WINTER | 2011
India by rickshaw
the amazing race 3 Bondies. 3000 kilometres. 10,000 lives transformed.
Your career
Lost cities
How to think like Ancient lessons an entrepreneur on sustainability Jno.3226 Arch Mag Issue 5_v2.indd 1
Get inspired
Need a break?
Bond invites the community in
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Vice-Chancellor’s Letter
Winter 2011
Contents
CONTACT US
Editorial enquiries:
Features 18 Are you the next Branson? Think like an entrepreneur 21 Get inspired: Bond in the community 24 Architecture: The voice of the city
The call of the
Office of Development Bond University Gold Coast Queensland 4229 Australia Ph: +61 7 5595 4403
6 The amazing race: India by rickshaw
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open road
To join The Arch mailing list please email development@bond.edu.au
Alumni 14 Oxford, Cambridge, Bond 28 A favourable prognosis
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32 Social media for business
THE COVER story in this issue of
40 Class notes
The Arch is that of three Bondies who participated in a race across India earlier this year in a tiny, cramped rickshaw. They embarked on the journey because it offered adventure, the lure of the unknown. But they took home much more: a new perspective on life.
24 Campus 4 Campus news 12 Bond’s mooting giants 34 Help Bondies excel 36 Award-winning student essay
Et Cetera
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Vice-Chancellor’s letter
31 Competition: win a holiday
What these Bondies experienced and learned in India changed them, and influenced the way they now approach their lives, their careers, and their attitudes to others. Likewise Dr Edmond Kwan, a first year Basic Physician Trainee at the busy Royal Melbourne Hospital, says he was seduced by the lure of the unknown when he dropped out of his pharmacy program at the University of Queensland to become one of the first students in Bond’s new Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery program in 2005. In our interview with Dr Kwan on page 28, he says that being part of a new and untried medical course seemed like the perfect chance to “embrace the more adventurous and ambitious side of my persona.”
Indeed, taking the road less travelled, whether out of a sense of adventure, entrepreneurship or even just plain curiosity, is a characteristic that sets most Bondies aside from the rest of the pack. Our teachers and students alike are making names for themselves in the international community. Bond law students have excelled themselves and put our university firmly on the educational map as one of the best advocacy and teaching institutions in the world, winning three international moots in the past two months (more on page 12). We often describe Bondies as being pioneers, and this is no less true of our newest intake of students as it was of those brave students and staff who turned up for Bond’s first classes on a muddy, unfinished campus in mid-May, 1989.
Rachel Mansted, a Bond alumnus who is now undertaking her Masters studies at the University of Oxford, says the defining characteristic of a Bondy is “a can-do attitude,” and “the boldness to give anything a shot.” That being so, Bondies, where will the road take you?
PROFESSOR ROBERT STABLE Vice-Chancellor and President
Bondies are pioneers, risk-takers, and creative thinkers. We are entrepreneurs, in every sense of the word. In fact Bond is at the global forefront of teaching on entrepreneurship, and on page 18 we show you how to think like an entrepreneur (or, perhaps, discover that you already do), and how to apply this thinking to improve your career.
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Campus
Campus news ‘above world standard’ recognition for business and management.
$1 MILLION BOOST TO EAST-WEST STUDIES
These excellent results are indicative of the increased focus that Bond has been placing on research to balance its strong track record in teaching. With external research grants increasing from $200,000 in 2004 to $4.2 million last year, we expect the next report (due in 2013) to reveal an even better result.
The recent Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) report awarded Bond’s Faculty of Business a ‘world standard’ ranking in the areas of commerce, management, tourism and services, and economics. What’s more, the Faculty gained
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More than 200 of the most promising students who began their studies this year joined Bond as recipients of our scholarship program, which is designed to attract Australia’s best and brightest students. “The scholarship program is designed to assist us to identify students who demonstrate not only outstanding academic performance, but also a great deal of leadership potential, a quality we aspire to instill in all our graduates,” says Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable.
BONDIES DOMINATE SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS
Meanwhile, a team of postgraduate students has also been recognised at the recent Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) awards, outperforming professional teams from respected urban planning consultancies, and State and local governments. Master of Urban Planning students Greg Betts, David Copray, Jonathan Leishman and Michael Zissis received three awards for their ‘Cross-border regional planning: coastal Queensland and New South Wales’ project.
BOND LEADS MOBILE TECHNOLOGY UPTAKE Bond became the first university in Australia to introduce Blackboard Mobile Learn applications to its students late last year, following in the footsteps of US institutions Stanford and Duke Universities. The application enables students to access and contribute to information regarding their courses online, via their mobile devices. Uses include checking recent administrative changes, reading lecture notes, and participating in online discussions with their peers. Jeffrey Brand, Associate Professor of Communication and Media, says the application is both important and timely for Bond.
Bond University’s newly-established Institute of Sustainable Development and Architecture is already making a name for itself, with its students dominating recent award ceremonies. Students John Cover, Cassandra Perrett and Hayden Allsop secured three of only 10 Australian quantity surveying bursaries available nationwide with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
BOND RESEARCH RANKED “WORLD CLASS”
200 STUDENTS START 2011 ON SCHOLARSHIP
“Both the number and quality of scholarship applications we receive are growing exponentially year-on-year, which is a reflection of Bond’s strong national reputation for providing quality, personalised education.”
Bond University has received a gift of $1 million from an anonymous donor to support the Centre for East West Cultural and Economic Studies, in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences. This generous gift will enable Bond to become a centre of excellence in east-west studies, increasing our academic research by pursuing cooperative, strategic research. It will enable Bond to build the presence, impact and output of its research in the fields of economics, politics, foreign policy, international relations and security-related issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The Centre will also pursue a separate cluster on philosophical issues.
“This partnership will open the doors for many years to come for a great number of Gold Coast residents and business owners, students, and Council members,” he said. “It will provide access to the latest, innovative research, state-of-the-art facilities, world-leading academics, and will enable us to strive for the same goal of making our city sustainable.
GOLD COAST COUNCIL SUPPORT TO OPEN DOORS Gold Coast City Council Mayor Ron Clark visited Bond’s campus recently to sign a contract to fund a Gold Coast City Council Chair in Sustainable Development and Design, as well as a PhD degree.
“The Blackboard Mobile Learning application provides us with a chance to engage students in new ways and encourages them to frequent Blackboard (our learning management system) more often and more completely,” he says.
At the celebration were Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Robert Stable; Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Dean of Law Geraldine Mackenzie; General Manager (Strategic Partnerships) Brett Walker; alongside representatives of the French Bar School, the Australian Government, and other distinguished guests.
BOND TESTS IPAD APPS FOR CLASSROOMS
An important part of the unique Bond student experience is to offer study abroad and international exchange opportunities. To this end, while in Europe the senior team renewed agreements with the European Business School and Phillips Marburg University; visited new partner the Freie University of Berlin; and held promising discussions with two other prestigious German institutions.
One application is an anatomically correct electronic ‘e-heart’ application for use by medical students. Project leader and Assistant Professor of Clinical Anatomy, Dr Allan Stirling, says it is intended as an enhancement to the students’ textbooks.
STRENGTHENING BOND’S TIES IN EUROPE
Bond University is leading the mobile learning revolution by developing and testing iPad and smart phone applications for use in the classroom.
“Using this application on a smart phone or tablet computer, students will be able to manipulate and explore the human heart in 3D, viewing front and back, inside and out, to gain a depth and perspective they could never achieve by looking at the two dimensional photographs and drawings in a textbook,” he says.
$8.4 MILLION LEGAL TRAINING EXTENSION A WORLD FIRST Law students now have access to an $8.4 million extension to the Legal Skills Centre, the first of its kind to integrate the full complement of legal-based training facilities with purpose-built suites designed for mediation, dispute resolution and professional legal training. Australia’s Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce AC, officially opened the extension on campus in April 2011. Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable said the extension would enable more students to put the first-class facilities to use.
The Mayor said this partnership with Bond would enhance the City’s reputation for sustainable development, and play an important part in the Council’s overall climate change strategy. Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable said the Council’s support was significant for Bond.
students in the French Bar School, Master of Laws (International Legal Practice) degree program.
“The Centre houses a full-scale electronic moot court, offering a state-of-the-art courtroom setting equipped with evidence management systems, video conferencing facilities and video streaming that replicate the latest technology used in the High Court of Australia,” he said.
A CLINICAL EDUCATION FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS Bond medical students now have the opportunity to study in a hospital environment, following the establishment of the Bond University Clinical Education and Research Centre (BUCERC) at the nearby Robina Hospital. The $2.7 million state-of-the-art facility was funded by Bond University and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) Capital Development Pool, for Queensland Health. It is just one element in the wider Robina Hospital expansion.
Senior Bond staff and academics were present at the University’s first graduation ceremony in Paris earlier this year, for
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THE AMAZING
Feature
R AC E Three Bondies, three weeks, one cramped rickshaw. How far will they go for a long drink of cool, clean water? The answer: 3000 life-changing kilometres.
Photo credit (throughout story): Chris Conradi
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Feature LATE ON a hot summer night in
January 2010, Bond student Dani Smythe knocked on fellow Bondy and flatmate Hugh Minson’s door, saying, “I need to use your Internet.” In less than a minute, she had registered online to take part in a rickshaw race across India. All she was missing, she told Hugh, were the teammates required to compete. By the next morning, Hugh had taken the bait. “Would you consider me?” he asked, although he suspected this had been Dani’s plan all along. Next, they invited newlywed and Bond alumnus Chris Conradi to join them, and with Chris’ “Yeah sure” response, the Bond University “Tuk it Easy” team for 2011 was complete. A year later, the three Bondies reunited in India: Chris travelling from Norway, Dani from Canada, and Hugh from Australia. In the three weeks that followed, they journeyed more than
3000 gruelling kilometres across the sub-continent, and raised enough funds for the race’s nominated charity, FRANK Water, to provide clean and permanent drinking water to 10,000 people.
Before we started, I didn’t really know what to expect. India is just so different from anything I have ever experienced. I expected Delhi to be chaotic, smelly, polluted and overpopulated. Not in my wildest dreams would I have guessed it was as bad as The Arch caught up with Chris and it actually was. It was mayhem! That’s Hugh on their return. probably why my most memorable moment was when we got to southern Goa. We had India puts everything in perspective… been driving I am willing to go so far as to say it was a small through filth for revelation for me two weeks and we ended up on this paradise, a CHRIS CONRADI beach with palm trees, cows on the sand, Hails from: Norway and just a calm, nice atmosphere with no Studied: Master of Business & IT tourists. What a contrast! Alumni year: 08 (graduated Aug ‘09) We got punched in the face with the Indian One day Dani called me and asked if culture when we arrived. We didn’t speak I wanted to drive across India in a rickshaw. the language, we didn’t even understand Being the adventurous guy that I am, the body language. Everything we did was I said yes. It was only later that I found out foreign, and we stood out because we were what a rickshaw was and realised I had tall and white. We had so many episodes to drive it through one of the world’s in which weird, stupid or unexplainable biggest countries. things happened just because we couldn’t understand or make ourselves understood. While we were planning the trip, we researched water-related issues in India, and that’s when it really dawned on me how massive this problem was. Not only in how many people water affects, but the impact this has on the country. The death rate of course is a major issue. But the economic impact as well, of medical bills, and people taking sick leave from work, is a major problem. Water is such a basic thing. If you don’t have access to clean water, nothing else matters. You need to cover the basic needs before anything else. India puts everything in perspective. I just had a beautiful baby daughter. And it got me thinking. She was born in Norway, one of the richest countries in the world. Her parents hold secure jobs, she will probably grow up without anybody being mean to her or having any real issues. She has the world in front of her and she can choose to be whatever she wishes. In India, much of the population is born into poverty. They have limited chances of being successful and, for some, even slim chances of growing into adolescence. Our trip made me see things in a different way. I had always thought of how fortunate I was, and had always been grateful. But to see millions and millions and millions of people living in conditions so bad it is hard
to imagine, puts things in perspective. I am willing to go so far as to say that it was a small revelation for me. I work for IBM in Norway and, since returning from India, I have taken the lead in a project where everybody donates hours, money, experience or wisdom for charity. This is all logged on a webpage so we can track all the work from the IBM-ers. The project is really going well, and it is incredible to see how a little bit of initiative can grow into something really big. I absolutely recommend the rickshaw run for other Bondies. It is not only an adventure of a lifetime: it also changes things. Bondies come from fortunate families, at least in Indian terms, and I think everybody should see for themselves how lucky they are. And that we can all make a difference. Hell, Dani, Hugh and I gave more than 10,000 people permanent access to clean drinking water. Permanent access! Think about it. It really is an inspiring idea. To me, “being a Bondy” means you are part of a family. When I was applying for jobs after my Master’s degree, I went to LinkedIn and did a search for all Bondies in the IT industry in Norway and sent them all mail saying I was looking for a job. It was amazing how many people replied and actually set up interviews for me! Just being a Bondy opened so many doors, and I know I will respond in the same way to any similar request. We are a big family, spread all over the world. Online social media allows us to actually keep in touch with all the other Bondies out there. HUGH MINSON Hails from: Australia Studied: Bachelor of Business (Entrepreneurship & Business Law) Alumni year: 08 (graduated Feb ‘11) Before we left on this trip, I was expecting the rickshaw to do a maximum speed of 85 kilometres an hour, and I was thinking we could back that off to 60 as our average speed for the trip. It turned out the rickshaw did a maximum of 62 kms an hour, and that was downhill with a tailwind. Our average speed was 30, once you took into account the speed bumps on the highways, which they rarely signpost. Then you’ve got cows slowing you down, you’ve got goats, one team hit a camel… Then the people would slow us down. Often people would drive past our rickshaw
COMEDY OF ERRORS: CHRIS CONRADI PONDERS THE MYSTERIES OF INDIA •
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Although our rickshaw only did about 50 kilometres an hour, we were still the fastest vehicle on the road. We could never figure out why Indians eat their sweet course in the middle of the meal. All the restaurants brought out the rice we ordered after we finished the meal. But who wants to eat a kilogram of plain rice for dessert? To express “yes” you bob your head from side to side. To express “no” you gently shake your head from side to side. As foreigners, it was impossible to tell the difference. Often this is a key piece of information! The poorer the people, the more generous they are. The poorest people offered us dinner and tea, even though they lived in a cardboard box
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Feature in their car expecting to see Indians and, instead, they’d see us white people. They’d look back, they’d slow down, they’d get you to pull over. They’d get the whole family out of the car and take photos! They’d try to offer you gifts, they’d say “send me an email.” They’d never seen anything like us. Nothing can really prepare you for the scale of India. People everywhere. Coming from Australia with its wide open spaces to a big country like India, I thought we’d be able to escape the crowds in the back country in the rickshaw, that we’d get stretches where there wasn’t a person in sight. But you literally drove past crop after crop, and there were hundreds of people. Then you come into a town. They’ll call it a village, but there’ll be 300,000 people in the village! So when you get to a city like Mumbai or Deli, there’s 30 to 50 million people. Nothing can really prepare you for that sort of pressure on the land, or on the infrastructure of the city. It’s sort of swelling with people. One really special moment during the trip was when Dani and I went and visited one of the FRANK Water projects in the real Indian back-country of Andhra Pradesh. We got to see first-hand the water purification station and the village it helped, and that was pretty special. You have the elders saying – through translators – that before this station, they had a lot of children with diseases. They were just thrilled to have clean water. One of the other things we did before we left was to create a competition called Tapping India, urging Indian school students to upload a one-minute video about a water-related issue and how they thought it could be resolved. We got in touch with another Bondy,
TAPPING INDIA: HUGH MINSON DOES A NUMBER ON WATER •
170 million Indians lack access to clean drinking water
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1500 children in India die every day just from diarrhoea
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Water borne diseases cost India 75 billion working days a year For every $1 a developing country spends on improving water sanitation, the return on investment is between $3 and $34 in terms of economic development FRANK Water was founded in 2006 by a young woman from Bristol, UK, who went to India and got sick from the water. Since then they’ve funded more than 78 water purification stations, and each one provides 10,000 people with clean drinking water
He gave us a $2000 grant to have Geoffrey build the website, and he gave the Indian office the all-clear to support us. I’ll be forever thankful to Scott for doing that. With Scott’s help, the Bond marketing office in India put us in contact with 10 elite Indian secondary schools. Dani, Chris and I visited each of the schools and presented to about 7000 students, representing Bond and encouraging the students to think in new ways about poverty in their country and how the water problems could be solved.
burdened as alumni of our university to do something with the opportunity we’ve received, and contribute to society.
I had a fantastic experience at Bond, I was able to do things I enjoyed, and I was part of that great international community. My academic side was definitely fired up by the Bond environment. You’ve got the small class sizes, lesser holidays each year, and the great location. Those things are brilliant.
I’m getting pretty deep here, but it’s not just a throw-away line, “I’m a Bondy.” I’d rather actions speak louder than words.
In future years, because of Bond’s strategy of nurturing the culture and community of the university and also having a fairly At Bond, you’re in the first percentile of aggressive people with opportunity. So I think with that scholarship degree… comes great responsibility program, I think you’ll see some very Geoffrey Kwitko. Geoffrey is an incredibly ambitious people out in the workforce and entrepreneurial person and he made in society in general. I don’t think it’s going a brilliant website in just two weeks. to be too long before Bond has a pretty enviable reputation. At Bond, Pro Vice-Chancellor [Development & External Relations] Scott Bulger was But I do think being a Bondy has a bit of a great supporter of what we were doing. responsibility attached to it. I feel like we’re
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India is a great eye-opener. We are very fortunate to live in the West, in Australia, to be studying on the Gold Coast. At Bond, you’re in the first percentile of people with opportunity. So I think that with that degree, with going to Bond and living in Australia, comes great responsibility. On that level I think giving to any charity is a very important thing.
WELL CONNECTED Fancy a rickshaw run? Want to help out? •
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Visit www.tukiteasy.com, the website Chris built for the team, to see how Chris, Hugh and Dani made their adventure happen To get a real feel for the experience, watch Chris’ video of the trip at www.vimeo.com/19288949 To register for your own adventure, go to www.rickshawrun. theadventurists.com And if three weeks in a tiny rickshaw in India isn’t your scene, you can still support the team’s work by promoting www.tappingindia.com
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Campus
David?
or Goliath? Bond Law emerges as a global giant in the mooting arena
BOND UNIVERSITY law students recently won the renowned International Criminal Court (ICC) trial competition at The Hague in the Netherlands, triumphing over global heavyweights Yale University, Leiden University and the William & Mary Law School, among others. No, this is not a reprint, although you’d be right in thinking you’ve read something very similar before. Only a week before Bond University’s triumph in the Netherlands, another Bond law team won the Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Hong Kong. Moreover, as we reported in an earlier issue of The Arch, Bond law students also won the ICC moot at The Hague in 2009. In fact, Bondies won four international mooting competitions and a further three Australian competitions in the past three years. This consistent global success comes despite the fact that our School of Law is as much as 10 times smaller than some of the universities it overcomes in the competitions, and our University is decades or even centuries younger than many of its competitors. David and Goliath comparisons would be all too pat at this point. But in the reality of Bond’s recent successes, such a comparison would be unfair. Unless you classed Bond as Goliath. But how did little Bond get so big? “Clearly Bond attracts top-notch students,” say Bond Law academics Assistant Professor Louise Parsons (Assistant Director of
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Mooting, 2011) and Assistant Professor Joel Butler (Director of Mooting). “Bond’s success in these competitions depends probably in equal measure on the hard work of the students and the dedication of the Faculty of Law to the mooting program.”
Next, the students prepare for the oral components of the competition, and receive coaching on the finer points of advocacy. Students are expected to work feedback into their submissions, and improve their submissions and arguments each time they do a practice moot.
Even at the selection process, students are asked to attend interviews or participate in a moot as part of the evaluation to determine their eligibility for a place on the team.
Throughout this process, the Law Faculty actively supports the students by allocating staff as coaches, providing facilities in which to practice, and providing the general assistance that is needed to make the mooters successful. During practice moots, staff generously volunteer their time to assist the students.
Once selected, the hard work really begins. Students first have to come to terms with the specific area of law relevant to the moot, and research the problem
In addition to this, the students also benefit from the enthusiastic participation of more senior students who have experience in moots.
‘Hard work’ is a masterful understatement.
In effect, the students are Bond is a special place for law students, and supported by an seeing it pay off in a national and international active ‘mooting community’ competitive arena is very gratifying at Bond, Professors Parsons and thoroughly. While staff members are Butler explain, and this could be the secret available to provide broad guidance, to their phenomenal success. Professors Parsons and Butler say research is “a fundamentally important process,” and “Winning at these competitions is a credit the students spend many hours doing the to Bond,” they say, “specifically because required research independently. we are a small university competing against much bigger universities. It is a credit to the They then undertake the arduous quality of the teaching, the quality of the process of translating the outcomes of students, and also the quality of their research into a memorandum for the institution. submission as part of the competition. This is no small undertaking, and some of these “Bond is a special place for law students, memoranda can be more than and seeing it pay off in a national and 50 pages long. international competitive arena is very gratifying.”
THE WINNING ICC TEAM Not only did the Bond team win the ICC Championship, the students also walked away with the “Best Prosecution” award, and Susan Forder won “Best Victim’s Counsel.” From left to right: Gabrielle Morriss, Cale Davis and Tegan Little. (Absent: Susan Forder)
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Alumni Rachel Mansted, University of Oxford
Ancient Bond is one of the youngest universities in the world. So how does it feel to walk the hallowed hallways of some of the oldest?
THE SAME year that Bond
celebrated its 20th anniversary, 2009, the University of Cambridge marked 800 years of higher education. The thought of a university that could be 800 years old almost boggles the mind, until you consider that while Bondies and Cantabrigians alike enjoyed their anniversary festivities, the University of Oxford had already passed (and celebrated) its 900th year. It certainly puts into perspective our tiny history, and how far we have to go. But it also highlights just how far Bond has already come in such a short period of time. Compared to any of the older European universities, or their Ivy League counterparts in the USA, Bond’s growth and rate of success – by any measure – has been astronomical. And as our academic reputation continues to soar, alongside the introduction of new travel scholarships for Bond alumni, a lovely merging of the old and new worlds is occurring: Bondies are continuing their postgraduate studies at some of the world’s oldest and most venerable institutions. RACHEL MANSTED University of Oxford Graduated from Bond with a Bachelor of Laws / International Relations WHAT ARE YOU STUDYING? My course is a Bachelor of Civil Law. It’s actually a law Master’s degree, but the name is left over from when Henry VIII banned the teaching of Canon Law during the English reformation. There is a joke
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about how many Oxford Dons it takes to change a light bulb. The correct answer is, “Change? What do you mean?” Fortunately, the only thing that has stayed static about my degree is its name. The course itself is at the cutting edge of legal practice and academia, and is reputed to be the most challenging law degree offered in the common law world. With the amount of reading, essays and tutorials I have to do between now and the exams, it certainly feels that way! The intensity and rigour of the learning process, along with the subject matter, will prepare me well for any future legal or other endeavours that I pursue. HOW DID YOU GET FROM BOND TO OXFORD? Bond gave me the opportunity to really get involved in both academic and campus life. Mooting was something I particularly
Applying to an institution on the other side of the world brought considerable challenges, and I am very grateful to those (particularly my referees) who assisted me along the way. It took about a year and a half from the moment I made the decision to pursue the application process to the day I stepped on the plane. At times I wondered whether it was worth it: it certainly was! WHAT’S YOUR MOST POWERFUL MEMORY OF YOUR TIME AT BOND? My memory of Bond is literally a whirlwind. When I think about it, one memory triggers off a host of others. It was such a busy time full of diverse and exciting experiences.
Bond is small enough but powerful enough that it now has alumni all over the world. And because of the relatively small size of the The age of this place still makes me pinch Bondy network, myself. I think about all the people who have we are a close knit network. It’s been here before me. And it just makes me so usually only one aware of the possibilities that are open to me or two degrees of separation between us. enjoyed, and I represented the Uni in the Because of this unique closeness, the Bond Jessup Competition in Washington DC. alumni group is incredibly valuable. I’d Some of the international students I met say the defining characteristic of a Bondy at the Jessup are now fellow-students is a can-do attitude, the boldness to give at Oxford. I was also involved in the Law anything a shot. Students’ Association and the Drama Society, and had the opportunity to do From its international perspective to even research work for a number of professors. something as simple as its focus on tutorial participation, Bond definitely prepared me It was the encouragement of my peers and for Oxford. Although it didn’t prepare me teachers at Bond that both gave me the for the English weather! idea and the courage to apply for Oxford.
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Alumni Julien du Vergier, University of Cambridge
GIVE US AN IDEA OF ‘LIFE AT OXFORD’ Life at Oxford is different things to different people. For me, I have found a home in my college, Christ Church, one of the bigger Oxford colleges which is home to about 200 graduate students and 400 undergraduates. I eat here, study in the library here, and have friends here from Kazakhstan to California, studying fields from astrophysics to zoology. Everyone has a dynamic combination of dedication to their studies and determination to enjoy their time at Oxford so, just like at Bond, life is very full-on. There is always something going on: rowing regattas and ceremonial boat burnings, public debates, formal dinners in the ‘Harry Potter’ dining hall, and ale and quizzes at the local pub. The age of this place still makes me pinch myself. I walk out of the college at night, with the moon rising over the cathedral spire and casting an eerie light over the quad; or I gaze back over the city from the far reaches of the college meadow; or I have dinner in the hall where Charles I once held Parliament; and I think about all the people who have been here before me and who saw exactly what I am seeing now. What were they thinking at the time? What did they go on to do? And it just makes me so aware of the possibilities that are open to me. JULIEN DU VERGIER University of Cambridge Graduated from Bond with a Bachelor of Laws & Biomedical Science TELL US A BIT ABOUT LIFE AT CAMBRIDGE AND HOW IT COMPARES TO BOND Cambridge is a beautiful medieval town built around the River Cam and the fens. Unlike the other place (Oxford), expect to see a lot less traffic and a lot more grand colleges crisscrossing the river, and spacious green fields. Also, expect to laugh a lot when you stop by the Footlights, or think a lot when you hear a foreign leader’s speech at the Cambridge Union Society. If you are up early enough, expect to be training for college rowing teams, or at the very least watching the boat race! The terms go very quickly at Cambridge, even more so than at Bond. This is because of the eight-week duration and intense workload. However like Bond, you need to have a ‘work hard, party hard’ mentality if you want to get the full experience. This is
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particularly so if you’re completing one of the Master’s programs. My experiences at Bond and Cambridge have been different, but this is perhaps also reflective of the differences between undergraduate and postgraduate study. Bond offered a vibrant and engaging study and teaching model. Cambridge has offered a more reflective and self-directed experience. Bond also benefits from being uninhibited by centuries of traditions, yet this in itself is part of the appeal of being a Cantabrigian.
tutorials, assignments and exams often on a tight deadline have prepared me well for the rigours of Cambridge. NOW THAT YOU’RE SO FAR AWAY, WHAT STANDS OUT ABOUT YOUR BOND EXPERIENCE? The educational experience at Bond is built around fostering ambition and personal engagement with fellow students and staff. Likewise, the magnificent campus is both awe-inspiring and homely. Ultimately, the educational experience is characterised by smart, attentive and courageous people.
What captivated me about Bond in the first place was its sense of community and spirit. Attending Bond University was an opportunity to be a part of an exciting and ambitious educational model in Australia: it is not only the first private, not-for-profit I take the epithet ‘Bondy’ to refer to university in the a message rooted very deeply in the history of country, but also dares to be the University. Namely, never give up, persevere, different and is and believe in your dreams and values uncompromising on its values.
HOW DOES A BONDY GET TO CAMBRIDGE? I’m at Cambridge studying a Master of Laws (LLM) as a Patrick Moore Cambridge Australia Scholar. I’ll also be spending three
months in barristers’ chambers at the Inner Temple in London following the completion of the LLM, after receiving the Cambridge Pegasus Scholarship. Admission to Cambridge as a graduate student consists of three phases: acceptance by the Faculty, acceptance by the College, and acceptance of scholarships or funding. For the LLM, approximately 1500 applications are received with around 150 offers being made. The main criteria for acceptance are academic performance, a strong personal statement, and good academic references.
I take the epithet ‘Bondy’ to refer to a message rooted very deeply in the history of the University. Namely, never give up, persevere, and believe in your dreams and values. Brian Orr once said “Bond University has a destiny and is busy achieving it,” but I think that applies equally to Bondies all over the world.
Applicants can choose a college preference, but placement is often determined by other factors, like funding sources and college capacity. My advice is to approach it as if it was the magic sorting hat in Harry Potter: you will be placed where you need to be! The final phase is perhaps the most crucial and will depend on the course and the scholarship for which you have applied, and usually consists of an additional interview. All three skills gained at Bond – academic, professional and personal – have been useful during my time at Cambridge. In particular, working according to Bond’s trimester calendar and preparing for
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How to think like an
entrepreneur (And why you should)
Career ENTREPRENEURSHIP HAS long been considered the sole domain of a rare breed of charismatic risk-takers. Say “entrepreneur” and most of us picture an immensely wealthy brand leader undertaking grand adventures in hot-air balloons or space, in between episodes of launching dynamic new money-making ventures. In other words we picture Richard Branson, or a version thereof. Not necessarily so, says Bond University’s Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business and Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Family Business, Dr Justin Craig. Dr Craig is at the forefront of a revolutionary new way of thinking about entrepreneurship that is changing the way the subject is taught, globally. Bond was among the world’s first major critical adaptors of this new school of thought, bringing it into classroom interactions through pilot lessons taught by Dr Craig and motivated members of the School of business staff. “Entrepreneurship can be taught,” Dr Craig insists. “It’s not something we’re born with. We don’t all have to be Richard Branson. It’s not voodoo.” Moreover, he believes entrepreneurship not only can but should be taught. “You don’t have to be the lead entrepreneur in a start-up company to be an entrepreneurial thinker,” he explains. “But an understanding of the process is beneficial, and this applies to other faculties and other pursuits. It is important for students from all faculties to appreciate that there is a business component to everything they do. Entrepreneurship doesn’t discriminate.” WHAT IS AN ENTREPRENEUR? Entrepreneurship is, according to Dr Craig, the process by which individuals or teams create “the new.” It’s about creating something from nothing.
Richard Branson, Dick Smith, Bill Gates, Gina Rinehart, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Julia Ross, Sass & Bide, Mark Zuckerberg… You probably recognise their names, because most entrepreneurs are as memorable for their personalities as for their success. But what is it that sets an entrepreneur aside from any other successful business-person? What is it about this optimistic, energetic, and creative ‘type’ that makes them stand out in the business crowd? www.alumni.bond.edu.au 18
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“Being an entrepreneur is both a talent and a skill,” he says. “But at Bond, we like to think – and it has been demonstrated – that it is also a behaviour that can be taught.” Bond’s new way of teaching entrepreneurship stems from a study conducted by Professor Saras Sarasvathy of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Professor Sarasvathy describes entrepreneurs as brilliant improvisors and people who creatively react to contingencies, making use of whatever resources they have to hand – including their personal strengths – to develop new goals and set new targets on the go. She calls this “effectual reasoning.” Professor Sarasvathy developed her ‘profile of the entrepreneurial mind’ from a study she undertook while still a graduate student, interviewing 45 of the most successful entrepreneurs in the United States. Each subject was required to have started multiple companies (both successfully and unsuccessfully), to have taken at least one company
sense, such as the technology start-up,” he says. 2.
Corporate entrepreneurship: “All organisations need to be entrepreneurial in order to survive, so the leader of an organisation still needs to have an entrepreneurial mindset. If you’re not aware of how the landscape is continually changing through social change, through technological change, through demographic change, you just will not be able to compete.”
Social entrepreneurship: “There is a burgeoning interest around the world of ‘born social’ ventures. We’ve found a subset of the student community is saying, ‘Wow that’s something I’d like to devote my life to. Entrepreneurship… is not something we’re I understand born with. We don’t all have to be Richard that we still need to make Branson. It’s not voodoo money. What I’m going to do with that public, and to have at least 15 years of money as a social cause is something entrepreneurial experience. that excites me. I can still be a squillionaire, but with a cause.’” According to Dr Craig, Professor 4. Family enterprise: Sarasvathy’s studies addressed shortfalls in “We have a long history of family the way entrepreneurship had previously business studies at Bond, and many been taught. “Something,” he says, of our students come from that “that had been concerning many of us stakeholder group. The challenge is to for some time.” He and Bond’s Professor ensure we introduce and understand Ken Moores, AM, (Founding Director of the concept of trans-generational the Australian Centre for Family Business), entrepreneurship. It’s fine that began to follow the progress of this new granddad was entrepreneurial, but way of thinking, and introduced it to the now the pressure is on me and my Bond classes in a subtle way. siblings and cousins to make sure we contribute, and we will likely need to “It became sticky, if I can use that word,” contribute in a vastly different economic Dr Craig says. “The students were and technological landscape.” reacting very positively to it. They were grasping it in a way that I thought made But regardless of the context, the entrepreneurship very attractive, no matter fundamental issue is that entrepreneurs who was in the audience. In the Core think differently to other business Entrepreneurship class we have medical managers, and this takes us back school students, law school students, health to Professor Sarasvathy’s concept of sciences, psychology, et cetera. Often they ‘effectual reasoning’. don’t understand why they should be doing a business class in the first place. This sort CAN I LEARN EFFECTUAL REASONING? of changed their view of the world.” “Yes, it’s a process,” Dr Craig says. “It’s about minimising risk, understanding FOUR CATEGORIES OF ENTREPRENEURS where the opportunities come from, and To help explain the concept further, Dr ensuring that we put the odds in our favour Craig and his entrepreneurship group have effectively by keeping control of the process contextualised the idea of ‘entrepreneurial as much as possible. thinking’ into four distinct categories: 1.
The pure startup: “That’s as you would understand an entrepreneur to behave in the purest
3.
“We don’t necessarily require our students to be the Richard Bransons of the world. But would they love to be part of
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Feature a fast-growing entrepreneurial business? A Google, or an Apple, or many other businesses in Australia and Asia who are major contributors? The answer is most likely to be yes. “There was a time when entrepreneurship was a fuzzy concept. Our mission in life is to make sure the entrepreneurship at Bond is interesting, yet theoretically driven.” Bond, when delivering the principles of effective reasoning in its entrepreneurship subjects, complements its teaching with the delivery of rigorous and robust theory from the more established disciplines. The collective result is that students are equipped to make better decisions or, as Dr Craig’s entrepreneurship and family business group reinforces in all its classes, “theories and frameworks enable those charged with decision making to make sense of the mess that is the reality of the contemporary business landscape.” Three key ‘effectual reasoning’ principles, Dr Craig says, are as follows. 1. DON’T PREDICT THE FUTURE. CREATE IT One of the fundamental points of difference between this new thinking about entrepreneurship and the traditional way of thinking is that true entrepreneurs are no longer seen as predicting the future. Instead, they create it. It is a concept that Dr Craig says is “pretty attractive” to his students. Essentially, it means that nothing is off-limits. “This generation is looking like following people such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, a guy who is not much older than they are and is actually changing the future, changing the way we do things. “How is he doing that? He’s using the means at his disposal. He’s using who he is, what he knows, and who he knows.” 2. USE THE MEANS AT YOUR DISPOSAL “You can look at some of these students at the ripe old age of 17 and 18 and say, ok, what means do you have available? And how are you going to leverage those means?” Dr Craig says. This process is called a ‘means matrix,’ and it is key to developing an entrepreneurial mindset. To explain, Dr Craig tells the story of a student in the MBA class who was studying finance. While undertaking his
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means matrix, the student went through the process of questioning who he was and what his real aspirations were, and
I’m not concentrating on predicting the future, which is the old model. Let’s create the future!”
3. KNOW WHAT YOU True entrepreneurs are no longer seen as CAN AFFORD predicting the future. Instead, they create it TO LOSE The third principle of effectual reasoning is ‘affordable loss.’ this process changed his dominant way of Instead of concentrating on how much looking at himself. money could be made, entrepreneurs take stock of how much they can afford to lose. “He knew his finance stuff but he was “Money doesn’t drive individuals in this really attracted to people who were space,” Dr Craig says. entrepreneurs. Once he conducted “If it comes, that’s good.” a personal means matrix, he actually understood that this was the stuff that Students are taught in the early stages of excited him. What really excited him was a venture to concentrate on how much they creating something from nothing, and can afford to lose. If they have $100, can that’s effectively what entrepreneurs do. they afford to lose $50? If they’ve got And then he realised that who he knew, 100 hours, can they apportion 30? If his networks, were quite substantial. He they’ve got a reputation, how much of that realised he could actually do something, can they afford to put on the table? and do it now. That is the first principle of effectual reasoning. To look at your means “That’s a very sticky concept,” Dr Craig and get started now.” says. “It changes the conversations we’re having. I’m not saying that we weren’t Dr Craig says one of the fundamental previously looking at the world through lessons to be gained from this approach those eyes. It’s just that now, we are is that action trumps everything. “The focusing on a conversation with students investors will say, ‘Don’t spend so much that is more efficient and reflective of the time telling me what you’re going to do. way entrepreneurs think and behave.” Demonstrate to me what you’ve done!’
Get inspired From fun runs to business forums, international art exhibitions and support for local parents, Bond plays a profound role in the community.
THE STUDENT PERSPECTIVE Bondy Leanne Hendry took the Entrepreneurship course and later became a program advisor for BBUS, MBUS, PGDip and Grad Cert Students in the Faculty of Business. Here, she shares some of her experiences and perspectives on Bond’s new way of teaching entrepreneurial thinking. “Having started a business myself previously, I did not fully comprehend how I could have worked with contingencies rather than just stop one thing and start something new. Had I known this way of thinking before, I potentially could have built a business that went into a new direction as opposed to giving up on it. “I realised that money really was not the be all and end all of beginning a business, and that less is more in a sense of success. Once I reviewed the means I had available to me, I could have done things a lot differently over the years instead of throwing money away.” Bond Australian Indigenous Mentors 2011
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Feature
Team Bond, Varsity Lakes Run for Fun
PUTTING AN END TO BULLYING Bond’s anti-bullying program, One Goal, One Community, is the brainchild of Dr Amy Kenworthy, Director of the Bond University Centre for Applied Research in Learning, Engagement, Andragogy and Pedagogy (LEAP). Students talk to their parents, caregivers, friends, neighbours and community members about bullying, then asking for their commitment to put an end to it. In less than a year, the program has grown to include 25 schools on two continents, and more than 40,000 people have made commitments to engage in positive, anti-bullying behaviours as a result of this program.
MENTORING INDIGENOUS STUDENTS One Goal, One Community
“A UNIVERSITY cannot exist in a vacuum,” says Bond University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Development & External Relations) Scott Bulger. “We are a university that is deeply ingrained in and part of our local community, and always keen to be doing more.” The active engagement and exchange of ideas, and participation in key community and business issues, Mr Bulger says, make Bond University a better place. This philosophy is the foundation of Bond’s community engagement program, and has been part of Bond’s strategy from its earliest days. Because the community engagement program ultimately adds to the student experience. “Bond has always been an active part of the community. We have encouraged discourse on issues ranging from Australia’s relations with Asia to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in our judicial system, and appropriate treatments and actions for issues such as the Bird and Swine Flu,” Mr Bulger says. “We are a major provider of education, and maintain a world-class facility that all members of the Gold Coast community are welcome to visit, see, use and enjoy. We provide services such as the Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinic that supports parents in the local community with services and research. We host forums for
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local business people to hear national and international business figures speak.”
learning and practical ways for our students and staff to be involved.”
The University recently sponsored a number of community activities. For example, a team of 70 Bond staff and students participated in the Bond-sponsored Varsity Lakes fun run. Bond sponsored the visit of ‘Now and When,’ a Venice Biennale exhibition, to the Gold Coast Arts Centre; Universities… should be places of active as well as the exchange and discussion and this is what we Border Art want to achieve at Bond Prize. Later this year, Bond will launch its first part of and assist their local community. Community Day, as well as a Christmas This happened during the recent floods in event to encourage the community to visit Queensland, where Bond students were the campus and see what Bond is all about. actively part of the clean-up and replanting of trees in affected areas. “Universities cannot and should not be insular places,” Mr Bulger says. “They Bond is deeply committed to being “an should be places of active exchange and active, involved and supportive” member of discussion and this is what we want to its community, Mr Bulger says. “The purpose achieve at Bond. of the engagement portfolio is to provide avenues for Bond to contribute to our “We want our students to be active community, and for the community to play participants in understanding important an active part in the life of the University.” societal events and issues, as this is critical to the world education with which we strive He explains, “When I talk about to provide our students. community, it can be the business community, charitable causes, or local and “Bond is actually owned by the other governments. Bond University is richer community. As a private, not-for-profit when we are actively engaged and part of organisation, we believe that we are the community, as this provides additional essentially owned by the community.”
The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) is a not-for-profit charity that provides six years of mentoring to Indigenous Australian students. Through Bond’s partnership with AIME, our students participate in a one-on-one mentoring relationship with high school Indigenous students. AIME’s goals are to improve the completion rates of students in Years 10 and 12, and admission rates for all participants.
INSPIRING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Indeed, Bond’s business leader forums draw national and international business figures to campus to share their insights and experiences with both students and staff. The community engagement program also gives students opportunities to be
Bond has created a program to bring together students, staff, business leaders and community members with an invitation to come together on Bond’s stunning campus and be ‘Inspired’. The Inspired public program includes: •
•
Ricky Marcourt
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Bond University People’s Day, a free community event featuring exciting music performances from the local, national and international arenas, as well as food, visual arts, film screenings and workshops Beats at Bond, a monthly program taking place on the last Sunday of each month, running from June through to November, in partnership with the Bond University Music Association, Queensland Music Association, Gold Coast City Council, and the Gold Coast Music Association Bond Talks, a free monthly program that showcases the University’s leading and cutting-edge researchers and their work. Research fields covered in these talks include chronic fatigue, bullying and autism
BRINGING VENICE TO THE GOLD COAST
Students from Team Bond
Bond University’s Soheil Abedian School of Architecture was the major sponsor of the world-class exhibition ‘Now and When: Australian Urbanism’ at the Gold Coast City Gallery earlier this year. The exhibition is an immersive, three-dimensional experience direct from the 12th International Architecture Biennale Exhibition in Venice. Co-Creative Director of ‘Now and When,’ John Gollings, travelled to the Gold Coast in April to provide his personal insights on the exhibition.
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Architecture:
the voice of the city Overpopulation. Resource depletion. Extravagant public works. What can the architects and urban planners of today learn from the lost civilisations of the past?
THE ANCIENT Mayas flourished in the lowlands of Mesoamerica before the time of the Roman Empire. They were an advanced civilization, experts in mathematics and astrology, and built great and sprawling cities that featured magnificent pyramids and temples. The Maya city of Copรกn in the Honduras, for example, covers more than 30 acres, its buildings rising from wide, open plazas to an elaborate complex of raised and enclosed courtyards, pyramids and temples, where successive generations of rulers built architectural statements of their might, one on top of the other. But the great Maya civilization that ruled the region for more than 1500 years came to an abrupt halt around 800 AD. The ceremonial centres were deserted, the longcount calendar for which the Maya are still famous was discontinued, and the structure of religious and state life disintegrated. Within a century, huge sections of the southern lowlands were abandoned and glorious Maya cities, like Palenque, Copรกn and Tikal, were reclaimed by the jungle. The Maya people lived on and can still be found today across Mesoamerica, but their golden age crumbled, never to return. What went wrong? The most popular theory, today, is one that will sound all-too-familiar to our ears: sustainability. Or more accurately, the lack of planned sustainability. Despite great power, magnificent wealth, advanced technology and extraordinary diversity through trade, the Mayas failed to build their cities to effectively sustain their growing populations. Most Maya cities were overpopulated and crowded, placing pressure on resources. In many cities, the civic leaders failed to factor in the need for close and reliable access to fresh drinking water. The sprawling Maya suburbs took over prime farmland, creating an ever-increasing strain on food resources, and a reliance on trade that proved fatal in times of war. Treasuries were depleted not only by wars but by extravagant public works. It is true that the great structures of the Maya impress even today, but they also speak volumes in their very emptiness. We can shake our heads at the Maya, and wonder that such an advanced culture could be so near-sighted. But our own culture should be careful to judge.
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Feature “Currently more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban cities, and within the next 30 years that will rise to 70 percent,” says Professor George Earl, Dean of Bond University’s School of Sustainable Development and Architecture. “The kinds of challenges that we’re going to be facing include quality of water: not just ‘is there enough water’ but the quality of the water available. There will be issues about designing cities that ensure we have an adequate supply of food, because as cities expand, we encroach more and more on farming land,” he says. Sound familiar? Soheil Abedian, an international property developer, architect and Bond benefactor and parent, says that in the early days of the Gold Coast’s population boom, a failure
to plan and a failure to hold developers accountable were responsible for the unsightly and unsustainable city sprawl that tarnish parts of the Coast today.
a short time that each one began not to relate to the other,” he says.
“The Gold Coast is not any different to many of the new cities that have come onto “Take for example the city of Dubai, and the landscape. The Gold Coast only really other cities around the Gulf. They started started in the 70s. So everything we know around us has only risen up in the past More than 50 percent of the world’s 40 years. The population lives in urban cities, and within the schools, the hospitals, the next 30 years that will rise to 70 percent universities, the PROFESSOR GEORGE EARL hotels, all of it. And you can see for yourself to expand in every aspect, in regards to that even with the best intensions a lot of innovation, sporting facilities and education mistakes happened. facilities. They had a good run, and then suddenly it all came to a halt. That’s “I invite you to go for 15 minutes and walk because so many things happened in such through the heart of the city: Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise Boulevarde, and look at it. Not even a third-world country has a place like we have now. It has deteriorated, and the problem is that there was no leadership or design-oriented guidence early on. Nobody was there to say ‘don’t do that, stop doing these things.’ “The mistakes have been made. You cannot say ‘Well, I’m starting again, I’m going to tear everything apart and start anew with a town planner, and have sustainability.’ The damage has already been done. The only thing that we can do now is identify what the problem is and come, intellectually, to a solution that we will create a better living area.” Abedian says the cities and buildings we develop today will send a message to the people of the future about our values. Just as the buildings and cities of the past send messages about what our ancestors valued.
ARCHITECTURE STUDIES AT BOND The Bond School of Architecture opened to students this year with a distinctive program that focused on sustainability. The program is geared toward developing visionary architectural leaders with the capacity for creative problem-solving and lateral thinking, and who hold unique perspectives. The Bachelor of Architectural Studies program is based on a series of design-studios that provide students with handson experience. Graduates can move seamlessly from the Bachelor degree to the Master of Architecture at Bond, and the fast-tracked program enables students to complete both degrees in three years and one semester.
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“When you go through the history of the world and study different cultures and different societies, the measures that you have to judge about, for example, the Roman, the Greek, the Persian and the Egyptian empires, these are based on the artwork they left behind, the literature they left behind, and the buildings they left behind. “So our knowledge of the past is built on these three elements: art, literature and architecture. We will forever come back to these elements to see how people at that time were thinking, how they were interacting, and how they created a society that was sustainable and that could survive.”
He says that what the Egyptians built four and five thousand years ago, what they left behind for us today, tell us how they thought and interacted. Consider: the great pyramids in Egypt reveal a culture at a fundamental religious crossroad. The tomb-like insides and soaring apexes of the pyramids represent the intersection, the theory goes, of an old belief that the dead would sink into the underworld, and a new belief (a response to the cult of Ra, the sun god) that the king would actually ascend to the heavens. The extraordinary mathematical precision and stonework of the pyramids also teach us that the Egyptian nation was engaged in something it considered ‘great’. Meanwhile, “From the Acropolis,” Abedian continues, “we learn how the Greek empires used to conquor the world and what their thoughts were.”
columns to support the structure, creating a more open and airy aspect from inside. The whole building is an optical illusion, its irregularities conforming to the way the human eye sees, in order to appear regular. A testament, it is said, to ‘the crooked grandeur of humanity.’ The aforementioned Ionic pillars are set at irregular intervals to create an ‘optical symmetry,’ a building that looks perfectly balanced but is not. The shafts of the pillars also appear straight but actually bow slightly to conform to the human eye, which captures light on a curved surface. What we learn about the ancient Athenians from this building, then, is that they were part of a revolutionary shift from worshipping only the gods to celebrating the flawed glory of humanity. This is also a wonderful representation of the seedlings of democracy of human choice and respect, away from absolute power.
Our knowledge of the past is built on these three elements: art, literature and architecture. We will forever come back to these elements to see how people at that time were thinking, how they were interacting, and how they created a society that was sustainable SOHEIL ABEDIAN
Indeed for centuries we have looked to the Parthenon in Athens as the architectural representation of the root of our democracy. From the Parthenon, we know the Greeks of that time were beginning to see the world in non-religious terms, to put human and civic life in front of religious worship. This was a revolutionary way of thinking, and it is reflected in the Parthenon’s revolutionary architecture.
It raises the question: what will the communities of the future learn about us from our own great buildings?
Abedian says architects become, through the centuries, the voice of a city. Those who designed the great buildings of the ancient world: the cities of the Maya, the pyramids of Egypt, the Parthenon of Athens… they
gave voice to the people and the times in which they lived. The architecture schools on the Gold Coast, first at Griffith University and now at Bond, will bring about “people who are educated in the field, who can see the city with their own eyes and touch it every day,” Abedian says. “They can say, ‘that is wrong, it should never be happening like that.’ They will become the long-term voice of the city. “My ardent desire is that Bond’s School of Architecture and its new building will become a landmark for the campus, for the Gold Coast City, and on an international scale. It can be something the City will be proud of, and get the students and faculty more involved in the world around us.”
Commissioned by the great Athenian statesman Pericles, the Parthenon was ostensibly a temple for the goddess Athena but many today say its architectural features suggest it glorified human beings, rather than the gods. Situated high above Athens on the Acropolis, it was certainly a highly visible testament to the grandeur and capacity of humankind. The Parthenon was the consummate example in architectural antiquity of the revolutionary use of the thinner and more widely spaced Ionic rather than Doric
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Alumni
A favourable
prognosis Dr Edmond Kwan was one of the first to graduate with a Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) at Bond. We asked him to reflect on life before, during and after Bond.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO STUDY AT BOND? Growing up in Brisbane, it was important for me to stay close to my family and friends, at least in the early part of my tertiary studies. However, time was also an important factor. So Bond University was the logical choice, with a program length of less than five years. More importantly, however, was the chance to be a part of something special and unique. I have always been the type of person to embrace a challenge, seeking a path that is less travelled. A story where the beginning, middle and end has already been carefully planned and orchestrated does not particularly appeal to me. Being a part of the initial cohort of a brand new, untried medical course at the time, not to mention the first private medical course to be constructed in Australia, seemed like a perfect chance to embrace the more adventurous and ambitious side of my persona.
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HOW DID YOU FEEL THE DAY YOU GAINED ACCEPTANCE TO THE PROGRAM? Absolutely over the moon. I still remember exactly where I was when I received the call. I was just about to attend one of my introductory pharmacy lectures at the University of Queensland when my phone rang. I remember being quite annoyed at the initial inconvenience as I was already running late. Rest assured, my feelings quickly changed when I learned the reason for the call. Funnily enough, I still attended all my Biology lectures that afternoon hoping they might be useful down the track. WHAT STRUCK YOU ABOUT BOND AFTER YOU ARRIVED? The first thing that struck me was how diverse the group was. While the program was officially an undergraduate program, the variety of backgrounds that students were coming from was truly amazing. The breadth of ages, many from non-health backgrounds, a decent interstate and overseas contingent, as well as a few that had taken a long hiatus from any sort of study. Having come straight out of high school, my life experience was far from breathtaking. The degree of diversity chosen by the selection panel brought with it a unique experience to the course, one that almost certainly assisted me in becoming a more well-rounded junior doctor.
high regard in my day-to-day work, and I am thankful that strong virtues and principles were instilled in me from my Personal and Professional Development (PPD) lectures at Bond. GIVE US A DAY IN YOUR LIFE SINCE YOU GRADUATED. I’m a Basic Physician Training Year 1 (BPT 1) at Royal Melbourne Hospital. I might start at 7:45 in the morning, or 1pm, or even 9:30 at night. It all depends on what
it comes to patient interaction. While it might be “just another day at the hospital” for healthcare professionals, for patients and their families and friends, showing up at hospital is not exactly the daily norm. For this reason, the patient interaction side of things is extremely dynamic and the margins are often blurred.
As one would expect, most of my daily interactions with patients can be quite broad. It can range from inquiring about their symptoms, briefing Communication skills would have to be one them on of the most important skills I learned during investigations they are my time at Bond. I cannot over emphasise their undergoing, importance when I supervise medical students on consenting the ward nowadays them for procedures or notifying them job I am doing. It was a bit of a shock to about the likely outcome or prognosis of the system at first, but you quickly get used their illness. to it. While the raw content rarely changes, One of the great things I enjoy about human reactions are unpredictable and can medicine is that every day you walk into be messy. You never know if you will meet the hospital, you are bound to be surprised with happiness, sadness, disbelief, anger, one way or another, particularly when frustration, resignation or a myriad of other
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOND DAYS •
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE GREATEST LESSONS YOU LEARNED AT BOND? Communication skills would have to be one of the most useful skills I learned during my time at Bond. Often considered one of the “soft” subjects, I cannot over emphasise their importance when I supervise medical students on the ward nowadays.
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It helps when picking up on non-verbal cues about how a patient is feeling; or negotiating with a patient that the best course of action is for them to stay in hospital (often against their wishes); diffusing a potentially hostile and aggressive patient down in the Emergency Department; or when counselling a chronic alcoholic to change their ways. It’s never easy and I am glad that I have a set of skills and frameworks to fall back on when things get tricky.
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First day of medical school: I could not believe I was actually embarking on the start of my medical career. Hearing about the outline of the program, meeting all my classmates… an extremely happy day Finding out that a journal article that I had co-authored was approved for publishing. Written in conjunction with two Bond professors, the article was accepted for publication in the Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cardiology. I owe a considerable proportion of my professional success to my Bond teachers for guiding my career choices and inspiring me to believe that unrelenting hard work and persistence eventually pays off Graduation day: a day of very mixed emotions. Relieved that I had finally reached the finish line, sad that I was separating away from my classmates with whom I had spent five wonderful and tumultuous years, extremely proud to deliver the Graduation Dinner student speech on behalf of the 2005 cohort, and excited about what my future as a doctor in Melbourne would bring
Healthcare professionalism and ethical practices is also something that I hold in
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Competition
emotions. With time, I have attempted to develop an ability to roll with the punches so to speak, to assist my patients in understanding and coping in a difficult time of their lives. One of the perks of working in a big tertiary referral hospital in Victoria is that it isn’t too hard to hear or be involved in interesting medical cases. Whether that be strange, exotic infections contracted overseas, or multi-vehicle traffic accidents, or something as horrific as a gunshot wound or knife wound, every case brings unique challenges and potentially creative therapies that one can learn from. But however interesting a case may be, I am always cognisant of the fact that we are dealing with human beings in times of crisis, with real emotions that are difficult to predict but should always be respected. WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? Currently I am in the Basic Physician Training (BPT) pathway. In approximately two and a half years’ time, I hope to be successfully passing my BPT exams, before applying for specialty training. My interest
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currently is in Cardiovascular and Renal Medicine, but I am still undecided about my final future career path. Eventually, I wish to predominantly be involved in clinical work, with some proportion of my time devoted
to medical research and medical education, whether that is with medical students or junior medical staff.
PLANS AS AN ALUMNUS I see myself as an adjunct in supporting Bond University medical graduates in transitioning from being medical students in Queensland to working in the Victorian Health system. My aim is also to assist final year Bond medical students applying for Victorian Internships. The Victorian Hospital Matching process can be extremely stressful, and I hope I can play a role in easing some of that anxiety and angst, particularly surrounding CV creation and interview techniques. As for the distant future, I have yet to rule out a return to the Gold Coast health service. If that were to occur, my hope would be to invest some time and effort back into the University that has helped me get to where I am today.
What would you do if you had $2500 to spend travelling anywhere in the world you wanted to go? Bond University can help you find out. To be in the running to win a world travel voucher valued at $2500, all you need to do is send us a photo of your time at Bond. Simply post your photograph online at www.alumni.bond.edu.au/arch-competition or email it to us at alumni@bond.edu.au. We’ll select a winner at random. While you’re there, be sure to take a look around the website and see if you can spot some of your old friends. PS.Got more old photographs you’re keen to share? We’d love to include your photographs in the official Bond archive.
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Alumni posts, links, tips and resources to promoting and sharing the content of others. This does three things: it establishes your expertise, drives traffic to your website, and provides your audience with helpful information. Remember, the content you are sharing should not always be your own. Sharing links to the content of others in social media boosts your credibility (so that you are not seen as solely pushing your own agenda) and encourages reciprocity from your community.
can boost your business. (Yes, even yours) Social media – blogs, forums, and websites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – represent a fundamental change in the way we communicate. Indeed, social media sites are where millions of conversations are taking place, every minute, on a global scale.
BONDIES DWAD Lane and Jonas
Marcelo are experts on using social media for business marketing. After all, these childhood friends are the founders of Woosa Media, a company that specialises in managing other businesses’ online reputations and social media activities. Exclusively for this issue of The Arch, Dwad and Jonas have shared their top tips to help you utilise the power of social media in your own business. KNOW WHAT YOU WANT On social media, brand awareness can go in either direction. If your social media plans don’t pan out, you can end up with a lot of unwelcome negative publicity on your hands. So be clear about what you want to use the platform for, and how you intend to achieve it. Do you want to use it as an instrument to gauge customer reaction, or would you rather use it as a forum for your customers to share their views and opinions? Unless you are clear about your expectations, your social media plan in all likelihood will remain a haphazard exercise that will leave you with zero return on investment (ROI). KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE Once you’ve established your presence on social media, it’s time to consider the different options you have to expand your
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outreach. Interact with your network to truly know them: if you find that more than half of your network is comprised of men in their 30s with a keen interest in technology, it is very likely that other technologicallyoriented men in their 30s will be interested in joining your network too. Venture out of your immediate network and engage in discussions happening in other related communities. This will expand your reach significantly. BUILD YOUR AUDIENCE What’s the biggest difference between people who are successful using social media and those who are not? Simple: the
people seeking to boost their own online presence without any interest in engaging in dialogue with your business? What if they are primarily focused on promoting their own agenda? These types of scenarios are clearly not ideal for your business. So what should you really be looking to achieve? Building the right kind of audience with social media should lead you to be seen as a credible, trustworthy source who offers a solution to your audiences’ needs or wants. This requires that you use search strategies to target and connect with an appropriate audience, and manage your connections to remove unsuitable contacts. of online friends
What’s the point of a bunch and followers if they are not helping you grow your business? successful people have built themselves an audience. But an audience doesn’t necessarily mean having 10,000 followers or 5000 fans or friends. After all, what’s the point of a bunch of online friends and followers if they are not helping you grow your business? Consider this: what if your “audience” is not actually interested in what your business offers? What if they are just
After you’ve grabbed the attention of your followers and friends and built interest and credibility, you have a way to drive traffic to your website, capture more leads, and build and strengthen relationships in an organic and credible way. DEVELOP GOOD CONTENT Content is the lifeblood of successful social media campaigns. What reasons are you giving people to listen to you? This goes two ways, from sharing your own helpful
SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE Regardless of how long you have been in business, you possess knowledge, advice and tips to share that will be of value to others.
WOOSA MEDIA
By using social media networks to share this knowledge, you are not only giving back but you are also boosting your brand by cementing yourself as an expert in your field, showcasing your expertise to your customers and competitors, and giving users another reason to keep coming back to your profiles.
Dwad Lane and Jonas Marcelo were both born in the Philippines but grew up in Australia. Friends since childhood, they were reunited at Bond University, where both of them studied business administration. Now based in Manila, they established Woosa Media in 2010 in response to a perceived market need for social media management. Visit: www.woosamedia.com
BE OPEN AND HONEST Today’s consumer shops around before parting with his or her hard-earned cash. Studies have shown that companies that are honest and open have a higher rate of attraction and retention with their customers, even in a difficult economy.
WOOSA MEDIA’S TOP FOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
Keep the lines of communication open on your company blog. It is an easy way to let customers know what is happening with your business. Some businesses have even gone as far as posting sales and profit figures to show that the company is on solid financial footing. By establishing a plan that combines social media websites, blogs, and forums, you can take advantage of the benefits they offer to promote your business and reach a wide audience. The social media sites you choose to use will be based on your needs and the nature of your business. But when used successfully, social media can keep you engaged with your customers, propel your business to the next level, and help you stay ahead of the competition.
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LinkedIn: it has more than 80 million users, and 45 percent of them are decision-makers in their business Twitter: it hosts more than 600 million search queries every day Facebook: it has more than 500 million users, at least half of those sign in every day, and the average user spends 55 minutes a day on the website YouTube: its visitors watch more than 100 million videos a day
HOW BUSINESSES USE SOCIAL MEDIA In a recent study, more than 1800 business owners revealed the key benefits to be gained from using social media: •
Generated exposure for the business
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Increased the number of visitors to the website
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Forged new business partnerships
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Website moved up the search-engine list
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Generated more qualified leads
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Helped close more business
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Reduced marketing expenditure
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Campus
Help our
STUDY RESOURCES Bond students will now have access to the following resources to help them continue their studies:
Bondies excel
120 Book Vouchers Students in genuine financial need will be able to apply for one of 40 textbook vouchers a semester, valued at $250 each.
Bond University annual fund 2011
30 Laptop Subsidies Students who cannot afford the full cost of a laptop will be able to apply for one of 30 grants of $500 to subsidise a laptop purchase to assist in their studies. ALUMNI SCHOLARSHIP Bond University has established the prestigious Bond Alumni Travel Scholarship to support an alumnus wanting to undertake postgraduate study at a leading international university. RESEARCH GRANTS Bond is developing an international reputation for its research, and intends to build on this by supporting a number of research grants through the annual fund. 10 Higher Degree Research Grants To support higher degree research students, Bond intends to offer 10 grants worth $1000 each that students can use to help meet the cost of their studies.
LAST YEAR, Bond University launched its inaugural annual fund. An annual fund is something that a lot of universities do, both in Australia and internationally, but this was a first for Bond. We set the challenge of raising $150,000 to improve the educational experience at Bond, and our community of loyal Bondies rallied to the cause. We sought support from the University Council, the Board of Trustee Members, staff, and alumni. Your response was outstanding, with alumni, staff and Trustee Members giving generously. In addition, every member of Council made a gift, making Bond the only university in Australia to achieve this level of leadership support. In all, we received more than 600 donations during the 2010 annual fund appeal.
You’ll be pleased to know we disbursed the funds raised to the areas that our students, alumni and teachers identified as their highest priorities (see the box for details). INTRODUCING THE 2011 ANNUAL FUND This year, we’re aiming higher than ever to help Bondies excel by improving and increasing the opportunities available to our students and alumni.
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Now it’s over to you. You are an integral part of our family. After all, once a Bondy, always a Bondy. So if Bond helped you in your career, if Bond supported your personal growth, if Bond’s reputation impacts your professional reputation, or if Bond was a learning experience you think others deserve... please give generously to the 2011 annual fund to ensure our future success. Making a donation to the Bond University 2011 annual fund is easy, and you will make a lasting and positive difference.
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HOW TO GIVE • Visit www.bond.edu.au/make-a-gift to donate online Email Alumni Relations at alumni@bond.edu.au to request a donation form Call Alumni Relations on +61 7 5595 1294 to make a donation over the phone Or post your donation to Bond University, Alumni Relations, University Drive, Bond University, QLD, 4229
Bond receives only limited government funds and relies on philanthropy to maintain the excellence in education for which it has become known. Donations over $2 are tax deductible in Australia. WHERE THE MONEY GOES Based on needs identified by our students and the feedback received from alumni and other donors last year, the funds we raise in 2011 will be used in the following ways.
Standard Research Grants Bond will supply two research grants worth $4000 each to support ongoing research within the University. ACADEMIC COMPETITIONS The Bond University Student Association will host three academic competitions to highlight the focus on academic programs at Bond University. Each competition will offer a prize of $2000, sponsored by the 2011 annual fund. STUDENT OPPORTUNITY FUND Through the Bond University Student Opportunity Fund, students can apply for small grants of up to $2000 to fund a range of activities that maximise their learning experiences. These include: • Visiting business and academic speakers •
Travel to conferences and competitions
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Student and student group resources
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Events hosted by the student body
2010 ANNUAL FUND: HOW WE USED YOUR GIFT STUDENT OPPORTUNITY FUND The Bond University Student Opportunity Fund was established so that any student or student group could take full advantage of the many opportunities they received during their time at Bond, whatever their financial circumstances. More than 30 allocations were made as a direct result of donations made to the 2010 annual fund. STAFF RESEARCH PROJECTS Many annual fund donors during the 2010 campaign asked for their contributions to be used to support research activities at Bond. Therefore, two research grants of $5000 were awarded to university researchers in a competitive grant process that required the academics to demonstrate that their research was not only innovative but also collaborative, engaging the community in the process and providing socially-beneficial outcomes. BUILDING FUND Donations made during the 2010 annual fund were also disbursed to the Bond University Building Fund, enabling a number of the sporting clubs on campus to purchase new equipment, including a rugby scrum machine (pictured). NEW LIBRARY MATERIALS Supplementing the generous gift already made by Soheil Abedian to help stock the new Soheil Abedian School of Architecture library, gifts made to the 2010 annual fund were also distributed to the library to purchase additional texts and journals.
Bond intends to top-up the Student Opportunity Fund with $20,000 in 2011.
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Campus Fraser Macdonald: Awarded the Alumni Student Excellence Medal for “opinionated writing” in 2011
Bah bah black rainbow sheep Have we taken political correctness too far? Fraser Macdonald argues a resounding “YES” in his Alumni Student Excellence Medal-winning essay, ‘The Hidden Threat of Cultural Marxism’
BOND LAUNCHED the
inaugural Alumni Student Excellence Medal competitions this year, awarding one medal each semester for students demonstrating excellence in writing, creative arts and public speaking. The first award, the Alumni Student Excellence Medal for “opinionated writing,” was awarded to Fraser Macdonald and we are thrilled to publish his winning essay, ‘Political Correctness: The Hidden Threat of Cultural Marxism,’ in this issue of The Arch.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: THE HIDDEN THREAT OF CULTURAL MARXISM Fraser Macdonald Is political correctness a threat to free speech, or simply an innocent but overzealous fear of offending people? The issue is hotly contested on campuses and most other forums across the world, but to decide whether or not it has gone too far requires going beyond the rhetoric and looking at the true causes and effects that the doctrine brings about. From silly but effectively harmless instances like teaching grade school children “anti-racist math” to threatening to arrest those who don’t agree with the theory of man-made global
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warming, political correctness takes many forms. While it is challenging to group the harmless with the dangerous and paint them all with the same brush, a fair assessment of the effects of this theory requires factoring in its worst applications. This paper will demonstrate that when factoring in the importance of language in society, the history of the doctrine of political correctness, and examples of its use and abuse today, it becomes absolutely clear that not only has political correctness gone too far, but that this was most certainly intentional as well.
trade. Then one day, a PR guru named Frank Luntz came along armed with public opinion polls on the words “gambling” and “gaming”. While only 30 percent of people had positive feelings towards “gambling”, 70 percent had positive feelings towards “gaming”. Thus was born the Nevada Gaming Commission, changed from the Gambling Commission, and with it a new Las Vegas attitude that was more about the fun of gaming than the seediness of gambling.
As George Orwell wrote in 1984, “If thought corrupts language, language can LANGUAGE AS SOCIAL REALITY also corrupt thought.” He dramatized Language is social reality for human beings. this concept in the novel with the idea of Words are incredibly powerful, and often Newspeak, a language invented by the more than we realize. Even individual words ruling Party for the specific purpose of diminishing the range of thought and Language is social reality for human beings. imposing the Words are incredibly powerful, and often more “correct” than we realize mental attitude on people. While it would have the power to seriously affect how we be difficult to argue political correctness think and feel about certain issues. The in modern reality has gone this far, the history of Las Vegas as a casino Mecca principles and injustice that underlie both serves well as an example. Las Vegas used are eerily similar. Could it be that Orwell’s to be seen as a seedy, mafia-run town ominous prediction was more right than where underworld characters plied their even he knew it would be?
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Campus HISTORY OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS The history of the movement behind political correctness shows that we didn’t get here by accident. What some historians refer to as “cultural Marxism” was founded in the 1923 at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. In what came to be referred to as the Frankfurt School, a group of Marxist academics tasked themselves with discovering why the inevitable march to communism and proletariat uprising wasn’t taking place. They concluded that the power structures of capitalism were held in place by a lexicon that focused on freedom, personal responsibility, and individualism. They believed and argued that only by changing the language that society uses can the proletariat overthrow capitalism. Calling for a “cultural revolution,” they prescribed solutions that included laws that governed which words the media could use, laws that protect people from being “offended by the stark realities of capitalism,” and an effort to change school curriculum to indoctrinate children with these principles. Many of these ideas were left in the academic realm, but the doctrine of political correctness has clearly permeated across all of western civilization today. As Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci put it, political correctness should be used to stigmatize those who didn’t follow along with their agenda. As history has shown, this is precisely what has happened.
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While most of the later academics that studied this theory and passed it on had good intentions, the movement was born with the explicit purpose of changing speech and thought patterns away from freedom and individualism, and towards accepting restrictions and collectivism. The dormant threat lay mostly hidden in academia until the 1960s, when it began to take on a more mainstream societal role in the counter-cultural movements of the era.
practitioners of political correctness claim they’re for free speech, their true effect is reminiscent of the Henry Ford quote that “you can have the Model T in whatever colour you like, so long as it’s black.” Under the doctrine of political correctness, “you can share any opinion you like, so long as it fits within our terms of debate.” These terms, of course, exclude many valid opinions so that debates begin with the inherent assumptions that underpin Marxist thought.
In Canada, my home country, The most threatening manifestations of quasi-judicial [political correctness] today are ones which Human Rights Tribunals have frame, and therefore dictate, the terms of been set up political debate that completely pervert the ordinary rules Today it is more prevalent than ever, and of justice. Firstly, plaintiffs are charged no as is clear from looking at a few modern fees and are provided government lawyers examples, a very real threat to freedom to argue their case, which has led to of speech. a seemingly unstoppable rise in frivolous law suits across the country. Secondly, PRESENT EXAMPLES unlike in normal defamation cases where Most of the time we hear about political demonstrating what you said was true, correctness today is when a well-meaning truth is not a defence in Human Rights but unwise individual takes it to an Tribunals. This leaves us with unjust and extreme and the media makes a story out unreasonable outcomes where defendants of it. The public generally laughs it off as are found guilty of human rights abuses ridiculously absurd but totally harmless. We (with no right to appeal) simply for telling all hear stories about preschool children the truth. Clearly, Canadians are suffering being taught the song “Bah Bah Rainbow under the weight of an oppressive overuse Sheep” because “Black Sheep” may offend of political correctness, but unfortunately, someone, somewhere. We hear about they’re not the only ones. feminist professors changing the word “history” to “herstory,” Another quite illustrative example is one arguing that it’s more inclusive taking place in the United States, where to women. If these were the the publisher of Mark Twain’s classic worst examples of political Huckleberry Finn is being forced to remove correctness gone wrong, they the racial slurs from the book. This is would indeed be worthy outrageous in two senses. Firstly, taking of nothing but sneers and out the racial slurs from a classic 19th laughter. Unfortunately, century American tale during the time the true dangers of political of slavery defaces an element of history correctness and its more and elminates context that should not be sinister manifestations in forgotten. Secondly, the use of the n-word our world today are not so in Huckleberry Finn was fully intended to easily noticed, and far less upset readers. Twain, an abolitionist, used frequently get the public the word provocatively in the book to shock derision they deserve. readers into understanding the horrors of The most threatening slavery and attitudes in the Deep South. In manifestations of the removing language that is now considered doctrine today are ones politically incorrect, the pursuers of this which frame, and therefore dictate, policy are actually doing more harm than the terms of political debate. This good to the cause they profess to support. is where the original intentions of the Frankfurt School rear their ugly In the Netherlands, an even more head and irrefutably cause political threatening and extreme example is discourse to shift to the left. While currently taking place. The leader of the
Dutch opposition Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, is currently being criminally prosecuted by his own government because of the contents of his election platform. During the last election, he pledged that if elected, he would put an end to nonWestern immigration. In a country where prominent filmmakers and politicians have been murdered in public by Islamic fundamentalists and where a single language and culture that has existed together for hundreds of years is having significant clashes with Muslim immigrants, this is clearly a legitimate point of debate. While I heartily disagree with Wilders’ policy, I even more strongly disagree with the government essentially saying that his opinions and his platform aren’t politically correct and therefore not valid. If his policies are unconstitutional, courts will strike them down. If they don’t mesh with Dutch society, then voters won’t elect him. His electoral success, however, shows that large numbers of people do agree with him. The alarming truth to this situation is that his political opponents are applying the doctrine of political correctness in an attempt to silence debate that doesn’t fit within their narrow scope. Here in Australia, things aren’t much better. While Pauline Hanson and her One Nation movement shared a similar fate to Wilders, one need only look today to the current political discourse to realize that political correctness effectively shuts down debate on certain issues. Any politician wishing to discuss the challenges of Muslim immigration and integration, or the staggering rates of crime amongst aboriginals, is almost always shouted down as a racist or a bigot. They may not face a trial over the issue, but there is no question that the debate is effectively quelled. Again, we see the same pattern where opinions of the right are silenced by the left by their use of the doctrine of political correctness. Some critics call Aboriginal crime rates, for instance, “politically incorrect statistics,” essentially claiming it is in the public good be wilfully blind to facts and reality. Here we have the confluence of two problems. First, the left-wing establishment and its followers presuming to decide which debates and opinions are to be allowed. Second, we have political correctness overruling truth and fact. Combined, these two ideas leave us with the absurd reality that sometimes not only opinion but fact and truth are silenced in the name of not offending people. When you can be punished for
telling the truth, there can be no argument that your right to free speech is intact. It is argued by some that all of these incursions on freedom of speech are relatively minor and don’t cause any real or permanent threat to a free and democratic society. The trouble with this line of reasoning is that is precisely on point with what Marxist revolutionaries would want people to say. Recognizing that a revolution won’t happen overnight with an individualist and capitalist Western civilization in place, piecemeal reform and the slow, quiet erosion of freedom of speech is the only way society will fall in line with their beliefs. It is clear, then, that any erosion of rights with this purpose in mind, let alone where telling the truth can be against the law, is inherently counter to our societal values and should be resisted at every opportunity.
CONCLUSION It is quite evident from both the original purpose of the PC doctrine and the way it is used and abused today that political correctness is nothing but bigotry disguised as social justice. While under the guise of advancing civility, in itself a noble goal, political correctness is slowly but surely eroding one of the most fundamental rights that free people have. While fighting for a non-existent right to not be offended, supporters of this theory forget that sometimes we should be offended by the harsh reality of the world. It is only with truth and facts available that we can change this world for the better. While this may indeed offend some, the true right of free speech should never be superseded by a non-existent right. Therefore, it is simply undeniable that political correctness has gone too far. Indeed, that was the plan all along.
ONE LAST WORD FROM FRASER This competition was a fantastic idea, and certainly gave me the opportunity to use some of my communications skills outside of the classroom. I entered firstly because the topic at hand was one I felt strongly about so I knew I’d put together a forceful argument, and secondly because as a starving student, the $1000 first prize graciously offered by Bond alumni was something worth aiming for! I’d like to personally thank the alumni who sponsored this competition for their contributions. It was easy to take part in, and I had a great deal of fun writing about something I was passionate about. I’d like to encourage all Bond students to take the time to enter the Alumni Excellence Medals competitions. I really did not expect to win. Take a chance, have some fun with it, and you never know what will happen.
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Alumni Sameer was promoted to Vice President, Marketing, of his healthcare company.
ALUMNI YEAR 1998
Class notes
Abid Hussain and his team won 11 awards at the New York Film & Television Awards held in Las Vegas in April. This was by far the highest number of awards ever won by any Malaysian broadcaster. In total, Abid has won almost 40 worldwide film and television awards.
Catch up on all that’s new with your fellow Bondies. They’re organised according to Alumni Year, the year they started their first degree at Bond.
WHAT’S GOING on in your life and career? Email us at alumni@bond. edu.au with the subject heading “Class Notes” and let us know what’s happening in your life, so we can tell your fellow Bondies in the next issue of The Arch.
ALUMNI YEAR 1989 Catherine Middleton insists she did not marry Prince William in April. Rather she currently holds a Canada Research Chair at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, and is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. She visits Australia frequently, and is currently researching the development of the National Broadband Network. Nicola Fulton-Kennedy has succeeded in downsizing and re-framing her life. In 2004, she and her husband relocated to Norfolk Island and got involved in the tourism industry, while Nicola also works part-time teaching high school. She says, “Life is good: we are surrounded by stunning beauty; the community is quirky; we make a difference to people’s lives; and challenges abound. We may have lost a lot, but we have gained much, much more.”
ALUMNI YEAR 1990 Ian Manly has retired from all executive management positions but retains some interests in the corporate world via nonexecutive directorships. He now focuses his energies on his beef cattle pastoral company. He will be in the show-ring at the EKKA this August and would love to say hi to some fellow Bondies. Karl Hutter spent May this year on the art auction circuit in New York for
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the Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips Contemporary Sales. He says it’s a perfect opportunity to catch up with collectors and colleagues from around the world, who fly in to preview the sales.
ALUMNI YEAR 1991 Vicki L. Beyer completed a 120 kilometre trek in the Simien Montains of Ethiopia in March, to raise money for RAEY, a children’s charity based in Addis Ababa. Vicki L. Beyer
like Microsoft and oil corporations, and settled an intellectual dispute with Disney.
ALUMNI YEAR 1995 Alain Ruthenberg’s company Australia Go recently opened a new office in Brazil, and is recruiting students to Bond and many other schools and universities in Australia from Brazil, Japan and Australia. If any Bondies are interested in joining the Australia Go team to help recruit more students from different countries, let him know. David Burt is about to start a contract with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in Canberra as a Senior Business Analyst. Julius Brookman is living in London and married with two children, aged three and five.
ALUMNI YEAR 1997 ALUMNI YEAR 1994 Caroline Gerard got engaged this past European summer to her Australian boyfriend Warwick Mittiga while the couple was on holiday in Majorca. She is working for Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free in London. Alongside reading a lot of scripts, she is doing some legal work on a documentary feature film called Life in a Day, directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald. The film will go to Sundance in January. Ravin Vello has been in legal practice since the year 2000, and conducted heavy research into the area of Information Technology Law, both corporate and litigation. He has successfully fought giants
Robert Cavallucci is the endorsed candidate of the Liberal National Party for the State seat of Brisbane. Sameer Kaul
Sameer Kaul recently won the prestigious Milagrow Trailblazers Brand Innovator Award in India for exemplary work in brand innovation and brand building. In April
George Nelson’s consulting company, Opportunity Logistics, picked up a major opportunity in reshaping the Gold Coast cultural landscape with increased festivals and cultural events during the next five years, and is looking for strategic partners and sponsors as well as benefactors and in-kind sponsors. Pranav Mistry recently welcomed baby daughter Gewn to the family, and joined an Australian company’s Indonesian operations as a production manager.
ALUMNI YEAR 1999 Christer Hansen moved to the UK after graduating from Bond, and completed a Master of International Business at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is married to Bondy Taryn Hansen (nee Jones) and they have two daughters, Charlotte and Mia. In 2009 the family moved to Stavanger, Norway. Taryn is learning Norwegian and currently working for a local professional services firm, managing their international portfolio of clients, while Christer is HR Manager for Maersk Oil Norway, an independent oil and gas company.
Dries van Schalkwyk runs his own business, DS Communications (www. dscoms.com), and says his Bond MBA has meant a lot to his business. “It has given me so much confidence to communicate better to anyone out there. Understanding and respecting other cultures, and respecting the meaning of the work that people do out there, no matter what.”
Nick and Lucy Alvarez
Kevin Lau is studying computer science at Harvard and has a few businesses. His commercial business doubled its revenue during the past few years, and is heading toward an annual income of $5 million. He is now seeking seed funds for a website that will help users identify classmates and form teams for group projects. He says the business will be “like eHarmony for finding a potential teammate.”
ALUMNI YEAR 2001
Azman Shah is working with IBM Malaysia for a Telstra Australia project. He says it has been great working with Australian colleagues and customers, as he never thought he would be working for Australians from home in Kuala Lumpur. “I left Australia in 2003 and ever since that moment, I miss all my mates from all over the globe and especially from Australia,” he says. Oliver Nothen
Lucy Alvarez (nee Macdermott) married fellow Bondy Nick Alvarez (alumni year 2003) in Bali on 4 June 2011. The couple met while studying at Bond, and both are graduates of the Bachelor of Film and television program. Lucy has worked in the Bond Development Office since 2008. The couple plans to move to California, USA, to start the next step in their life together.
ALUMNI YEAR 2003
TongTong Li did work experience on the Gold Coast for two years after graduating, then returned to Schenzhen, China, to work in a securities company. Despite majoring in journalism at Bond, she now works in finance. She is also mum to a new baby, and hopes to return to Australia one day with her family to tell them the stories of her time at Bond. TongTong Li
Orv Butler (Dr Orville R. Butler) presented “The Evolution of Industrial R&D” to the Institute for History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Science, in November last year. He is Associate Historian at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland, where he is project historian for the History of Physicist Entrepreneurs (HoPE) project.
Oliver Nothen was part of a committee that organised the South African Skydive Nationals in March. Oliver was personally responsible for the marketing and sponsorship component of the competition, and generated more than R40,000 in prizes and giveaways.
ALUMNI YEAR 2000
ALUMNI YEAR 2002
Alexander M. Saad was recently hired as a Solutions Consultant for Veda Advantage, a company that provides data and insights for businesses and consumers to transact with confidence. He says, “Bond gave me the skills and methodologies to apply intelligent strategies to increase Veda’s market share.”
conduct business with Chinese partners, tap the outbound Chinese tourism market, and take advantage of the many opportunities of doing business with China. Sandra also provides extensive training and workshops in this field. See: www.slideshare.net/ srwese/chinese-business-trainers.
Garrith Steyn studied at Bond’s South Australia campus and is moving to Perth in June, but would love to take a trip to see the Gold Coast campus. Sandra Rwese returned to Kenya after graduating in 2004, and launched her business, Chinese Business Trainers, in 2007. The company helps its clients
ALUMNI YEAR 2004
Adrian Praljak is enjoying being at home with his parents, sister and friends in Melbourne. He says of his Bond colleagues, “Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget!”
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Alumni John Curtin is the Marketing and Brand Manager at Totem Onelove Group, and part owner in a Chapel Street Bar called Electric Ladyland. He is launching a new iPhone application and website for each State specialising in hospitality and food news. He recently presented at Ad:Tech in Melbourne and Sydney on Social Media. He’d love to reconnect with Bondies via email: john@johncurtin.org. Dini Martinez has set up an independent consultancy and is working with Sydney Water, a local Council, and an Australian/ African furniture company seeking green certification. She stopped teaching dance and yoga classes a month ago “as my belly was growing too big with our first baby due in July.” Dini married her husband Pablo in 2010 in Argentina. Christian Hamer worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Frankfurt, Germany, after graduating, where “I had three interns from Bond coming to Frankfurt as a result of Professor Robert Stable’s efforts to find interesting companies for internships.” After three years of consulting he started his own business, a studio for modern photography “to go,” meaning customers could take the pictures away on the same day. Due to the success of the first studio, he opened two more studios within the first year. The company recently came second in the German Start Award 2010 for “most innovative young business of the year.” Christian Hamer
Lauren Rand and family
Stephen Dew and his partner Rika opened their own Incorporated Legal Practice in May this year. The practice augments their migration practice, Just Migration, which has been in operation for two years. He says, “It has been a struggle to gain the experience and expertise to allow us to make this happen, but now that we have done so, Rika and I are enjoying what we do.” Rebecca ‘Boo’ Baldwin is working in programming and operations for MTV Sydney.
ALUMNI YEAR 2005
Dr Cedric Spencer is admitted as a Solicitor and Barrister of NSW Supreme Court and High Court of Australia. He recently completed a Doctor of Business Administration with Southern Cross University, where his research was in business law, on a topic inspired by his studies at Bond University. Dr Spencer is now a Senior Lecturer and Discipline Leader for Law with Holmes Institute Sydney and an academic with University of Technology Sydney, and volunteers as a solicitor at a community legal centre.
ALUMNI YEAR 2006
Christian (Hugo) and Joey Klockare met at Palavar in February 2004. They recently moved to San Diego, California, where Christian began a new job with Active Network. They have a two year old little girl named Freya and welcomed their second child in May of 2011. Lauren Rand (nee Dwyer) and her husband Wesley welcomed baby daughter Madison Grace Rand to the world in July 2007, in Wesley Hospital, Brisbane.
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Anna-Lise Rosendahl started her first full-time journalism job this year at NBN Lismore. She previously worked for NBN Gold Coast and Sea/Gold FM on a casual basis. Rebecca Holmes went into partnership with her father in July last year, opening a skin cancer and allied health clinic at Ocean Shores to provide a range of services to the Byron Shire. She manages the clinic and works closely with the local GPs to ensure the area’s needs are catered for. Sharlene Carman and Samuel Powell were married in Manila, Philippines, in January this year, in the company of more than 30 of their fellow Bondies.
Zack Vilvang and Munnarsh Sidhu met at Bond and, since graduating, have returned to Vancouver in Canada where they are both articling and will write their bar exams in April next year. The couple is happy to announce their engagement, and would like to thank Bond for bringing them together. “We absolutely loved our time down there and miss it dearly! There’s not a day that goes by without missing Australia and we are hopeful that we’ll get back down there in the near future,” they say.
Richard Brimblecombe was elected as an Alumni Ordinary member of Bond University Limited at the AGM in April 2011. Richard is one of 30 members made up of alumni, staff, students, councillors and members of the community, who comprise the voting membership of Bond University Limited.
ALUMNI YEAR 2007 Antonia De Luca travelled extensively after graduating and found her passion in raw, vegan cuisine. She then returned to South Africa and opened a café and shop in Muldersdrift, Johannesburg, called Leafy Greens, based on an organic, permaculture farm. The café provides vegan catering, functions, conferences, markets, workshops, kids’ parties and charitable support: every meal sold at Leafy Greens feeds a child for a day through an organisation called JAM. Antonia would love to hear from her fellow Bondies via email at mytable@lgcafe.org. Antonia De Luca
Carter Moore Carter Moore was the first hire in the new Brisbane office of award-winning, 118-year-old Sydney firm, Henry Davis York, in April this year. Before taking up this role, Carter was assisted by the Bond University Graduate Development Office to obtain an internship with V8 Supercars Australia, and a practical legal training placement with a boutique corporate and commercial firm in Brisbane.
Ana L Escamilla returned to Mexico after graduating with her MBA from Bond. After having such a great time working in the Admissions Office at Bond, she decided she wanted to work again in the education industry. Ana is now a sales coordinator of an educational agency, and looks forward to starting her own agency in the near future.
Diana Lorena Ojeda recently started working on ‘Freedom of the Seas,’ a ship from Royal Caribbean, as a broadcast technician.
Martin Sandén was recently promoted to the role of Nordic Brand Manager at Unilever Sweden, with responsibilities to drive new product development for the Nordic ice cream market, and drive the digital, social media and mobile strategy for the ice cream brands.
placing 10th at the world championships in Eindhoven (Netherlands) last year. James Baledokadroka is a lawyer with the reserve bank of Fiji and Suva, Fiji Nonthando Chasakara.
Winston Wing Hong To is a PhD candidate, Cultural Studies of Sport and Exercise, at the University of Western Ontario (Canada). He is currently in Oslo, Norway, conducting field research on the Norwegian Sport and Physical Activity System, and meeting with the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF), Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NSSS), and Norwegian Ministry of Culture. Maximilian Waid moved to North Carolina for a few months after graduating, then returned to Australia in April last year. He is now studying for a Master of Creative Advertising at QUT in Brisbane and, at the same time, working for FRESH Advertising, an advertising communications agency in Brisbane. Maximilian Waid
ALUMNI YEAR 2008
Christopher Conradi
Johanna Sperzagni is a Marketing Coordinator for Shamrock Foods in Phoenix, Arizona, and is in charge of the website www.dine4az.com. She is very busy but asks her fellow Bondies to please contact her.
and professional services firm specialising in real estate, Jones Lang Lasalle. He has also been working on a part time project with some successful entreprenuers to generate a second income.
ALUMNI YEAR 2009
Carla Jenkins recently started a job she says is “amazing” with SKS Digital in Brisbane. Julian M Reder graduates from the United Nations Worldview Institute of International Affairs in June this year. Miao Jingxuan is continuing study life in Brisbane, but misses the Bond life. “Bond University has a significant impact in my life. As one of the alumni, I will keep in contact with Bond at all times. I love Bond!”
Christopher Conradi flew back to Norway to start a career with IBM after graduating, and joined IBM Software Group as a technical professional. In May 2010, he married fellow Bondie Karoline, and 10 months later they had a baby daughter, Emine. See pp6-11 for more from Chris. Paul Carcallas recently gained employment as a project engineer with a global financial
Peiling Kong is continuing further studies in psychology in Sydney, researching female athletes in terms of perfectionism, body dissatisfaction and eating patterns, to help predict future eating disorders. Peiling competes in aerobic gymnastics, most recently qualifying to compete in the FISAF Sport Aerobics World Championships on the Gold Coast in October 2011, and
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BOND UNIVERSITY
Your Bond, wherever you go. Your alumni community is always close at hand. Remain connected with your alma mater by visiting Bond University Alumni online. It’s a relationship for life.
www.alumni.bond.edu.au
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