on the move
campusreview.com.au
JCU SINGAPORE
VC RETIRES
James Cook University
has announced the
retirement of its deputy
vice‑chancellor for the
Singapore campus, Dr
Dale Anderson . Anderson has served the
university for 12 years, and will leave his role
on December 31.
Vice-chancellor Professor Sandra
Harding thanked Anderson for the positive
contributions he made during his career.
“Dale has been at the helm, leading a
strong team, during a time of significant
growth and achievement for JCU in
Singapore,” she said. “We will miss having
Dale at the helm and wish him ... all the very
best for a long and satisfying retirement.”
NEW SCIENCE
DEAN FOR USYD
This term for a ‘stay-at-home holiday’ helps
those who don’t feel the need to leave the
country or even the neighbourhood to
enjoy a few days off work – if they have
to justify their satisfaction with it to the
intrepid holiday traveller. The term staycation
originated in the US during World War II,
according to the Oxford Dictionary online,
when holidaying in Europe was definitely off
the agenda, and has not been much used
outside the US until the last 10 years. Its slow
take-up in England and Australia would have
something to do with the fact that holiday
outnumbers vacation 5:1 as the standard
term for the period of leave from work when
you may well go away. That apart, the British/
Australasian way of pronouncing vacation
touches lightly on the first syllable, making
it an indeterminate vowel with no specific
meaning. In American English, the first
syllable is a solid diphthong which rhymes
easily with words of one syllable such as day,
gay, lay, pay, etc, any of which could replace
the va- of vacation, and help to suggest its
scope or special character. To Australian ears,
staycation may just as well be steak-ation,
with everyone lingering around the barbecue
and not going anywhere soon … which
makes for a very satisfactory daycation.
Written by Emeritus Professor Pam
Peters, researcher with Macquarie
University’s Centre for Language
Sciences.
28
Soil expert and
biophysicist Professor
Iain Young has
been appointed
dean of science at
the University of Sydney. The inaugural
head of the university’s School of Life and
Environmental Sciences is due to start
on July 12. Before joining the university,
Young spent six years as a head of school
at the University of New England, and led
research groups in Scotland.
Vice chancellor Dr Michael Spence said
Young had a “compelling vision” and useful
experience in ac