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subtext issue
96 15
November 2012 ***************************************************** 'Truth:
lies open to all' ***************************************************** Every
fortnight during term-time. All
editorial correspondence to: subtext-editors [at] lancaster.ac.uk. Please
delete as soon as possible after receipt. Back issues and subscription
details can be found at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/subtext. The
editors welcome letters, comments, suggestions and opinions from readers. subtext reserves the right to edit submissions. subtext does not publish material that is submitted
anonymously, but is willing to consider without obligation requests for
publication with the name withheld. For
tips to prevent subtext from getting swept up into your 'junk email folder',
see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/dejunk/. If
you're viewing this using Outlook, the formatting might look better if you
click on the message at the top saying 'Extra line breaks in this message
were removed', and select 'Restore line breaks'. CONTENTS:
editorial, news in brief, Wellingswatch, new Deputy
V-C, academic tutors, 1994 group, Roscoe and Donohoe,
US election 2012, letters ***************************************************** EDITORIAL While
Lancaster seems to have entered a period of mid-term tranquillity, things are
very different at the BBC – so different in fact, as to encourage us to think
that the upheavals triggered by the crimes of a dead disc-jockey have nothing
to do with us. However, there is a link. The BBC's response to the Savile scandal illustrates a more general malaise within
the public sector. Buffeted by allegations that they are parasites, sapping
the vitality of the wealth-creating private sector, public servants have been
on the defensive since the first impact of the economic shock-waves generated
by the catastrophic miscalculations by mortgage lenders in the US. The BBC
saga shows that public and private resemble each other to the extent that
when a senior figure decides to step down, the package of 'compensation'
bears no relationship to the value of services rendered. However, the rule
seems to be that when trouble strikes a public body, the top people accept
responsibility and leave relatively quickly, whether or not they have
actually done anything wrong; whereas chief executives in the private sector
cling on until they have secured the most lucrative leaving present, even
after glaring management failures. Although
the BBC is sui generis, its recent travails suggest that we are faced with
two sharply conflicting models of accountability – responsibility with
limited power, and power with limited responsibility. In view of recent
changes within Higher Education, we can only expect that senior management,
whatever their initial intentions, will be subjected to an impulse which
favours the latter model. On the surface this looks like the worse of two bad
options, but the alternative is scarcely better. When senior executives
within the public sector feel that they will be held to account whether or
not any blame can justly be applied to their decisions, there will be an
obvious temptation to micromanage – in short, to centralise. There
are good reasons for feeling that, under present management, Lancaster will
try to resist this development, whatever path other institutions might
follow. However, government policy towards higher education is not calculated
to strengthen the hand of Vice-Chancellors who lean towards 'subsidiarity'. Among many instances, the (spurious)
incentives on offer to institutions which can recruit strongly among the best
performing A level students can only encourage a blanket ban on candidates
who fail to achieve ABB and above, and an insensitivity
to the needs of individual departments which, for good reasons, might have no
chance of competing for such recruits. Such inflexible policies,
centrally-imposed, would run the risk of missing a point which is obvious to
teachers throughout our university – Lancaster has become an 'elite' university
precisely because it is not elitist. For Lancaster, as for the BBC, the
message ought to be clear; the question of accountability is less problematic
when intervention follows adequate consultation, even when apparently minor
issues like the introduction of personal tuition (see below) are involved. ***************************************************** NEWS
IN BRIEF Furness
Feastings A
subscriber writes: Furness College officers are delighted to welcome the
renowned Michelin starred chef, Simon Rogan, to campus this Saturday when he
will formally open the refurbished College space, including the bar,
'Trevor'. His restaurant 'L'Enclume', in Cartmel has acquired an enviable reputation and is said
to be well known to campus bon viveurs. Food is
being provided by University catering who will doubtless rise to the occasion
under the watchful eye of our newly-appointed Executive Chef. The ceremony is
scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Furness foyer. The College will also be inducting
three new Fellows, at a private ceremony earlier in the afternoon. ******** The
same subscriber writes... It's
good to see what used to be the foyer of Furness College – strangely (if not
ominously) now renamed 'Furness Buildings' – again being used by students and
others during daylight hours. This brings light and vitality – as well as
occasional untidiness – to a large public space. Sadly, it is rumoured, this
is not a view shared by the Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medicine.
Perhaps it would be preferable to leave it empty and sterile, or at least
free from students lounging about and eating chips with curry sauce? The
simple fact is that its location means that it will be used by students and
others in a variety of ways, and this should be encouraged. ******** Wind
turbine The
University’s new wind turbine has been connected to the Grid, subtext
understands, but the operators of the Grid, Electricity North West, have
asked for further tests before it can start to deliver power. It should be running from later next week
as commissioning proceeds, and if all goes to plan it should be in full
operation by the end of November. ***************************************************** WELLINGSWATCH subtext readers will know of our fondness for the
previous Vice-Chancellor, Paul Wellings, and we
continue to follow his exploits with misty-eyed interest. A lack of advance
publicity robbed many admirers of the chance to welcome him back to
Lancaster, although subtext spotters caught a glimpse when he alighted at the
Management School this term, during a visit to these shores to collect the
CBE awarded in the 2012 Birthday Honours. Recent
developments at the University of Wollongong would appear to foreshadow an
approach which Professor Wellings first adopted at
Lancaster. Two milestone proposals have been passed by the University
Council: a five year Strategic Plan (2013-18) and Restructuring into
Faculties, headed by Executive Deans. If this is beginning to sound familiar,
there's more. Professor Wellings was quoted as
commenting that 'among the challenges facing the University over the next
five years was the need to refocus and re-invigorate the academic profile,
deliver and grow UOW's off-shore international program and to build and
leverage partnerships for mutual benefit – including a lifelong engagement
with the University’s alumni'. It seems that achieving a place in the top 1%
of world universities is on the Wellings wish-list.
Readers who wish to experience a feeling of déjà vu should follow the link: http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW135731.html
***************************************************** NEW
DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR While
subtext has been able to monitor the movements of Professor Wellings, it has not been so fortunate in charting the
career of Professor Nancy Wright, after her short-lived appointment as Dean
of Lancaster's Faculty of Arts and Social Science. When Professor Wright was
appointed, subtext felt duty-bound to launch a meticulous research exercise (MRE)
into her previous career, utilizing the sophisticated software package known
to insiders as 'Google'. As subscribers will recall, this inquiry yielded
findings which were not uniformly flattering to Professor Wright, who was
never given the chance to exercise her far-famed scything techniques in FASS. As a
duty to subscribers, skilled subtext operatives responded instantly to the
announcement in August that Professor Andrew Atherton was to join us as
Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Once again, state-of-the-art Google software was
deployed, in the expectation that this would keep subtext one step ahead of
the appointment panel. Professor
Atherton will take up his post in January, but subtext subscribers deserve to
know our findings in advance. During what seemed like (and were) seconds of
exhaustive inquiry, no evidence was discovered that Professor Atherton has
ever acknowledged, or deserved, the epithet 'Grim Reaper' on the basis of his
professional activities. Indeed, there is every reason to suppose that this was
a well-judged appointment. The loss of the University of Lincoln (which has
emulated Lancaster by zooming up the rankings apparently on its unaided
merits) could easily prove to be Lancaster's gain. To all appearances
Professor Atherton looks like someone who values our University as it
currently is, instead of staking its future on making it into something it
could never be; who is determined to keep in touch with academic activity and
opinion; and who understands the importance of the student experience, not
just because this outlook is enforced by the present climate in Higher
Education, but because he understands the true purpose of a university. It
did not escape subtext's notice that Professor Atherton spent 8 years at
Durham University. However, for the purposes of his post at Lancaster his
relevant experiences were gained at Lincoln. In respect of future
appointments – to key managerial posts, and to lesser positions such as
external examiners at undergraduate and postgraduate level – the arrival of
Professor Atherton sends out a clear signal. Applications from people with
connections to the Russell Group of universities will be considered, but
preference will be given in all cases to those who seem to be capable of
doing the job well, whatever their provenance. ***************************************************** ACADEMIC
TUTORS The
University has introduced a new system (AcT) of
Academic Tutors for undergraduate students starting in 2012-13. The tutorial
system is designed to provide the opportunity for individual one-to-one
meetings each term between tutor and tutee. The tutorial should be focused on
academic guidance and support, which may include study skills. On
paper, there might be many reasons to favour such a system. But the advance
consultation left something to be desired; unless the experience of the
subtext collective was unrepresentative, the initiative was presented to
academic staff at departmental meetings as a fait accompli. The obvious
response was that the system, however well-intentioned, would create workload
anomalies: some of us will take responsibility for students who are
struggling against numerous and varied difficulties, while others will be
presented with a list of trouble-free tutees who would prefer that their
enjoyment of Lancaster is interrupted by nothing more than the inescapable
minimum of contact with academic staff. The incorporation of such anomalies
within departmental workload models would be impossible – it could vary
between a few cursory chats and a series of emotionally-draining encounters
which demand a commitment of hours rather than the allotted minutes. The
instructions for the academic tutors contain a number of dos and don'ts. You are not to discuss in-depth pastoral
issues, but refer the student to the Director of Studies or college tutor –
but what if you are the Director of Studies? Rather than discussing in-depth
course-specific issues, you should refer the student to the relevant course
convenor. But what if you are the relevant course convenor? You are not to
provide specialised advice that lies outside the remit of the AcT system (career, health, etc.) and refer the student
to the University specialist support system, or Director of Studies – but
what if you are the Director of Studies? You are not to vent student
complaints, and should refer the student to the appropriate person or
committee within the Department – but what if you are that appropriate
person? Lots of scope for self-referral and endless pointless meetings. In
subtext's experience, the response (from students wishing to meet) so far has
ranged from lukewarm to non-existent. We would be interested to hear of
subscribers' experiences. ***************************************************** 1994
GROUP The
subtle machinations which determine the pecking-order within British
universities remains a mystery to the subtext collective. Membership of
either the 'Russell' or '1994' Group is a matter of total indifference to
applicants to Lancaster's undergraduate courses; one member of the subtext
collective, who has dealt with undergraduate applications for several years,
has never heard any applicant mention the word 'Russell', even though it used
to be a fairly common Christian name. However,
this subject is important, if only because the members of each echelon think
that it matters. It is particularly important because the 1994 Group, to
which we belong, is clearly in trouble, and its demise could be imminent.
After the dramatic departure early in 2012 of Durham, Exeter, York and Queen
Mary London, three more universities have recently left - Surrey, Bath, and
St Andrews - deserting a band which hardly looks like a heavy-hitting
political grouping (see http://www.1994group.ac.uk/).
The suggestion from Oxford that the group's members should reinvent
themselves as niche occupiers of élite but 'teaching-only' institutions can
only increase their discomfort. As Lancaster considers its position, there is
some consolation to be gained from the internal difficulties of the
over-extended Russell Group where, as anticipated, there is an increasing gap
between the research intensity of five of its members and the rest. It too is
unstable. In this volatile situation, a statement about Lancaster's
intentions could be useful. ***************************************************** ROSCOE
AND DONOHOE Last
Thursday's (8 November) piano duet concert by Martin Roscoe and Peter Donohoe demonstrated the remarkable rapport that can be
achieved between two people who have worked together extensively. Roscoe and Donohoe were piano students at the Royal Northern College
of Music in the early 1970s. Having formed their piano duo at that time, and
despite being active piano soloists with separate busy careers, they have
developed their partnership over forty years, and the level of understanding
between them was shown to excellent effect in last week's Great Hall concert,
featuring works by four composers of genius. The
concert opened with Mozart's sonata in D for two pianos. This was a
brilliantly witty piece to hear; but to watch it being played raised the
listener's pleasure to another level, as the interplay between the two
pianists could then be seen. Described by the musicologist Alfred Einstein as
'one of the most profound and most mature of all Mozart's compositions', this
was a superb opener for the concert. It
was followed by Brahms' Variations on the St Anthony Chorale, op 56. As was
his frequent practice, Brahms wrote the piano-duet version of this piece
first, although the orchestral version is now much more often played and much
better known; but he wrote so skilfully for the keyboard that the duet medium
is in some ways preferable, allowing the bones of the variations to be more
clearly followed. After
the interval, the two pianists played Debussy's Prélude
a l'après-midi d'un Faune
- another piece much better known in the orchestral version, which in this
case was how the composer originally wrote it. (The programme didn't say, but
presumably the arrangement for piano duet was the one by Ravel.) Inspired by the poem 'L'après-midi
d'un faune', by Stephane Mallarmé, the Prélude is seen
by some commentators as the beginning of modern music, because of its tonal
freedom. The poem depicts a faun on a sultry summer afternoon, gradually
falling into an intoxicated sleep as scenes of nymphs and naiads pass through
his mind. This two-piano performance was not quite successful in conjuring up
the sensuous nature of this vision - perhaps the percussive nature of the
piano makes this rather difficult, as compared with the woodwinds and strings
used in the orchestral original. But
the percussive side of the piano was well used in the final piece in the
concert, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Once again, the piano duet is the
original version of this masterpiece: the foundation from which the
orchestral score was created. This rhythmically-complex piece was performed
with great verve and panache. It was very exciting to listen to, and indeed
to watch. Both pianists were at one stage using a clenched fist to pound the
keyboard, but both pianos appear to have survived this ordeal unscathed. Finally,
as an encore, the duo played Debussy's Fêtes, again presumably in Ravel's
arrangement. This brought this varied and very rewarding concert to a close. The
two pianists shared the pleasure of playing the University's new Steinway
concert grand, one of them using it in the first half of the concert and the
other in the second. The other piano was the University's old Steinway, just
back from being refurbished by the makers, and it sounded very well. ***************************************************** US
ELECTION, 2012 (many
thanks to a subscriber for contributing these reflections) Newly-elected
President Obama in his acceptance speech acknowledged the noise, messiness
and costliness of elections, but was quick to remind his audience that in
other countries around the world people are dying for the right to have open
debate and argument. The concurrent, rigidly choreographed, appointment of
the next Chinese president, in stark contrast to the manic upheaval in the
USA, neatly underlined his point. Yet the perils of operating an open
electoral system in a federal union of 300 million people were also apparent:
the crazy levels of expenditure, the bifurcation into the artificial
simplification of just two parties slugging out their differences, the
blurring of policy lines as the voting days approached, and the growing
differences in wealth, education and ethnic identity across the country. The
shifts in population, even since 2008, showed up clearly in Florida, where
increases in the Hispanic population exactly mapped on to the rise in the
Democratic vote in that state. And in Virginia, that quintessential focus of
early European settlement, the Republican white vote was overtaken by other
ethnic groupings to achieve a Democratic out-turn. Despite the Republican gains of North
Carolina (always a conservative state, even when electing Democrats) and Indiana,
and the closeness of the individual vote, the electoral college system has
brought the Democrats back to the White House, with the Senate under their
control, but the House of Representatives allied to the Republicans. If
the European Union were ever to move to presidential elections, the American
model would no doubt be one to consider. The complex fabric of policy
differences would need to be flattened and smoothed to produce common slogans
and sound bites so that they appeared to mean the same in, for example,
Czechoslovakia as in Greece, and the fanciful electioneering budgets would
make the EU Parliament's current extravagances seem trivial. Party leaders,
buoyed by media hyperbole and working across sharp differences of language,
culture and economic viability, would no doubt jet from London to Paris and
Rome between lunch and supper to address hapless assemblies of dragooned
populations and quickly leave, and some small state - Belgium perhaps - might
become the swing state whose votes the two parties would most covet. The
difficulties of getting out the voters would however be huge, for one of the
dispiriting features of the US election is a turnout of significantly less
than 50% of the population, by no means all of whom are registered. As the party
leaders in Washington DC survey the next four years, and begin plotting their
election tactics for 2016, the subtleties and shifting alliances of the
entire federal union have to be worked with, an undertow of huge inertia when
contemplating bold changes of direction. The whole world has an interest in
the answers, and most immediately in the negotiation of the approaching
'fiscal cliff' at the end of December, when the outcome will either
contribute to stability of the US economy and hence its capacity to steady
other countries, or a deepening of their recession and all of ours. We must
fervently hope that the American ability to reach across the aisle will
operate, even if only for expediency's sake. ***************************************************** LETTERS Dear
subtext, Re
the wind-turbine: what people really don't like about these things (which are
graceful, impressive and, as your correspondent might have noted, a helluva lot quieter than the adjacent motorway, in this
particular case) is that they are unignorable
reminders of our having comprehensively fouled up the planet, and of how
desperately we need to get our act together if we are to avoid climate
catastrophe. Welcome
to the real world (e.g. hurricane Sandy – and coming soon, no doubt,
hurricane Julian...). Yours
etc. John
Foster, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion ******** Dear
subtext, As
for the concerns about the 'eyesore' that the new wind turbine allegedly
constitutes, I am afraid that at this stage of destruction of the planet, we
no longer have the luxury of worrying about aesthetics. Veronika Koller, Linguistics
and English Language ******** Dear
subtext, I
have a little sympathy with those who don't like the look of the wind
turbine, but I'd rather see it than Heysham Nuclear
Power Station. Maybe those who don't
like the turbine would rather sit in the dark as winter draws in? Catherine
Pacey Editors'
note: For those who do like the look of the turbine and haven't already seen
its prowess on line, here is some footage for you, suitably slowed down so
that the human eye can follow its motion: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/cpadai/time-lapse/12-10-26a_wind_turbine_friday.html ******** Dear
subtext, This
is one of those 'he would say that, wouldn't he' letters, but perhaps it
would help to ask what the colleges did for the university. Besides offering
a small and in most cases at least congenial base for each new student, they
also provided a home away from home for faculty and some senior support staff
(they never did make a 'home' for all support staff). When you think of some
of Lancaster's early achievements, the fact that young academics, footloose
and fancying themselves and each other more, perhaps, than their senior
departmental members fancied them, got together early, often, socially, and
successfully with other young academics helped to form strong intellectual
alliances between colleagues in different, and sometimes rather distant,
departments. Where else would I have made friends out of a senior research
biologist and a new blood physicist? And learned so much from them about how
to read about science as an interested layperson. Much earlier, Wacek Koc (see subtext 36) made
his base in Fylde College a focus for the group of young 'darlings' (that's a
quote) that led in not too many years to the Independent Studies program. The
nexus between (some of) the languages and History was formed at least partly
by college friendships in Lonsdale and The County. On the other hand, the
enmity between some senior faculty in English and some senior faculty in
History might have been (I think it was) fertilized in the Bowland Common Room. When so many sparks fly not all fires
are benign. The colleges were not always good for peace. The
odd age structure of the new Lancaster probably had some effect, too. Along
with the Boards of Study (of blessed memory?), the colleges were places were
the young faculty could get together under the more benign eye of senior
members from other departments than their own and get up to mischief, or even
something constructive. For instance they could find a role in one of Tom Lawrenson's Molière productions
(they were casted in the Lonsdale Common Room as I recall), or create some
other odd but usually constructive alliance. I am
not sure that the sense of belonging to a real community can be recreated in
the new situation that obtains at Bailrigg and down
the hill towards Galgate. Maybe a bigger place
needs some other constituent-rallying structures. But they are certainly
useful, interesting, and for many good academic folk they were really quite a
lot of fun. I
don't suppose 'fun' is a big item on the Lancaster mission statement, but
maybe that's a different problem. To cop a line from my signature quote,
below, Lancaster's Colleges helped us to remember that becoming an educated
person can be a real pleasure. In
haste, just on my way to talk to some Honors College
alumni about a fund-raising booze-up, the annual Honors
College Trivia Night Extravaganza. Bob
Bliss Dean,
Pierre Laclede Honors
College, University
of Missouri-St. Louis It
has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about
education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated
person - Edith Hamilton, classicist (1867-1963) ********
Dear
subtext, Having
been shouting it lonesomely for a long time now, I
was delighted to read the editorial in issue 95 regarding the slow death of
our collegiate system. It was like someone had ghost-written my
incomprehensible ramblings. As
someone who has benefited hugely from the pastoral care offered by my
college, it saddens me to see that it risks being diminished, and also that
there are JCR officers who see the college as nothing more than a body that
can get you pissed a few times a year. I
firmly believe that this lack of interest is down not to apathy but to the
university's meddling with their prominence over the last decade. In
terms of what can be done, I would urge someone on senate to compile all of
these failings into a motion calling for the reclamation of the colleges from
the university, and to mobilise support from fellow senators in the build-up
to its proposal, to ensure that it is not swiftly glanced over. This, I
think, should be done in Lent term to coincide with the arrival of our new
Deputy Vice Chancellor. Having interviewed him for SCAN, I am confident that
he is open to such movements and eager to listen to the needs and requests of
both staff and students on college affairs. That
is my humble suggestion - regardless of what is done, I believe that visible
and effective action by LUSU, the colleges and the wider student body must be
taken. Regards Ronnie
Rowlands ******** Dear
subtext, While
I didn't catch the name of the Lancaster politics lecturer being interviewed
by the US news program CBS News, I was impressed to see an expert on American
politics from the UK asked his opinion of the election by a major US network.
The lecturer maintained that Brits would be pleased to see that for the first
time in US history an African-American President had won re-election. Robert
Segal University
of Aberdeen (formerly of Lancaster) Editors'
note: The impressive Politics lecturer has yet to step forward, but hopefully
will be 'named and shamed' by subtext in our next issue. ******** Dear
subtext, Your
correspondent on 'The Venue' has a point about the growing absence of refreshments
on Campus outside the hours of 9-4. It is a pity as the normal teaching day
continues to extend that one can't get a cup of coffee at its end at most
campus locations. Heaven forbid one might want to sit with one's seminar
group and continue the conversation at 6 p.m. Or, given that most academics,
not just mathematicians, are 'machines for turning coffee into theorems',
that one might want to get a caffeine fix to see you through that early
start. It does somewhat belie Lancaster's dreams of world-class cosmopolitan
status, when the campus at 8 in the morning or at 5 at night resembles a
small market town, outside the academic departments where lights are burning.
Talking of which. I noticed this morning when trying unsuccessfully to find a
world-famous department at the other end of campus that I haven't visited for
a while, that very, very few of our buildings have any external indication of
the academic departments that they house.
Nor do the maps peppered around the campus tell you where departments
are. Are we ashamed of them? A visitor could walk round the campus and have
no idea of the range of academic activities going on here. And the academic
stuff is what we are here for, right? Perhaps, given we academics are subject
to all kinds of visible performance measures, like the NSS, we might have
something called the LASS - the Lancaster Academic Staff Survey. This would
survey academic staff for their satisfaction with the 'support' that central
support services deliver to the academics without whom our 1-10-100 strategic
goals and our key business processes of teaching and research would not
exist. Bill
Cooke, Management School ******** Hi
subtext, RE:
nicknames, we used to call a co-worker 'Google', cos
they thought they bloody knew everything! Jo
Grady ******** Dear
subtext, We
are currently organising our efforts for Lancaster students to travel down to
London to take part in the NUS National Demonstration on Wednesday 21st
November. As
part of this we are hoping to try and raise £500 from Unions and donations to
help subsidise transport costs for students. It currently costs over £15 per
student to travel to London and we would like to offer this to students for
£5. Would
it be possible to circulate a link to our JustGiving
page to your readership or anybody else who you feel may be willing to donate
to help subsidise transport? People
can donate anonymously and every little helps. http://www.justgiving.com/l-u-s-u/Donate We're
also hosting an event on Thursday 15th November to educate students about the
issues and we're hoping to have a few speakers at the event. Staff are more than welcome to attend, or even offer to
speak if anybody would like to. It'll be from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. in the
Elizabeth Livingston Lecture Theatre. Thanks, Ste
Smith, LUSU President ***************************************************** The
editorial collective of subtext currently consists (in alphabetical order)
of: Sam Clark, Mark Garnett, George Green, Ian Paylor,
David Smith, Bronislaw Szerszynski and Martin Widden. |
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