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AUTUMN 2005 Vocal victory Lexus Song Quest success Disaster story Foreign aid and the media Design-led future Students take the reins Through our eyes Young Ma– ori picture their world Jo Hoare with a New Zealand common gecko. Photograph: Jo Hoare. Radio gecko They’re quiet, sometimes green, and always hard to be seen. It is not surprising that not a lot is known about A Marlborough green gecko with its radio New Zealand geckos—many of which are struggling to transmitter attached. survive against introduced predators. Ecology PhD candidate, Jo Hoare, is doing her best to find out Understanding how New Zealand’s 40 species of geckos more about these secretive lizards, and is employing modern are affected by mammals is important to ensuring their radio tracking technology to help her. future survival. Jo is using tiny radio transmitters, which weigh less than one “The introduction of mammals has been catastrophic for gram, to track the movement patterns of geckos on islands that geckos and other lizards. We have already witnessed extinctions do and don’t have rats. and severe population declines in some species. The more we learn about the geckos’ behaviour, the more we will be able “I’m comparing data from the different islands to establish to help them.” whether the geckos have changed their habitat use and movement patterns as a result of introduced mammals, such New Zealand’s geckos are unique. They give birth to live as rats. To do this I have to find the geckos in the wild—which young, whereas almost every other species around the is a task in itself—and then attach the tiny transmitters using world lays eggs, and they live for up to 42 years in the wild specially designed ‘backpacks’.” —the longest in the world. Their extreme longevity and low reproductive output makes populations particularly susceptible Jo then spends a week closely monitoring the positions of the to predation by introduced mammals. geckos. Her results indicate that geckos may have altered their habitat use to avoid rats. Email: [email protected] “Geckos living on the islands with rats seem to be more wary of people, suggesting greater predator awareness.” From the Chancellor Contents ResearchResearch & InnovationInnovation 2 An exciting and diverse wealth of researchresearch by staffstaff and students. Gifting 9 Donations of funding, To be elected as the chancellor of any resourcesresources and time fromfrom those university, steeped as the role is in centuries- who support the University.University. old tradition, is an honour. To be elected as BooksBooks Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington 10 The latest in new releasesreleases fromfrom is a special honour. VictoriaVictoria University Press.Press. On a personal level, and to draw on the name of Victoria’s marae, Te Herenga Waka, my family LearningLearning @ Vic long ago hitched its canoe to this University. 11 Showcasing the quality of learning My great-uncle enrolled as a student at Victoria and teaching at Victoria.Victoria. College 100 years ago, beginning a family association that has seen fi ve generations of PoliticsPolitics & PolicyPolicy students, four members of staff and several 14 Politics and policy decisions in the members of Council participate in its life. I tertiary sector and how VictoriaVictoria is enrolled as a student in 1951 and, apart from respondingresponding to them. fi ve years away, I have been here ever since. Alumni NewsNews The election means I also have the chance to 15 What our graduates and members work closely with our new Vice-Chancellor of the University community have Professor Pat Walsh. The Council looked widely been up to. for someone with the mana to take on the role and I was delighted, although not surprised, GraduationGraduation when the strongest applicant was an internal 18 The University community came one. Having recently produced vice-chancellors together in May to celebrate for Waikato, Otago, Canterbury and Auckland graduation success. universities, it was about time we produced one TownTown & Gown for Victoria. 20 The best of both worlds—Victoriaworlds—Victoria Victoria is a special institution. As the last of meets the community for activities, the New Zealand universities to be established performances and the sharing in the 19th century it had humble beginnings. of expertise. While the struggle for funding seems almost eternal, it no longer struggles for recognition. It is a University that plays a key role in building a society where intellect is respected for its contribution, not only to our material well-being, but above all to liberal and humane values. Victorious is published three times a year by Victoria University of Wellington, – Te Whare Wa– nanga o te Upoko o te Ika a Ma– ui, PO Box 600, Wellington, Finally, in February the Council adopted the New Zealand. www.vuw.ac.nz 2004 Annual Report. I would urge graduates and friends to read of Victoria’s many achievements To notify a change of address: Register for Life After Vic at online at www.vuw.ac.nz/annualreports www.vuw.ac.nz/alumni or email: [email protected] or call +64-4-463 6700. Editorial team: Kate Fox, Rob Lee, Nancy Linton, Antony Paltridge, Jude Urlich, Anita Vallely, Vicky Young. Photographs (unless otherwise credited): Image Services, Victoria University of Wellington. Tim Beaglehole Cover Image: Lexus Song Quest winner Madeleine Pierard. Gerry Keating, Chancellor Image Services. ISSN 1172-0387 © Victoria University, 2005 Research & Innovation Victoria’s academic staff are leaders in their fi elds of Janet and Nick research expertise. If you have a project that requires the outside skills and knowledge of our staff, contact Mike Doig at Hutt Hospital. VicLink. Email: [email protected] Tel: +64-4-463 5072 Marketing insight to hospital service Principles often used in studying “In commerce, the concept of ‘service retailretail businesses havehave been used by recovery performance’ has been applied School of MarketingMarketing & InternationalInternational in businesses such as banks to fi nd out Business researchersresearchers to uncover forfor what conditions are needed to ensure the fi rstrst time how hospitals can ensureensure frontline staff can resolve complaints. complaints areare properlyproperly resolved.resolved. Given Janet and Jayne had both worked in the public health sector, we decided to Senior Lecturer Dr Nick Ashill and apply those principles to hospitals for the Lecturers Janet Carruthers and fi rst time.” Jayne Krisjanous surveyed 152 receptionists, nurses and other frontline In the public hospital setting, the suggested ways service delivery at the staff in Wellington’s Hutt Hospital research revealed that if staff were frontline can be improved.” and 101 similar staff in four private working in a strong team environment, The team is planning to carry out face-to- Wellington hospitals. were committed to the organisation, felt face interviews with frontline staff and they were empowered and their roles “The care that patients receive in hospitals patients to provide greater insight into were clear, then they were far more has been a major public concern in their work. likely to believe they were satisfactorily recent years. For hospitals, their staff and resolving complaints. patients, it would be better for everyone if complaints about service were quickly Nick says the research has been welcomed resolved by frontline staff instead of by hospital managers. “In some cases, it Email: [email protected] escalating into formal disputes,” provided hard evidence that backed up Tel: +64 4 463 5430 says Nick. their gut feelings. But in other areas, it has that occurred between 1964 and 1995, aid that a country would otherwise Media aid Doug and colleagues at the University have received.” of Missouri and Florida International These fi ndings are part of a series of University have established that the level research projects that Doug is conducting How much does newsnews media of coverage of a disaster in The New York on the connections between news media, coverage infl uence the Times appears to increase the amount of disasters and public policy and his allocationallocation of humanitarian aid aid distributed by about $US500,000. when disaster strikes?strikes? projects on race and media coverage are “Policy-makers don’t look to the beginning to generate results. Dr Douglas van Belle, Senior Lecturer in media for information, they look at Doug is continuing his research by Media Studies in the School of English, what is being covered as a measure of expanding the database of media Film & Theatre, has explored the role public perception, and adjust their aid clippings up to 2004. He also has plans the news media plays in infl uencing the accordingly,” says Doug. to look at New Zealand coverage of level of international response to natural “Even when you take the magnitude of ethnic groups from 1850-2005 to explore disasters such as the Sahal Drought in the disaster and other factors such as some long-term changes that can be Africa during the 1980s. the number of people killed or left traced through the media. By analysing the relationship between homeless, and the relative wealth of the aid offered and the United States the country into account, we found news media coverage of disasters the volume of media coverage directly Email: [email protected] correlates to a substantial increase in the Religious rights The rise of the religiousreligious right in Australia under the HowardHoward Government has been a neatneat fi t forfor a governmentgovernment thatthat stressesstresses marketmarket capitalismcapitalism and a privatisedprivatised economy over social welfarewelfare and collectivecollective responsibility,responsibility, accordingaccording to Dr Marion Maddox,Maddox, Senior LecturerLecturer in the School of Art History,History, Classics & Religious Studies. Marion’s latest work, God Under Howard, explores how American-style evangelicalism has been able to take hold in Australian society, to the extent that issues such as abortion, creationism and family values are now on the political agenda, in a country that does not share the same religious convictions as America.