Week of 7 July
My highlights for the week:
- An opportunity arose on Monday for our AVC office’s senior management to discuss priorities for the respective units as well as for the office as a whole. Vision and mission were the topics for discussion.
- It was interesting to facilitate a ‘table discussion’ at the Redefining Governance symposium on Tuesday at the Albany campus which was coordinated by associate professors Grant Duncan and Richard Shaw. The symposium was a great opportunity for thinkers on governance (defined broadly) to come together under one roof. The perspectives ranged from views on university governance structures, to water and governance, to political governance in the Pacific, the latter being my own contribution to the discussion. Of course, governance, like democracy, is contested ground in the social sciences with relativism, cultural and otherwise, being one of the challenges.
- I am in Wellington for meetings with the Centre for Citizenship Education, postgraduate Pacific researchers, Wellington Samoan church leaders, Pasifika staff at the Wellington campus and possibly with the Wellington Tonga Council.
- On Friday I am looking to take part in the NZ Tonga Business, Trade and Investment Forum. The Forum is being organised by the NZ Tonga Business Council – a group that is quite active in encouraging collaboration and engagement between NZ and Tongan businesses
- Also on Friday, the first lot of interviews for the Executive Assistant to the Pasifika Director, New Migrants Director and Senior Maori Advisor will be conducted. There is a very good field of applicants from which to choose.
Longer view:
- I am giving some thought to the establishment of the Inaugural Annual Pasifika Lectures, possibly in the latter half of the year. The idea is to invite an eminent personality – a senior politician, statesperson, international figure, renowned academic/scholar, prominent traditional leader, a high profile artist or some such person who will be able to speak on a topical Pacific/Pasifika issue. The event could be externally sponsored, broadcast nationally and regionally and so forth, lifting the profile of Massey as a ‘Pacific institution’. I cannot think of a better way to do this than to use these kinds of big-ticket events to lift our profile. (I am thinking of something similar to the Annual Macmillan Brown Lectures that we used to run at the University of Canterbury.) Let me know if you some ideas around this.
Directorate:
- Everyone agreed that the umu on Monday was the best yet. It cooked well, despite the adverse weather, and the food was enjoyed by all. A big thank you to Ben Taufua and the crew for taking the time to bring staff and students together, faafetai tele lava.