STUDENT AFFAIRS

farm and restoration work continued on the homestead and its surrounding buildings, all of which are registered by the Historic Buildings Preservation Council. In accordance with the University agreement with the National Trust, three open days were held during the year. These proved to be successful. Nearly 2,000 people attended the three open days, producing income of almost $2,000, which will be used to help restore the homestead. Twelve working bees by University staff were held during the year. This voluntary support contributed substantially to the renovation of the historic buildings on the site.

Other properties

Consideration of the future of the Mcllwraith Training Centre for Agriculture at Mt Martha, attempts to arrange a new lease on an extended basis for Mt Derrimut, and the improvements to the garden and property at Fairy Hills, the Macgeorge Estate, all proceeded.

Parking and traffic

Parking continued to be a major problem because of the restrictions

imposed by the Melbourne City Council in the areas around the

University site. A survey was designed and carried out to assess the

attitude of staff to the possibility of increased parking fees to enable

construction of the planned North Car Park. Documents for this work

were completed to the stage of working drawings in 1978. The results

of this survey will be known in 1980.

club memberships during Orientation Week than in previous years, perhaps because of the relocation of club tables from Wilson Hill to the Union Lawn area.

Union Council continued its participation in the tertiary institution based radio consortium established in 1978, and the year saw the FM radio station 3RRR move its antenna to Mt Dandenong to broad- cast over a wider area. The station's programmes and announce- ments increased student awareness of University activities and events. A Radio Programming Group was established and produced its first programme for 3RRR.

Arts and crafts classes were popular and the programmes offered were increased and broadened in scope each term. The Screen Printing Access Centre, established last year, was not in operation because of alterations but it will be re-opened in 1980. However, there was an increase in the number of students using other craft centre facilities during and outside class times.

The Activities Department continued to provide secretarial support and financial management for the Union Council and its affiliated clubs and societies. Production of the daily Activities Sheet continued and the classified advertisement boards in the Union Foyer were maintained, however there was a diminishing demand for the Ad Rag.

The Rowden White Library, as always, continued to be well used by students. Approximately 7,000 books were borrowed during the year, a rise on previous years. The library bought 240 new LP records and 800 new books. Subscriptions to magazines remained stable — the library receives about 250 different magazines and journals.

The year was the first of operation of the library security book detection system. Although at this time, exact figures are still being assessed, book loss in the Rowden White Library has dropped significantly. The security system was installed after heavy losses of periodicals and books, particularly books, and losses in 1978 were estimated at approximately 800 books. The tentative loss figure for 1979 was 40 books. There are still a few cosmetic modifications to be made to the security system's operation, but nevertheless it is operating with minimum disruption and maximum efficiency.

In 1979, the Ewing and George Paton Galleries mounted 18 tempor- ary exhibitions and arranged a number of related activities. In addition to displaying the Ewing Collection for eight months, the exhibition programme included:

• Surfers Paradise: paintings and drawings by Christine Berkman.

This was the artist's first Melbourne exhibition which encompassed the Surfers Paradise drawings and paintings series. These were done with the assistance of a Visual Arts Board grant which she received in 1977. The work was a vivid expose of life at Surfers Paradise.

• Against the Brain: Tim Burns. This exhibition consisted of screen-

ings of Tim Burns' new film which described urban terrorism in

Australia, together with documentation in the form of a script for his next film 'Against the Grain'. This display included photographs by Sandy Edwards (stills photographer for the film). The exhibition was topical as well as providing the public access to processes involved in his script development for the film.

• There is no Centre: Sam Schoenbaum. The exhibition consisted of audio tapes, super eight film and magazine pages. The audio tapes ran continuously on four separate audio systems and created a sound environment in the Gallery. The magazine pages elaborated on American life, and the films were a personal explicit exposure of the artist's life in New York.

• Jane Kent: Three installations and a performance. Jane made three installations in the Ewing Gallery.

• Robert Gumming: Photographs and Props. An American artist whose exhibition showed the development of his work over a three year period in both colour and black and white together with a display of some of his related props.

• At Home Ladies a Plate: Lyndal Jones. A performance which was carried out over a week in the George Paton Gallery.

Eight other exhibitions were presented by artists who had not shown independently in Melbourne (Gingie Johnson and Dan Wollmering, Maurie Hughes, Sandra Bell and Luigi Fusinato, Charles McLennan, Trevor Graham, Rosemary Adam, Mary Rosengren, Bob Ramsay and Leigh Hobba, and Ruth Maddison). These covered installations, sculpture, painting and photography.

Altogether there were no researched or 'ideas' shows in 1979. There were several of complexity, in terms of organization, and vitality in terms of public experience. They included an exhibition of holograms by Margaret Benyon; the Cantrills' film season (a retrospective of their film work); and the screening of the Los Angeles Women's Centre videotapes during Candace Compton's visit to Australia.

In contrast to the 1978 programme, the Gallery presented an almost equal number of exhibitions and related activities. This was mainly because of the large number of visiting overseas people for the Biennial of Sydney. Lectures, discussions and/or film screenings were presented by Jill Scott, Tim Head, Hamish Fulton, Daniel Buren, Mario Merz, Marina Abramovic-Ulay, Jurgen Klauke, Ulrike Rosen- bach, Robert Gumming, Candace Compton, Richard Martin, Germano Celant, Nicholas Pope and Jutta Bruckner.

In addition, an extract from the play Traitors was performed by the APG, a poetry reading by the 9.2.5. Group; Spiel, a music/theatre piece for an actor, actress and musician by Ken Guntar; and a screening of Rebecca Horn's Der Eintanzer.

The year was extremely busy, particularly in terms of related activi-

ties. This has, however, continued and consolidated the idea of the

Ewing and George Paton Galleries as a meeting place and as a place where both historical and experimental art can be seen.

About 21,000 people visited the Gallery in 1979 and attended related activities.

In March, 1979, the Assistant Director Meredith Rogers left the Galleries and Judy Annear replaced her in April, 1979.

Once again the Gallery was fortunate to receive grants from the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council and the Australian Gallery Directors' Council.

Student theatre activity was once again diverse, stimulating and energetic. The reformed Committee for University Drama (CUD), acting in concert with the Union Board's Theatre Sub-committee, the University's Theatre Board and, especially, the Union Theatre Depart- ment was effective in helping to organize an efficient bureaucratic structure although there is still a need to publicize student theatre more effectively.

Encouragingly, however, audiences remained good and it can truth- fully be said that only one or two major productions failed to break even at the box office. It has become clear that the Guild Theatre, except for large cast shows, is the more economically suitable for the staging of student plays.

Throughout the year there were regular film seasons and, as in the past, both the Union and Guild Theatres were extensively used by student, graduate, faculty and external organizations for films, plays, concerts and meetings. With regard to cinema, it must be noted that audiences are becoming scarcer; any number of explanations may be forwarded for this trend but the greater competition presented by recently opened local cinemas has had an effect. The time is coming too, when serious consideration must be given to the refurbishing, up-dating and re-equipping of the Union Theatre.

The acting workshops and classes in acting, dancing and movement were well attended but, because these activities are entirely extra- curricular, student involvement tends to decrease as examinations approach. It is crucial that students who wish to acquire basic theatrical skills should have the opportunity to do so without appearing in productions.

Mr Norman Kaye, at the instigation of the University's Theatre Board, was in residence in the second half of the year as Dramaturge. He worked thoroughly and creatively on a number of student written plays, some of which will be performed in 1980 under the auspices of the Union Theatre Department.

At the end of Mr Henry Lanzer's term on the Board, Mr Peter Anthonsen was elected to replace him as Chairman of the Board.

Mr Peter Dimsey followed Mr Anthonsen as Union Council Chairman,

and Messrs Anthonsen and Russell Miller and Ms Gabrielle Pahlow

were elected to the Board after Messrs Lanzer, James Fan and

Gordon Gebbie completed their terms of office.