Associate Professor Wendy Bacon (1 June 2003)
Humanities and Social Sciences
Sun Herald
It is being said that an undergraduate degree is the bare minimum requirement to get almost any job in media these days. Wendy Bacon, Associate Professor and communications lecturer at UTS, said that with competition so fierce for jobs, an undergraduate degree was often not enough. "It's very hard for undergraduates, because you've got people with second degrees coming in and getting the jobs," she said.

Eva Cox (1 June 2003)
Humanities and Social Sciences
Good Reading
Libraries in the twenty-first century offer much more than just books - they provide up-to-the minute information in myriad forms and are a haven for people from all walks of life. A 2000 study by Eva Cox from UTS, entitled A Safe Place to Go: Libraries and Social Capital emphasised that libraries are a good meeting place for people to study and socialise and they generate valuable social capital in their communities.

Eva Cox (2 June 2003)
Humanities and Social Sciences
Sydney Morning Herald
Australians are richer than ever - the average household is now worth $280,000. Reports show how money is both making and breaking the national identity. Eva Cox of UTS believes the emphasis on making money to be self sufficient is resulting in greater anxiety. "It's making us more grabby," she said.

Elyssebeth Leigh (2 June 2003)
Education
ABC Radio National (The Buzz)
Discussion of computer simulation technology. Elyssebeth Leigh's focus on the user of computer simulation technology is very much at the heart of what State Rail, NSW is trying to do. State Rail is devising computer simulations to improve safety.

Professor Steve Burdon (3 June 2003)
Business
The Australian
According to a new book the information and communication technology sector has produced 30 per cent of Australia's productivity increase since the commercialisation of the Internet in 1995. Co-author Professor Steve Burdon said, "I don't think there is an understanding of how much of our wealth is driven by that sector." Professor Burdon is working on a new subject, Management of ICT Technology, to be taught at UTS next year.

Eva Cox (3 June 2003)
Humanities and Social Sciences
Sydney Morning Herald
Commentators are concerned that anxiety over the need for greater financial self reliance is generating a society divided by lack of trust and looking after "Number One". Social commentator Eva Cox of UTS says Australian Election Studies research shows we are becoming less egalitarian and there is less confidence in a fair go for all.

Professor Stuart White, Director (4 June 2003)
Institute for Sustainable Futures
Sydney Morning Herald
Professor Stuart White comments on problems caused by waste. "Landfills are the most visible sign of how sustainably we are living," he said. "But how we make products is a bigger problem than where they end up. Reducing what we use and and reusing existing materials has less impact on the environment that recycling. Recycling is important, but it's only a step above sending stuff to landfill."

Professor Mary-Anne Williams (4 June 2003)
Information Technology
Australian PC World online
Hundreds of soccer playing robots will grab world attention next month at RoboCup 2003 in Padua, Italy. Professor Mary-Anne Williams from UTS said her team's dog-like AIBO robots, in the four-legged league, can pass and head the ball and are capable of a range of kicks, including the bicycle kick made famous by such players as Brazil's Zico and Rivaldo.

Sue Kildea, Doctoral student (4 June 2003)
Nursing, Midwifery & Health
Koori Mail
Sue Kildea, a doctoral student in the UTS Centre for Family Health and Midwifery, is discovering untapped reserves of bush medicine lore and knowledge among Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and documenting these resources for the benefit of midwives, doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. Ms Kildea said Aboriginal women believed there should be "two -way learning" between the Aboriginal model of health beliefs and practises and that practised by Western health workers.

Dr Anne Bamford (4 June 2003)
Education
Parramatta Sun
Merrylands East Primary School is involved a pilot project that is studying the effects of an arts-intensive curriculum on student learning and on students' attitude to school and their community. The project is being managed by UTS, led by Dr Anne Bamford from the university. "As well as achieving NSW K-6 syllabus outcomes in dance, drama, music and the visual arts, the project aims to enhance student skills in literacy and numeracy and help develop enhanced socialisation skills and community values," Dr Bamford said.

Professor Jane Hall (6 June 2003)
Business, Nursing, Midwifery & Health
Medical Observer
Australia's healthcare system is under discussion and it is proving to be an issue centred more on ideology than economics - whether government should provide health care for all regardless of ability to pay or not. Professor Jane Hall form the Centre for Health Economics,Research and Evaluation at UTS says, "if you believe that people should take care of themselves then it comes down to a social view of where we should be." Debate about healthcare should be couched in terms of social value systems, she says.

Adjunct Professor John Reizes and Dr Matt Gaston (9 June 2003)
Engineering
Inner Western Suburbs Courier
Adjunct Professor John Reizes and Dr Matt Gaston of the UTS Faculty of Engineering have created a computer model for the formation and interaction of six air bubbles in water - a first in computational fluid dynamics. The applications are as diverse as household refrigeration, the production of world class champagne and the effectiveness of bazookas that fire rockets at armoured tanks.

Professor John Hughes (10 June 2003)
Information Technology
The Australian
UTS is poised to become the first university in the Asia-Pacific region to join the Alcatel global research partner program. Alcatel launched the program in 2001 to reinforce innovation efforts and promote close long-term relationships with key universities. Director of the UTS Institute for Information and Communication Technologies Professor John Hughes said, " for UTS, a relationship like this with Alcatel is extremely important. It opens avenues and opportunities."

Professor Michael Adams (10 June 2003)
Law
ABC Radio National (The Law Report)
Stockbroker Rene Rivkin began his period of weekend detention on Saturday, after being found guilty of insider trading. Michael Adams says that about five percent of trades on the Australian Stock Exchange are tainted by insider trading, and the laws regarding the practice are ineffective.

Associate Professor Graham Sansom, Director (11 June 2003)
Centre for Local Government
Fairfield Advance, Glebe and Inner-Western Weekly
The role of local government should be discussed in any debate about forced amalgamations and boundary changes according to Graham Sansom, Director of the UTS Centre for Local Government. He said arguments for council area changes centred on issues such as improving efficiency, cost effectiveness, strategic planning, rectifying 'silly' borders and financial viability. But amalgamations may not necessarily be the solution, he said.

Ronald Wood and Caitlin McGee (12 June 2003)
Institute for Sustainable Futures, Science
Sydney Morning Herald
A question put to a range of experts at the recent Greening Cities conference discussed the methods of rescuing urban areas from the degradation caused by overpopulation, pollution, excessive energy consumption and heat generation. UTS environmental scientist Ronald Wood said research shows that indoor plants in the workplace improve air quality as they do in the home. Architect Caitlin McGee from the UTS Institute of Sustainable Futures said state-of-the-art design can quite easily be green and offered some practical suggestions for saving water and energy.

Professor Larissa Behrendt, Director, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning (12 June 2003)
Law, Executive and Admin
ABC Radio 2BL
Professor Larissa Behrendt discusses her new book, Achieving Social Justice. The interview covers issues including Aboriginal sovereignty, the Australian flag, reconciliation, the Stolen Generations report, increasing numbers of Aboriginal people in custody and a division between Aboriginal leaders on strategy.

Dr Aron Murphy (14 June 2003)
Business
Weekend Australian
Dr Aron Murphy, senior lecturer in Exercise and Sports Science, Deputy Head, School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism at UTS discusses the importance of being wise when you choose a personal trainer.
A good trainer will teach you about exercise and diet, help you achieve your goals, assist you developing healthy habits and facilitate you becoming self-motivated in the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. A poor trainer may leave you disillusioned, unmotivated and perhaps even injured. It is important to look at their qualifications before choosing.

Professor Massimo Piccardi (18 June 2003)
Information Technology
La Fiamma - Young Italo-Australians
UTS research on the operation of security cameras could have global implications for the security industry. A team led by Professor Massimo Piccardi has designed software to track a suspect continuously by matching images of a single individual from different cameras. The team's objective is to reduce the incidence of "everyday" criminality that occurs within precincts such as universities and shopping centres.

Dr Sarah Edelman (18 June 2003)
Science
ABC Radio 2BL
Scientists have identified the gene which controls pheromones and it is withered and mutated. Apparently the last time we used pheromones to attract a partner was thousands of years ago. What attracts people to their partners. Is it looks? Is it personality traits? Edelman speaks about the latest scientific theories on attractiveness including evolutionary psychology and symmetrical faces considered more attractive. Listeners phone in with comments on what attracts them to people.

Professor Larissa Behrendt, Director, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning (18 June 2003)
Law, Executive and Admin
Koori Mail
Story profiles activist and author Larissa Behrendt. In her latest book Achieving Social Justice: Indigenous Rights and Australia's Future she writes that the school system taught her nothing of the dispossession of Australia's Indigenous people or the removal of Aboriginal children, historical actions that had defined her own Indigenous family.
"I became a lawyer to change laws, idealistically to right historical wrongs and make sure that the injustices of the past - the Stolen Genertaions and land grabs - would not happen again," she said.

Professor Larissa Behrendt, Director, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning (18 June 2003)
Law, Executive and Admin
Campus Review Weekly
A new book by Professor Larissa Behrendt argues a strong case for making substantive changes to Australia's "rights framework" - on altering institutions that have entrenched ideologies that exclude Indigenous people. "Without targeting the ideologies inherent in the institutions of Australian society, no attempts at reform or reconciliation will be truly effective," she said.

Associate Professor Geoff Monahan (19 June 2003)
Law
Sydney Morning Herald
The current custody law for broken families is under discussion. It is argued that the raising of a child should, and could be shared equally without preference of one parent over another if both seem fit to take on the responsibility. Geoff Monahan, a former family law solicitor, said between 90 and 95 per cent of family disputes are solved without court intervention.

Professor Thomas Clarke and Professor Michael Adams, Centre for Corporate Governance (20 June 2003)
Business, Law
Lawyers Weekly
The UTS Centre for Corporate Governance has announced details of a three-year research project into the changing roles of company boards and directors. The research, to be undertaken by Centre Director Professor Thomas Clarke and Assistant Director Professor Michael Adams, will assess the experience of the largest 100 Australian corporations in responding to the challenge of transforming their corporate governance to meet changing expectations.

Dr Anne Bamford (20 June 2003)
Education
Western Advocate
This year two NSW government schools will be involved in an innovative pilot project. The Education and Arts Partnership Initiative (EAPI) will use the creative arts to address issues of adolescent learning, well being and community involvement. Lead by Dr Anne Bamford, senior lecturer in visual arts at UTS, the EAPI research aims to determine the extent to which an arts intensive program within middle school-aged children impacts on their school experience and learning.

Associate Professor David Wilson, Associate Dean, Education (20 June 2003)
Information Technology
Australian Financial Review
As the technology downturn continues, students are rejecting technology courses in the belief they no longer deliver the well-paid career path of the booming 1990's. The Associate Dean, Education, in the Faculty of IT at UTS, David Wilson, says the fall in enrolments at NSW universities this year is about 25 per cent. "If that happens again, it will be very difficult for all of us to maintain our student quotas," he said.

Patrick Keyzer (20 June 2003)
Law
ABC 666 Canberra (PM)
The legal fraternity appears to be in no doubt about the Family Court's ruling for children's rights in detention in Australia. Patrick Keyzer says there have been errors in the interpretation of the Family Law Act, and it is quite likely that the Government will take legislative steps to remove the jurisdiction of courts to determine matters in the way that the Family Court has done.

Boyd Dent (20 June 2003)
Science
Herald Sun, Otago Daily Times (NZ), The West Australian, The Courier Mail, The Burnie Advocate, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), The Ballarat Courier, The Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga)
Australia's cemeteries could contain more than skeletons. There are fears pathogens such as tuberculosis, smallpox and cholera might have been buried with infected bodies. Geoscientist Boyd Dent of UTS said his recent national study of cemetery ground water raised concerns about the offsite migration of viruses and bacteria into the community, potentially causing fresh outbreaks.

Keri Spooner (21 June 2003)
Business
Sydney Morning Herald
Article looks at talking politics in the workplace. Keri Spooner, a senior lecturer in industrial relations with the School of Management at UTS, says workplace etiquette is not cut and dried. "People bring their entire selves to work," she said. "They don't park their personalities and families conveniently outside and then go into the workplace." But Spooner says that employers have a right to restrict dialogue which reduces productivity or threatens staff cohesion.

Professor Lesley Barclay, Director, Centre for Family Health and Midwifery (21 June 2003)
Nursing, Midwifery & Health
The Courier-Mail
Giving birth means death for some Australian women every year but how many no one officially knows. Last time national figures were released there had been a sudden surge in maternal deaths. There was concern that Australia's rising caesarean rate might be responsible.
Professor Lesley Barclay of UTS said, "women need to know if their chance of dying in pregnancy and childbirth is increasing. They have a right to know."

Dr Yvonne Tran (21 June 2003)
Science
Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The West Australian
A study pursued by an American scientist shows that people are actually born shy and introversion may be a permanent trait. However Dr Yvonne Tran, a postdoctoral fellow in health sciences at UTS, believes parents of shy children could help them overcome their fears by putting them in confronting situations to "rewire" their behavioural patterns.

Dr Nigel Beebe and Adjunct Professor Tony Sweeney (23 June 2003)
Science
Inner Western Suburbs Courier
Research into mosquitoes and the transmission of malaria by UTS in collaboration with the Australian Army Malaria Institute has sparked international interest. The World Health Organisation has provided funding for the research team, including Dr Nigel Beebe and Adjunct Professor Tony Sweeney, to share their methods with Chinese researchers.

Associate Professor Rosemary Johnston (23 June 2003)
Executive and Admin
Channel 2
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the biggest book release of all time. Dr Rosemary Johnston of UTS has been studying the phenomenon and praises the deft mix of genres, but concludes that the real appeal is in the fact that it is a fantasy story and an adventure story.

Professor Larissa Behrendt, Director, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning (24 June 2003)
Executive and Admin, Law
ABC Radio National (Life Matters)
Behrendt is the first Aboriginal to receive a doctorate from Harvard Law School and is the author of Achieving Social Justice. She talks about her work and says her law career has enabled her to pursue justice for Aboriginal people in Australia. She talks about her hopes growing up in the 1960s that a lineal progression of rights for Aboriginal people would be automatic. She says she felt despair at the response by subsequent governments. However, she has gained renewed hope by the show of support from the community for the stolen generation and reconciliation issues.

Associate Professor Rosemary Johnston (24 June 2003)
Education
ABC Radio National (Australia Talks Back)
Rosemary Johnston says the main strength of the Harry Potter series is its longevity and impact, and how many times it can be returned to. She says that social issues are explored in the latest book under the genre of fantasy. She says encouraging boys to read is not overrated. The real challenge is to encourage the readers of Harry Potter books to partake in a wider range of literature.

Professor Larissa Behrendt, Director, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning (25 June 2003)
Law, Executive and Admin
SKY
Professor Larissa Behrendt talks about the factors that have stopped ATSIC from being truly representative of Aboriginal people. She thinks the direct election of commissioners is a very good idea. Behrendt thinks the outcome of the review of ATSIC should make the community more aware about its role and ensure the Federal Government owns up to errors made by its own departments, rather than placing blame on ATSIC.

Professor Andrew Gonczi, Dean, (26 June 2003)
Education
Radio 2GB
Presenter Phillip Clark wonders why the Federal Government is going for uniform standards across states when it should be going for better standards instead. Andrew Gonczi says that Australia is already in the top six countries in the world in terms of standards. He thinks there should be a uniform test to go to university across the country along the lines of the US and education should take account of social and cultural differences.

Eva Cox (27 June 2003)
Humanities and Social Sciences
ABC Radio National (Breakfast)
A Herald-AC Neilsen poll suggested that 77 per cent of people would prefer improvements to the welfare system rather than a small tax cut. Eva Cox believes that people are sick of tax cuts and are more interested in receiving increased services. She feels that people are becoming more aware of the wider problems associated with a failing public sector.

Stefan Schelm and Professor Geoff Smith (27 June 2003)
Science
Nature Magazine online
Researchers in Australia are developing a new kind of glass that lets sunlight through but blocks much of its heat. Stefan Schelm and Geoff Smith of UTS have developed a cheap polymer that, laminated between glass sheets, cuts out the warming wavelengths, which are just below that of red light.

Associate Professor Geoffrey Riordan (27 June 2003)
Education
ABC Northern Tasmania
The push by the Federal Minister of Education, Brendan Nelson, towards standardised national testing and a uniform national school curriculum has already caused a lot of discussion in many circles. Associate Professor of Education at UTS Geoffrey Riordan says he agrees with the push by Brendan Nelson for a national system. Mr Riordan says there are funding implications and they can be potentially huge in a number of ways, one of them is in terms of the age at which children start school.

Elizabeth Brennan, PhD student (28 June 2003)
Science
ABC Radio National (Earthbeat)
Earthbeat takes a look at the silent sex change that can occur when chemicals interfere with the finely tuned hormone systems of wildlife. This is phenomenon is known as endocrine disruption. One of the best documented cases of endocrine disruption is the feminisation of male fish in Britain. Elizabeth Brennan of UTS discusses research in Australia.

Keri Spooner (29 June 2003)
Business
Radio 2UE
Presenter Malcolm Elliott talks with Keri Spooner, a senior lecturer in industrial relations at UTS, about the old rule of never talk about how malicious gossip is being spread amongst employees. They discuss workplace debates on issues like politics, the etiquette and limits that need to be applied, while recognising it is important to allow people to express their views.

Andrew Taylor (30 June 2003)
Humanities and Social Sciences
Sydney Morning Herald (The Guide)
A new drama-cum-documentary profiles Daisy Bates, a British eccentric who spent 20 years in a tent on the Nullabor. Writer and Director Andrew Taylor teaches film and video production at UTS.