Have your say, launches, Singapore and Solar09

Dear Colleagues,

The Staff Opinion Survey was released today by Stephen Schmideg from Sicore International – the group retained to provide this service for us. We have all received an email from the group with a link to the survey. As Stephen noted, all responses are anonymous. The completed surveys remain the property of Sicore and will never be shared with the University. We will, of course, receive the combined results and while informative at the University level, these are particularly important at the School/Office, Faculty/Division level. I would greatly appreciate it if you would take the time to have your say so that we can work towards achieving a better work environment for all.

Today was an interesting day for a couple of other reasons.

First, the Hon Kate Jones, Queensland Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, visited the Townsville campus to officially open the Campus District Cooling facility. The thermal storage tank that is part of the facility is the largest tank of its type in Australia. It holds a vast quantity of water at 5 degrees C, chilled overnight and pumped around the campus to provide energy efficient air-conditioning. The annual reduction in our emissions as a result of the new system is equivalent to taking 2600 cars off the road. What’s more, the savings for the University as far as the costs of powering the campus are concerned are enormous – at around a 30 percent reduction in costs. All those involved in seeing this project through to completion are to be warmly congratulated. And we are delighted that Ergon Energy plan to partner with JCU and will provide funding in recognition of the saving achieved over the next 5 years.

Second, we launched ResearchOnline@jcu – our new research publications repository. It can be accessed through the website (go to the Library from the front page and see the link there) and means that the work of JCU’s researchers will be readily available to view and/or download. It also means that all our research is discoverable by the major research engines, including Google. Already this accessibility is securing better connectedness – with, for example, the BBC using it to locate a JCU researcher whose work is relevant to a documentary they are making. Theses are also accessible via the site, providing exposure to original work by our talented students. Our colleagues from the Library also revealed that papers in the repository have a higher citation rate than those that are not in the repository. Citations are important for building research activity and reputation – and for building careers.

Important to also let you know that on the weekend just gone, we held a Graduation Ceremony in Singapore. In all, 320 JCU Singapore graduands were presented with their degrees and diplomas. Always a happy occasion, the enormous diversity of the graduates in terms of their country of origin was particularly striking. Students from Norway to the Maldives to Chile, as well as Singapore, India, China and so many more countries of origin were present on the day. That happy event was followed by a terrific alumni function. Around 250 alums came along. It was easy to see how much these past students enjoyed catching up with their former classmates. Congratulations to the team in Singapore for putting together such wonderful occasions and to Roger Yeldham who organizes, manages and oversees events across JCU so very well.

Finally, back to today, congratulations are due to our colleague Associate Professor Ahmad Zahedi from the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences for organizing ANZSES Solar09 conference being held at Jupiter’s in Townsville. Around 200 delegates from industry, government and academia have come along to examine renewable and clean energy technologies. Expressing leadership in areas of importance to the University is critical for us and a focus on sustainability in this way aligns powerfully with JCU’s strategic intent. Well done Ahmad.

Cheers,
Sandra