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WORONI The Australian National University Newspaper Since 1948
Inward Bound runsintotrouble FERGUS HUNTER Interhall sports’ most iconic event has been excluded from the Interhall Sports Shield. In the event’s 50th year more than 50 percent of competing teams did not finish, and an independent inquiry will be conducted by the University into the events’ failure. The event began at 7pm on Friday 30th March, when the first teams signed in at Bruce Hall, and did not finish until approximately 3.30am on Sunday 1st April when the last team arrived at End Point, located at Majors Creek Oval south of Braidwood. Given the extent of the large number of team withdrawals and recoveries (teams who required assistance completing the course), as well as the potential storm created by disqualifications and consequent appeals, the
Interhall Sports Organisation decided to exclude the entire event from the Sports Shield. No points were awarded to any teams. 32 out of the 63 teams did not finish – the vast majority of them being in divisions 1 to 4 – and the longest time any team spent on the course was 28 hours. Inward Bound co-ordinator Victor White (who is also an Editor of Woroni) has accepted full responsibility for how events unfolded, and apologised to competitors. Mr White outlined the three mistakes he felt were made by the IB Committee: the length and navigation difficulty of courses, oversights on the exclusion map (the map given to competitors that displays out-of-bounds areas and checkpoints) and the location at which division 4
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URSIES DIV 4
(FENNER HALL) FENNER DIV 1
GRIFFIN DIV 2 JOHNS DIV 6
BRUCE DIV 3
WHERE THEY ENDED UP // ILLUSTRATION: TOM WESTLAND
was dropped. According to Mr White, “the exclusion map was set far too late, and contained a key error.” The failure to mark the checkpoint at Lower Boro meant that a crucial navigational aid – that was also a requirement by the NSW Police and Palerang Shire Council – was not known to competitors. Without being directed down Lower Boro Rd and then Hazeldell and
Mullon to then cross the Kings Highway, navigation was made next to impossible, especially for divisions 1 to 4. Mr White added, “the wording on the exclusion map was also not what it needed to be. It was ambiguous at best, slightly deceptive at worst.”
Anger grows at Young’s cuts CONTINUED P4
But rally against fee cuts divides undergrad & postgrad student groups ANGUS MINNS
ANU students and staff will rally today against the $40 million budget cut proposal made by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Young. However, students and student groups are divided about the aims and potential benefits of today’s rally. Concerns have been raised about the rally occurring before details of the cuts have been decided or at least made public. The public consultation period, announced by Professor Young at the initial press conference, officially ended last Friday. Chancelry has yet to make any public announcement on the outcome of this process.
Professor Young has previously announced that $25 million of the cuts will come from staff reductions. ANU Students Association (ANUSA) President, Dallas Proctor said that ANUSA was supporting the rally because “students need to show the Chancelry that we are not happy about the prospect of big cuts.” ANUSA is aiming to highlight the level of concern “about the whole process” and get “the message across to the University that areas affecting undergraduates are off limits.” In contrast, president of the Postgraduate and Research Student’s Association (PAR-
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SA), Areti Metuamate, said that PARSA’s council has decided to “wait before getting involved in the campaign and rally” until more “concrete information” is available. At the time of writing, Mr Metuamate said he had only heard from two postgraduate students asking him to support the rally. All others he had spoken to think “PARSA should ‘wait and see’ before we get involved further.” Mr Metuamate also said that he had several “irate” phone calls from staff accusing him of being a “sellout” for not participating in the rally. In response to these phone calls, Mr Metuamate said “I’m not going to be bullied by anyone into taking a particular stance” and emphasised that he represents the interests “of postgraduate and research students at ANU, not staff.” Stephen Darwin, the ACT Division Secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) told Woroni that he hoped today’s rally would “highlight the risk” posed by the Vice-Chancellor’s “ill-conceived ‘repositioning’ strategy” to the “quality and diversity of ANU teaching and research.” In response to suggestions that the rally was premature, Mr Darwin said it was taking place at “exactly the time to stop this strategy
before it causes real damage to the university.” ANUSA President, Dallas Proctor echoed these sentiments stating that “once something concrete is announced (even if it is just ‘proposed’), it becomes infinitely more difficult to stop” and that students cannot afford to “wait it out.” Mr Metuamate said that while PARSA acknowledges the NTEU’s “right to represent their members in whatever way they believe is appropriate”, it would be “premature” for PARSA to be involved in the rally before information on the cuts is released. When Woroni asked these organisations whether they had any knowledge of areas likely to be affected by the cuts, they all said they had no official information. Although the overall consultation process has not finished and the university has not made any decisions about which areas will face cuts, rumours are swirling that the College of Arts and Social Sciences will be hit particularly hard by Chancelry’s budget measures. Mr Darwin stated whilst the Vice-Chancellor had not specified to him any information on areas likely to be impacted, the NTEU did
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