News 5/7 – SIT Hostel Scandal, Titanium Centre and Aoraki’s New Managers

July 5th 2010 at 7:36am, By Dave Guerin

SIT Hostel Scandal The drama goes on, with conflicts of interest now alleged in the maintenance/quality problems at SIT’s associated Grand Hall of Residence. To be honest, the whole affair looks like a colossal muck-up by SIT, which has been slow to deal with this issue over the last few days. Last week SIT CE Penny Simmonds said that if students were unhappy with how the management were dealing with the hostel, they should complain to Patsy Eade at SIT. The only problem is that Patsy Eade is apparently in a relationship with the hostel manager and they’re both in Europe on holiday together. Now if that’s all true, as reported by The Southland Times, what on earth was Penny thinking and why didn’t she manage the apparent conflict of interest?
Aoraki’s New Managers Aoraki Polytechnic has announced 5 new heads of school after a restructuring. 3/5 are external appointments and none of them are from the tertiary education sector (one is from a secondary school).
Titanium Strength The Applied Powder Metallurgy Centre at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic was launched last week by Wayne Mapp, who said it would “be the innovative hub of New Zealand’s emerging titanium industry”, which the government has put $8m into (the wider industry, that is). It’s been covered by NBR, SunLive (which also had some video and praise from the local MP) and the Bay of Plenty Times. Finally, a press release was put out by the facility managers.
S Korea LinksThe University of Auckland is looking for partnerships with South Korea to match Akld’s healthcare expertise with Korea’s ICT strengths. Robotic caregivers are one option.
Conference Season Queer students converged on Christchurch for a conference, while next week Dunedin will host an NZUSA and a ICT education conference.
ITP $$ The Nelson Mail is supportive of NMIT in its financial struggles via a rather meandering editorial. Meanwhile, Otago Polytechnic has revised its 2010 budget surplus upwards by $250K.
Wedding Prize An Otago Polytechnic student won a fashion prize in Italy for her wedding dress.
Undie 500 Local MP Colin King has jumped on the Undie 500 bandwagon over its proposed Kaikoura location.
UCOL Exhibition Here’s a pleasant story about the motivations behind a new exhibition by UCOL students.
Passionate Researcher The ODT has a story on a passionate University of Otago academic (based in Wellington) who is putting his own money on the line in a race to develop a cure for Type 2 diabetes.
Star Factory The University of Auckland’s Dept of Film, TV and Media Studies is celebrating its 10th birthday and reeling off its successes.