Issue 19 - Wednesday 26 September

ACU Update is produced fortnightly for staff, students and friends of Australian Catholic University (ACU). To submit a news article or event, please email editor@acu.edu.au or call 02 9739 2514.

• Graduations in Shanghai
• Indigenous Reflection Space on show at the Brisbane Campus
• ‘Community Engagement' defined
• Dynamic learning sessions blend Eastern and Western medical techniques
• Students meet poet and novelist
• Sydney Spring Graduation
  
• 2008 Fulbright Senior Specialist Program applications open
• Icon exhibition opens
• Global focus at social justice forum
• A moral and ethical education for the 21st century
• National showcase of talent
  
• Critical literacy self study course available
• Trip to the Holy Land
• Festival highlights young talent
• National research seminar
• ACU WIRED Radio trial run
  
• Upcoming Events

Graduations in Shanghai

Strong relations between ACU and the Shanghai Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS), within Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (SJTUSM), were celebrated at a recent graduation ceremony in Shanghai, China.

Eight Master's of Nursing graduands who studied at the Brisbane Campus (McAuley at Banyo) attended the ceremony, along with Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Sheehan AO and SIHS SJTUSM President Xiang Qian Wu. Dean of Health Sciences Professor Pauline Nugent, Associate Dean Dr Karen Flowers and Head of the School of Nursing (Queensland) Dr Jennifer Kelly were among the Australian contingent.

SIHS is recognised by the Chinese government as an “institute of excellence” in the field of nursing and has a reputation for its leadership in advancing nursing education in China. Since 2001, through a number of short-term programs and the Master's of Nursing program, ACU has trained a large number of China's senior nursing staff.

Relationships between the two institutions are expected to strengthen further through the adoption of a formal agreement in the near future.

Indigenous Reflection Space on show at the Brisbane Campus

The Indigenous Reflection Space at the Brisbane Campus (McAuley at Banyo) was on show today as part of the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education's Places and spaces for learning program.

“The Indigenous Reflection Space is used creatively for teaching and learning while retaining respect for the spiritual purpose,” said Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Quality and Outreach) Professor John O'Gorman.

“For non-Indigenous students, staff and visitors, it provides a learning space that allows them to understand better the concepts of Indigenous cultures and spirituality.”

Also selected for showcasing by the Institute is the nursing laboratory at the North Sydney Campus (MacKillop), featuring the Virtual Health Environment, which has been awarded an ACU Teaching and Learning Enhancement Scheme grant and a Carrick Citation. It will be open for viewing on Thursday 27 September.

For more information on the Places and spaces for learning program please visit http://www.carrickinstitute.edu.au/carrick/webdav/site/carricksite/users/siteadmin/public/grants_event_placesandspaces_flyer_july07.pdf

‘Community Engagement' defined

Community engagement will be one of the themes of the Australian Universities Quality Agency audit of ACU in 2008.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Quality and Outreach) Professor John O'Gorman has announced that the University's Core Planning Group and Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Sheehan AO have recently adopted the following definition of community engagement.

“Community engagement is the process through which the University brings the capabilities of its staff and students to work collaboratively with community groups and organisations to achieve mutually agreed goals that build capacity, improve well-being, and produce just and sustainable outcomes in the interests of people, communities, and the University,” Professor O'Gorman said.

“The University values community engagement as:
- a key means of advancing its Mission in serving the common good and enhancing the dignity and well-being of people and communities, especially those most marginalised and disadvantaged;
- integral to its teaching, learning and research; and
- affirming relationships that depend on trust and genuine partnerships with community organisations, institutions and corporations.”

Visit http://www.acu.edu.au/community_engagement for more information about the University's Institute for Advancing Community Engagement and other community engagement news.

Dynamic learning sessions blend Eastern and Western medical techniques

Leading international neurologist and founder of the Learning Enhanced Acupressure Program (LEAP) Dr Charles Krebs has conducted dynamic learning sessions for education students and staff at the Ballarat Campus (Aquinas).

LEAP is a non-invasive individualised program combining Western and Eastern medical techniques, which re-organises brain neurology to give individuals full access to their potential abilities. In particular, LEAP can be used to correct a variety of learning problems at their biological root or to enhance and fine tune already functional individuals. Dr Krebs provided inspiring examples of students whose learning difficulties had been assessed through LEAP and who were now leading full and rewarding lives.

Dr Krebs' session was particularly relevant for professional experience programs, in which students work with children who have varieties of learning styles and some specific learning difficulties.

Students meet poet and novelist

School of Arts and Sciences Associate Professor Michael Griffith, a former literature student of internationally acclaimed poet and novelist David Malouf at the University of Sydney in the late 1960s, has had the privilege of hosting David Malouf as a guest lecturer for literature students at the Strathfield Campus (Mount saint Mary) every year for the past five years.

“David brings a unique spiritual insight into the importance of the creative imagination in modern times,” Associate Professor Griffith said. “He clearly touches students to the core of their own search for meaning, both through his fiction and through his powerful personal presentations. Students flock to David for signatures in their copies of his novels after his lectures.”

This year the focus was on Malouf's profound novel about contemporary Australian experience, The great world.

David Malouf

Sydney Spring Graduation

Staff are invited to assist at the 2007 Sydney Spring Graduation ceremony to be held at Sydney Town Hall on Thursday 4 October from 2pm.

Philanthropist Mr Rino Grollo will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate and give the occasional address at the ceremony.

Academic staff are invited to take part in the stage procession, while administrative staff are encouraged to volunteer to register graduates and greet and host guests on the day.

For more information, to register as a member of the procession or to volunteer for other duties, please contact Nicole Alsemgeest at nicole.alsemgeest@acu.edu.au or on (02) 9701 4231.

2008 Fulbright Senior Specialist Program applications open

Academic staff, faculty heads and colleagues are invited to apply for US “senior specialists” to visit ACU for between two and six weeks under the 2008 Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.

Organised by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, the program allows Australian educational institutions to exchange expertise and build collaboration linkages with US professionals. The program aims to encourage collaboration on curriculum, faculty and research development, while building long term institutional linkages.

The grant provides an international airfare and $US200 a day honourarium. The host is expected to provide local transport, accommodation and meals in Australia. Applications close on Monday 15 October.

Visit http://www.fulbright.com.au for more information including application forms.

Icon exhibition opens

At the recent opening of an icon exhibition, The Art of the Icon Writer IV, at the Melbourne Campus (St Patrick's), Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Affairs) Professor Gabrielle McMullen welcomed the Very Rev Archpriest Associate Professor Lawrence Cross and the Most Reverend Bishop Hilarion, Russian Orthodox Bishop of Vienna and Austria and the Patriarch of Moscow's representative to the European Institutions.

The exhibition was opened in conjunction with the Orientale Lumen: Australasian and Oceania III conference.

“The University is proud to be hosting both the conference and this icon exhibition, the purposes of which is so much in harmony with the University's participation in a rich intellectual and cultural tradition,” said Professor McMullen.

“The arts are of great importance to the University. Support for and fostering of the arts and artists are commitments we uphold, including through our own arts programs … The links between the arts and the church are long-standing and have brought mutual enrichment.”

Global focus at social justice forum

ACU's Institute for Advancing Community Engagement (IACE) recently hosted a social justice forum at the Strathfield Campus (Mount Saint Mary) to discuss Australia's role in the world.

Professor of Law Frank Brennan SJ AO and Visiting Professor Duncan MacLaren of Glasgow, Scotland discussed the Catholic Bishops of Australia's latest Social Justice Sunday Statement, Who is my neighbour? Australia's role as a global citizen.

Australians have a responsibility to be good global citizens by thinking beyond national borders, according to the Bishops' statement, which calls for Australians to address, both personally and through public policy, the needs of people in neighbouring countries – particularly those that do not share Australia's prosperity and security.

The statement will also be considered on Social Justice Sunday, to be held this year on Sunday 30 September. Visit www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au for details.

A moral and ethical education for the 21st century

Professor of Law Frank Brennan SJ AO recently gave the keynote address at a conference Reinventing Schooling for the 21st Century, held at Loreto Normanhurst, a Catholic secondary boarding and day school for girls, in Sydney.

“In our increasingly globalised world, we and our students need to be educated into acknowledging the interdependence of our situation with the situation of others who do not enjoy our peace, security and abundance,” Professor Brennan said. “We need to take a stand in solidarity, overcoming the social isolation imposed by our privileged place of peace, security and abundance …

“When our graduates reflect with integrity and constancy on the loss, pain and the journeys we all need to make towards each other, they do us proud as the builders and sustainers of school communities ‘within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained' no matter how dark the times, nor long the tunnel.

Please visit http://www.loretonh.nsw.edu.au/Loreto_Conference/Conference_docs.htm to view podcasts or download speeches from the conference.

Professor Frank Brennan

National showcase of talent

ACU Alive - the University's national showcase of dance, visual arts, music and drama - will take place at the Strathfield Campus (Mount Saint Mary) on Friday 28 September at 5pm.

Featuring students from all campuses, the annual event will also include the launch of the university's online radio network, ACU Wired, at 7pm.

Staff or students wishing to attend can contact the Strathfield Campus Student Association (SCSA) on (02) 9701 4265. Tickets are $10 for ACU students and $15 for non-students.

As a demonstration of the University's commitment to its Mission, the majority of proceeds will be donated to help support higher education for East Timorese teachers.

Critical literacy self study course available

The Academic Skills Unit has produced the latest in its series of self study courses on the WebCT platform. Critical literacy is aimed at supporting student learning in education and English literature.

Staff are invited to contact Wai-Leng Wong on 02 9701 4087 or at w.wong@.mary.acu.edu.au for more information.

Trip to the Holy Land

Staff, students and friends of ACU are invited to take part in a trip to the Holy Land in November. In some cases, students may gain credit for participation, but they are advised to confirm this with their course coordinators in advance.

The 14-day Footsteps of Jesus tour of Israel and Jordan, departing 21 November 2008, will be led by the University's Institute for the Advancement of Research Senior Fellow Dr Abe Ata, who has lived and taught in universities in Australia, the US, Jordan, the West Bank and Denmark.

“To see the land of the Bible, to walk where Jesus walked, as well as to experience the rich mixture of modern life in the Middle East, is an eye-opening experience and will undoubtedly give you a Bible reading transformation” Dr Ata said.

To express interest and for more information, contact Dr Ata at abe.ata@acu.edu.au or on (03) 9953 3153.

Festival highlights young talent

The Brisbane Campus (McAuley at Banyo) recently played host to some of the city's finest young vocal talent at the seventh annual Young Voices Festival.

The Festival showcased the vocal talents of five- to nine-year-old choristers from the Young Conservatorium Melodic Minors, the Brisbane Birrallee Voices Piccolos and the Queensland Youth Choir's Poco Voci.

A guest performance by Brisbane Grammar School's middle school choir was also a feature of the event.

National research seminar

ACU's Institute of Business and Informatics will hold a national research seminar on Friday 5 October from 3pm to 5pm.

Visiting academics Professor Kerry Jacobs from Australian National University and his co-authors from Monash University, Harry Ballis and Les Hardy, will present their paper, The prophet and the account: Accounting in the sacred of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

To take part in the seminar, go to room AB.32 at the Brisbane Campus (McAuley at Banyo); room 3.23 at the Strathfield Campus (Mount Saint Mary); room C1.9 at the North Sydney Campus (MacKillop); room 214 at the Ballarat Campus (Aquinas); or room 4.18 at the Melbourne Campus (St Patrick's).

ACU WIRED Radio trial run

ACU WIRED Radio had it's first trial run today with Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Sheehan and the Dean of Students Tim O' Hearn being interviewed by our resident student DJs, Teresa Georges and Spencer Jarratt of the Strathfield Campus (Mount Saint Mary). The Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Sheehan and the Dean of Students Tim O' Hearn were asked about their favourite music. The new radio station will be officially launched on Friday 28 September in the Gleeson Auditorium, Strathfield Campus (Mount Saint Mary) at 7pm.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Sheehan cutting the ribbon to launch the new ACU Radio

DJs Spencer Jarrett and Teresa Georges

Upcoming Events

Details on these and other upcoming events can be found at www.acu.edu.au/events

Promote your event by listing it on the myACU events section and by emailing details to editor@acu.edu.au.