Campus Review Volume 26. Issue 3 | Page 30

ON THE MOVE campusreview.com.au DEAKIN INVESTS NEW CHANCELLOR Deakin University has officially invested governance, finance, accounting and business strategy expert John Stanhope as its new chancellor. Stanhope, who has been on the university’s council since 2012, has been serving as deputy chair of Deakin’s investment committee, as well as being a member of its finance and business affairs committee. He is chair of Australia Post. Stanhope was previously a Telstra executive director. Deakin vice-chancellor Jane den Hollander said of Stanhope: “My fellow council members and I look forward to John’s wisdom and guidance as we educate the next generation.” NAKATA RE-JOINS JCU STRICTLY SPEAKING | PATCH James Cook University has appointed professor Martin Nakata pro vice-chancellor of its Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre. Nakata will take up the position in early May. He was the first Torres Strait Islander in Australia to graduate with a PhD – from JCU in 1996. He worked most recently as director of UNSW’s Nura Gili Centre for Indigenous Programs, and said he was delighted to be returning to JCU. JCU senior deputy vice-chancellor, professor Chris Cocklin, said Nakata was “widely acknowledged for his work in promoting the successful participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in higher education”. NEW EDUCATION AND TRAINING SECRETARY Education leaders have welcomed the appointment of Dr Michele Bruniges as the new secretary of the Department of Education and Training. Bruniges, who has more than 25 years’ experience in the education sector has led the NSW Department of Education since 2011 and has previously held senior education roles at the federal level. She will replace acting secretary Tony Cook from April 4. Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said Bruniges had the “breadth of experience, insight and passion for education policy” necessary to be highly effective in the role. NEW DESIGN CZAR FOR UTS UTS has announced landscape architect professor Elizabeth Mossop will be the next dean of its Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building. Mossop, who was most recently professor of landscape architecture and director of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University, in the US, will take up her new post in mid-2016. Mossop is also a founding principal of Spackman Mossop & Michaels landscape architects, based in Sydney and New Orleans, Louisiana. UTS vice-chancellor Attila Brungs said the selection panel had been “deeply impressed by [Mossop’s] commitment to excellence as well as cross-disciplinary research, teaching [and] collaborating”. GO8 PICKS CHAIR OF INNOVATION The Go8 has unveiled businessman and entrepreneur Simon McKeon as inaugural chair of its industry and innovation board. The Go8 said the board was a “key plank of the Go8’s Innovation 2016 agenda”. Go8 chair and USYD vice-chancellor Michael Spence said of McKeon: “With his breadth of knowledge and handson experience, he is exactly the driving force needed to assist us deliver on the government’s industry collaboration and innovation priority policy.” G08 chief executive Vicki Thomson said McKeon would provide an “enviable wealth of private-sector experience to draw on for guidance and support”. UC ANNOUNCES VC FROM CANADA The vice-chancellor of Canada’s top-ranked university, professor H. Deep Saini, has been announced as the successor to the outgoing University of Canberra vice-chancellor professor, Stephen Parker. Saini is now at the helm of the University of Toronto. He will take up his new post from September 1, with Parker due to officially end his UC tenure on July 1. Parker said of his replacement: “Professor Saini comes from a very senior position in a truly world-leading university and will be great for the University of Canberra. He will have my full support as I hand over the many exciting projects that the university is undertaking.” Saini has a background in plant physiology. Patches have been put to many purposes over the centuries of the word’s use, so that they may “repair, strengthen, protect, or decorate” a surface (Oxford English Dictionary online). In the 17th and 18th centuries, they could be a form of facial decoration, in small pieces of black silk or velvet used as a fashion statement, or to cover skin blemishes such as pock marks. By the 20th century, the patch had become the badge of affiliation stitched onto the uniforms of soldiers and sailors, and a term in prison slang for the patches on prisoners’ uniforms that would identify them as escapees. These uses of patch underlie the verb patch out, which in bikie slang means severing connections with the motorcycle club, by “handing in one’s colours”– as well as one’s motorbike and other assets – reports in Australian newspapers state. This underworld use of patch out coexists with established technical uses in electronic engineering, where digital circuits may be patched in and patched out to create special sound effects through a synthesiser. Meanwhile, patch out has surfaced in American slang to refer to making a very quick getaway in a car, when the wheels spin and leave patches of black rubber on the road. The driver thereby leaves his mark – and chances are he doesn’t intend to return any time soon. Written by Emeritus Professor Pam Peters, researcher with Macquarie University’s Centre for Language Sciences. 28