Staff Student Liaison Committee - Meeting Notes

Notes from Department of Civil Engineering Student Staff Liaison Committee Meeting Tuesday 13 August 2002 1 pm

Present

Students
Andrew Reeves BE/BCom 4th Year
Drew Woodhouse BE/BCom 4th Year
Nathan Clarke BE 3rd year
Brendan Walsh BE 3rd year
2nd year rep ?? not present
Josh Baker BE 1st Year not present - apology given
Emily Burton BE 1st Year

Staff
Rob Wheen 1st advisor & HOD
Noel Ings 2nd Year Advisor
David Airey 3rd Year Advisor
Kim Rasmussen 4th Year Advisor
George Slack Civil Engineering Foundation Officer
Tim Wilkinson Civil Engineering Webmaster
Tmne Blair Undergraduate Student Advisor


1. Welcome: The Head of Department, Rob Wheen, welcomed all members, particularly new second year student members, Nathan and Brendan.

2. Student elections: The students had held elections for year reps in the last week
1st year - Emily Burton & Josh Baker (reelected)
2nd year - results unknown
3rd year - Nathan Clarke & Brendan Walsh
4th year - Drew Woodhouse & Andrew Reeves

3. Matters arising from last meeting May 2002 - see last meeting notes

Union Catering shop - no one had approached Rob Wheen re the catering.

Private tutoring by later year students: There was a long discussion on later year students tutoring earlier year students. Rob Wheen expressed concerns about such a scheme in that the department should not be seen to be providing any guarantee about the quality of the service provided, and also of the use of university facilities for the personal (financial) gain of students. At the previous SSLC meeting it was mooted that this should be discussed amongst the academic staff (which it has not yet been done). Postscript: The student society SUCE has subsequently initiated a scheme advertised via the bulletin board and noticeboards/common room.

4. Hawkins Lab
Tim Wilkinson spoke of the new access arrangements for the Hawkins Lab - PIN required during business hours and card access after hours. It was acknowledged that the department had made some mistakes in setting up the original policy - with fees - but the intent was to provide some security for both the occupants and the equipment. It was agreed that the new procedure with a PIN was much better. It was also noted that more new PCS had been installed, and more would be installed later in the semester along with a scanner and new printer.

Drew Woodhouse mentioned the need for more "commercial" software that students might be using when they get a job (eg MS Project and Space Gas). Tim Wilkinson replied that Microstran (similar to Space Gas) was about to be installed, but that MS Project was not part of the uni wide MS site licence. He also noted as part of the sesqui-centenary money, they were planning to get some Matlab licences. It was also stressed that a key educational aim of the degrees was to provide the theory behind the programs, and not necessarily provide training in specific commercial software packages - due to the large variety available. However, within reason, the department would try to make available as much relevant software as possible - especially if could be obtained cheaply (or free) via an academic or shareware licence.

5. Course review -
Rob Wheen mentioned that the department was about to undertake a comprehensive course review by a mail out survey of recent graduates & employers. David Airey mentioned that the current undergraduate student body would be consulted via the use of (probably) 2 focus groups, each about 12 students (1st/2nd & 3rd/4th) to be facilitated by Centre for Teaching & Learning. There was brief discussion on how to ensure that the groups would be representative.

6. Paddle Pop Bridge - Rob Wheen mentioned that the paddle pop bridge competition would be held on Sat 28 Sept.

7. AOB - Laptops - Andrew Reeves asked if special laptop ports could be installed in the department so students could use them at various locations. Tim Wilkinson referred to some problems such as appropriate network settings and downloads but would investigate.

8. AOB - 4th year electives - There was some discussion that students did not know about what electives they could take in 4th year. Rob Wheen mentioned that he would repeat the lunchtime series later in the year (similar to last year) in which all academics spoke briefly about electives.

9. AOB - Enrolments/Flexsis - Some 4th year students were having problems with Flexsis and electives when this was pushing them over the 192 credit point limit. Tmne said she would investigate.

10. AOB - Common Room - George Slack noted that the microwave oven in the common room was a serious health hazard, and the students undertook to clean it..

11. AOB - Electronic Bulletin Board - Tmne Blair asked if students were using the electronic bulletin board - http://www.civil.usyd.edu.au/cs_bulletin.php. Some said they had looked at it, but since not many messages were being posted, they didnt bother to check often. Tim Wilkinson noted that the system started in aero eng, and it took about 2 years for the staff and student to get used to using the system.

12. AOB - SUCE BBQ - Drew Woodhouse advised of the SUCE BBQ coming up, and invited all staff.

13. Next meeting - Approximately Tuesday 15 October

Meeting closed at 2 pm