Issue 13. 8 September 2008 [PDF File, 1.1 MB]

UWA NEWS
8 September 2008 Volume 27 Number 13
A golden connection
to sailing success
by Lindy Brophy
Everybody loves a champion,
especially one with an Olympic
gold medal.
The staff in the School of Anatomy and
Human Biology extended their love to
the father of a champion, Steve
Parkinson (pictured above), when he
returned to work after witnessing his
daughter Tessa win gold for Australia in
the two-handed 470-class sailing.
Steve sails a cruising yacht, a Spirit 28
“for fun, not competition” but he did
compete, with his father, in a yacht race
to Bali about 20 years ago. “So I guess
you could say Tessa’s a third generation
sailor,” he said.
When Tessa left school, she enrolled at
UWA to study in the School in which
her father had worked for her whole
life.
Steve, the chief technician in the School
and manager of histology and research
resources for CELL Central, arrived the
day after the Olympics ended to find his
small office filled with green and gold
balloons, streamers, messages of
congratulations and newspaper cuttings
of the success of his daughter.
“But about the same time, she teamed
up with Elise Rechichi (with whom she
won her gold medal). They trained so
hard and had to go to Europe for
competitions so often, that she found it
impossible to keep up her studies.
She’s hoping to study physiotherapy
eventually.”
“I feel quite overwhelmed,” he said. “It’s
hard to get back down to earth and
back to work.”
Tessa’s brother Luke (18) also sails and
is currently competing in a national
competition of team racing in Perth.
In this issue
Tessa Parkinson (right) celebrating gold with
team-mate Elise Rechichi
The hardest part of being an Olympic
parent? “Just not having my daughter
home much. She moved to Sydney
where she was based at the Australian
Institute of Sport, and they had to
compete in Europe a lot.”
This, according to Steve, was harder
than towing small yachts across the
Nullarbor many times.
As the sailing was held in Qingao,
about 600 kilometres south east of
Beijing, Steve and his wife Sue did not
get the chance to see China’s capital in
all its glory. But Tessa took Luke with
her to the Olympic city when Channel 7
flew Elise and her there for interviews
after winning gold.
P2 new education program P8 native american link P12 eureka prize-winners
UWA’s new primary teaching program was launched by the Minister for Education, Mark McGowan at North
Cottesloe Primary School. Annie Fogarty also announced the Fogarty Foundation’s Teaching Excellence
scholarships. Students Sharni Wallis and Gillian Morrell (rear) helped to entertain the visitors.
UWA goes back to primary school
You can’t teach a class until you
can teach an individual.
Science degree, or as a two year
postgraduate course.
when they could choose a one-year
DipEd instead.
That’s one of the tenets of UWA’s new
Masters in Primary Teaching, so
students will go out to schools and help
to teach individual children who have
learning difficulties, before they learn
how to teach a class.
“It will advance the knowledge and
learning of primary school teachers,
rather than going straight from school,
then on to teaching,” Dr Heldsinger
said.
“If we had the system they have in
Canada, where teachers with Masters
degrees are paid more, it might be a
different story,” she said.
It is more than 20 years since UWA
offered a primary teaching degree.
Sandy Heldsinger, the co-ordinator of
the new primary program, said the
Education Faculty had received many
requests to reinstate their program.
Dr Heldsinger said there was also a
moral obligation to children in primary
schools to ensure high-quality
graduates were going into primary
teaching.
The Dean of the School of Graduate
Education, Professor Bill Louden, said:
“Primary education suffers nationally
from a long-term decline in entry
standards, to a degree that is likely to
impact on the quality of teaching and
leadership for the next generation of
school children.”
The Masters in Primary Education
starts next year, as a five year degree
when combined with an Arts or
2
“The Masters course content has been
designed from empirical research on
what makes an exceptional teacher,”
she said. “The students will be
watching a lot of videos of exceptional
teachers, then analysing what makes
them good.”
She said there would be opportunities
for overseas and regional teaching
practice.
The School is also offering a new
Masters in Secondary Education, which
is also a two year course.
“We feel that one of the problems with
a Graduate Diploma in Education – the
usual path chosen by university
graduates who want to become
teachers – is fitting everything you need
to learn into one year,” she said.
Dr Heldsinger said that some students
may not be inclined to do a further two
years study after completing a degree,
To encourage higher participation in the
Masters in Secondary Education, UWA
patrons Brett and Annie Fogarty have
offered up to ten $3,000 scholarships
next year for students enrolling in the five
year Bachelor’s degree plus Masters.
The key criterion for the UWA Fogarty
Foundation Teaching Excellence
Scholarships will be academic
excellence, with prospective winners
enrolling in the program with a TER of
95 or higher.
“The Foundation is passionate about
working, in its own small way, toward
lifting the profile and status of teaching
as a profession, and, in particular,
making it a career of choice for high
academic achievers,” said Annie
Fogarty.
Scholarship winners will also be invited
to participate in the UWA Fogarty
Foundation Leadership in Teaching
program, with $10,000 of program
support from the Foundation.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
Leaving a legacy in the
Winthrop tradition
by Lindy Brophy
(with thanks to Bianca Galipo for her interpreting skills)
The short thick fingers of three elderly Italian stonemasons
have once again warmed the stone they had shaped and layed
more than 40 years ago.
Antonio Giuffre (87), his old friend from the same village in Sicily, Antonio
Fasolo (83), and his brother-in-law, Wilson Carini (90), visited Winthrop Hall
recently … the first time they had been back to admire their work since
they helped to enclose the Undercroft in the early 1960s.
The three friends spent six months cutting and shaping by hand huge
limestone rocks from Wanneroo and Spearwood, to perfectly fill the
spaces between the columns beneath Winthrop Hall when the post-war
baby boom meant that the University was becoming pushed for space.
The three men were part of an all-Italian team of
about eight stonemasons who had all honed their
skills in Italy before migrating here in the 1950s and
60s. Their contribution to the campus was
discovered as project officers preparing for the
University’s Centenary found a reference to one of
their names.
The Undercroft was the biggest project any of them
had worked on; their other work was mostly small
homes. Working conditions were very different in the
1960s. They had no steel-capped boots, no safety
helmets, no harnesses when they worked up high. Antonio Giuffre recalled
almost falling several metres after putting a wheelbarrow filled with cement
into a lift, which began lowering before he was finished.
Despite working with axes, tomahawks, hammers, chisels and saws, none
of them remember any injuries.
They had all learned the art of building dry stone walls in Italy, by simply
watching and working with older men. “We didn’t use cement as they do
here,” said Antonio Giuffre, through the interpreter.
Even though the men have lived in Perth for about 50 years, they have little
if any English. But they said they were proud to have worked on a building
that is a WA icon. Antonio Giuffre’s grandson, Jacques Giuffre, graduated
from UWA in Computer Science about five years ago, then completed a
graduate diploma in languages (French, not Italian) in 2005.
Centenary Contributions
While the work of these stonemasons contributed greatly to the University, the
University also contributes significantly to the intellectual, cultural and economic
development of WA and Australia.
One of the celebrations planned for the UWA Centenary in 2011 is a
publication of the top 100 contributions UWA has made to the community
over the past century.
They could include research highlights, student activities (such as Uni
Camp for Kids), community outreach (for example PIAF), architectural
designs, scholarly works and medical breakthroughs.
Please send your suggestions to Virginia Rowland, Centenary Planning,
Office of Development: [email protected]
Antonio Fasolo, Wilson Carini and Antonio Giuffre are not as sprightly as they
were when they worked on Winthrop Hall
The University of Western Australia
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008
3
Striving
for the
highest
international standards
In most endeavours, to have
your efforts acknowledged by
your peers is a sign that
you’re on the right track. And
to be acknowledged by your
international counterparts is
an even bigger compliment.
Our University has been so
complimented through the
invitation to join a global network of
research universities – the
Worldwide Universities Network
– which is a partnership of 16
research-focused universities
based in Europe, North America,
China and Australia.
We have been extremely pleased
to accept this invitation for a range
of important reasons.
The Worldwide University Network
is dedicated to making significant
advances in knowledge and
understanding in areas of global
concern, bringing together the
experience, equipment and
expertise necessary to tackle the
big issues facing societies,
governments, corporations and
education.
The fact they want us to be part of
this group highlights the growing
awareness and recognition of UWA
throughout the world, and also
provides us with a valuable
opportunity to step up to the next
level in our research and teaching
efforts.
Linking up with these high-quality
research universities means we
can share our expertise and tap
into theirs, and thus ensure that
our research continues to be
world-class.
Our University is already rated as
one of the most ‘internationalised’
of Australia’s universities with a
substantial international student
cohort, extensive study abroad and
exchange programs, various
international academic links, and
many global collaborations.
Using that as a foundation, we
must continue to develop and
strengthen the University’s
international focus and policies to
take full advantage of the
opportunities presented by global
engagement. Such a strategy is
extremely important since
increasingly, quality will be
recognised and judged in terms of
international standards.
The aim is to build on an already
commendable level of performance
and achievement internationally
and to improve overseas
awareness of the excellence of our
institution. And this we do for the
benefit of our students, staff and
the wider community.
Central to our overall ambition as a
research-intensive university is the
phrase ‘achieving international
excellence’. This is the
fundamental measure against
which we wish to be judged and
against which we measure our own
activities.
Our University aims to be counted
among the top 50 universities in
the world. To be invited to join the
Worldwide University Network is
further recognition that we are well
on our way to achieving that goal.
Alan Robson
Vice-Chancellor
4
Keep
up the
dialogue
The Professional Development
Review (PDR) system at UWA is
constantly under review itself.
Introduced in 2006, it was quickly
implemented across the campus. In
2007, it was reviewed after 12 months
of operation. The content and form of
the PDR was scrutinised and the review
drew on feedback from all levels of
staff.
The system is currently being revised
again, in line with the feedback from
staff provided during last year’s review,
and it is anticipated that the modified
system will be operational by 2009.
The enhanced system will include a
simplified preparatory process,
improved electronic lodgement of the
reports and more functionality in the
reporting and cueing of PDR meetings.
Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Margaret Seares, said that
while it was important to improve our
PDR system, it was more important
that the dialogue and development of
the staff continued.
“The issue that, above all others,
comes up in staff surveys and exit
reports is the desire of our staff to
have meaningful discussions with their
supervisors about their professional
development and career directions.
This is why we believe it to be so
important that supervisors really take
the issue seriously and why we don’t
want supervisors to wait until the new
system is implemented before doing
their next set of PDRs. So all
supervisors who have the
responsibility for undertaking PDRs
with their staff are asked to ensure that
they are completed this year using the
current PDR system,” Professor
Seares said.
As the PDR changes are complete,
information and training related to the
revised process will be provided to
managers and a date for
implementation will be advised.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
Taking health care out of isolation:
new networks help remote patients
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the new network was
proof that health professionals were prepared to work together
Health Minister Nicola Roxon now understands the
sheer size of Western Australia.
work of all those involved in this network translates to better
health care for the community at large.”
The Minister was at UWA to launch the Great Southern
Managed Health Network (GSMHN), the result of a partnership
between the Great Southern GP Network and UWA’s Centre for
Software Practice.
Minister Roxon said that many medical incidents were due to
poor communication rather than clinical error, so this new
system would improve patient outcomes.
“I can understand how big this area is when I’m told the network
will cover 87,000 square kilometres, and I compare that to my
west Melbourne electorate of just 75 square kilometres,” she
said.
Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Seares said that
the Great Southern was often not recognised as being remote,
in comparison with the Pilbara, the Kimberley and the
Goldfields.
“But I spend a lot of time in the Great Southern and I can tell you
that it can be very isolated and far from health care,” she said.
The new network is a major new initiative in
regional health care, funded by $1.8 million
from the Federal Government, which will
include and promote research collaborations.
“GPs, specialists, hospitals, aged-care providers and allied
health providers are now connected through shared electronic
health records, secure communication and remote
administration of health and medicine,” Professor Seares said.
“The project has been a great success and is now being rolled
out in other areas of the State, including the Kimberley,
Pilbara, Midwest and Wheatbelt.”
“The University of WA is committed to developing long-term
strategic partnerships with the community we serve, and the
The University of Western Australia
“This is an important step in developing e-health capability,”
she said.
Dr David Tadj, chair of the Great Southern GP Network, said
the GSMHN would be a useful tool not only for GPs but for
health providers across the board.
“For the first time, we will be able to access streamlined
computerised records, enabling us to more easily collaborate
with colleagues and minimise delays in patient care,” Dr Tadj
said. “The crucial thing here is that the network is secure, so
patients can feel sure that their right to confidentiality will be
protected.”
Dr David Glance, Director of the Centre for Software
Practice, said that the UWA-developed Medical Message
Exchange (MMEx), deployed through the GSMHN would
provide a significant base for connecting all health
professionals in WA.
“Sharing patient information securely has become as simple
as using web-based email,” Dr Glance said. “MMEx currently
gives more than 2,500 GPs and health professionals in WA
access to secure electronic messaging.”
He said the new system would also eliminate the traditional
problem of illegibility of doctor’s notes and patient charts.
Other services include an online directory of health
professionals and healthcare organisations in WA, allowing
users to search by locality, clinical specialty or clinician name.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008
5
Differing priorities in pregnancy
The effectiveness of antismoking messages targeting
Indigenous mothers-to-be is
under examination, following
findings that 60 to 65 per cent
of Indigenous women
continued to smoke during
their pregnancies – three times
the rate of non-Indigenous
women.
According to a new Healthway funded
UWA study, quitting smoking is not a
high priority for Indigenous women
who are also faced with issues such
as poverty, stress, discrimination,
unemployment and family difficulties
during their pregnancy.
“Quitting smoking is a low health
priority generally for Indigenous
people, compared to other health
and social issues.”
“Not only do many women continue
to smoke when they’re pregnant, but
many of them have little idea about
the harm to them and their babies,”
said Dr Slack-Smith.
Maternal smoking increases the risk
of miscarriage, pre-term birth, infant
mortality and having a low birthweight baby. The baby also runs a
greater risk of childhood illnesses
such as asthma.
The research has come from Dr
Slack-Smith’s belief that every baby
should be born with a reasonable
start in life.
Smoking affects oral health, and gum
disease is also recognised as a cause
of premature birth, which is how a
Dentistry lecturer became involved
with pregnancy research.
Dr Slack-Smith is passionate about
the health of Indigenous people. She
is one of the chief investigators on a
$2.5 million program, managed by
the Telethon Institute of Child Health
Research, to build capacity in
Indigenous child health research.
“To find out more about why
Indigenous women keep on smoking
6
“
With some
women, it was
seen as
inappropriate to
broach the issue of
smoking when
they were
struggling with
immediate issues
such as domestic
violence and
homelessness.
“
Dr Linda Slack-Smith, a senior
lecturer in the School of Dentistry,
said the study revealed otherwise
successful health promotion
programs have not worked in this
group due to a differing set of social
and health priorities.
when they’re pregnant, we had to do
the research properly, training and
working with Indigenous researchers
and with a community reference
group made up of Aboriginal health
workers and community members,”
she said.
The research, in collaboration with Dr
Lisa Wood in the Centre for the Built
Environment and Health, showed that
there were fewer opportunities for
health professionals to encourage or
help Indigenous women to quit
smoking as they were less likely to
have a regular antenatal checkups
Researchers and community reference
group members discuss the smoking issue:
(from left) Gail Yarran (Community Health
Worker), Tracey Eades (Research Assistant),
Jane Young (Community Health Worker),
Kerry Hunt (Research Officer and
Community Representative) Linda SlackSmith and Lisa Wood
and often started antenatal care at a
later stage of pregnancy.
“Only about half the women we
interviewed said they were asked
about smoking by a health
professional while they were
pregnant, and in most cases, this
was limited to simply documenting
smoking status, rather than
information about risks or support to
quit,” Dr Slack-Smith said.
“With some women, it was seen as
inappropriate to broach the issue of
smoking when they were struggling
with immediate issues such as
domestic violence and
homelessness.”
She said that Aboriginal health
workers were keen to maintain a
positive relationship with their clients
and worried about affecting this or
burdening the women if they talked
about giving up smoking.
“Many people assume that
encouraging women to stop smoking
is the role of the Aboriginal health
worker, but our study showed they
were often not comfortable with this.”
She said that understanding all these
issues was important in determining
effective health promotion programs
and informing health professionals.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
Can a
secular
society
still
have
faith?
Faith is not something you’ll hear much about at the
office or the pub.
Some might say it is because Australia has become a secular
nation. In a recent census, 16 per cent of Australians identified
themselves as having ‘no religion’.
But PhD candidate Sophie Sunderland is not so sure. Her
research, in the School of English and Cultural Studies, brings
faith and secularism together. More particularly, she has been
comparing Australia with Canada, where 16 per cent of the
population is also said to have ‘no religion’, but where a
Charter of Rights and Freedoms means that religion is
debated much more than it is in Australia.
Sophie has just spent four months in Canada, working as a
research associate at York University, doing an analysis of
secularism in the Canadian media.
A travel grant from the Canadian High Commission enabled
Sophie to study in Canada and, on her return, she wrote a
paper which she presented to the Association for Canadian
Studies in Australia and New Zealand. She won the
conference prize for the best graduate paper.
“The great part of that is that I got to meet the Canadian High
Commissioner who had funded my study trip,” said Sophie,
whose PhD is supervised by Associate Professor Alison
Bartlett.
Both Australia and Canada are commonly perceived to be
secular nations, that is they have separated religion from state.
“This was perhaps most succinctly expressed in Canada by
former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau during debates about the
inclusion of God in the Preamble to the Charter of Rights,
when he said that it was ‘strange, so long after the Middle
Ages, that some politicians felt obliged to mention God in a
constitution which is, after all, a secular and not a spiritual
document’,” Sophie wrote.
The University of Western Australia
Sophie Sunderland enjoys the snow in secular Canada
A more concrete example of secularism in Canada is the
former Masonic temple in Toronto which has become the
headquarters of a television company, MTV. “Here, an icon of
multinational, capitalist consumerism, popular culture and
entertainment … might be seen as an emblem of the secular,
as the displacement of the religious. The building is popularly
called MTV Temple,” she said.
“In Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd advocates a ‘fully
contestable secular polity’ despite his position as a practising
Anglican.
“His apparent appeal to Christian voters and repeated public
discourse detailing his religious beliefs suggest that, under
Rudd, the importance of Christianity within government has
not waned since Howard’s leadership. This is further cause for
identifying the privileging of Christianity over other faiths, and
calling the imagined separation of church and state into
question.”
Sophie’s paper suggests that, in a society of waning congregations and religious affiliation, particularly among the Christian
faiths, it appears that the religious is resurrected by art.
She witnessed an art installation in Toronto called the Secular
Confession Booth. It functioned as a confessional with the
slogan ‘cheaper than a shrink with no possibility of damnation’
and participants queued to sit in the booth and share their
stories with the obscured attendant, who was claimed to be a
mature charitable person who would listen and give advice
free of charge.
“I think the Booth, which was situated in a former church,
functioned as a metaphor for the overlapping of the secular
and the religious,” she said.
Sophie will submit her PhD at the end of the year and apply to
a research centre at the University of Pennsylvania which will
take 20 scholars from around the world to tackle the topic of
secularism in 2009.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008
7
Australian
Modernism at UWA
Style and Synthesis: nine Australian moderns is on
display at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery - an
exhibition that focuses on artists from the early to
mid–twentieth century who interrogated notions of
modernism.
Melbourne-based guest curator Andrew Gaynor has selected
over 100 paintings, prints and works on paper drawn from
The University of Western Australia Art Collection as well as
major public, corporate and private collections in Perth for
inclusion in the exhibition. Some of these collections include
Wesfarmers, Holmes a Court, Kerry Stokes and the Cruthers
Family.
Style and Synthesis examines the work of nine Australian
artists who synthesised a diverse range of influences, from
humble colour reproductions of paintings by Paul Cézanne
and Vincent Van Gogh, through to those whose sensibilities
were honed by direct study at French, English or German
institutions.
John Brack, The Fish Tank, 1957, oil on canvas, 45.9 x 65.9 cm,
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
© John Brack, Image: Robert Frith, Acorn Photo Agency, Perth
Artists included in the exhibition are Ralph Balson, Elise
Blumann, John Brack, Grace Cossington Smith, Roy de
Maistre, Guy Grey-Smith, Margaret Preston, Godfrey Miller
and Roland Wakelin.
Free public talks about the exhibition will be held throughout
September and October. For further information please visit
www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au
Learning lessons from native Americans
Indigenous graduates Rowena
and Kurtis Leslie were out of the
country when the Prime
Minister made his apology to
the stolen generation in
February.
But they were in the second best
place to celebrate —
­ New Mexico,
which has the highest population of
Indigenous Americans in the US.
“With Indigenous people making up
about 12 per cent of the population,
everybody there realised the value of
the apology and there was even a
story in the local newspaper about it,”
said Kurtis, an Education graduate.
He and his wife Rowena, a Law
graduate, spent last semester on
exchange at the University of New
Mexico (UNM). It specialises in
exchange programs for Indigenous
students from all over the world, and
they were the first to go from UWA,
under a new agreement drawn up
between the two universities.
Rowena studied Federal Indian Law
and took a course in ethics so she
could work in UNM’s South West
Indian Law Clinic.
“Final year students practise in the
clinic, helping Indigenous people,” she
said. “I had six cases while I was
8
there, appearing in court, preparing
documents and counselling people. It
was great experience and taught me
some good transferable skills.”
She said the law in New Mexico gave
equal weight to federal, state and
tribal legislation. “The tribal law courts
have jurisdiction within their
communities or reservations.
“It was interesting to see how the
Indigenous people’s law developed
much earlier there than it did here.
Initial treaties with the Native
Americans started being drawn up as
soon as the British colonised in the
18th century.”
Kurtis studied teaching the Native
American child, and issues in Native
American education.
“We were looking at culturallyappropriate curricula and had to
construct and develop a curriculum as
part of the course,” he said.
Kurtis teaches human biology to
Indigenous students as part of the
bridging course run by the School of
Indigenous Studies (SIS). He also
co-ordinates the pre-medicine
program and runs the year 9 science
camp.
“It is so important to expose
Indigenous kids to university while
they are at high school, and inspire
them. The next step is to help make
the transition from their homes and
high schools to university as easy as
possible.
“I went on this exchange to learn how
I could use the students’ own
strengths to help them to adapt to
university life,” he said.
Kurtis grew up in New York where his
Indigenous father studied dance. Both
he and Rowena come from families
who are very education-oriented.
“But I still didn’t know what was out
there for me until I came from
Kalgoorlie to one of the SIS year 12
camps,” Rowena said. “Then I found
out what was possible and it became
a reality with a year in a bridging
course.”
She is now applying to do her articles
in Perth and Kurtis is starting a
Masters in Education, looking at
curricula that are relevant to
Indigenous students.
Their exchange was sponsored by a
Study Abroad scholarship, the School
of Indigenous Studies, donations from
some mining companies and service
clubs in the Goldfields (for Rowena)
and the Federal Government’s
AbStudy financial assistance.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
Painting your way
to good health
The proven pathway from art to health is being
trodden again in the Goldfields. UWA’s Kalgoorliebased Rural Clinical School, in partnership with the
Wongutha Birni Aboriginal Corporation, has been
awarded two major grants to support the latest arts
health project to help combat diabetes and kidney
disease in the Western Desert and the Goldfields.
Indigenous communities in this region have among the highest
rates of the diseases in Australia.
The funding, from the Federal Government’s Australia Council
for the Arts and the State Government’s Department of
Culture and the Arts, totals $750,000 and will support an arts
intervention for the Western Desert Kidney Health Project.
The project’s chief investigator, Dr Christine Jeffries-Stokes,
said Aboriginal health arts workers would team up with
national and international artists to develop health promotion
and health education strategies.
Fabric painting encouraged Aboriginal
women to talk about their health problems
“It’s the best way of educating Aboriginal people about health
issues,” Dr Jeffries-Stokes said. “First we engage them, then
we hit them with the health message.”
She said that, in 1991, the Goldfields had the worst health
record in Australia for infant mortality and pregnancy
outcomes.
“They sent the white health workers in to see what they could
do and they were virtually chased out of town by the women
who felt they were being blamed,” she said.
Local Indigenous people have an outlet for their
artistic energy in the restored stationmaster’s house
“So I started fabric painting workshops, with the theme of
pregnancy and motherhood and the women of course talked
as they painted, and started thinking about how things could
be improved.
“The outcome was the Maternal Health Care Service, a mobile
clinic which is run entirely by Aboriginal women using small
cars — not a van or a bus which would draw attention to their
patients.
“It’s been running successfully for about 17 years. So it’s
obvious that this method of engaging, educating and
motivating works.
“People say it’s a bit weird but this is not just the Aboriginal
way. Look at the jingles and slogans and television advertising
campaigns that appeal to all sorts of people and get them
thinking about things and taking action. It’s the same idea:
engage people, then you can educate and motivate them.”
This latest project will be based at the Wongutha Birni
Aboriginal Corporation’s home, which was a derelict but
heritage-listed former stationmaster’s house in Kalgoorlie.
“We restored it with volunteers and donations,” Dr JeffriesStokes said. “And now the Aboriginal community have a home
for their artistic endeavours. There are no Aboriginal-run art
galleries in Kalgoorlie, no monuments to Aboriginal people and
the young Aboriginal rock bands can’t even get gigs at the
local pubs because too many people used to turn up to hear
them and the pubs couldn’t handle them.
The University of Western Australia
“So now there is a place for visual and performing arts and
that’s where this project will start. Artists will engage the
community through performance, music, dance, painting,
singing, drumming and festivals,” she said.
The Western Desert Kidney Health Project is a finalist in the WA
Healthway Public Health Awards. Through the Rural Clinical
School, it hopes to raise more than $7 million to support medical
staff, research, Aboriginal health workers and the purchase and
maintenance of trucks to be used as mobile clinics.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008
9
Simple story captures the essence of Italy
One of the winners of an
international Italian essay
competition is a former president
of the Dante Alighieri Society
and current secretary of
Fremantle’s Italian Club.
“Not bad for a bloke called John
McLoughlin, is it?” asked Associate
Professor John Kinder, convenor of
Italian in the discipline of European
Languages and Studies.
WA’s Italian Consul, Georgio Taborri,
visited the School of Humanities
recently to present John with the prize
for his essay on Italy and the Sea.
John is a retired engineer who is
working on his Honours project, a
history of the Fremantle Club in
Fremantle, with supervisor Professor
Lorenzo Polizzotto.
“I worked in the power generating
industry for 33 years, doing an MBA at
UWA along the way,” John said. “I
always liked the Italian people I met
through my work and decided that I
would like to learn their language, so I
started studying Italian at TAFE several
years before I retired in 1999.
“I got myself up to a reasonable level
where I thought I could do a BA, but
the School decided to admit me into
the Honours program, having two
degrees already and being widely
read,” he said.
“I think multiculturalism brings the best
of everything from all over the world to
John McLoughlin is congratulated by the Italian consul Giorgio Taborri
Australia. One of our deficiencies is
that not many Australians can speak
another language. I have visited Italy
and people often say to me: ‘Oh, you
must love Italy’ but I say to them that I
really love Australia and I want to be a
better exemplar, and encourage
Australians to learn another
language.”
Despite his role with the Italian Club
and speaking the language with his
friends, John said he was finding his
Honours program quite demanding.
“But I’m not doing it to get a certificate,
I’m doing it to get more involved with
the Italian community,” he said.
His winning essay, one of 10
throughout the world, described a
simple story of a welcome swim at an
Italian beach 35 years ago.
“I was travelling through Italy in an old
van with my wife and our baby and it
was hot and we stopped at a beautiful
beach for a swim. It was just a simple
essay about our experiences,” he said.
Celebration season
Ducklings and daffodils make the perfect spring backdrop for
graduation photos in Whitfeld Court this week.
A total of 1,376 undergraduate and postgraduate students are receiving their
degrees, diplomas, certificates and doctorates in four ceremonies in Winthrop Hall.
Exactly 100 PhDs will mark the end of what is for many a long gruelling process.
The first ceremony sees 215 Bachelors of Arts conferred, including 73 BA
(Communication Studies). The second, on Tuesday, has, as usual the biggest
single contingent, with 231 graduands receiving a Bachelor of Commerce. There
are also 78 MBAs awarded that night.
On Wednesday, another 53 lawyers will graduate and 187 scientists, with various
versions of the BSc.
Thursday’s ceremony is probably the best mirror of society in the early part of the
21st century, with 25 Bachelors of Environmental Design graduating; 106
engineers (BEng) as well as 27 Masters and Diplomas awarded in different fields of
engineering; and 24 graduands with Bachelors degrees in Computer Science.
10
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
Student entrepreneurs examine
local issues with global results
Entrepreneurial students at UWA are working at changing the
world by making a difference in their local communities.
A UWA group recently won the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) national
finals in Brisbane, ahead of 20 university teams from around Australia.
They will go to Singapore for the international finals next month.
With a Law and Commerce bent, the team is multidisciplinary, with
members from first to fourth year also studying Economics, Science,
Engineering and Arts.
Dr Doina Olaru, a lecturer in Management and Organisation, is one of the
UWA group’s advisors.
“These students feel they can make a change. I feel so rewarded to be
working with a group of young people who are so inspiring,” Dr Olaru said.
Enterprising students with their
national award (from left): Michael
Crossley, Michelle Bacon, Christina
Smolarek, Jade Winterton, Dr Doina
Olaru, Hayden Teo, Natasha Ngomo,
Urszula Cichy and Adrian Rodrigues
“
These
students feel
they can make a
change.
I feel so rewarded
to be working
with a group of
young people
who are so
inspiring.
SIFE UWA was formed five years ago. Students usually join the scheme
when they hear of it by word of mouth and most of them stay with the
group most of their undergraduate years.
Although SIFE has corporate sponsors, it is up to individual teams to find
their own funding and create any number of their own projects.
UWA’s winning team has worked on four projects: Balancing your Body’s
Business, a health program for primary school children; Finance for Life, a
financial literacy program for secondary school students; The Leadership
Conference, to develop business and leadership skills in senior high
school students; and Easy Entry Option, to help family businesses develop
skills to help them survive.
In Balancing Your Body’s Business, the group worked with children in
years 5 to 7, focusing on their activities, lifestyle and eating habits. Each
student filled out a food and activity diary for a week and earned points for
health options. These points translated to ‘balancing bucks’ which the
children then used in an auction to bid for prizes.
The program has reached 234 students and the SIFE group is working on
developing it into a resource kit for schools and community groups.
Finance for Life has won accolades from The Hong Kong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation’s financial literacy forum and a judge at the SIFE
national awards said: “It shows great forethought and insight.”
The SIFE team ran workshops with year 10 students, playing an in­vest­
ment game in which they chose whether to spend, save or invest, then
analysed the outcomes. It is currently being turned into an online model.
The Leadership Conference uses guest speakers to teach year 10, 11 and
12 students about communication, initiative, innovation and ethics, to help
them become the responsible and effective business leaders of the future.
Easy Entry Option focused on family businesses, a sector of the economy
that is worth $4.3 trillion in Australia. But only 32 per cent of them survive
to a second generation. The SIFE program taught the business owners
about corporate social responsibility, corporate succession and other skills
to keep their businesses successful.
“
In WA’s Family Business Awards, nine of the 12 finalists were Easy Entry
Option businesses, as were three of the five category winners.
Given these results, it is not surprising to find out from the current SIFE
members that “former SIFE students have all been unbelievably
successful.”
The University of Western Australia
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008
11
Night Vision technology wins
Eureka award for research team
UWA scientists who are
developing colour vision for
enhanced infrared sensing for
soldiers has won one of the
nation’s most prestigious
science awards.
The Eureka Prize was awarded during
National Science Week in recognition of
the revolutionary research of the team
in microspectrometer sensing
technology.
The group was awarded the inaugural
Defence Science and Technology
Organisation Eureka Prize for
Outstanding Science in Support of
Defence or National Security. It
includes Professor Faraone, Professor
John Dell, Professor Charlie Musca,
Dr Jarek Antoszewski and Dr Adrian
Keating, and Dr Kevin Winchester from
MRX Technologies.
These researchers are world leaders in
the combination of microelectromechanical imaging and infrared
imaging technologies.
The technology will be fundamental to
Australia’s defence capability. It will
undoubtedly save lives and it will have
broader application to biomedical
imaging, agriculture and food science,
and other areas.
The Microelectronics Research Group,
led by Professor Laurie Faraone
(pictured) developed a filter that
enables the creation of the equivalent
of colour images in the infrared. The
filter allows scanning of smaller areas,
requiring less data to generate images
and improving real-time use of infrared.
The new technology will be lightweight,
robust, compact, fast, accurate and
inexpensive.
Protected by international patents
which ensure long-term benefits to
Australia, the research is part of an
Australian Research Council-funded
Discovery Project. The technology has
also been funded by contracts from the
Australian Defence Science and
Technology Organisation and a $3.5
million grant from the US Defence
Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The UWA research has the potential to
take future infrared imaging systems in
a new direction by developing an
on-pixel microspectrometer imaging
array that can be tailored to specific
applications and eliminate the need to
collect spectral information not relevant
to the task. The technology is
compatible with existing
microelectronics fabrication processes
and has the potential to deliver
low-cost, mass-produced spectral
sensing modules, revolutionising
sensing technologies in a wide range of
defence and civilian applications.
“The technology addresses not only
defence and security areas, but can be
used for low-cost, unmanned
autonomous surveillance of Australia’s
large coastline, as well as surveillance
systems for threat detection and
protection of defence platforms,” said
Professor Faraone.
“There are also wide applications for
near infrared and mid-infrared
spectroscopy in agriculture, food
science, environmental monitoring and
medicine. Further applications of the
technology will include monitoring of
soils for carbon sequestration, biopsyfree skin cancer diagnosis and real-time
environmental pollution monitoring.”
Water warrior’s royal recognition
Professor Jörg Imberger has
been elected a Fellow of the
Royal Academy of Engineering.
He joins a host of visionary engineers
and academics from around the
world who have excelled in their
fields, from medical imaging to
aeronautics and energy technology.
Professor Imberger’s research
interests include eco-hydraulics, lake
hydrobiology and most recently, the
behavioral responses of humans to
climate change.
In the past 20 years, as Director of
UWA’s Centre for Water Research,
he has been involved in fieldwork
projects at iconic locations including
Venice Lagoon, Lake Como, Lake
Victoria, and the Sea of Galilee.
12
“The election of Professor Imberger to
the Royal Academy of Engineering is a
reflection of the international excellence
attained by many of our researchers,”
Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson
said. “This University is situated in one
of the world’s most isolated cities, yet
has contributed greatly to solving some
of the global community’s most urgent
problems, including water-use.”
Earlier this year, Professor Imberger
was invited to London by His Royal
Highness the Duke of Edinburgh to give
the prestigious Prince Philip Lecture.
He was also given the opportunity to
dine at the 250-year-old Royal Society
for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA),
one of the UK’s oldest and most
respected think-tank’s.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
Mollusc packs an iron punch
A student with absolutely no interest in make-up
has won a 4,000 Euro ($6,850) grant from a
European cosmetics company for his
fundamental research in biomineralisation in
marine systems.
Edd Stockdale (pictured), who is doing his PhD with the
Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis
(supervised by Dr Peta Clode) and the School of Physics
(Associate Professor Tim St Pierre), has been working with
marine molluscs called chitons.
“Chitons have nothing to do with cosmetics,” Edd said.
“The company, Daniel Jouvance Marine Biology Laboratorie,
specialises in marine extracts to make its products and so
employs a lot of marine biologists. Each year they offer an
award to a specific field of marine research that is
fundamental, and of merit. This year’s award was for
biomineralisation in marine systems, which directly relates to
my work. “I was awarded the prize for the quality and
originality of my work.”
Chitons are a marine mollusc that live in varying environmental
niches around the world. They are generally coastal grazers
that feed on algae covering. “Chitons have developed a type
of rasp (radula) for feeding. This is used to graze the substrate,
and due to its generally hard nature, the cusps of this radula
are reinforced by mineralisation with iron,” Edd said.
“The iron physiology
involved within these
animals’ systems is of
great interest both in pure
biology with its
biomedical implications
and nanotechnology.
“Due to a natural state of
high iron within the body
— a great model for iron
overload disorders —
chitons have evolved
various ‘packaging’ and
transport mechanisms.
My work investigates the
iron physiology of these
animals along with juvenile development of biominerals. To
achieve this I use both light and electron microscopy
techniques combined with various magnetic analyses.”
A/Professor St Pierre said the award was a very welldeserved reflection of Edd’s dedication to his work and the
high level of creativity in his approach to understanding
biomineralisation processes in nature.
The Daniel Jouvance Prize has been awarded annually for
16 years.
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The University of Western Australia
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008
13
NOTICES
Applications for
2008 Diversity Initiatives Fund Grants
Now Open
Is there an equity or diversity initiative in your part of the campus that you
would like to see implemented, but have no funds to develop? Have you
considered applying for a Diversity Initiative Fund grant?
Applications are invited from individuals, groups, schools or faculties seeking
funding to assist in the development of targeted diversity initiatives that will
enhance equity for students and/or staff. The purpose of the Fund is to
provide financial assistance to new projects that aim to enhance educational
and employment access, participation and outcomes for groups of students
and staff identified as priority areas of focus;
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
women and men in non-traditional areas of employment/study
people from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds
people with a disability
Indigenous Australians
age
flexible work practices and life balance
sexual orientation and gender identity
family and carer responsibilities
issues of access for rural and remote students
The Centre for Clinical Research
in Neuropsychiatry The Centre is seeking healthy men and women
to participate in some of its research projects at
Gascoyne House, Mount Claremont.
You should ideally be aged between 18 and 60 years, with English as your
first language, and have no immediate family history (parents, brothers and
sisters, children) of diagnosed mental illness.
You may be asked to provide a small blood sample, to have an
interview, and to undertake some tasks on a computer.
If you wish to volunteer to participate in our research you can phone 1 800
648 223 (free call within WA), and state your full name, contact phone
number, and the best time we can reach you at that number.
A researcher will call you back within a week for some additional
information, and make a potential future appointment.
Appointments are made to suit your hours, and participation involves an
initial appointment at the Centre for approximately 1½ hours.
All of the information we collect is strictly confidential. You are always free to
withdraw from a study at any time.
Enquiries 1800 648 223
For 13 years the Diversity Initiatives Fund has kick started many UWA
projects and initiatives that have proved so successful they have become
ongoing. Often it is staff or students at the local level who can best identify
an initiative that will meet a particular need or fill a gap in their area, and
frequently that initiative has relevance for the wider campus.
Applications for funding close on Friday September 26, and successful
applicants will be notified by late October. Successful applicants have a year
within which to complete their project.
An application form can be downloaded from the Equity and Diversity
web site at www.equity.uwa.edu.au or by contacting Lesley Roberts on
ext 3873. Applications should be sent to Equity and Diversity, MBDP 350.
Philosophy Café
7.30pm Thursday September 11
“What is truth?”
King Street Arts Centre, 357- 365 Murray Street, Perth
Large Meeting Room (entry from Murray street next to ‘Form’)
This is a free event and everybody is welcome to join us for some
interesting philosophical exchange
Centre for Integrated Human Studies
Public Seminar
War and Conflict
Good Days, Bad Days
We all have them...
With Dr Carmen Lawrence and Professor Dennis Haskell
5.30 – 7pm Wednesday 17 September
Seminar Room 1.81 School of Anatomy and Human Biology
Enquiries 6488 2324
STAFF ADS
Classified advertising is free to staff. Email [email protected]
TO LET
Peppermint Grove Beach,
Capel. Holiday rental. Sleeps 8.
Ocean and wetland vista. 100m
from the beach. Close to vineyards,
Capel River and national parks.
25kms from Busselton/Bunbury.
Pets welcome. Boat ramp facilities
close by. Price from $80 per night.
Contact Jane Keehn Co-op
Bookshop: [email protected] Ext 3653
The Employee Assistance Program offers
free confidential counselling to UWA staff &
immediate family, for personal or work problems.
To arrange an appointment contact one of the following service providers:
OSA Group
Level 16, 251 Adelaide Tce, Perth
Phone: 1300 361 008 (24hrs)
Web: www.osagroup.com.au
UWA Counselling & Psychological Service
2nd Floor, South Wing, Guild Village
Phone: +61 8 6488 2423 (Office Hours)
Web: www.counselling.uwa.edu.au
For further information on the UWA Employee Assistance
Program see: www.safety.uwa.edu.au/policies/eap
14
SHENTON PARK: One bedroom,
newly renovated, fully furnished
unit, in well protected complex with
swimming pool and covered car
parking lot, in a very quite area in
Shenton Park, 5 min walk to Sir
Charles Gairdner Hospital and 20
minutes walk to UWA, opposite big
park, available from 1st September
2008. Ring: 0423 177 068.
FRANCE – South West: Holiday
accommodation. Self-contained
apartment in one of the most
beautiful Medieval Villages of the
Perigord Noir, BELVES. For more
details see website: www.belves.
info Or contact Susana Howard on
9246 5042 or email: susana@
belves.info
WANTED
Accommodation: Seeking
reasonably priced furnished
accommodation for visitor from
Germany from 15 November - 15
February. The house/unit should be
close to UWA or en route from
Inglewood to UWA. Would be happy
to look after small pets. Please
contact [email protected]
HOME EXCHANGE
Retired academics wish to
exchange the use of home in
Laguna Niguel, California, for similar
home in Perth area for the period
Nov 22, 2008 to Jan 16, 2009.
Photos of our home can be viewed
at http://web.me.com/bridgetbull or
telephone USA 949 215 1674.
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
PROMOTION BRIEFS
Provided by Elizabeth Hutchinson, Executive Officer, Promotions and Tenure Committee, Human Resources
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Dr Beverley McNamara (School of Social and Cultural Studies)
Dr McNamara’s area of expertise is medical anthropology, specifically in the
area of end-of-life studies although she has research interests in ageing and
more recently genetic technologies in health care. She is well known
nationally within the field of palliative care, particularly for her work in
mapping services in WA and for her book Fragile Lives: dying and care. She
has won many Teaching Awards including most recently a 2006 Carrick
Citation. Dr McNamara has played a major role in teaching and learning
service within her own Faculty and across the University.
He has made a long-standing contribution to the Nutrition Society of
Australia and is currently the Honorary Editor. He is a member of the
Academy of Science (Nutrition Committee), and the Australian
Atherosclerosis Society.
RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr Graeme Polglase (School of Women’s and Infants’ Health)
Dr Jane Pillow (School of Women’s and Infants’ Health)
Dr Polglase’s field of research is focused on cardio-respiratory physiology/
function in a model of preterm birth. The overall aim of his research is to
improve clinical treatments, and subsequently outcomes for infants born
prematurely. The focus is on treating inflammation/infection in the womb and
by reducing injury resultant from rescue ventilation.
Dr Pillow specialises in contemporary neonatal respiratory research with a
visionary and multidisciplinary approach to developing non-injurious
respiratory treatment strategies for the newborn infant.
Dr Polglase is elected as an Early Career Researcher to the ARC/NHMRCfunded Network in Genes, Environment and Development. SENIOR LECTURER
Her strengths in this field have seen her collaborative and consultative input
sought after by key national and international groups, including establishing
links with industry and substantial success in obtaining national and
international competitive grant funding.
Dr Barbara Cook (Centre for Excellence in Natural Resource
Development)
Her provision of seminars for medical students, nursing and allied health
groups and other professionals, the development of innovative and
interactive tutorial programs for postgraduate teaching and her popularity
among international postgraduate students amply testify to her excellence
and willingness to meet the broad demand for her teaching in
neonatology.
Dr Yee-Kwong Leong (School of Mechanical Engineering)
Dr Yee-Kwong Leong is the acknowledged world leader in the area of
particle bridging by small charged molecules.
He has done extensive work for the minerals and colloid processing industry
where he applies his extensive knowledge on surface forces to control
flocculation, flow and thickening properties of slurries.
Dr Yee-Kwong Leong has developed new units in undergraduate teaching in
the Chemical and Process Engineering program. He led the development of
the IChemE accreditation proposal and continues to play a major leadership
role in developing the course further.
Dr Cook’s area of research is ecology, biodiversity and water quality of inland
waters and biogeography, systematics and genetics of Western Australian
and Southern African aquatic faunas.
She has been involved in numerous undergraduate initiatives, including
degree courses and units of study.
In a campus emergency
dial 2222
Security staff will call the emergency services, direct them to you and come
to help you while waiting for their arrival.
It is more efficient and effective to dial 2222 than to call 000.
Dr Benedict White (School of Agriculture and Resource Economics)
Dr White’s core research interest is the economics of environmental
contracts and the economics of biodiversity conservation. He has recently
completed a large Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry project
on biodiversity conservation in the WA Wheatbelt.
He led the introduction of three economic programs (Geology and Resource
Economics, Agricultural Economics, and Environmental and Resource
Economics) in the BSc 4 year degree programs). In 2003 he was elected
President of the WA Branch of the Australian Agricultural and Resource
Economics Society. He is also a joint author of three textbooks on
environmental economics.
He has been Head of School since July 2006.
SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr Mikhail Kostylev (School of Physics)
Dr Kostylev’s research interests are in dynamic magnetic phenomena in
ferromagnetic films, multilayers and nanostructures, wave interactions in
solids, nonlinear wave dynamics and spatio-temporal pattern formation and
magnetic logic. He is one of the leaders of the Condensed-Matter Group at
UWA and one of the Chief Investigators of the ARC Discovery project
Magnetic and electric field tuneable magnetic heterostructures.
The UWA group is establishing itself as a leader in the field in attracting
overseas students.
Dr Kostylev has developed a course on nonlinear dynamics that has been
well received by both Honours and Postgraduate students.
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PRINCIPAL RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr Jonathan Hodgson (School of Medicine and Pharmacology)
Dr Hodgson’s area of expertise is nutrition science, particularly the role of
diet in cardiovascular disease prevention and he is recognised internationally
for his research on tea and its effects on health.
He has a strong track record of successful PhD and Masters Student
supervision and leads a substantial research group within the Centre for
Nutrition Lifestyle and Clinical Trials Research at Royal Perth Hospital.
The University of Western Australia
6488 7793
[email protected]
www.uniprint.uwa.edu.au
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008
15
the last word …
For the price of
a bus ticket …
Richard Small
Administrative Assistant
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
(one of a group who recently helped to save the life of a student)
Having been witness to a major incident recently,
my personal interest in promoting first aid courses
and encouraging staff to gain at least a little
knowledge has come to the fore.
For others there are good intentions about learning first aid.
It’s on the list, with starting the diet, getting fit, mowing the
lawn. There just isn’t enough time in the day/year/decade.
Also the chance of something major happening is slim, so that
fact balanced against the valuable time it takes to attend a
course, justifies non-attendance.
The reason I would always encourage staff to attend an
emergency aid course is based on an experience, which left
me in no doubt about its importance.
Some years ago before I had ever attended a first aid course,
I was first to reach the driver of a car, which had just had a
head-on collision, with a truck, at high speed.
I didn’t want to be first.
There were at least 50 people ahead of me. A bus full of
people on their way to the city. The truck had been passing
the stationary bus when the accident happened. One of the
bus passengers called the emergency services. The bus driver
was the only one to step off the bus.
After seeing what I had revealed by opening the car door, he
stepped back, muttered something about not being able to
stand the sight of blood, climbed back on his bus and left the
scene ... taking with him all witnesses apart from a dazed
truck driver.
I was left feeling very alone, holding a severely injured car
driver.
It was a surreal moment … this man’s life depended on me.
At that time I had not attended any first aid course, but had
picked up enough from TV and the world around me, to know
that I must keep the guy breathing and try and stop the leaks.
Needless to say, I very soon after booked myself into an
emergency aid course.
The recent incident in the Arts building where a student, as
reported in a previous issue of UWAnews, ‘died in front of
us’, but was able to be resuscitated, adds weight to the fact
that these things do happen. They happen very suddenly
and don’t usually wait for an expert to be on hand.
16
The incident also gave rise to many UWA staff wondering
what would they do if this were to happen in one of their
classes.
When faced with an emergency on campus, the people at
Security who will come and rescue you from your plight do so
alongside their colleagues from Parking, the people who are
much maligned for being so efficient at handing out parking
tickets on campus. Sometimes those who are seen as villains
are the heroes in disguise. These are the people who will often
be there supporting those with the equipment to save a life at
any time anywhere on campus, and they will make sure the
emergency services turn up at the right place at the right time.
In the time it takes them to get to an emergency, I would urge
everyone to have some knowledge of what to do while
waiting.
Getting involved has left me with some lasting images that I’d
rather not have. But rather those, than the memories I could
have had, if I’d stood by and done nothing.
So many people are ready to turn away rather than step
forward. So many people are so wrapped up in their own
journeys, that they forget that there are other people in the
world who may need their help.
Does a bus driver making a unilateral decision to leave the
scene, excuse individual apathy?
Strange how these things apply locally, nationally and globally.
UWA NEWS
EDITOR/WRITER: Lindy Brophy, Public Affairs
Tel: 6488 2436 Fax: 6488 1020
Email: [email protected]
Hackett Foundation Building, M360
Director of Public Affairs: Doug Durack
Tel: 6488 2806 Fax: 6488 1020
Designed and printed by UniPrint, UWA
UWAnews online: http://uwanews.publishing.uwa.edu.au/
UWA NEWS 8 September 2008The University of Western Australia
UniPrint 63594
Administering first aid is a thought totally alien to some, and as
there is usually someone around who does that kind of thing
anyway why bother, these kinds of things should be left to the
experts.