School of Social and Cultural Studies

School of Social and Cultural Studies
SCHOOL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
15 th December 2004
2 pm
Organisational and Labour Studies Resource Room,
Social Sciences Extension
Agenda
1. Minutes of previous meeting
(27 th October 2004)
Attached
2. Announcements
- Half Nelson Scholarships
- 2005 SEC dates
- Other
Attached
(SEC dates only)
3. Space allocation Attached
4. 2005 Budget distribution for
- Discipline group operating costs
- Part time teaching
Pending
5. Other business Verbal

School of Social and Cultural Studies
SCHOOL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
15 th December 2004
MINUTES
Present:
Apologies:
Dr. John Gordon (Chair), Philip Etherington, A/Prof. Ian Saunders, , Sue
Lewis, A/Prof. Mike Clare, Dr Bruce Stone, Dr. Martin Forsey, Dr. David
Bourchier, Prof. David Trigger, Rosa Catalano, Dr Tomas Barrett, A/Prof
Michael Pinches, Chantelle Lawson (Secretary)
Dr. Sandra Penrose, Dr. Jane Balme, Dr. Kieran Dolin, Dr. Judy Johnston
1. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
Action
The Minutes of the meeting held 27 th October 2004 were approved as circulated.
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Anthropology Discipline Chair
David Trigger will be replaced by Michael Pinches as discipline chair for 2005. John Gordon
thanked David for his contribution to the School, the SEC and his discipline group.
Half Nelson Scholarships
Nominations for the Half Nelson Scholarships are to be sent to the School office after final results
are released. Each discipline is to send the name and average final year marks of the two top
students (based on final marks) enrolled in honours in 2005.
2005 SEC dates
The nominated 2005 SEC dates were accepted. The time of 2pm-4pm on Wednesdays is to
remain.
Minor Works Proposal
The Chair announced the School’s minor works bid for the undergraduate computer lab was
unsuccessful, however the School has been approached by the Business and Law schools with a
proposal for a joint lab and funding.
Scholarships
The Faculty of Arts received 15 full APAs and 14 half UPAs, a total of 22 scholarships compared
to 25 last year. Fourteen of which were for SSCS applicants. Reserve listed candidates may be
offered a scholarship if successful scholarship winners decline their offer. Arts scholarships were
scaled up 2 points in the ranking process due to the excellent applications. The School and
Faculty need to push for external funding to generate more half scholarships and staff were
encouraged to use their contacts. Half scholarships could be dedicated to a specific area of
research.

First preferences admission
First preferences at the time of the meeting were down 8% across the UWA. Arts is down 9.7%
yet it appears that the fee increases are not affecting preferences. It is likely the TER cut-off will
not change significantly, however it may decrease slightly. The Faculty of Arts received an
additional 20 places for 2005 from Federal funding.
3. SPACE ALLOCATION
There is a shortage of space in the Social Science building due to new positions requiring offices.
After discussion the Chair proposed that rooms not occupied by contract or continuing staff
should be looked at for alternate usage. He proposed that further analysis be done on current
allocations and that one office per discipline be allocated to Honorary staff, which if not required
could be used for postgraduates.
4. 2005 BUDGET DISTRIBUTION
It was agreed that new programmes would to have separate PGs to enable monitoring their
progress. The Chair announced that the School is seriously disadvantaged by changes in salary
supplementation. The 2005 budget distribution was developed using student/staff ratio measures.
The distribution of operating costs was opened for discussion and the impact on disciplines of the
different ways of calculating was discussed. School unit weighting was used as DEST does not
make a recommendation on the specific weighting for internal distribution. The Chair’s
recommendation of using the Fixed and Variable Basis distribution was accepted.
The Chair recommended the Adjusted SS Ratio distribution for teaching costs. There were
concerns over the adequacy of part-time teaching funds. The possibility of external funding for
fellowship appointments was discussed. It was agreed that the adjusted SS figures would be used
for the distribution of teaching costs.
5. OTHER BUSINESS
There being no other business, the meeting concluded at 3:30 pm.
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