Issue 16, Monday 4 November 2002

CareerStart 2002

CareerStart 2002, a three day job seeking program, will be held on 26, 27, 28 November 2002 at Caulfield. 

The program is being coordinated by Mary Gordon, Careers Counsellor at Monash Student Employment and Careers Service (MONSEACS).

CareerStart 2002 is ideal for penultimate year students and students completing their degrees. It covers areas such as resume/letter writing, interview skills, mock interviews, psychometric testing demystified and assessment centre activities. 

Many employer representatives will be in attendance and presenting the sessions including Accenture, Connell Wagner, Ford, Ernst & Young,
UBS Warburg, Grant Thornton, DST International and many more. 

CareerStart is great opportunity for students to hear from employers regarding what they are looking for in prospective employees.

More information can be obtained from Marian Longmire on extn 32114 or email Mary Gordon. Students can book a place for the sessions at any MONSEACS office or by contacting the representatives above.

Silver Jubilee for Peninsula Community Legal Centre

- By Peter Hughes

A crowd of over 200 people gathered in the Seahorse Tavern recently at a black tie function to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the Peninsula Community Legal Centre (PCLC).

The event was in part sponsored by MONSU, in recognition of PCLC’s role in providing a legal service to students at Caulfield and Peninsula campuses over many years.

Guests attending the event included federal, state and local government representatives from Melbourne's south eastern suburbs and the Mornington Peninsula, representatives from MONSU and staff and volunteers of PCLC.

Ian Boag and John Finlayson, two of the key figures in establishing the legal centre, told the gathering that much of the impetus for its establishment came from residents of the Pines Estate wanting to challenge shonky hire purchase schemes being peddled in the area by one particular home furnishing retailer. 

They paid tribute to the fighting spirit of a community, predominantly made up of single mothers, in establishing a service that has been strongly supported by governments of all persuasions and is now recognised as a leader in the community Legal Service movement.

MONSU President Robert Tobin presented $100 vouchers donated by Monash University Bookshop and CITSU Bookshop to Emma Langton– Bunker and Julie Newdick, in recognition of their outstanding work as volunteers at PCLC.  Both Emma and Julie are law students at Monash.

A solicitor from PCLC consults on Thursday afternoons at Peninsula campus, and on Monday evenings and Thursday mornings at Caulfield campus.  The service is available at no cost to Monash students.  Bookings can be made through the MONSU Service Desk at Caulfield and Peninsula. 

Nursing workshop on evidence based practice

By Robyn Kirby

Some 50 clinical nurses and other health professionals attended a workshop on Evidence Based Practice for Nursing Clinicians at the Peninsula Campus recently.

The workshop, organised by the Centre for Health Services Operations Management, with support from the health networks, Southern Health and Peninsula Health, gave nurses the opportunity to hear and meet Professor Nicky Cullum, a leading nursing academic and researcher in the field of evidence based nursing.  

Nicky, a Professor in Health Sciences and Director of the University of York’s Centre for Evidence Based Nursing (CEBN), trained as a nurse in Liverpool and qualified in 1985. She subsequently completed a PhD in pharmacology, exploring possible causes of nerve damage in diabetics. After her doctoral work, Nicky's interests have become more clinically and health services focused.

Nicky’s commitment to an evidence based approach to health care and its implications for nursing saw her establish the Centre for Evidence Based Nursing at the University of York in 1996 with its focus on promoting the availability and accessibility of good dissemination. 

Under the auspices of the CEBN, Nicky is currently undertaking systematic reviews and clinical trials in wound care, and systematic reviews and primary research in aspects of how nurses use information for practice.

At the Workshop Nicky enabled participants to describe the process of evidence based practice and understand the principles of focusing uncertainty into searchable questions. She showed strategies for searching the literature for clinical research evidence and described some strategies for translating and implementing EBP knowledge into clinical decision making.

The Centre plans to run further seminars and workshops in 2003 and in due course details will be posted on the Centre’s web page. By Robyn Kirby

Monash Peninsula Child Care summer services

A reduced service will operate at the Peninsula Child Care centre from the 3 to 10 January 2003. The service will offer family groupings and the full range of services will re-open on the 13th January. 

For further enquiries and bookings, please contact Ms Winnie Stewart on 9781 1745.

Monyx - what, why, where and when

Monyx is a new company formed to provide the services previously delivered by:

• Unicomm (including Unicomm Catering), Careers and Employment (MONSEACS), Sports and Recreation Association, and Monash University Bookshop, at Clayton Campus

AND

• MONSU Catering, CITSU Bookshop and sports and recreation, student assistance, student affairs, service desks student facilities and administrative services previously provided by Monash University Student Union (MONSU) Inc. at Caulfield and Peninsula Campuses.

In addition, the event management functions provided by Conference Management Office and Monash University Facilities and Conference office are now part of Monyx.

Monyx is jointly owned by students and by Monash University through Monash Commercial, and is governed by a Board of Directors comprising three University appointed directors and three student appointed directors.

The Monyx structure is still being finalised but is currently based around 6 key service provider areas - Sport, Student Affairs, Student Assistance, Retail (including Bookshops), Food and Beverage, and Careers and Employment.  These service providers are supported by Monyx services including Finance, People and Culture, IT, Service Desks and general administration.

In the new environment at Peninsula:

• A Peninsula Student Council, known as MONSU Peninsula, will operate autonomously as the representative arm of the student body, and will provide programs like orientation, student events and clubs and societies. Membership of the Council and its sub – committees is determined through annual elections conducted among the students on campus. Robert Tobin is President of the Student Council in 2002.  Cassandra Monohan is President - elect of the Student Council in 2003.  Monyx will continue to provide staff, office accommodation and equipment to support the work of the Student Council.

• A Campus Service Council has been created to provide recommendations to Monyx and the University about the provision of services on the campus.  The Service Council comprises 10 students, a representative of the local community and 3 University staff (John White as Campus Director, Michael Barry representing general staff and a representative of academic staff to be advised).

Naming and badging of facilities under Monyx is currently being discussed by the university, Monyx and the Student Council and should be resolved shortly.

The focus of Monyx is on delivery of seamless service across campuses and on providing service excellence. It is intended that revenue generated by Monyx from off-campus operations will result in better services and facilities on Monash campuses, and that there will ultimately be less reliance on the Amenities fee to fund those services.

Any inquiries about Monyx should be directed to Peter Hughes, Monyx Site Manager at Peninsula campus, on extn 44217.

Education on display

The skills of Education students are currently on display on the the third and fourth floor of A building. The pieces are the result of work undertaken in the studio art and technology subjects.

Notice board

The library will now be open until 8 pm, Monday to Thursday, during
the week beginning 18 November. The closing time of 5.45 pm will remain
for the Friday of that week.

Authorised by the Office of the Campus Director - Peninsula 

Contributions can be emailed to julie.ryan@adm.monash.edu.au by 5 PM Thursdays.