Positive result for Arts
A good deal of pain has been felt in many areas of the University as a result of funding cuts. Their impact on the Arts Faculty attracted a lot of publicity, much of it based on inaccurate information. This was distracting and unsettling for those who were involved in or affected by the task of bringing the Arts budget under control. The Arts Faculty has put forward a series of measures for major savings without requiring the level of redundancies that some commentators had predicted, rather achieving them through secondment, fractional appointments and redundancy. By approaching the task creatively, the Faculty has found solutions that maintain teaching in threatened areas, broaden some courses, strengthen staffing in some areas and continue course majors in five of the six languages taught in the Faculty. A new Languages Institute will supply fee-paying courses for clients outside the University and a new language, Dutch, will be introduced through the Institute. Although the Faculty is unable to commit itself to funding Russian after the end of this year, it has appealed for assistance from people who might be able to save the program. The Faculty will still provide more weekly tutorials than do some other Australian universities. Staff to student ratios will remain lower than at most other Australian universities. There are further savings that will have to be found, but these initial measures demonstrate that the task can be approached creatively. The problems facing the Arts Faculty were not unique to the ANU. Arts Faculties at many other Australian universities face similar problems. At some, the measures taken to bring their budgets into balance are far more draconian. At the ANU, Faculties in general have met the challenge and it is a matter for congratulation that the Arts Faculty has now addressed its budgetary problems positively. While these challenges, faced by all areas of the University, have been demanding, they have given us all a timely occasion for reassessment. We have had to reassess how the University can provide Faculties with the best administrative and technical support. It is important that Deans of Faculties have the capacity and clarity to handle their budget responsibilities. I established a working party to assist me in providing the Finance Committee with advice on changes to ensure that Deans are properly empowered to carry out their budgetary responsibilities. It held extensive discussions with Deans, the Director, Canberra School of Art and the senior staff of the Business Management Group to determine the optimal arrangements for providing essential financial information to Deans and to examine the role of the Business Management Group in staffing, in space and facilities management and in educational/information technology support. As a result of the recommendations of the working party, a new team-based structure was put in place on June 1, which will facilitate the coordinated delivery of a range of services to the Deans, Faculties and designated centres. We are all facing up to the challenge of putting the University on a sound basis and ensuring that the appropriate support systems are in place. The University will be enhanced as a result of the constructive energy people are putting into this. Deane Terrell