ISSUE 14 SPRING 2010 VICE-CHANCELLOR TO LEAVE A RICH LEGACY THE FUTURE OF SPORT AND SCIENCE GAYS AND LESBIANS IN COMMUNITY SPORT BUDDHISM MAKES HAPPY SCHOOLKIDS CONTENTS 4 A BRILLIANT SPORTING FUTURE 4 Victoria University is ready to lead the way 10 in the future of sport science and education. FLYING DUTCHMAN 10 Professor Hans Westerbeek is catapulting Australia’s sports research onto the world stage. TRAINING WITH THE DOGS 14 The partnership between two western suburbs icons just got a lot bigger. PUBLISHER GLOBAL GRADUATES 16 MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT Homesickness is no deterrent for our alumni DIRECTOR, MARGOT BURKE building their careers all over the world. VICTORIA UNIVERSITY PO BOX 14428 MELBOURNE VIC 8001 AUSTRALIA HIGH ACHIEVERS 18 ©VICTORIA UNIVERSITY What our first Achievement Scholarship CRICOS PROVIDER NO. 00124K winners are saying about uni life. DISCLAIMER: VIEWS EXPRESSED IN CONNECTIONS ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND PERSONS STOP! IN THE NAME OF HEALTH 20 QUOTED, AND ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE Research points to a future of using your OF VICTORIA UNIVERSITY. mobile to fight unhealthy shopping. THIS PUBLICATION IS PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER CONTACT US PHIL KOFOED, MANAGING EDITOR T +61 3 9919 4956 18 E [email protected] PO BOX 14428 MELBOURNE VIC 8001 AUSTRALIA WWW.VU.EDU.AU COVER PHOTO LITTLE MINDS LETTING GO 21 HANS WESTERBEEK, DIRECTOR OF VICTORIA An ancient religion has been making a UNIVERSITY’S INSTITUTE OF SPORT, group of primary school children less uptight EXERCISE AND ACTIVE LIVING (ISEAL). and a good bit wiser and happier. LIZ’S LEGACIES 22 After seven years at the helm, outgoing Vice-Chancellor Elizabeth Harman reflects 22 on her time at VU. KIDS KICK GOALS 26 The Bulldogs Friendly schools program is promoting healthy living to primary school children. 2 CONTENTS WORKING IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM 28 WELCOME Many undergraduates are choosing to Welcome to the University’s latest Connections do their practical placement at Florida’s magazine. Walt Disney Resort. As you can see, it has a larger format and a COMING OUT TO PLAY 30 radical new design. In many ways, this is a fitting time for the University’s key corporate magazine Is homophobia in youth sports becoming to take on a new look, as it heralds a change a thing of the past? to the strategic marketing direction that the University is taking. ART & TRAUMA 31 31 Government changes within vocational education PhD candidate Anne Riggs is using art to and training, and higher education will result help those suffering grief, loss and trauma. in a highly competitive, demand-driven tertiary education environment from 2012. This will present both challenges and opportunities for education providers competing to retain their market position and build their market share. VU’s marketing and recruitment strategies need to be refined to meet these challenges and make the most of the opportunities. By optimising our marketing resources across the University we can look forward with confidence to achieving a fifty per cent growth target of 75,000 students 34 by 2016. And what better way to promote this growth than with the $68 million Sports Precinct that opens early next year at Footscray Park Campus. It will bolster our international credentials in sports research and training. Inside Connections is a six-page feature on the significance of this exciting development that places VU firmly at the vanguard of sports science and education. Among the many other features in this edition is a profile of Hans Westerbeek, the director of our new Institute for Sport, Exercise and Active Living; a story about our new training facilities at Whitten Oval, the home of our longstanding partner, the A CAUSE FOR HONOUR 32 Western Bulldogs; profiles of six recent graduates now working in exciting positions overseas; and Two leading Melbourne figures are the a profile of a Sudanese refugee who graduated latest to receive honorary doctorates Sport has more legitimacy in Law after surviving a harrowing childhood in from Victoria University. than it did in the past. It has his home country. LEGAL LIAISONS 34 now come into its own through And, of course, we pay tribute to Vice-Chancellor business, tourism and the Elizabeth Harman, who retires in December Law/Science graduate Kot Monoah draws after leading the University for the past seven strength from his experiences as a refugee arrival of lifestyle and health years. Professor Harman will leave behind a to make a difference to young people. as concerns for us all.” very different University to the one she joined in 2003. She has made significant and diverse RUNWAY REVOLUTION 36 contributions to VU. On behalf of the University, Students wow style-savvy audiences I extend my best wishes on her retirement. with fashion, modelling and beauty. In January, Peter Dawkins will join us as our new Vice-Chancellor. Professor Dawkins has had a distinguished academic career, which includes STUDY & PLAY 38 management and leadership roles at universities in the UK and Australia, and with the Victorian Balancing sport and study is par for the Government. course for our elite athlete students. I hope you enjoy this edition of Connections. NEW BOOKS 4141 38 Chancellor George Pappas A selection of recent book and journal releases by members of the University community. IN BRIEF 4242 News snippets from other areas of the University. WELCOME 3 A BRILLIANT SPORTING FUTURE ANDREW MCKENNA With a $68.5 million Sport and Learning Precinct building about to open at its Footscray Park Campus, and recently launched Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living, Victoria University has confirmed its reputation at the vanguard of sports science and education. THE NEW SPORT AND LEARNING PRECINCT includes 4 SPORT staTE-OF-THE-ART TEACHING AND RESEARCH FACILITIES, AMONG THE BEST IN THE WORLD. AN AFL Grand Final draw is a rare beast, Payne has worked as a sports scientist with and when it happened this year players elite athletes, but over the last 10–15 years his and fans faced an anxious time. Sports focus has shifted to community advocacy, public commentators, journalists and trainers health and encouraging physical activity in filled the airwaves and newspapers with the community. This is virtually a mirror of the their angle on the draw. University’s journey. Victoria University’s sports While the teams gave the outward appearance capacity has spread into the new field of active that it was business as usual, no doubt both living – healthy lifestyles for everyone. clubs dispensed plenty of sports psychology, Professor Hans Westerbeek, from The Netherlands physical training and outright media spin. via stints at La Trobe and Deakin Universities, Amid the flurry of activity, what was clear was is director of the VU’s Institute of Sport, Exercise The fact that such that professional sport these days is much more and Active Living (ISEAL). He is excited and says organisations are keen to than just beating another team or breaking a others at the University are too by the myriad develop a partnership with record: facilities, sponsorships, training, sports possibilities around advancing Australians’ health us is an indication that what’s psychology, media relations, mental as well as and wellbeing, and improving the performance happening here is second physical health, all play a part. of elite athletes in this country. to none in this country.” What came through loud and clear was this Under Westerbeek’s directorship, ISEAL has massive event that could stop a city twice in eight built on relationships with major sporting bodies days was not about blokes kicking a ball around in Australia and internationally, such as the a paddock. It is bigger than any other Melbourne Australian Institute of Sport – the peak training event, employing huge numbers of people from body for the nation’s elite athletes – the German the athletes themselves through to business, Sport University and the Union of European support networks and media professionals. Football Associations. And Victoria University has positioned itself well “The fact that such organisations are very keen to to train professionals like them. The University’s develop a partnership with us is an indication that focus on research puts it at the forefront of every what’s happening here is second to none in this aspect of sport in our culture, and is bringing country,” Westerbeek says. genuine health spin-offs for the people of To further its engagement with industry and Melbourne’s west and the rest of Australia. the community, the University has grouped “Victoria University was established to service ISEAL, the School of Sport and Exercise Science, our region, to meet its educational and research the TAFE School of Sport and Science, and the needs, and we have a mandate to translate VU Sport and Fitness Department under one that into practice,” says Pro-Vice Chancellor umbrella, or cluster. of Research and Research Training, Professor State sporting institutes, and top sports clubs and Warren Payne. community organisations are already signing up “We were set up explicitly to serve the to be a part of the future of sport and science at community, it’s in the University Act the University. and our mission statement, and we are And Melbourne’s west has more to smile about demonstrating that.” with SportWest. It is a concept that puts a spring Payne was one of the first physical education in the Dutchman’s step. The idea originated as students to graduate from Victoria University’s a partnership between Victoria University, the predecessor institution in 1977, where he Western Bulldogs Football Club and Maribyrnong became a tutor and lecturer until the mid-1980s. Secondary College, which offers a specialist sports The sports program was established there in program to students.