News 23/7 – Massey Shuts Door! SIT Shuts Gate! Talkback Radio Gets New Topic!

July 23rd 2010 at 9:02am, By Dave Guerin

Massey Shuts Door Grant Robertson (Labour) wrote last night that Massey had closed the door on summer school enrolments, because they had reached their funding cap. The Big News blog pointed out that classes that are not full (and many won’t be, given the previous closing date was November) will not be run. Massey’s announcement is here. The Dom Post has good reaction on the fact that notification was given to staff and on the website (but not to students) at 4.30pm that enrolments were closing at 5pm.It’s all a bit of a cock-up really – they should have just announced that enrolments were closed but someone jumped the gun early.
Alternative Fuel Newswire, a service by Whitireia journalism students, has a story on four Wellington buses that will be running on biodiesel this week developed by Weltec staff and a Hutt Valley company. Lots of photos and detail for the keen.
Loan Problems The Gisborne Herald has a case study of a medical student’s problem with student loan limits – students who do a bachelor’s degree before medical school exceed the undergrad limit by 1 year before he finish. Since the country wants doctors and the limit won’t have any impact for another seven years, somehow I think this problem will be resolved. Labour’s Grant Robertson put out a media release about it, along with local Labour MP Moana Mackey.
SIT Shuts Gate! (On Possums) SIT students have helped to buld possum-proof gates to protect native forest from possums – they’re blocking access to a river crossing (it’s not a gate in the middle of nowhere).
Maori Youth Bay of Plenty Poly ran a forum for Maori youth on Wednesday, in conjunction with local secondary schools, to encourage them to stay in education.
Philanthropy Gus Fisher, a generous contributor to the University of Auckland has died – the University has marked the occasion by listing his impressive contribution.
Dyson Awards There are two links here (with photos) and here on one of the six finalists in the Dyson Design Awards and seemingly the winner of the NZ section (it’s a bit hard to follow).
Study Japan The Japanese Embassy has put out a media release about their government’s support of an NZ student to spend seven weeks researching and learning in Japan.
Digital Editing/Music The University of Canterbury has started a new digital scholarly editing course – it actually does sound quite interesting, so if you like developments in the humanities, read it. In a very slightly related story, Victoria Uni’s Adam Art Gallery is gearing up for an art exhibition looking at the ”material and visual legacy of independent music production and distribution in New Zealand”, leading up to the digital era.
Sexuality Research Will Feed Talkback University of Otago researchers found that “homosexuals, bisexuals and those who identify as heterosexual but who have had same-sex encounters are more likely to have experienced negative events in childhood”. They don’t seem to have provided any rationale for that, but I’m sure it will be all over talkback. The Press published the media release word for word except for the last sentence (who funded the research) and a new headline….the ODT has a much better article, with an interview with the researcher looking at the likely public reaction to the findings.
Using the Weed Waterweed, that is. A Waikato uni researcher has over $100K from FRST to look at using waterweed, from freshwater, as an energy source. Staying on the water topic, Massey has a new professor who will use the “water footprinting” concept.
Demolition and Dresses Otago Poly is starting to demolish some buildings on its art school site as the first stage of a redevelopment. Also, here are some shots of their grads’ recent award-winning fashion - looks pretty good.