Dear Colleagues

Before we head off for a well-deserved short break, here is a belated update, with some positive news.

Building

After considerable discussion we have received final approval for the Building Renovation Budget.  The approved Budget includes an extra $5M (on top of the already awarded amount of $25M).  It encompasses the full upgrade and reconfiguration of offices and corridors in the three wings of the building, including the enclosure of the ground floor cloisters.

In addition, the single storey extension to the North Wing of the building (which includes the offices occupied by the NJCA), will be demolished and replaced by a new, larger single storey structure that contains purpose-built teaching spaces – including a new moot court – that link into the Fellows Road Law Theatres, thus providing a Law teaching precinct.  The NJCA will be relocated to new office space on the ground floor of the North Wing.

The University’s funding process has required some cost cutting, so the proposed ground floor café and the two new storeys of office space above the new single storey structure have unfortunately had to be sacrificed to ensure the remainder of our plans are able to go ahead.

The next step is to finalise the architectural plans for the ground floor of the North Wing and the detailed decanting plans and dates for moving out of the North Wing.

College structure

The University Executive has endorsed the proposal to restructure the College’s organisation, and the creation of the two Schools.  There are some procedural matters that need to be attended to before we can move to implementation of the proposal, about which I am seeking advice.  I will keep you posted.

Appointment Round

We have also been given approval to proceed with a Law School academic appointment round.  Details of this will be circulated shortly.

Other than that, the discussion at Executive meetings has involved discussion about the draft Strategic Plan (circulated previously), the usual monitoring of enrolments across our teaching programs (noting very positive numbers in the GDLP), and the upcoming roll-out of the new laptop computer fleet (this should occur within the next month so stay tuned for details).

Regards, Stephen