In an embarrasing blow for the University of Melbourne, even its own Music School wants out of VCAM (or “Vacuum” as it has been nicknamed by some Music staff).

• Read the article from The Age here.
• Read the full submission from the 31 academic Parkville & Southbank music staff via our previous post (it’s submission # 318).

What do you think of the idea of a new “con”?

Would VCA have a better chance of NIDA-levels of funding if it were smaller (by music seperating out into a new “con”)?

Or does losing music defeat the purpose of VCA being a multidiscplinary school on one campus?

Post your thoughts below.

One thing seems for certain though – University of Melbourne are struggling to find anybody that thinks they have done a good job with either VCA or Uni Melb Music since the merger.

In other news, the entirely VCA-based theatre company Artisan Collective has today (10/3/10) received a 5 Star review  from the Herald Sun for its production Self Torture & Strenuous Exercise. Guess VCA grads aren’t so “siloed” after all huh VCAM Dean Sharman Pretty? And guess what Sharman….they made “their own costumes and sell their own tickets” (and the set, sound and the lighting), all without the help of the Melbourne Model. Who knew!

A short note to let you know that today VCAM Review Committee Chairperson Ziggy Switkowski announced that you have an opportunity to present to the Review Committee on 17 March 2010 regarding VCA’s future.

In order to request a time, visit the Review website shown below and lodge your request by 9 March 2010. We particularly encourage arts businesses of all sizes to apply for a time – as the future employers of VCA graduates, your input is invaluable. We also encourage VCA graduates to present so the Review Committee can hear how your training has translated to your working life.

Because so few timeslots have been made available, you may consider presenting to the Review with your arts business partners.

We apologise such little notice has been given, however we are bound by University timelines.

Visit the Review Website to request your appointment.

FOR CURRENT VCAM STAFF & STUDENTS

We realise that some staff and students are wary of asking to present to the Review Committee with Heads of School and the Deputy Dean on the panel. You may consider asking the Chairperson to allow you to present (e.g. delegation of students from each Discipline, followed by a delegation of staff from each Discipline) without the Heads of School and Deputy Dean in the room.

We encourage all staff and students to take an active interest in the Review, even if it just means observing the delegation for your discipline presenting to the Committee.

UPDATE 05/03/10

The Review Committee composition has changed (new Chair of the VCAM Advisory Board Ian Wilcox replacing Trevor Green).

New Committee is:

Dr Ziggy Switkowski Independent Chair

Mrs Eda Ritchie Representative of the Vice-Chancellor

Mr Ian Wilcock Representative of the VCAM Advisory Board (replaced Trevor Green on 05/03/10)

Prof Gary McPherson VCAM academic staff (Head of Music)

Prof Kristy Edmunds VCAM academic staff (Head of Performing Arts) & Deputy Dean

A/Prof Su Baker VCAM academic staff (Head of Art)

Prof Ian Lang VCAM academic staff (Head of Film and Television)

Mr Brian Long VCAM professional staff

Mr Shane Woon Undergraduate VCAM student representative [Elected by Students]

Mr Richard Mason Postgraduate VCAM student representative

Prof Pip Pattison University academic from outside VCAM

The Hon Mary Delahunty Community representative with a background in the arts

Prof Catherine Falk Representative of Parkville [Elected by Parkville Staff]

A/Prof Jon Cattapan Representative of Southbank

In a letter to Crikey’s editor, VCAM Review Chair gives readers an update on the Review process.

Read the article here (starts page 3 of the PDF).

What are your thoughts?

• If you are a current student, did the University or VCAM Management make it clear to you that you had an extension to March 5 to send in your review submission? Noting it must go through the Student Union vcam@union.unimelb.edu.au (not via the usual VCAM Review email).
• Do you think concerns that the Review Committee  includes Heads of School, the Deputy Dean and has only 2 out of 9 staff and students representatives elected to their position “feel very dated and irrelevant” as asserted by Ziggy? Ps did you know concerns about the Review Committee have been raised in the Victorian Parliament?
• If you are a current VCAM staff or student member, did you know consultations with “key stakeholders” had started yesterday? Where you offered a timeslot?
• Missing from Ziggy’s email is any specific mention of dedicated staff and student consultation sessions with the Review Committee. Are you aware of any provision being made for this? Will you ask to partake in the “full day forum” in March? Would you feel comfortable presenting to the Committee knowing the Heads of School and Deputy Dean are on the Review Committee?
• Do you believe criticism of the Review’s independence and processes is warranted? Or do you agree with Ziggy that such assertions are “uninformed and, frankly, insulting”?
• What’s your overall impression of the Review to date?

Send your feedback to Boss@crikey.com.au (if you are a current staff or student member, you can ask Crikey to withhold your name) and post below.

In other news, see the public post left today at the bottom of http://savevca.org/archives/682 by a VCA Staff member regarding how VCA may be affected by the “Towards 2011″ plan.

Last week a new voice emerged in the VCA debate in the form of Ex (and 10-year veteran) VCA Film & TV lecturer Steve Thomas. Steve Thomas, no longer the documentary lecturer, takes up the story, in a year when the documentary course is not being offered at all at VCAM.

Published by Screen Hub on 22/02/10, Thomas supplies an incredible insight into what life is really like for VCAM staff, most particularly the unofficial VCAM Management policy of “change by stealth”. Thomas examines the world-class teaching methods which are being trashed in spite of the ongoing Review, and how staff morale is being beaten by everything from economic pressures (e.g. growing classes, forced to teach “more cleverly”) to the plain ludicrous (emails pressuring experienced staff to get PhDs). Thomas blows a hole into PR catch-cry of the Dean (Sharman Pretty), Deputy Dean (Kristy Edmunds) and Vice Chancellor’s (Glyn Davis) that “nothing has changed” or change is “proposed not imposed”, showing how courses (like documentary) are being quietly gotten rid of through new administration requirements.

Using the Film & TV industry as example, Thomas explains VCA’s vital role to arts business and the fact there is simply no choice – VCA must survive as an elite training ground.

Truly a remarkable read.

Read the full article here (copyright Screen Hub).

In other news, SAVE VCA received an email at 2.30PM on Thursday 25 Feb that “the Chair of the VCAM Review Committee is now inviting individuals and group representatives to meet with the committee next Tuesday 2 March at Southbank.” Yes. That would be three business days notice. After asking if we could have more time, we were told “March 2 is the only public consultation day scheduled at this point however I believe there will be another day to be decided after Tuesday.” As such, we’re not risking missing out and will be presenting on March 2 for 30 minutes (and 30 minutes of question time from the Committee).

This hastily put together public “consultation” does not bode well for an already suspect review and one can’t help but notice it has been schedule at the same time as the Melbourne Writers Festival and the Adelaide Arts Festival, meaning many industry officials are unable to attend. Is the University just racing towards a finding which is already written, printed, bound and waiting to be released? Post your comments below.

It may have taken 10 months, but the truth of VCA’s financial situation is rapidly coming to light. Further to today’s coverage in The Australian,  Crikey have revealed that a supplementary submission to the VCAM Review by Turnbull, Mathews, Denton & Landy details that an independent audit of VCA’s property value is estimated at $230m.

The UoM charging the VCA $6 million a year rent for a site, gifted to it, worth $230 million is morally unconscionable. If the rent is added (at constant current values) to the capital value above the UoM will have ended up with assets and transfers worth more than $500 million over the next few decades in return for the $5 million transfer imposed on it for a few years.

Furthermore, former Chairman of the Australia Council and former VCA Council Member, Rodney Hall has weighed in to the debate in his submission, suggesting the value of VCA is even higher:

My three main reasons for re-entering the debate are as follows:

 1.  To correct the notion that the motive for the merger, from the VCA’s point of view was to ‘broaden the courses’—during my years on the council the proposition of a merger was never raised prior to the axe-blow of the Nelson reforms.

 2.  To refute any implication that the VCA was not responsibly managed while it was independent. Quite the contrary, the old VCA delivered quality training in arts practice on the funding granted it—meagre though that was, in my opinion—without any ongoing deficit.

 3.  To point out that one contextual fact is conspicuously missing from the issues as laid out in the present discussion paper: the real estate value of the VCA campus. To put the university’s $5 million outlay per annum in perspective, the VCA campus, based on valuations commissioned by the VCA Council three or four years ago, must now be worth well in excess of $400 million.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Peter Garrett & Julia Gillard when will you DO something?

Meanwhile the Victorian Greens have raised questions in Parliament about whether the VCAM Review Committee (to whom all these submissions go to) are even capable of objectivity in the review process. This is in line with SAVE VCA’s concerns that only 2 members were elected to their position. The Greens also questioned the rental scheme back in November 2009 and are still waiting for an answer from the Vic Government.

Post your thoughts below.

FURTHER READING:

• Read the original Turnbull, Mathews, Denton & Landy submission here.
• Read the Turnbull, Mathews, Denton & Landy supplementary submission here.
• Read the Crikey article here.
• Read the Hall submission here.
• Read all submissions published by the Uni to date via our previous post here.

One submission by former Manager of Film Victoria Ros Walker points out the lunancy of the University’s spin-doctoring of the supposed “subsidy” provided to VCA, which seems to change with every press release (indeed today’s article in The Australian now quotes $17m for 2009!):

The submission by Ms Walker makes other startling revelations including:

• At the time of the merger, the University reported receiving $103 million worth of assets. This acquisition has not been factored into subsidy calculations including the VCA’s requirement to pay rent to the University. VCA has moved from having a 18% deficit pre-merger, to having a 38% deficit post-merger.
• Since 2007, VCA has been charged $6 million in rent plus $3.8 million in additional administration costs per year. In 2009 the VCA’s “contribution to University overheads” (administration and rental charges) was 83% of VCA’s income, compared to an average of 46% in other Faculties.
• Being funded as part of the Roundtable group is obviously the best financial outcome for the VCA followed by de-merging with additional funding from the Commonwealth or State government. The third most favourable option financially is to de-merge, even with no additional funding. It makes no financial sense for the VCA to remain part of the University.

Read Ms Walker’s full submission here.

In the official SAVE VCA submission, we also called for VCA’s books to be independently audited out of concern that “subsidy” and “rent” and real estate are actually behind the destruction of VCA – it has nothing to do with a heartfelt belief in an a new education paradigm (the Melbourne Model) or caring for students.

Links to submissions publicly available at present are available via our last post. Many more submissions are still to be published by the University.

Post your thoughts below.

The Hon Dr Race Mathews

The overwhelming majority of published submissions to the VCAM Review support the pursuit of a revitalised, independent VCA, funded by the arts ministry.

With the deadline for submissions having only just past, former VCA Advisory Board members Noel Turnbull and Lynne Landy joined forces with VCA’s first Administator Noel Denton and The Hon Dr Race Mathews to call for an “Australian College of the Arts”. Read this inspiring article from The Age here. You can read the Awesome Artistic Foursome’s full submission below (it’s submission number 131 which starts on page 105).

Despite earlier statements that the University would not post submissions until after the deadline, it seems the powers that be have had a rethink because submissions 1 to 136 have been available for a couple of days:

• Submissions 1 to 78
• Submissions 79 to 136 (link has been removed by the University on 19/02/10)
• Submissions 79 to 188 (posted 19/02/10, link removed by the University 22/02/10)
• Submissions 79 to 239 (posted 22/02/10)
• Submissions 240 to 318 (posted 24/02/10)
• Submissions 319 to 358 (posted 24/02/10) NB 344 is SAVE VCA’s official submission but it has been edited by the University. Please see links below for the full version.

Browsing the submissions is quite remarkable – with the genuine affection for the College clearly evident. Of no surprise is a very obvious absense of kind words for the University of Melbourne, Vice Chancellor Glyn Davis or VCAM Dean Sharman Pretty. We’ll let you know as soon as the University publish the next lot.

Thank you to all people who CC’d SAVE VCA on their submission (35 submissions today alone!). We’re already published a selection, and we’ll be putting up alot more over the coming days.

• SAVE VCA’s Official Submision – no appendix – click here
• SAVE VCA’s Official Submission – with appendix - click here

Just in are submissions from the MEAA, Live Performance Australia and the NTEU, all of whom have been wonderfully supportive of VCA (and SAVE VCA!).

We all know the Review is not independent BUT we also know it’s going to be hard to deny the very clear mood of the submissions published thus far (with lots more to come!).

Well done to everybody for their commitment to saving VCA and keep emailing us whenever you hear of anything going amiss down on St Kilda Rd.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CURRENT VCAM STUDENTS:  The VCAM Student Union is reporting submissions for students will now be accepted up until March 5. Go to the VCAM Student Union Facebook for more info.

SAVE VCA Week Rally - Credit Alexandra Palmer Bull

We’re almost there, with submissions to the VCA Discussion Paper due in 24 hours. 

We all have alot to be proud of that this Review exists. As pointed out in The Age “Although VCAM and the university characterize the review as part of its ongoing ‘commitment to a consultative process,’ there’s no doubt its wide-ranging ambit is a victory for the many students, concerned staff and those working in the arts in Victoria who campaigned long, loud and colourfully against the merger.”

But it’s up to us to take this first (and probably only) formal opportunity to make our thoughts on VCA’s future known to the University of Melbourne, the Government and of course the Review Panel.

All submissions count. Look no further than our Discussion Paper section to see the range of people that want to SAVE VCA for not only the students, but for Melbourne and Australia.

Lets make sure that in this last 24 hours the Review Committe are flooded with submissions- we must SAVE VCA!

**SPEND 5 MINUTES TO DO YOUR SUBMISSION NOW**

VCAM Dean Sharman Pretty

Crikey.com have today revealed that Dean Sharman Pretty has appointed a consultant from a organisation she is a director of to review the much loved VCA Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts & Cultural Development. The consultant is not indigenous.

Read the article here (copyright Crikey.com)

Yet again it is has been left to the media to police University senior management. Remembering it is Dean Pretty and University of Melbourne Vice Chancellor Glyn Davis who appointed all but 2 of the VCAM Review Committee, this latest bombshell reminds us VCA and University of Melbourne Music are simply not in safe hands.

REMINDER: Discussion Paper submissions are due this Friday 12 Feb 2010. Make sure you include in your submission a demand that all staff and student Review Committee represenatatives are elected. Spend 5 minutes on your submission now to SAVE VCA.

Only 2 out of 9 staff and student positions in the VCAM Review Committee announced by the University of Melbourne on Friday (05/02/10) were elected, proving Vice Chancellor Glyn Davis never had any intention of allowing a truly independent review of the former Victorian College of the Arts and Faculty of Music.

In a move that has alienated Southbank staff and students (formerly the VCA), VCAM Dean Sharman Pretty and Mr Davis have appointed four VCAM Heads of School to the Committee, three of whom (Prof. Gary McPherson of Music, Prof. Kristy Edmunds of Performing Arts and Prof. Ian Lang of Film & TV) have been vocal in their support of the merger, the Melbourne Model and have little or no experience of the VCA pre-merger.

Since coming to VCA in late 2008, Kristy Edmunds has toed the Melbourne University party line with staff and students, even exclaiming in The Age (“Arts Head Says Give Merger A Chance” 03 Sept 09) that the protests against the Melbourne Model and VCA courses being cut was nothing more than a “strange hysteria”. Edmund’s loyalty has been rewarded by being appointed Deputy Dean on 1 Jan 2010 in addition to her role as Head of Performing Arts. By including such senior management in the Committee means Edmunds is effectively reviewing change she helped design and is implementing.

Gary McPherson came to VCAM in 2009 specifically with the mandate to oversee the disastrous merger of VCA Music and University Music (converted to the Melbourne Model this year), and clearly is not in the position to be objective.

Ian Lang (who came to the College six months before the 2007 merger) told students at a September 2009 briefing that the Melbourne Model would save them from a “jobless future”.

A designated “representative of Southbank” Associate Professor Jon Cattapan was also not elected to the position. By comparison, Parkville staff (former Conservatorium) were allowed to elect their staff representative Prof Catherine Falk, although only after making their grievances public in The Age  (“Music Schools Voices Unheard” 07 Dec 09). Whilst Mr Cattapan’s position is not disputed, the fact the two representatives had different means of entry into the Committee for no apparent reason, puts into question the University’s ability to manage even the simplest of review procedures.

The position of “University academic from outside VCAM” is filled by Prof. Pip Pattison who, in 2009, held a session for VCAM student representatives on the virtues of the Melbourne Model. When questioned about her comment that a drama student could “learn more by doing less”, she confessed she was not expert in the arts education area. A strong curriculum representative is obviously important on this Committee but when that expert is the person brought in to advocate the Melbourne Model to student agitators, their impartiality would seem to be compromised.

Besides Prof. Catherine Falk, the only other elected representative is Shane Woon who is the head of the VCAM Student Union.

“There is no doubt that, given the chance to vote, VCAM staff would not have selected Professors McPherson, Edmunds and Lang to represent them on the Review Panel, given the staff perception that these Heads have been dutifully following the University line. We ask independent Chair Dr Ziggy Switkowski to consider replacing the non-elected staff and student representatives with representatives elected by Southbank and Parkville staff and students. Only when staff and students feel they are fairly represented, will they be open to contribute to and accept recommendations made by the Committee. If this is not done, the Review will simply become a charade, relegated to irrelevance,” says former VCA Film & TV Lecturer Ros Walker.

The Committee includes no alumni or arts industry representatives.

Despite the obvious flaws of the review process (see http://savevca.org/archives/322) and the University’s refusal to answer even the most basic questions about the Discussion Paper (see http://savevca.org/archives/577), SAVE VCA has continued to encourage its 13,226 members to engage with the process. However the announcement of the inappropriate composition of Review Committee so close to the submission deadline (12 Feb 2010) risks staff, students, alumni and industry dismissing the whole review as a sham. Urgent action by Dr Switkowski is required to revitalise the review process.

SAVE VCA continue to encourage all arts lovers to submit to the review whilst we fight for a more balanced composition of Review Committee members. Submission Deadline = 12 Feb 2010.

UPDATE 05/03/10: Trevor Green was replaced by Ian Wilcox on the Review Committee today. See this post for more information.

FURTHER READING:

Review Committee & Existing Submissions

http://vcam.unimelb.edu.au/discussion/

03 Sep 2009 The Age – Arts Head Says Give Merger A Chance

http://www.theage.com.au/national/arts-head-says-give-merger-a-chance-20090902-f8ff.html

07 Dec 2009 The Age – Music School’s Voice Unheard

http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/music-schools-voice-unheard-20091206-kcw7.html

SAVE VCA Discussion Paper Website

http://savevca.org/discussion-paper