Fresh sense of hope as new broom looms
It is wonderful that David Murdoch has regained his health but not surprising that he has quit as vice-chancellor.
Despite the platitudes by the chancellor, the last 18 months have been an unmitigated disaster for the University of Otago. A financial mess, chaos and indecision, plunging staff and student morale, decline in Otago’s worldwide academic standing, wasting money on consultants for its controversial "rebranding" and widespread alienation of its alumni.
The University Council will now have a chance to hire a leader who will be dedicated to retaining Otago’s 150 years of traditions, returning its status to a world renowned educational institution, concentrating on improving the quality of teaching and developing students plus research, retrieving the enthusiasm and support of its alumni, properly managing it financial affairs and thinning the top heavy administrative staff.
The financial way forward is obvious but all we hear is that the university is "still studying its options". All crucial administrative decisions and especially any moves to reduce academic staff and to close down or merge departments, should now be put on hold.
Virtuous headline
As someone who is constantly extolling the virtues of the Otago Daily Times to my northern friends I was somewhat disappointed to read the headline (ODT 15.6.23) "Otago Uni VC calls it quits". It seems a rather harsh expression . Please give some credit to Prof Murdoch for having the courage to reassess his priorities given his recent illness. Thankfully his experience and skills will not be lost to the university. Oh, and keep up the good work.
Back to journalism
Your thoughtful editorial "Trusting in the truth’' (14.6.23) maybe stops short of an uncomfortable truth of its own — what happens next for two recently dominant political figures? For Trump we have the tedious and predictable posturing associated with another run at occupying the White House, while for Johnson it's back to doing what he does best — journalism. There's a thought.
The first casualty
It is reported that "Pro-Russia edits at RNZ may have been happening for years". Shock, horror. Rather, is it not true to say that one would be hard-pressed to discover a story about the war in Ukraine on RNZ or any of the rest of the mass media in this country — or of the West generally — that wasn’t in its narrative in fact "Pro-Ukraine" ?
This begs the question: shouldn’t reportage of such a tragic event as a major war involving millions of refugees and tens, even hundreds of thousands of casualties, be conducted with as much regard to stringent journalistic standards of objectivity and of factual integrity as possible?
To their credit RNZ do print the "inappropriate" offending sub edits — which are termed "Kremlin garbage" — as well as the corrections. For the life of this reader, I cannot find any mis-statement of fact in this — so-called — propaganda, this so-called dis-information. It is in the interpretation and relative emphasis upon these and other facts that "pro-Russian" or "pro-Ukrainian" narratives rest.
Hospital planners need to take big picture view
You report upon the dire straits in which some Otago and Southland cancer patients have been finding themselves, unable to afford travelling elsewhere for treatment, and some "making the difficult decision not to have treatment" (ODT 13.6.23). One major reason behind this appalling state is the shortage of radiation oncologists locally.
We need to take a big picture view. Radiation oncologists, like many medical specialists, want to practise where they can use the best facilities, and have access to up-to-date technologies.
In the case of cancer, this includes PET scanning, and the application of theranostics.
This would be a very suitable role for our new hospital to take on board, offering, in the first instance, a theranostic approach to prostate cancer, for which theranostics is now well established, and thus being in a position to move on to other cancers as this science advances.
I have proposed that such a public service could be set up in Dunedin on a national basis, to which patients from around the country, suitably funded, could come. And yet, disgracefully, all we will have in the new hospital is a "shell", an empty space, where, who knows when, a PET scanner might one day come.
I wish the hospital planners would join some rather obvious dots. They save, we pay.
Sensitivity
My morning coffee got snorted all over my keyboard when I read that the University of Otago has just added to its growing list of self-inflicted injuries with the warning that any further inquiries about the cost of the uncompleted sculpture will be regarded as "culturally insensitive".
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