Page 1 Inside QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
Indoor air
pollution needs global focus
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QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3864 2111 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778
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Students beat professionals in design show
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Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue ... • Month, 1999
Engineering duo casts bell for island mission
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Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue 208 • October 17-November 20, 2000
Action urged on eating disorders
“The current approach to the identification and treatment of eating disorders is, at best, piecemeal,” Ms Gaskill said.
“Health professionals are not generally aware about how to deal with patients who present with early symptoms, and there is a lot of misinformation about treatment issues.”
Ms Gaskill and fellow nursing lecturer Fran Sanders will launch a new book The Encultured Body: Policy implications for healthy body image and disordered eating behaviours at a QUT public forum on body image and eating disorders later this month.
One of their key recommendations in the book is for the establishment of a national advisory group to investigate issues that contribute to the problem.
“Issues that are currently not being addressed include the role that the magazine and advertising industries play in this problem through body image stereotyping,” Ms Gaskill said.
by Margaret Lawson
A
QUT academic has called for Australian governments to act urgently to counter the increasing problem of eating disorders among young people.Health information data indicate that 3 per cent of young women in Australia are diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia.
The average onset age for anorexia is 17, and about one in five young women with the condition may die by age 20.
QUT nursing senior lecturer Deanne Gaskill said an injection of funds at State and Federal levels was needed to develop an awareness campaign about body image issues, as well as a national eating disorders advisory group to tackle the problem.
Ms Gaskill has enlisted the support of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) in her push for government intervention.
AMA federal president Dr Kerryn Phelps said the peak medical body supported Ms Gaskill and Ms Sanders’
calls for government attention to eating disorders.
“Body image is complex and isn’t just about a person’s physical health. It’s also about their mental well-being,” Dr Phelps said.
“We need to find ways to help young people in particular overcome problems relating to appearance and self-esteem, to avoid these same issues manifesting in later life.”
Ms Gaskill and Ms Sanders have also produced a video for teachers and young women called Consuming Matters, which has been funded by a QUT community service grant.
This video will soon be available from the QUT Library.
The public forum on body image and eating disorders will be held at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus on Saturday, October 28. RSVP to (07) 3864 3834.
by Toni Chambers
QUT researchers are another step closer to finding a cause for prostate cancer after the discovery of 11 new genes in prostate cells.
The research team – which includes postdoctoral fellows Tracey Harvey and John Hooper, and postgraduate student Steven Myers – is the only one in Australia researching the PSA family of genes, called KLK genes, in the search for a more reliable test for prostate cancer, and better treatments.
One in 10 men in Australia are at risk of developing prostate cancer – in 1999, 12,000 new cases and 2,500 deaths were predicted.
Associate Professor Judith Clements, pictured below, from the Centre for Molecular Biotechnology at QUT said that since discovering the first new gene in the family known as KLK4 last year, the race has intensified between researchers here and in the United States to find an alternative to the current PSA blood test as a way of detecting prostate cancer.
“The current test does not discriminate well between normal men with benign enlargements and those with cancer,” she said.
“Some men have increased levels of PSA in their blood but don’t have cancer and, at the other extreme, 30 per cent of men who have prostate cancer don’t have increased levels of PSA.”
Professor Clements said that, of the 10 new genes in the KLK family, four were found in the prostate and one was found in high levels in more advanced cancer cells and in pre-cursor cancer cells, but
More prostate
genes uncovered
Immediate action is needed to tackle the growing problem of eating disorders and poor body image among young Australians, according to senior lecturer Deanne Gaskill.
more work needed to be done to determine their exact role in prostate cancer.
“There are two forms of prostate cancer – slow-growing and aggressive,”
she said.
“Doctors want to use treatment that is appropriate to each type of cancer, but at the moment they can’t tell the difference between the bad and the not- so-bad form.”
Professor Clements said that, after further research, certain genes and proteins might become important markers of early cancers or more aggressive cancers.
She said it could take up to four years before the role of each gene family member was known.
“When that happens a better test for the detection of prostate cancer can be developed, along with drugs to inhibit their function and new therapeutic treatments to replace surgery,” she said.
The team, which has just published the results of their research in the prestigious Journal of Biological Chemistry, was aided by the Human Genome Project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in California.
The first KLK4 gene took two years to find, but the latest 10 genes took just six months to find, thanks to the discovery of new gene sequences.
“While helping our cause, the Human Genome Project has also sparked a race among scientists to find gene sequences for all sorts of diseases. Prostate cancer is one of them, and the United States is proving to be a fierce competitor in the race for a cure for prostate cancer,”
Professor Clements said.
Page 2 INSIDE QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
From the Inside ... by David Hawke
A word from the Vice-Chancellor
D
eeply embedded socialbeliefs about rape are dominating the Australian judicial system and preventing the fair treatment of rape victims in court, according to Australia’s leading expert on violence against women.
Dr Patricia Easteal is a QUT Faculty of Law visiting fellow and her latest book, Balancing the Scales, looks at the effectiveness of rape law reform in Australia.
She argues that while the reforms look impressive on paper, in reality, the treatment of rape victims by the criminal justice system is dominated by social myths about the sexual roles of men and women, their sexualities, and about rape itself.
Dr Easteal said the myths, which questioned the credibility of female victims of sexual assault, had also trickled through to judges.
“Community attitudes are reflected in the criminal justice system – judges don’t exist in isolation,” she said.
Major reform in recent years has addressed “beliefs” such as those that suggest: that a woman’s failure to physically resist sexual assault constitutes consent; that it is dangerous for juries to convict on the victim’s evidence alone; and that the victim is not credible if she does not report the rape immediately after the event.
Dr Easteal said it was also widely believed that most rapes were perpetrated by strangers when, in reality, only one in five rapes was committed by a stranger.
“When you look at marital rape, for example, despite the fact that men no longer have a licence to rape, you find very few cases making it to court,” she said.
“There are big questions in the law about consent – one is the whole idea
that if you had consensual sex with someone at any point then you cannot ever really be raped by that person,”
she said.
Dr Easteal said despite the changes, there were still grey areas which remained open to the discretion of judges and other players in the criminal justice system.
She said the only way to eradicate culturally based myths was with cultural change.
Dr Easteal said that, since she believed such fundamental change was problematic, small changes to the judicial system were crucial.
“We must take micro-steps to make laws less open to interpretation and implement measures to educate judges and juries – for example, introducing more expert witnesses into rape trials,”
she said.
– Toni Chambers
Rape law reform requires social change␣ – fellow
Visiting fellow Dr Patricia Easteal … Australia’s leading expert on violence against women.
A QUT researcher has received a
$500,000, five-year grant for an international collaborative study of the dengue virus in South-East Asia and the Western Pacific.
School of Life Sciences senior lecturer Dr John Aaskov said part of the funding would be used to bring scientists from Sri Lanka, Singapore and Myanmar to QUT later this year to learn new skills and study virus strains from their countries.
Dr Aaskov said the project, which had been funded by the Lee Foundation, aimed to compile “up-to-the-minute”
information about the strains of dengue virus that were active in the region.
“The thing about communicable diseases is that if you don’t understand the bacteria or virus causing it, it will surprise you,” Dr Aaskov said.
“Dengue can appear suddenly and result in many deaths, so it is important for researchers to know how the strains are changing and how they are being transmitted.”
A mosquito-borne virus that infects more than 50million people each year, Dengue is most common in South-East Asia.
Dr Aaskov said one mystery about the virus was why it sometimes infected
people without causing any symptoms when, in other cases, it caused internal bleeding, shock and death.
“We don’t know whether some strains of dengue are more virulent than others, or whether new strains are introduced with travellers or whether the virus can mutate dramatically,” he said.
“There was an instance where all the dengue viruses but one in a community in Asia were the same.
“The odd virus most closely resembled viruses found thousands of kilometres away over vast expanses of ocean, and no-one has been able to explain that.”
Dr Aaskov said while the researchers were at QUT, they would map parts of the genomes of various dengue strains and look for differences and similarities between viruses from different countries.
He said this information would then be made available to other researchers and public health officials testing vaccines or studying disease outbreaks.
“It is important to have this information readily available to anyone who needs it and the Lee Foundation grant will help us respond to that challenge,” Dr Aaskov said.
– Margaret Lawson
Researchers from the Faculty of Business have been selected to help the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) develop strategies to communicate with the nonprofit sector.
Associate Professor Myles McGregor- Lowndes and lecturer Stephen Marsden from accountancy, along with Associate Professor Greg Hearn and lecturer Dr Kym Madden from communication, will conduct focus groups and interviews with nonprofit organisations to find how the ATO can best communicate with them.
Professor McGregor-Lowndes said the project was the second major ATO tender
that had been awarded to QUT’s Program on Nonprofit Corporations this year, and would play an important role in establishing the ATO’s relationship with the nonprofit sector.
“With the new tax system being introduced, the ATO has had to deal with the nonprofit sector for the first time, and needs to establish a good working relationship with this group,” he said.
He said projects in the nonprofit area, which included the popular “GST Game”
launched in March, were establishing QUT as a leader in the field.
Life sciences gets
$500,000 grant to study dengue
Faculty wins ATO tender
Planning for an integrated urban village on the former Gona Barracks site and land owned by QUT is progressing.
The State Government supports the notion of the village as a mix of residential, educational, commercial and retail facilities.
Over the next two weeks the draft master plan for the site’s redevelopment will be made public. The Government is undertaking a series of public consultations with local residents and businesses and will hold an open day on the site on Saturday October 28, 3pm-5pm as part of this process.
The open day is designed to allow members of the public to view the site, to examine the draft master plan, and to provide opportunity for feedback.
This development is of tremendous significance to QUT and reflects our continued emphasis on close community ties.
Two focal points for QUT within the village are the Creative Industries Precinct and development of community health facilities. We already have State funding support for Creative Industries which will integrate teaching and learning, research, development, consultancy, incubator and industry activities in an exciting and innovative complex.
Prior to the Open Day, I will hold a briefing session for staff at Kelvin Grove campus on Friday, October 20. The following week, the draft master plan will be on display in the campus library.
I urge staff and students to provide the Government with feedback.
To facilitate this, we will e-mail to the QUT community the details of the Public Works Department website which contains details of the draft master plan. This site will also provide a mechanism for feedback directly to Public Works.
– Professor Dennis Gibson
Urban village progressing
see story Page 3
Page 3 Inside QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
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Indoor pollution needs attention
by Toni Chambers
Q
UT research has found the quality of air inside some buildings in Brisbane is just as poor as that of outdoor air, and in urban areas consists primarily of vehicle emissions.QUT associate professor and president of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ) Lidia Morawska said studies conducted in Brisbane highlighted the low quality of air people were forced to breathe while indoors and the increasing concern over associated health risks.
Professor Morawska said the discovery of high levels of outdoor-air particles indoors meant that fine particles which made up more than 80 per cent of outdoor air were now a health concern for indoor environments.
“Numerous studies have shown a clear correlation between health
problems, including respiratory and c a r d i o v a s c u l a r d i s e a s e s , a n d exposure to fine airborne particles,”
she said.
Professor Morawska said the studies also showed that the ventilation systems designed to protect office workers were only reducing outdoor pollution by 34 per cent.
Professor Morawska said before any progress could be made, there needed to be a commitment from the international community to a gre e to gui delines, and fr om individual countries to agree to a set of standards governing indoor- air quality.
“At the moment there’s no requirement for companies to measure the actual concentration of pollutants in their buildings,” she said.
“If indoor-air quality is monitored, it is kept secret because no-one wants to spend money unnecessarily.”
Professor Morawska said until open and compulsory monitoring
by Toni Chambers
Podiatrists and optometrists from QUT visited south-western Queensland recently to train health workers in how to detect diabetes in its early stages, before severe eye and foot complications arise.
The staff trained around 15 health workers from St George, Goondiwindi, Cunnamulla, Roma and Charleville to help reduce the incidence of eye and foot problems in indigenous communities.
Lecturer in the Centre for Indigenous Health Education and Research Beryl Meiklejohn said 45 per cent of people aged over 25 suffered from diabetes with the figure being two to four times higher in the Aboriginal population.
“A lot of it is related to a change in lifestyle – diet and a lack of exercise are the main issues,” she said.
“It’s been shown that if Aboriginal people return to a traditional lifestyle, their diabetes is gone within six weeks.
“Once they’ve got it, if they don’t look after it and treat it, and if health workers aren’t aware of it, we end up with vision problems.
“People can lose their sight and if they don’t look after their feet, there are
amputations, and this is a big cost for the health system.”
Ms Meiklejohn said that, while podiatrists and optometrists did visit outback areas, if regular consultation did not occur complications could go undetected.
“Also things happen so people can’t make their appointments – if that happens, health workers can look at someone’s foot, for example, take a drawing and mark things on it that they can recognise, so when the podiatrist comes they can see quickly what the problem is,” she said.
Ms Meiklejohn said while the long-term goal of the training was to reduce the number of severe diabetes cases, the immediate aim was to improve the understanding of diabetes among the general population and health workers.
“Some people don’t realise they can lose their feet or vision as a result of un- monitored diabetes,” she said.
“Others think that because it’s referred to as the ‘sugar’ disease, if they don’t have sugar on their weetbix, they’ll be fine.
“Not only is it people who have diabetes that don’t fully understand the implications of diabetes but (nor do) the health workers themselves, some of whom have had very basic training.”
of indoor air quality was conducted, it would be difficult to determine the actual risk people faced in their work as well as other indoor environments.
The associate professor was elected to her position as ISIAQ president earlier this year.
ISIAQ is an international, independent, multidisciplinary, scientific, non-profit organisation whose purpose is to support the creation of healthy, comfortable indoor environments that encourage productivity.
Professor Morawska said that her aim during her term as president of the society was to heighten community and political awareness of the need to improve indoor air quality.
“International focus has been on outdoor air and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but indoor air quality could be just as detrimental to people’s health,” she said.
QUT helps rural health workers identify diabetes
Speakers include the Minister Assisting the Deputy Premier on Regional Development Tony McGrady, Eagle Boys managing director Tom Potter, State Development divisional director Catherine McCourt, Faculty of Business assistant dean Jennifer Radbourne and National Farmers’
Federation CEO Graham Dalton.
To book a seat at the forum (tickets are $50) call the Hilton Box Office on (07) 3231 3103.
QUT’s Faculty of Business is holding a research forum, Business in the Bush:
Advancing the agenda, at the Brisbane Hilton on November 8.
The forum will engage rural and regional development issues through a series of workshops and keynote addresses based on recent research and policy debate in the field.
Forum puts business in bush on agenda
Associate Professor Lidia Morawska has found the air quality inside some Brisbane buildings to be as poor as outside air, raising new health concerns for indoor environments.
Computer programs for children with intellectual disabilities must be made more complex to ensure the children achieve optimum academic success and are not left behind in an increasingly technological society, according to QUT research.
School of Learning and Development PhD student Neil Anderson found the reading, writing and communication skills – and the self-confidence – of a group of 10- to 13-year olds improved as a result of replacing basic “practice and drill” computer programs with more complex desktop publishing.
“It is assumed that, because they need remedial help, the best way to make academic improvements is to use
‘drill and practice’ methods which include things like spelling and completing the missing parts of words,” Mr Anderson said.
“(This approach) ignores problem solving and, as a result, there are seldom any improvements.”
The children involved in Mr Anderson’s study had an IQ range of between 60 and 70, but as part of an intervention program they were integrated into a normal classroom.
“These are children who traditionally hold negative perceptions of school life, not only related to reading and writing, but also the social side of going to school,” he said.
“We looked at lifting their self-concept, in terms of computers, academic success, peer relations and attitudes towards school – they increased in all students.”
Using a desktop publishing program, they explored a topic of interest to them, were encouraged to talk about their successes and then became peer tutors for the program.
Mr Anderson said one of the most marked improvements was in the children’s reading standards as all children achieved a formal reading age after completing the program.
“Normally when these children leave primary school only one in 10 achieves a formal reading age, but all students recorded a reading age of between six and eight,” he said.
The students also showed an improvement in speech, as measured by sentence length, while their writing skills improved from being small amounts of unintelligible text to text with fewer errors and enhanced presentation.
Mr Anderson said these improvements led to an increase in the students’ self confidence academically and socially through increased ability to interact with their peers.
Technology improves skills of
kids with intellectual disabilities
Page 4 INSIDE QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
Advertisement
Staff recognised in promotions round
• Associate Professor Mohamed Deriche of the School of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering joined the QUT staff as a lecturer in 1994. At QUT he has co- ordinated the Multiscale Signal Processing Lab, which is recognised as providing some of the top research in compression in Australia. He has published widely in international journals, and has an excellent grant and supervision record.
• Associate Professor Keith Hampson accepted the position as director of research and postgraduate studies in the School of Construction Management and Property in 1995. He had joined the school as a lecturer in 1989 and progressed through the ranks to senior lecturer. He was selected as the CSIRO Associate Professor in Construction Management in 1998 after establishing the QUT/CSIRO Construction Research Alliance. This alliance has since obtained
$1million in research grants. With a sincere interest in quality teaching and a desire to maintain direct relevance to students, he has been nominated twice by students for the Best Lecturer Award hosted by the Student Guild.
• Associate Professor Peter MacFarlane has been a senior lecturer in the Law School since 1992.
Earlier this year, he took a secondment from QUT to become Queensland’s full-time Law Reform Commissioner which placed him in the forefront of the State’s legal research and decision-making. Until his appointment to the Law Reform Commission, he demonstrated leadership in the delivery of units at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has authored leading texts on health law which are accepted as prescribed texts in a number of tertiary institutions in Australia and New Zealand. Professor MacFarlane was also the co- author of the first Australian text in the area of professional legal ethics.
• Associate Professor Penny McKay joined QUT’s Faculty of Education in 1996, and has since taken a leadership role in the development of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) unit within QUT. A senior lecturer in the School of Cultural and Language Studies in Education, she has developed the TESOL unit beyond a course to a growing consulting and teaching unit. As president of TESOL State Associations for six years, she was last year elected national president of the Australian Council of TESOL Associations. She is frequently invited to give seminars and workshops to teachers in Australia and overseas, including the UK and Hong Kong.
– Noel Gentner
T
he School of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education has been successful in having from its ranks two of the three academics promoted to professors in the most recent promotions round.QUT’s annual round of personal promotions this year involved the appointment of five senior lecturers to associate professors and three associate professors to professors.
The new appointments to professor were:
• Professor Campbell McRobbie who, through his leadership, established and developed the Centre for Mathematics and Science Education of which he is the director. Obtaining his PhD from Monash University in 1982, Professor McRobbie has been acting director or director of the centre since 1991. Professor McRobbie has an international reputation in science education research and has been chief investigator or co-chief investigator on projects totalling more than $1.7million in external research grants over the past 10 years.
• Professor Lyn English, also of the School of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education began her career at QUT as a part-time lecturer in July 1982. Since 1992, she has been an associate professor in mathematics education in the school.
A recipient of two awards for research␣ – one national and one international – Professor English has received about $500,000 in ARC research grants, mostly as a sole researcher. She has written several academic books that form the basis of graduate courses here and overseas, as well as a textbook series.
• Professor Rodney Wissler has a substantial professional track record in performing arts and is on secondment from the Faculty of Arts to the Division of Research and Advancement as director of postgraduate research studies. This position involves a combination of university policy initiation and an active leadership role.
Professor Wissler’s previous positions have demonstrated over the years a capacity to harness and develop the productivity of groups of staff with diverse skill bases and conceptual frameworks in projects leading to specific outcomes of importance to QUT. He was instrumental in establishing the Centre for Innovation in the Arts at QUT, and was appointed its director in 1994.
Appointments to associate professors were:
• Associate Professor Colin Boyd has been a senior lecturer in the School of Data Communications since late 1995. His main focus has been on high- quality research and teaching in the key technology area of security in electronic commerce. Professor Boyd is an active participant in a number of consulting projects, ensuring QUT research is relevant to industry trends.
Associate Professor Mohamed Deriche
Associate Professor Peter MacFarlane
Associate Professor Penny McKay Associate Professor Keith Hampson Professor Campbell McRobbie
Professor Rodney Wissler Professor Lyn English
Associate Professor Colin Boyd
Page 5 Inside QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
R
etiring Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Research and Advancement Professor John Corderoy has predicted that QUT will be a truly international university within 10 years.Professor Corderoy,who began his tertiary education career in 1984, played a significant part in achieving university status for the Queensland Institute of Technology.
He said he was happy with his career achievements which began at BHP in 1960 after he graduated with a civil engineering degree.
Professor Corderoy left BHP to join Ove Arup Partners where he worked on designing the acoustic ceilings in the Sydney Opera House Theatre and Concert Hall, and the redevelopment of the Whiskey-a-Go- Go site after it was destroyed by fire in the late 1960s.
He also spent time overseas designing an earthquake-proof, scaled- down version of the Sydney Opera House for a sheik in the Middle East.
Professor Corderoy began his career in academia with the New South Wales Institute of Technology in 1972.
While there he studied law, was admitted to the New South Wales bar and completed a PhD.
He began his time as QIT’s Dean of the Faculty of Engineering – his brief was to build up the faculty’s research profile.
“When I came here I don’t think there was anybody involved in research – we had five Apple computers and 100 staff,” he said.
“In the six years between when I arrived and (QIT) becoming a university, I built up a research profile to the stage where we could meet international standards and argue that we deserved university status.”
More challenges lay ahead for Professor Corderoy who was a member of the restructuring advisory committee which oversaw the amalgamation of the Brisbane College of Advanced Education with the new QUT.
The result was a new faculty – the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering – and the establishment of the Academy of the Arts.
Professor Corderoy became the dean of the newly-merged faculty and said that despite teething problems he was
John Corderoy retires after 16 years at QUT
sure no-one would argue now that it was a mistake.
“The engineers and architects both complained that they lost funding, and the architects feared they would be replaced by engineers, but none of that happened and most people recognised the larger unit gave them more flexibility and opportunities to interact,” he said.
In 1995, Professor Corderoy was appointed to his current position where he has overseen a rapid increase in research activity, fundraising and international student intake.
“We have gradually lifted funding for research from $10,000 to $20,000 in 1989 to what it is now – at about
$13-14million a year from both the private and public sector,” he said.
As Professor Corderoy prepares to take more time to look over his investment portfolio, paint and play bridge, he said he certainly would spare a thought for QUT and predicted efforts to make it a truly international university would eventuate.
“I look forward to the day when our graduates will be employed anywhere in the world and walk off the streets of the places like London or Bangkok, say they are from QUT and (have) the person across the desk know what that stands for,” he said.
“If we maintain our tradition and produce practical graduates who adapt to change, we’ll be able to do it.”
– Toni Chambers Professor John Corderoy
Universities needed to build innovative partnerships with the private sector to prevent Australia from becoming a service economy, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said at QUT last month.
Mr Beattie gave the keynote address at the QUT Fellows ceremony on September 18, an event held to recognise major financial contributions to the university’s research, teaching and development.
He said research collaborations between universities and the private sector had a key role to play in Australia’s economic development and diversification.
“The competition we are seeing globally (in technology and
innovation) … can only be matched here by significant research outputs by universities,” Mr Beattie said.
“Traditional industries will remain important, but we need to diversify and find other ways of broadening the economy or we will become a service industry country and our standard of living will decline.
“(Given the shortfall in federal research funding) the private sector needs to be involved in research outcomes and their commercialisation.”
Mr Beattie applauded QUT’s existing partnerships with industry and said such relationships were
“fundamentally important”.
“The key to the future is education and the research outcomes that come
from it, and result in commercial opportunities and growth,” he said.
While at the QUT Fellows ceremony, Mr Beattie accepted the Chancellor’s Fellowship from Dr Cherrell Hirst.
The fellowship recognised the Queensland Government’s contribution to the QUT Cultural Precinct at Gardens Point campus.
Some 34 people and organisations were honoured at the ceremony for contributions totalling $5million during the past year.
Dr Hirst thanked all the donors for
“enabling students to learn, grow, strive and further society through their endeavours”.
– Margaret Lawson
Unis need private sector – Premier
A group of 40 East Timorese teachers has returned home following an intensive course to upgrade their English language and teaching skills at QUT.
The teachers undertook a three- week course last month with the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Unit in the School of Cultural and Language Studies at Kelvin Grove.
Their presence in Australia has been funded by the Australian Government.
Prior to commencing the course in Brisbane, QUT organised TESOL staff to spend a week in Dili in East Timor establishing a suitable program to meet their needs and running an initial one- week program.
The program was co-ordinated by Theresa McShane.
East Timorese teachers take lessons home
TESOL co-ordinator Associate Professor Penny McKay said it had been a challenging project incorporating additional demands on staff but had proved successful.
A Government representative said the program was well-run, that the trainees from East Timor were well looked after and, overall, it had been
“a credit to QUT”.
Students from QUT’s design schools have come together to share their talents with appreciative observers in an exhibition being held at the QUT Art Museum.
The MINDS EYE exhibition is, fittingly, being held in the Tom Heath Gallery of the museum, which was named in recognition of the late design educator Emeritus Professor Tom Heath.
Featuring a series of works by the talented students of architecture, interior design, industrial design, landscape architecture and urban design, this eclectic collection of design works will run until November 26.
Designs in mind’s eye
The MINDS EYE exhibition features preliminary sketches through to scaled 3D models of design proposals, including one for a computer workstation for disabled children and another described as a
“memorial to the undeclared war”.
Interior design lecturer Michael Molloy said the exhibition was designed to reveal the process of design.
“By exposing the conceptual and developmental stages of these various projects, the process of design can be seen to be explorative, interpretive, technologically linked and analytical,”
he said.
Interior design student Natalie Hayward’s stunning lamp is just one of the exhibits being showcased in the MINDS EYE exhibition at the QUT Art Museum.
QUT will stage its first Postgraduate Information Evening in late October to showcase its offerings in the university’s range of disciplines.
Staff from all faculties will be at the event for seminars and discussions on postgraduate programs, career goals, course formats and entry requirements.
Advice will also be available on alternative pathways to postgraduate study for non-degree holders, employment prospects and financial aspects of postgraduate study.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson said the university’s postgraduate courses catered for growing needs in today’s workforce for
Postgraduate information evening a QUT first
career change and advancement, as well as research.
“We recognise that professionals are busy people who need to maintain their professional development,” he said.
The evening will be held on Wednesday, October 25, from 4pm to 8pm in the level 4, Z Block foyer at the Gardens Point campus.
Page 6 INSIDE QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
by Amisha Patel
QUT graduate and guest lecturer Andrew Hammonds has won a 2001 Churchill Fellowship to study and apply European and North American urban development practices in the design and construction of public housing in Queensland.
A built environment graduate, Mr Hammonds said a lack of sustainable urban projects in Australia and the success of developments overseas motivated him to apply for a fellowship to fund his 70-day study tour overseas.
His tour, commencing in April 2001, will include Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, London, Scotland and the US (California, Florida, Maryland and New York).
“While Australia has developed some of the technology and practices, we have been slow to integrate them into projects at the urban level,”
he said.
“Although conventional design and construction have made impacts, community-
based sustainable urban development has the potential to assist people and businesses to improve their local environments.
“I want to visit overseas developments that have made the transition from the innovative stage to mainstream acceptance.”
Mr Hammonds said he believed it was important to involve the community as well as incorporating economic, social and environmental principles in public housing design.
“Sustainability, applied to communities like Inala (for example), requires innovation in how we use energy, materials, water, waste and the natural setting in the construction of our urban environments,” he said.
“In practice, sustainable urban design is not just (about) green trees or home-grown vegetables but medium-density, mixed-use development with good access to public transport, walking distance to work or shops, and streets that are pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly.
“Car-free developments in European cities promote cycling or walking and have low-cost units because there are less cars.
“We also need to involve community stakeholders in our design work and bring the community with us.”
Mr Hammonds said that, although Europe had a strong history in urban development, Australian urban areas were based more on US designs.
“My hypothesis is to use Europe’s innovative urban development as a longer-term focus for Australia but investigate how the US are improving their cities for application in the short term,” he said.
“Australia adopted the US model with its urban areas, highly reliant on cars, which results in single-use, large and spread-out suburbs that do not encourage the use of public transport.”
Churchill Fellowships give Australians the chance to study or travel overseas to research projects that are not fully available to undertake in Australia.
Churchill fellow to explore urban development
the students’ technique did not exactly adhere to tradition.
“We’re using modern foundry sands rather than the ancient techniques,” Dr Clegg said.
“The traditional casting loams for church bells are a mix of sand, clay, goat’s hair and horse manure, and I was told I couldn’t take horse manure into the QMI foundry.”
He said the aim of the project was for the students to manage a project from start to finish, and also to investigate why bell designs hadchanged.
The students are not the only ones to benefit from the project – QUT has donated one of the bells to the Solomon Islands Mission.
“They are a very religious people and they use bells to call the faithful to prayer, but there is a shortage of bells there,” Dr Clegg said.
“Apparently, they use gas cylinders sometimes and occasionally they explode, so we thought this was one small way we could help the mission.”
– Toni Chambers
M
anufacturing church bells may not be considered a viable industry in Australia anymore but three mechanical engineering students have employed century-old techniques to cast two church bells, one of which will go to the Solomon Islands.The design of the bells, cast at the Queensland Manufacturing Institute, was taken from a sixteenth century book on metallurgy.
This technique is similar to that used by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London.
Whitechapel is the oldest continuously operating manufacturing firm in the United Kingdom, famous for making such bells as Big Ben and the Liberty Bell in the United States.
Lecturer in the School of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Medical Engineering Dr Richard Clegg said, however, that
Group on mission to cast new
church bell for Solomon Islands
by Margaret Lawson
It was the end of 84 years of uncertainty.
Wilma Bradfield had almost given up hope of ever learning the fate of her father, William Clements, declared missing in World War I since 1916.
Yet, an unlikely source – QUT librarian Peter Fell – gave Mrs Bradfield the means to solve the mystery and put her father’s memory to rest.
Mrs Bradfield and her husband Ralph attended a seminar on using the Internet that Mr Fell presented to residents at the Forest Place retirement village.
Through this seminar, the couple learned how to connect to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on-line database.
“Ralph put in my father’s details and regiment like they had showed us, and it just came up … all at once I knew what had happened to my father,” Mrs Bradfield said.
“I cried for my childhood.”
Mrs Bradfield said she was “eventually relieved” at the discovery of her father’s on- line memorial.
She was then able to print out the memorial and finally have a document that gave her some comfort.
“My father died at the Battle of Somme on September 30, 1916 – two weeks before I was
Library helps solve 84-year mystery
Left: A team from the School of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Medical Engineering prepare the cast for one of two church bells.
born – but it was just so important to know,”
Mrs Bradfield said.
“When I was a child I used to wonder why I didn’t have a daddy like the other little girls, and for years I thought he had lost his memory and one day would remember and come home.
“It wasn’t until his memorial came up on the screen that I really believed he was dead.
“It made him more real to me.”
Mr Fell, who is QUT’s advanced retrieval skills librarian, has since run another seminar for the residents at Forest Place, undertaken as part of the QUT library community service program.
He said he wanted to “just help retirees stay connected”, but was happy to discover that he could have such an impact.
“I was delighted that Mrs Bradfield was able to fill a gap in that part of her life,”
Mr Fell said.
For Mrs Bradfield – who now has a framed memorial of her father to put next to her one faded, cherished photo of him – it is the end of 84 years of wondering.
Right: Wilma Bradfield holds the cherished printout of an on-line memorial to her father. She discovered his fate through a QUT library course on using the Internet.
Media studies PhD student Harvey May has won the Communications Research Forum’s Best Student Essay Prize for 2000.
The Federal Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Senator Richard Alston awarded the $1,000 prize at Old Parliament House in Canberra earlier this month.
Mr May’s essay dealt with cultural diversity in Australian commercial television drama.
Essay prized
Work has commenced at Gardens Point campus on the pedestrian/cycle bridge that will link the university and South Bank next year.
QUT facilities management director Andrew Frowd said he expected between 4,000 and 10,000 people would use the bridge daily when it opened in April 2001.
“The walk from Vulture Street to QUT is shorter than the walk from (say) Roma Street to QUT, so we expect the bridge will provide a popular avenue for people to access the Gardens Point campus,” Mr Frowd said.
The bridge landing will end in a paved, tree-lined plaza, designed jointly by Brisbane City Council and QUT.
Bicycle parking will be provided near the QUT entrance and the area will be well lit.
Bridge work
commences
Page 7 INSIDE QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
A
team of graduating interior design students mixed it with the best at The Sunday Mail Commonwealth Bank Home and Design Show this month – and won.Participating in the “Rooms on View”
display, students Michael O’Sullivan, Angus Spencer, Tom Herron and Sally Stent beat nine teams from professional architecture firms with their unique
“red room”.
Team member Angus Spencer said each team’s brief was to design and construct a four-metre by three-metre room in a specified colour under the theme, “What’s Your Pleasure”, which was then judged by a panel.
“This recognises that we, as students, have the skills to compete on a professional stage,” Mr Spencer said.
“As far as promoting our work as students I think this has gone a long way.”
The project was funded by a Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering student projects grant.
– Margaret Lawson
New programs offered by art museums to attract young audiences must be evaluated for their ability to produce lifelong lovers of art, according to a QUT researcher.
Masters student at the School of Early Childhood Melina Mallos is embarking on research to determine whether children’s exhibitions at three Queensland art museums are educating, or merely entertaining, children.
QUT has made every Tuesday from October 3 to November 28 a free Children’s Day to teach children about art (QUT Art Museum), the environment (City Botanic Gardens) and heritage (Old Government House).
Ms Mallos has observed groups of children who attended the Children’s Days as part of her research.
“As educators and museum administrators we wish to create exhibits that appeal to young children so that we can attract and sustain a continuing audience of museum- goers in the future,” she said.
Art museums in the United States have been keenly aware of this for some time and have developed innovative ways of attracting the attention of children and parents.
Ms Mallos said that while art museums in Queensland were starting to follow the United States’ lead, their programs must be evaluated for their educational values.
“I’m concerned that museums will use the ‘fun’ element to merely attract children to art museums and forget about providing an educational art experience,” she said.
Her research will examine the children’s programs at three art museums – the QUT Art Museum, the Queensland Art Gallery and Global Arts Link at Ipswich.
She will evaluate these programs according to the ways they: facilitate social interactions with museum staff, teachers, peers or family members; provide multi-sensory experiences by encouraging children to feel or create; and incorporate technological innovations such as push-button sound devices.
Ms Mallos will observe the reactions of three groups of children to each art museum’s program, determining the extent to which they become engaged with artwork.
She will then interview some of the children to determine how the programs have heightened their understanding and appreciation of art.
“I’ll be looking at their recognition and recollection, what features of their museum experiences stick in their minds, and which attracted them the most,” she said.
Ms Mallos said she hoped the research would lead to the design of more appropriate art exhibition programs for young children.
Students’ red room right at home in design competition
Student design team (l-r) Tom Herron, Sally Stent, Angus Spencer and Michael O’Sullivan beat Brisbane’s top nine
architecture firms in the “Rooms on View” competition at the recent Sunday Mail
Commonwealth Bank Home and Design Show.
Children’s Day becomes focus for study
Masters student Melina Mallos sits in on Children’s Day at the QUT Art Museum.
A group of 13 Brisbane Graduate School of Business students has been trained as award evaluators, as part of a joint research initiative with the Australian Customer Service Association (ACSA).
The students received their certificates at the 2000 Customer Service Awards ceremony on October 5.
As evaluators, the students assisted the judges’ panel for the awards with the assessment and short listing of written evaluations, site visit evaluation and the production of detailed reports on applicants.
The ACSA provides a mechanism for linking individuals and organisations that recognise the need to achieve continuous improvements in customer service across Australia.
Team trained as evaluators
Graduate Wesley Enoch is back on campus this month, in his capacity as director of Fountains Beyond, a play running at The Gardens Theatre until October 28.
Fountains Beyond was written in 1942 by Queensland writer George Landen Dann and has been updated under Mr Enoch’s direction.
Presented by Queensland Theatre Company as part of the ENERGEX Brisbane Festival, the play explores the life of Vic, a battler trying to keep his family and home together.
When the local council wants to move his Aboiriginal community from their land to build a children’s playground, the battle lines are drawn.
The director and cast held a special forum at QUT on October 7 discussing The Ethics of Aboriginal Performance:
White Writing for Black performance.
Enoch directs
performance
Page 8 INSIDE QUT October 17-October 20, 2000
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New Dean of the Faculty of Education Professor Vi McLean, pictured right, is no stranger to life at QUT.
A self-confessed “boomerang”, Professor McLean is a former head of the Department of Care and Education at predecessor institution BCAE, and was a member of the QUT Council from 1990 to 1992.
Following an eight-year stint at Arizona State University (ASU) where she was an Associate Professor of Education then Associate Vice-Provost for Academic Programs and Graduate Studies, Professor McLean said she was back to stay.
“For all the comfort levels I developed being in the US, I never saw myself as emigrating,”
she said. “I wanted to come back [to Australia]
to a leadership role in higher education.”
Now that she has boomeranged back to QUT, Professor McLean said she could not be happier.
“You really do see your own environment so differently after an absence,” she said.
“There is a sense of seeing things that you can help to make happen, and that’s really attractive.
by human resources director Dr Carol Dickenson
The process for the QUT Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (Academic Staff) 2000-2003 is now in the concluding stages after the agreement received the support of a valid majority of staff who participated in an electronic ballot.
The ballot to determine whether or not staff supported the agreement closed at 3pm on September 25.
Counting of votes revealed that, from a potential voting population of 2,180 academic staff members (including research-only academic staff), 303 votes were registered, presenting 13.9 per cent participation.
Of those who voted, 292 were in favour and 11 against the agreement.
The agreement was negotiated between the university and the National Tertiary Education Union.
The parties have now signed the agreement which was certified by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) on October 13.
The agreement will now be implemented and academic staff will receive a pay instalment of 2.75 per cent (effective from July 1, 2000).
The agreement represents a consolidation of the terms and conditions of employment for academic staff, including research-only academic staff, and will remain in place for a period of three years.
It offers competitive salaries, more personal flexibility and is in line with national industry standards.
Universities will form more alliances with large corporations as funds diminish and big business discovers the money-making potential of education, according to a senior lecturer in the School of Maths, Science and Technology Education.
Dr Alan Cook and co-author Heather Duggan explore the issue in their book Cyber Gold Rush: Turning Knowledge into Gold.
Dr Cook was inspired to write the book after surveying his students and finding that just 10 per cent regularly read newspapers, with most relying on
“The Faculty of Education has a very hard working and talented group of staff, with a lot of creative energy.
“That was the quality that appealed to me, because the potential is enormous. I’m very excited to be back.”
While she has not yet even had time to finish moving into her office, let alone develop any firm plans, Professor McLean has some broad ideas about where she would like to lead her new faculty.
“It will be important for us to be outward- looking and to build new forms of partnerships with organisations in Queensland,” Professor McLean said.
“A major challenge will also be to integrate all elements of academic works: valuing and rewarding research, teaching and community service.”
During her time at ASU, she expanded her research interests from early childhood education to focus on higher education policy issues.
She said she hoped to maintain her interest in academic and personnel policy and promote the scholarship of teaching while in her new position.
Professor McLean will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural on-line teaching conference, OLT 2000 Collecting Wisdom, on December 7.
Education dean happy to be home
Dance, drama and education staff and students will be part of a celebration of early childhood this month, contributing to the Out of the Box festival from October 24 to 28.
The festival, which is presented every two years by the Queensland Performing Arts Trust, will this year feature works based on experiences of childhood, from bedtime rituals to play time.
School of Early Childhood associate lecturer Cassandra Weddell, who has been a volunteer with the festival since 1992, said students from QUT’s education program would be among those helping out.
Drama co-ordinator Judith McLean said her area would be participating in a number of areas at the festival, including a section called “Warning, small parts”.
“We are working in schools prior to the festival with primary school children
Team comes out of box for children’s fest
who are coming to the show,” Ms McLean said.
“They will create a match box (containing) a treasured object, and the many hundreds of matchboxes will be assembled at QPAT to honour the children’s process as part of the show.”
Ms McLean said she was delighted that QUT would have a strong showing at Out of the Box, which is the only festival of its kind in the world.
“This festival provides an opportunity for kids to have their first public arts experience,” she said.
“It’s a very positive thing that the Government and major sponsors are doing to foster the audience of today, and it’s great that QUT is involved.”
Staff from QUT’s Academy of the Arts dance area, led by Kristen Bell, will run a free dance workshop for children as part of the festival.
During November and December, QUT Academy of the Arts students on the eve of their professional careers will showcase their talents through performance, exhibitions and events.
The Showcase Season will feature work in dance, visual arts, acting and communication design.
See Inside QUT on-line at http://
www.corpcomm.qut.edu.au/insidequt/
index.html for more details or phone the Academy of the Arts on (07) 3864 5998.
T
he university is preparing for its largest ever summer program this year, with more than 2,000 students expected to enrol to study over the break.Summer program co-ordinator Linda Clay said more than 200 units at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels would be offered across the university’s eight faculties, giving many students the chance to fast-track or streamline their studies.
“QUT’s summer program has grown over the past four years so that it is now becoming a feature in the academic calendar,” Ms Clay said.
“It is a practical option for students who want to make up time, finish early, repeat a unit or lighten next year’s work load by taking extra subjects.”
Ms Clay said QUT’s summer program would be held over 12 weeks from November 20 to February 16.
She said that, for the first time this year, students and staff could view the full range of units available at the summer program website at http://www.
publications.qut.edu.au/pubs/summer/
“We are constantly updating the site as new units become available,” Ms Clay said. “Enrolment information and fee structures are also detailed on the site, so it should be the first port of call for all students considering summer study.”
Business student Di Hempenstall will use QUT’s summer program this year to complete one subject and finish her degree.
“Summer school is fabulously convenient for me, because what would normally have taken until next July is going to be finished by February,” Ms Hempenstall said.
“It’s a really productive use of time, and convenience is key.”
Summer program hots up for QUT
Business student Di Hempenstall sees the summer program as a productive use of her time.
Enterprise bargaining update
Multiple talents
showcased
A recent visit from four University of Auckland students to QUT’s School of Mathematical Sciences may be the start of a regular trans-Tasman exchange program.
The students are all studying statistics and came to QUT to gain consultation experience – and agreed the two-week secondment was invaluable.
Jessica Chen and David Shaw have been working on a project with a clinician at the Prince Charles Hospital as part of an international World Health Organisation study.
The students looked at a survey of 24,000 Sydneysiders who were classified according to their drinking habits.
They were interested in what factors doctors used to classify their patients and recommend intervention programs.
“The aim was to determine whether the right people were being recommended
for intervention methods and then what chance the needy would (have to) receive intervention,” Mr Shaw said.
The other pair of students, Matthias Budinger and Steve Su, worked with the Department of Natural Resources.
Mr Budinger looked at the impact of tree clearing on a species of plant called the macrozamia.
Mr Su looked at the environmental variables that would be important in predicting the impact of increasing the amount of remnant vegetation during tree clearing.
Senior lecturer in the School of Mathematical Sciences Kerrie Mengersen said it was a major step forward for QUT to host the students from Auckland as they came from one of the largest and most-respected statistics schools in the southern hemisphere.
Auckland uni visit adds up
Book digs for gold
television and radio for information about the day’s events.
“Their level of familiarity with what was going on in the world and the latest trends was limited, yet it’s becoming more and more important for all of us to keep up with the massive changes that are taking place around us,” he said.
Cyber Gold Rush describes changes to the role of teachers, and to the world of work in an increasingly technological age.
It also simplifies the jargon in explaining such topics as genetic engineering and human cloning.
Education dean Professor Vi McLean
Page 9 INSIDE QUT October 17-November 20, 2000
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QUT Registrar Ken Baumber said it was likely that the university Council would ask the Student Guild to review its processes for appointing electoral officers after controversy surrounding this month’s poll.
Following the exclusion of two student groups by electoral officer Lisa Banyard, a protest was held at Gardens Point campus the day before polling commenced, calling for the de- politicisation of student elections.
The exclusions left just one party, FAME, eligible to run in the elections, and they will take up office in 2001 after being voted in following last week’s count.
A
buse via e-mail is on the increase, and QUT’s Division of Information and Academic Services is responding with a campaign to reduce inappropriate use among students.The division’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor Tom Cochrane said that, as the use of electronic mail increased, so too did incidences of “nuisance” e-mails, inappropriate communication and – in extreme cases – e-mail stalking.
Mr Cochrane said that, while this problem was a trend in wider society, it was prominent in organisations with a younger population such as schools and universities.
He said his division would soon launch a campaign to raise awareness among students of their responsibilities as IT users. A staff campaign will follow.
“Because e-mail offers the opportunity for person-to-person contact but without having to face the person, there is a tendency to feel able to say things and make observations which one wouldn’t normally,” Mr Cochrane said.
“I think that’s particularly true of people who are still learning the rules of social engagement so I suppose that schools, universities and institutions like this are going to have that kind of phenomenon.”
Mr Cochrane said misuse of e-mail at QUT took many forms, with the most common breaches of the university’s IT rules and guidelines being:
• sending spam (unwanted mail) to subject or course lists;
• sending chain mail;
• not securing passwords;
• and sending an abusive or offensive e-mail to individuals or discussion lists.
“There are more serious cases where people actually harass other individuals, either in a fairly general but unpleasant way, or in a much more targeted, specific way.
“We had a case at QUT earlier this year, for example, where a lecturer received unpleasant and offensive e- mails from a student and that student was expelled from university.”
Mr Cochrane said it was important for anyone who received an abusive e- mail to report the incident right away to QUT’s postmaster who could investigate the matter and take immediate action if necessary.
He said QUT’s Equity section could offer support to people who may be the target of racial or otherwise discriminatory comments, and students could also have some recourse through their faculty or student ombudsman.
Mr Cochrane said it was important for the QUT community to realise that a breach of rules could lead to serious disciplinary action.
“We can take a variety of actions starting with a warning and then (short- or long-term) suspension of an account.”
Mr Cochrane said that two of the most common guidelines that were ignored – often unconsciously – were students giving other people access to their accounts, or leaving computers unattended with e-mail accounts open.
“We realise that, among friends in particular, the idea of giving someone else your password just so they can do something for you is probably something many people would think is harmless,” he said.
“But if that person then used that account to protect their own identity in order to achieve some less savoury end, then there is clearly a problem.”
Statistics recorded in August show QUT’s central mail server processes around 200,000 messages each day.
Machines allocated to students register between 800 and 1,100 log-ins hourly between 9am and 4pm most weekdays.
QUT’s IT guidelines are on the web at http://www.qut.edu.au/ltd/qut/pubs/
mopp under Appendix 1.
‘E-abuse’ targeted
Richard Lio added a bit of culture to the launch of the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering’s mentor scheme last month with a demonstration of Crane martial arts. The scheme, which has begun to match new international students with second- and third- year “buddies” encourages students to share experiences, develop new skills, learn about new cultures, and widen social and
professional networks. E-mail Anne-Marie McArdle at [email protected] for more information.
Cultural launch for mentoring scheme
More than 300 final-year QUT students were among the first to sit the Federal Government’s new Graduate Skills Assessment (GSA) on October 14.
The three-hour written and multiple- choice test was designed by the Australian Council of Education Research for the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA).
It is being administered this month to more than 6,000 final-year students in 23 universities across the country.
Participating students will receive a certificate of employability along with ratings in four areas: written communication, critical thinking, problem solving and interpersonal understandings.
Director of QUT’s Academic Policy and Programs unit, Dr Don Field, said the GSA would be voluntary from next year for students in first and final years, and would provide useful information for students and the university.
“The test will give students a piece of paper that says they have skills that are useful in the workplace,” Dr Field said.
“For the university, once the test is happening at the start and end of courses, we can get some idea of the value we are adding for students during their degrees.”
While this first test was funded by DETYA – with support for students outside the Government quota provided by QUT – the test will cost students
$23 each from next year.
Students sit first graduate skills test
Guild elections create some controversy
The protesters – led by one of the two excluded groups, Integrity – called on students to boycott the election after it was alleged that Ms Banyard had an affiliation with the Labor Party, and that FAME was an ALP-aligned team.
Guild general secretary Fiona Maxwell said the guild’s legal advice was that the electoral officer had complied with the constitution in her decision not to accept the two nominations.
Ms Maxwell said the guild had been informed that Ms Banyard made the decision not to accept one of the nominations as it was not completed and delivered in time, and the other as it did not meet registration requirements.
Mr Baumber said QUT Council was reviewing proposed changes to the Guild’s constitution including the clause relating to the appointment of the electoral officer.
“Concerns have been expressed that the current process – which merely has the guild council appointing an electoral officer with no criteria establishing the credentials for the position, and with no other parties involved in the process – may lead in the future to the kind of accusations of bias which have featured strongly in the recent election,” Mr Baumber said.
“The university council will be discussing this issue at its meeting this week.”
Members of student group Integrity urged students to boycott the allegedly fraudulent guild elections at a recent protest.