the largest in Europe for research income and infrastructure,” he said.
MURDOCH JUST ADDS WATER TREATMENT EXPERT
US desalination expert professor Wendell Ela has been announced as Murdoch University’ s new professor of desalination and water treatment.
Ela, who is presently professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Arizona, will take up the post at the National Centre for Excellence in Desalination Australia in January 2015.
Ela said he his new position was integral to desalination and water purification research and technology development.
“ The longer I am involved in this arena, the more I see the challenges facing water supply internationally, the more I am convinced that there is a tremendous opportunity now to integrate and better focus our efforts, as well as to break exciting new ground,” he said.
STRICTLY SPEAKING
SCOFFLAW
The birthdate of the word scofflaw( one who flouts laws that are minor and unenforceable) is known much more exactly than most: January 15, 1924. It was the winning entry, out of more than 25,000 in a competition held in the early years of American prohibition, to find a name for the lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor, as recorded in the first Oxford English Dictionary citation. But the word never carried much weight because prohibition laws lacked widespread public support: they seemed to be making criminals out of law-abiding citizens who drank – creating“ a Nation of Scofflaws”, as a recent documentary had it – when the organised crime of the prohibition era was a much more obvious legal problem. With the repeal of prohibition in 1933, scofflaw in its original sense disappeared, though it resurfaced after World War II in reference to people who defied parking fines, or avoided paying for traffic offences and phone bills. In the last two decades, scofflaws have again been in the news as the target of a new kind of public lawand-order campaign –“ broken windows” policing, or zero tolerance to petty crime – a strategy for cleaning up American cities. But frontline police find themselves exposed and under-resourced to keep up the pressure – and the scofflaw is again only the surface of far more complex problems.
Written by emeritus professor Pam Peters, researcher with Macquarie University’ s Centre for Language Sciences.
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