Tom Roper's Weblog

Ave atque vale

Yesterday was a beautifully sunny early spring day on the campus of the University of Sussex, where I worked for the last time. Daffodils, crocuses, iris and snowdrops all flower at once. I can never decide which season suits Spence's campus best, in its natural hollow on the South Downs. Autumn, when I came, in October 2002 for an interview, is just as lovely. See TimBrighton's photographs on Flickr for something of the feel of it

Both days, yesterday and that interview, were Fridays and, as menu compilers are slaves to tradition, on both days I ate fish and chips and apple crumble for lunch, a timeless meal that would certainly have been served in my own student days over thirty years ago. Sussex would not have me then, though no university would, as I discovered later that my headmaster had described me in his reference as an 'intellectually arrogant Bolshevik'. I complained, got him to tone down his description of me, waited a year and applied again, but wound up at Kent instead.

The Human Resources department sent my a letter instructing me to ring payroll for my last salary and P45; payroll seemed to now nothing of this and said I would have to wait till the end of the month. HR also demanded the return of my identity card.

This is dispiriting stuff, but more than compensated for by the kindness of my former colleagues in the Sussex Language Institute. who marked my departure with a touching ceremony, drinks, a meal, a beautiful card, and a deluge of thoughtful presents.

SPLASH: Student Personal Learning And Social Homepage

I've stumbled, thanks to a Technorati update I run for anything that links the sussex.ac.uk domain, this project: SPLASH: Student Personal Learning And Social Homepages. The project pages are here and the project blog here. It's a little unclear, but it looks as if they're trying to integrate blogger and other social networking with the university's rather clunkyVLE.

Blogging course at Sussex

My Technorati watchlist for anything linking to http://www.sussex.ac.uk just threw up a fascinating initiative, a course to be run by Libby Davy for Sussex academics.: http://authenticblogging.com/2007/09/17/blogging-course-for-sussex-staff/

Heron

  Heron 
  Originally uploaded by TimBrighton

The University of Sussex Arts block heron. It's hard to tell whether it's a girl or boy heron, but there seems something feminine about her attitude, so I have named her Hortense.

Five potatoes

The university canteen, which serves food unchanged since I was at university thirty years ago is clearly in the grips of the portion-controllers.
When they offer roast potatoes, a severe sign used to limit people to six potatoes (or parts of a potato, to be strict). Today the ration has been cut to five, though the pieces of potato are no bigger.
Revolutions have started over less. When the students return, there'll be trouble.
While I'm on the subject, who in the University Bookshop thought to shelve Herodotus in fiction?

A very peculiar campus

The university campus is in vacation mode, an atmosphere I remember well from  the summer of 1976 at the University of Kent, when, as Student's Union Secretary, I stayed on campus through the summer, preparing for the new term: the conferences, the international students,  frenetic activity at the same time as a relaxed, holiday ambiance.
At the moment the campus is full of martial arts practitioners, shall I call them martial artists? They wander around in black and white robes,  bringing to mind the nuns in A Very Peculiar Practice. The Sussex campus is not unlike UEA, where the opening credits were shot.

University Challenge final: Manchester versus Warwick

Why is no bookie offering prices on tonight's University Challenge final? I would gladly stake considerable sums on Manchester to beat Warwick.

Locating technoscience: Spaces of Secrecy and Transparency

I like working in a university: serendipity often strikes, as for example it did yesterday. A group gathered for a vacation seminar in the lecture theatre next door. Posters appeared about directing people to something called Locating technoscience. We joked about it, wondering why they would need paper posters to find such a conference.
A quick web search determined that it was anESRC seminar on Spaces of Secrecy and Transparency, one of the Locating Technoscience series. Not only this but one of the papers was Discovering Spin: The Transparency of the Production of the British Dossier on Iraq's WMD. I wish I had heard it. Apropos, I see that the Royal Navy base their claim that their RIB was not in Iranian waters on the evidence of a Garmin device. I would be wary; my Garmin is very good and useful, but runners discussion boards are rich with comments on their inaccuracy.

Technorati Tags: technoscience, GPS

Chemistry at Sussex: HOSTC session

The uncorrected transcript of evidence of Monday session of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee is now available

Chemistry at the University of Sussex

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee discussed the future of chemistry at the University of Sussex last night. No transcript yet, though the Guardian did run a report.