Transition update: College of Business, Government and LawWelcome to the third edition of the College of Business, Government and Law (BGL) transition update. This newsletter is one of the ways of sharing information about the developments and transition processes associated with our new College structure. College welcome eventAll College of Business, Government and Law staff are invited to the College Welcome event to be held on Monday 31 July from 10.30 am – 11.30am in the Social Sciences North Common Room. Light refreshments will be provided. If you have not already done so, please accept the calendar invitation for this event, or email julie.rayner@flinders.edu.au with your RSVP. We hope to see many of you there. College forumsThe next College of Business, Government and Law Forum will be held at 12.00 – 1.00pm on Friday 11 August in North Theatre 2. The Forum will be another opportunity for an update on College news and for an open exchange of questions and answers. I will chair the Forum, with support from other members of the College Transition Team. If you prefer, you can submit questions to the forum in advance by sending them to julie.rayner@flinders.edu.au. The Forum will be livestreamed. College Forums will be held regularly to provide an opportunity to update staff on major issues affecting the University and for you to ask questions. Other senior staff from across the University may also be invited depending on the topics to be discussed. I look forward to seeing you at these forums to update you on changes and answer your queries. We hope that you can join us. Recruitment updateThe Transition Team has identified College Teaching Programs and confirmed topic and course allocation to these programs. Teaching Programs (each of which is a collection of courses) will have Program Directors who will work with the Dean (Education) to drive the innovation, development, implementation and review of learning and teaching initiatives within a particular College Teaching Program and its courses. Teaching Program Directors work with the coordinators of courses within the program to ensure the quality of the courses in the teaching program and effective running of the courses and topics. They facilitate innovation, collaboration and synergy across courses, topics and Colleges for the benefit of student learning and experience. Expressions of Interest for Teaching Program Directors of the four Teaching Programs for our College have recently closed.
An Expression of Interest process for the College Research Higher Degree Coordinator is also currently underway. The RHD Coordinator oversees the maintenance of satisfactory supervisory standards and ensures that the research environment in the College is supportive to its RHD students. Progress has also been made in the upcoming appointment of a College Operations Team Leader following a recent Expression of Interest process, and we hope to have further news on this for our College in the coming weeks. College officeThe College front office is located in the Social Sciences South Building, just off carpark 4. The front office is the primary point of contact regarding College business and is staffed by Jo Heffernan and Toni Kennedy. In addition to Jo and Toni, the front office space is also occupied by staff who are part of the existing services to undergraduate and postgraduate students. The College Support Team can be contacted via BGLEnquiries@flinders.edu.au or via the phone number 8201 3300 (x13300). Work health and safety supportWe would like to welcome Dave Barber as the Senior Work Health and Safety (WHS) officer assigned to the College of Business, Government and Law. Staff in the Social Sciences South building know Dave from his previous role; however it is worth reinforcing Dave’s new role to the whole college. Dave is available to assist and advise staff in all aspects of WHS and will work proactively to ensure the effective management of WHS across our college. Please ensure a proactive approach is taken to WHS in your area by reporting any hazards, near misses or incidents to Dave or your line manager. All issues will be treated in the strictest confidence. Please contact Dave if you have any concerns about your workspace, need some WHS advice or require a risk assessment/site audit for any new tasks or procedures. Dave is located in the Social Sciences South building, room 250A, extension 12166. Helping studentsStudents may ask you about which college their course or topic has been allocated to. There have already been student communications with a search tool that gives them the answer. However, so that each of us can help them as well, this tool is also on the College Support Guide. College transition and supportIt is important to realise at this time of change that the transition to colleges is an ongoing process and there will be some practical challenges to navigate. For example, there will still be references to faculties and schools in forms, policies and other documents. This will be fixed progressively. As mentioned, one helpful, continuously evolving, tool for managing these sorts of practical issues is the new College Support Guide. One particularly important part of this page is the Policy and Approvals Translation Guide. This Translation Guide provides help in interpreting policies, forms and approval requirements, with the start of the college structure (e.g. where a policy refers to “Faculty” or “School”, read “College”). The People and Contacts section lists key people for each college, College office contact details and links directly to the new College landing pages. For questions regarding College service contacts please refer to the College Contact guide. Sign off and delegationsThe Policy and approvals translation guide provides direct translation assistance for University policies and procedures but also indicates areas of responsibility for College roles. The process for financial approval and sign off is a two-stage process. Firstly, approval for academic requests is sought from either the Vice President and Executive Dean or Dean (People and Resources). This is for matters that were previously approved by Deans of Schools e.g. casual teaching, short-term staffing or amendment to workload allocation. This change is noted in the Policy and Approvals Translation Guide. Where approval for professional matters was previously given by School and Faculty General Managers, approval from Head of College Services is now required. Finally, once approval is received, financial sign off takes place with reference to the amount of the relevant financial expenditure delegation amounts here, when expenditure is within the position’s area of responsibility and it is within approved budgets. Policies, procedures and approvals (including forms)All policies, procedures and forms are being progressively updated to reflect our new structure and operational requirements and will be released as they are approved. Paper forms are still in the process of being updated, so in the meantime approvers listed in paper forms should be determined based on the Policy and Approvals Translation Guide. Approval processes will change as a result of the move to Colleges and some systems (e.g. Finance, FlindersPro and HR) will be updated to reflect new approvers according to the translation guide. Wherever possible, we are also seeking to minimise the number of signatures required, with the key requirement being the authorising signature. There are many examples of local practices that have evolved over time to include unnecessary checks and signatures that are not required by our University policy and delegations. You are encouraged to streamline processes by skipping these steps wherever possible, and if you have any doubt about this I ask that you contact Chris Bishop, Head of College Services directly. SystemsThere are always temporary systems impacts with any major changes, including planned systems outages and the need for workarounds. If you encounter an issue, in the first instance I encourage you to review the College Support Guide which lists the known issues, key operational arrangement and FAQ’s. If you need further assistance and you believe it to be a systems issue please log a call via the IT Support app on your Okta dashboard, by calling the ITS Service Desk on 12345 or emailing ITS@flinders.edu.au. If your question is College-specific, please contact your College Support Team. College corporate stationery (including business cards), college email signatures and related college templatesPresenting a contemporary look and feel, the new college stationery features a range of items for immediate download. These include:
For the first time the PowerPoint template includes a selection of ‘about Flinders’ slides that can be used in external presentations as appropriate. Orders are now being taken for a suite of visually appealing new business cards. If your role involves external engagement, please visit Flinders Press to download the new templates, and business card webpage to order new cards. Please update your email signature using the examples and guidelines provided. QuestionsInformation regarding frequently asked questions with respect to the new College structure is also available on The 2025 Agenda – Achieving our vision webpage. As the design of the College Service Teams and other College transition activities continue throughout 2017, there will be continuing updates from either the Transition Team or Project staff. We would encourage you to communicate your questions and feedback to the Transition Team via emailing the Executive Officer julie.rayner@flinders.edu.au or 2025@flinders.edu.au Staying connectedAs well as keeping you up to date through communication with members of the College Transition Team, you can also keep up to date by visiting The 2025 Agenda – Achieving our vision webpage. At any time throughout this process you can also ask questions or provide feedback to 2025@flinders.edu.au. If you need further clarity on any of The 2025 Agenda initiatives, you are encouraged to speak with your supervisor or Senior HR Advisor. If you feel that you would benefit from talking to someone independently, Flinders University offers support and counselling via the University Employee Assistance Program. This service is entirely confidential.
Professor Phyllis Tharenou |