Nucleus vol 1, no 3 by Nucleus

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Why Doesn’t UNE Have a Chancellor? Neurofeedback at UNE The History of UNE Student Radio INTENSIVE SCHOOLS

NUCLEUS Vol. 1, No. 3, April 2013

Contents 3rd Welcome to the third issue of your student newspaper, recently reinstated and running strong. So a lot’s been happening. Like both Italy and the Vatican recently, we have been left without a leader. We were as surprised as anyone, especially as we’d published an editorial from Mr. Torbay in the last issue. Which, serendipitously, was released on the morning of his unexpected resignation. We wish him the best of luck digging the tunnel to Guatemala that he surely must be digging. On March 21st, students saw a change in the structure of our elected representation, with motions being passed at a Special General Meeting to move to a single student representative organisation in place of the two, postgraduate and undergraduate, that have til now been in place. And then there was the ‘I Love Culture’ festival a couple of weeks ago, which had a fantastic turnout and went off in a big way. The colourful lanterns are still swingin’ happily in the trees outside our little post-hairdresser style office. As with every other issue (all two others so far...), it has been a joint effort, with many contributors involved. This issue will hopefully both entertain and inform you; both make you think and bring a smile to your lips, preferably in pleasant conjunction. As always, we encourage you to write in with articles, opinions and responses; to come and get to know us, or if you don’t want to do that (we’re a bit smelly) at the very least read the newspaper and make your friends read it too. Also, last week we had a visit from a baby tiger snake. We asked it to guard the office, and as nothing was stolen when we left it alone, we can only assume he did a stand up job! - The Editors

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- Editorials - Letters to the Editors - Why Doesn’t UNE Have a Chancellor? - The History of UNE Student Radio - Neurofeedback at UNE - INTENSIVE SCHOOL INFO - I Love Culture Festival - VC’s Welcome Dinner - Wright Village - Profiles - Environment: UNE Landcare - Arts Pages - Neucleus, July 1970

Cover art by Melody Grace Batty Arts Pages Cover Art by Siobhan Hokin

www.facebook.com/NucleusUNE email: editors@nucleus.org.au website: www.nucleus.org.au post: P.O. Box U1, UNE Armidale NSW 2351

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Nucleus or UNEG. If you have an issue with an item published in the paper, write a letter and we will be glad to print it. All contributions must include name and contact details. Ensure that all contributions contain nothing that may be considered sexist, racist, discriminatory, violence provoking, or plagiarised. We assume our readers can tolerate a degree of satire and the odd swear word, but anything containing unnecessary profanity will not be published. Publication is always at the discretion of the editors. All content is published under the Creative Commons By 3.0 license. Refer to website for license information.

Undergrads Decide on Unity The Undergraduates of UNE took a step towards a brighter future in student representation and have marked the student voice as important at this university. On the 21st March 2013 the Undergraduate New England Guild (UNEG) held a Special General Meeting to decide a new direction. The meeting was open to all and UNE external undergrad students could attend the meeting through Adobe Connect. All motions before the meeting were passed unanimously by undergrads at the meeting. Motions were as follows: 1. It was moved that the meeting endorse the proposed vision, values and purpose of the new student association. 2. It was moved that the meeting endorse the proposal for a unified student association representing all students at UNE. 3. It was moved that the current Executive committees of UNEG and Postgrads At UNE be authorised to do all things necessary to: • Prepare and approve the constitution of the new association; • Incorporate the new association to replace the two existing associations; and • Arrange the first elections of the new association at the start of Trimester 2, 2013. 4. It was moved that students acknowledge the current constitutions are unworkable and are constricting the associations from achieving their desired purpose, values and goals. On the 16th April 2013 the UNE Postgrad association will meet to decide on at similar range of motions. The vision for a new UNE student representative council is: ‘To represent without fear or favour, the students of the University of New England. To encourage participation in a fair and just tertiary experience through shared higher thinking.’ The values are to: • create an environment that respects and develops leadership; and • respect and value diversity and understand difference is more. The purpose of a unified student association is to: 1. Represent the interests and welfare of students; 2. Promote the social and intellectual life of the University; 3. Organise professional and social activities of students and encourage the development of organisations, clubs and societies for students at the University; 4. Operate as a recognised means of communication between students and the University; 5. Liaise, where appropriate, with other student organisations in the tertiary sector including other student bodies, guilds or associations in order to carry out these objectives; 6. Provide the University with advice with regard to expenditure, priorities and disbursement of funds collected by the University in accordance with the provisions of the Student Services and Amenities Fee Guidelines; 7. Promote the interests of students and the broader UNE community; and 8. Act in a transparent and accountable manner. A unified single student organisation will also reduce the administrative duplication and make the case for recurrent funding from the university, essential should the SSAF disappear. Proper governance of one board will be easier, especially with an appropriate functional constitution. Having student needs and issues represented around one table will benefit the varied interests of students at UNE. UNE students will benefit from a unified student voice. Undergrads aspire to be Postgrads, Postgrads were Undergrads; a synergy exists and should be capitalised on at UNE. The voice of a combined 20,000 students is hard to deny or ignore. - David Mailler, UNEG President

Send your thoughts to editors@nucleus. org.au

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Letters to the Editors

Hey guys, Here’s something I wanted to say to the idiot complaining about parking fees at UNE in your latest edition. In response to F.U, Parking: the problem isn’t the hike in parking fees, but rather the complete unwillingness of students to walk the five hundred metres from college to uni, ride a bike from town, or catch the bus. Elm Ave just before 9am is an exercise in disappointment as a seemingly-endless stream of college students, all one per car, drive up to the campus. If anything, the number of available car spaces should be halved. Exceptions should be made for students that

come from out of town or have a legitimate reason (medical) for driving, and everyone else should be required to act like a responsible adult. I know it’s hard acting like an adult when the colleges aren’t much more than nurseries with alcohol, but give it a shot anyway. It takes ten minutes to walk up the hill from the colleges, about fifteen from the centre of town on a bike, and the bus runs every hour. And there’s ample public transport - you just don’t get to drive home in between classes. So pack your lunch. Maybe the caterers in the college kitchen will make you a sandwich. Thanks Jeremy Turner

Why Doesn’t UNE Have A Chancellor? And Other Questions

The recent scandal hounding our ex-Chancellor Richard Torbay has been making national news. They say corruption runs deep and while suspicious investments and political, financial and personal alliances are being dredged up in national media, Nucleus asks why rumour and questions are being met primarily with silence. Last issue, Nucleus published a full-page foreword by then UNE Chancellor the Hon. Richard Torbay. All fine and dandy when we sent the issue to print, but the night before that month’s student rag was launched, the not-so-honourable Torbay was abruptly disendorsed from the National party, in which he had been going to run as the New England federal candidate. The next day saw his resignations from state parliament, where had been an independent for almost 14 years, and from the prestigious Chancellorship of the University of New England. After a brief statement on the night of Tuesday 19th March, with the predictable reference to smear campaigns, Torbay rather uncharacteristically disappeared, all contact broken, websites shut down; leaving spectators and speculators reaching for conclusions about this well-known, well-supported, usually prominent public figure. Information given to the National party had been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, ICAC, and linked him with the Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid, currently involved in the largest corruption investigation in NSW history. Then ICAC raided Torbay’s house and his electoral office. Meanwhile the popular local politician – once UNE Union CEO, once Armidale mayor, once speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Chair on countless boards – evaporated in the heat of intensifying press coverage.

A Sydney Morning Herald exposé points to Torbay having undeclared pecuniary interests, an offence in itself. He had numerous business ties to close friends and Armidale rich folk including former Police Chief David Cushway and developers Phillip Hanna and Nick Rice. Implications are made about considerable suspicious business dealings between Torbay, Rice, Hanna and Cushway. The Herald also states that Cushway abused his authority in a crimanal charge case involving Hanna. David Cushway was appointed in February as UNE’s Chief Operating Officer, in a selection panel chaired by the Vice-Chancellor Jim Barber. On March 20th a press release was made by UNE, stating Torbay’s immediate resignation as Chancellor, though no reason was provided. On Monday 8th, following the press coverage implicating Cushway, an email was delivered to staff at UNE expressing VC Jim Barber’s support for Cushway and stating that the latter will remain in his position as Chief Operating Officer. Cushway has denied to the VC any improper conduct, but at this stage, none of the Torbay business has been communicated directly to students, who surely are the key stakeholders in a university and who, surely, deserve to know not only what has happened, but why and what is going on now. How will a new Chancellor be selected? How do we know what this process is and that it is not susceptible and will not be tainted by corrupt behaviour, which at the moment seems to be uncomfortably close to home? What are people supposed to think when communication is so limited? Those who remember the previous uproar between Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor John Cassidy and Alan Pettigrew might ask whether a curse for trouble rests with the Chancellorship. As to what the outcome of the ICAC investigations will be, we have yet to find out. Many questions, it seems, are still to be answered.

The Student Power Sound

The History of UNE Student Radio

by Josh Dobos

In 1968 a group of five UNE students had a vision…Over 40 years later this radical vision continues to be an exciting and important part of life on campus. These dedicated students called themselves the ‘UNE Radio Committee’ and each week they would present a halfhour radio show on Armidale’s local commercial station. Wishing to expand upon this project, the committee, with the help of Professor Neville Fletcher of the UNE Physics Department wrote to the Postmaster General with the vision of providing a service similar to those seen on university campuses in the United States. After a long time digesting this novel idea, the Postmaster General replied on 14 January 1969 to say a license would be granted.

map with a bold attempt at an Australian record. 19 year old student Nigel Wood extraordinarily broadcast non-stop for 87 hours going on-air every 15 minutes. Several years later in 1991, the station would take back its record with student Many hurdles and test transmissions Ian Ferguson smashing out a massive 192 later, at 7:00pm on 27 April 1970 Radi- hours of non-stop announcing. Current oUNE (or RUNE) was officially opened Station Coordinator Tania Court has by a taped recording from the former hinted that it may again be time to take vice-chancellor Professor Zelam Cowan, back the crown, this time thus marking the birth of Australia’s first once and for all. university broadcaster. Operating on only a yearly budget of about $3000, the (Note: At the time the initial construction of the station was an world record was 213 impressive example of passionate stu- hours set by New York DJ dent motivation and community spirit. in 1959. When he went of The studio desk was built from scraps air he reportedly dropped by one volunteer, another student did dead.) the electrical wiring and one especially committed staff member even built a By the time the eighties studio in his own home for production rolled up, several hundred volunteers had passed work. through the RUNE stuOnly a few dios. The station had well m o n t h s and truly established itself later on 4 and again wished to exA u g u s t , pand its presence in the RUNE put university and Armidale community. itself firm- Low powered transmission and interly on the ference problems led the station to experiment with alternative transmission

methods and at times station could be heard as far away as Uralla and Guyra. Eventually in 1986 the station was granted a license on the FM-bandwidth and consequently the name of the station was changed to 2UNE. 2UNE had built a strong volunteer and listener base across the university and the dedication to the station was made crystal clear in 1988. The then SRC had appointed a non-student as station manager and ultimately provoked one of the largest student rallies UNE has seen with over 300 angry students camping outside the SRC offices threatening to storm the office over the controversial decision. All issues were soon resolved, but again 2UNE had shown how the student voice is a powerful force to be reckoned with. When the new millennium came knocking so did fresh new change for 2UNE. A new manager meant bold decisions that ultimately led to further engagement with students, a strong re-

lationship with the UNE Union and another name change, now named Tune!FM. However, like many other campus organisations, in 2006 Tune!FM was caught right in the middle of the Voluntary Student Unionism storm. The future looked very bleak for Tune!FM with censorship, sackings and a spate of confusion bringing the station to the brink of extinction. On 11 July 2006 the university announced a funding package that included the operation of Tune!FM and ensuring the station could continue long into the future. Only a few years later Tune!FM received an important grant from the Federal Government and the university. In 2010 the station moved into its brand new studio coinciding nicely with the station’s 40th anniversary.

Over the course of Tune!FM’s colourful history many volunteers and staff members have gone onto successful careers in the media industry and as we approach the 43rd birthday of the station and dig through the dense archives, we are prompted to nostalgically reflect on the many Tune!FM shows and segments gone by. It would be interesting to see how the media career progressed for the creators of the on-air

person who allegedly built a bong into the studio desk.

burping competition which would see contestants battle it out to produce the longest burp. Similarly, the volunteers who would patrol campus recording student’s farts and allowing the listeners to vote on the best flatulence and the scrapped production of Big Brother the Radio Edition where listeners would be locked in a room for 48 hours and recorded. On the other hand, the station is perhaps legally obliged to forget the

with the skills not only to progress at Tune!FM, but also to provide a foundation of communication and professional skills that can be applied in professional careers when you leave university. Simply drop into the station or visit the www.tunefm.net for contact details.

Tune!FM is place where student’s zeal is harnessed and creativity is encouraged and developed. For 43 years Tune!FM has been the home for the student voice and provided a unique radio experience for UNE and the Armidale community. 2013 promises to be an exciting year for the station with the development of many new programs and podcasts designed to reach out to UNE’s diverse student community and further give external students a way to connect to day to day life on campus If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer at Tune!FM now is the best time to do it! We aim to equip volunteers

Since its conception Tune!FM has always been a station that has survived on the enthusiasm of volunteers and the passion of the students. The goals of the station have been the same since 1970; • Provide another means of communication for students and staff • Provide programs designed and orientated towards student listening audiences • To experiment in programming techniques, presentation and format • To involve as many students as possible (Neucleus 23 July 1970)

Love music? Want to keep up w

Neurofeedback at UNE UNE is on the forefront of many disciplines when it comes to research. One discipline that might not be expected is neuroscience, the science of the brain. There are amazing things being done by the researchers here that have the potential to totally redefine what we think of as ‘learning’. PhD student Harley Macnamara, under the supervision of Dr Graham Jamieson, is asking questions about the brain that have never been asked before, using a revolutionary technique called ‘Neurofeedback Training’.

a goal will reinforce the action, and over time it will become learned. As with another of the ideas we will look at, this was studied by doing pretty unfriendly things to cats. In 1901, American psychologist Edward Thorndike studied this idea in depth by trapping cats in boxes and watching them try to escape. After probably some time doing this, he discovered that a learning effect was occurring. Every time a cat figured out how to escape and was recaptured, it took less and less time for it to work out how to get back out. Successful behaviours were Neurofeedback is a relatively new idea in reinforced through positive reinforceneuropsychology - it combines a hand- ment of the sweet smell of freedom, and ful of existing techniques and concepts were more easily performed by the cat into something truly new and exciting. each time. This method of learning is In short it gives the ability to gain great- at the heart of all self-directed learning, er control over specific functions of your and also of the next subject we need to own brain through the use of special- approach. ly designed video games. Undergoing training with this technique can increase Biofeedback your executive attention, short term memory, and complex problem solving Biofeedback is a method of training abilities. It is showing promising signs yourself to control bodily functions that as a non-drug treatment for ADHD, and are usually automatic, and is the basis of is helping athletes, musicians and artists Neurofeedback. The idea is, using opdevelop their techniques by strengthen- erant conditioning, a person can train ing activity in the brain areas associated themselves to gain control of physiowith them. It is also showing promising logical functions like heart-rate, skin signs as a treatment for certain kinds of temperature, sweating, even blood vesepilepsy, and even autism. But to talk sel dilation. This may seem a bit unnecabout it in a meaningful way, we first essary; why would you want to control have to look at its component parts, and your heart rate, it’s doing just fine on it’s the ideas it arose from. own? In archery, it is ideal to time your shots between your heartbeats, as the Operant Conditioning tiny pulses sent through your body with every beat can throw your aim off by Operant conditioning is a method of significant amounts. Archers therefore learning that is based on a very simple have a very good reason to want to conrule; over time, behaviours that are suc- trol this, and some have famously used cessful in a given situation will be repeat- biofeedback to learn to slow their heart ed more than those that are unsuccess- rate at will (there are examples of this on ful. The success of an action in achieving YouTube).

The method for learning to do this is very simple. A measuring device for whatever function you want to control (in this case heart rate) is connected to a simple on/ off device (for instance a light bulb) so that when heart rate falls into the ideal range, the light bulb turns on. But when the rate moves out of this range again, the light turns off. The positive reinforcement of the light creates the learning effect that develops your control, so while you may not know how you’re doing it, by simply trying to turn the light on you can change your heart rate. And the really amazing thing about this technique is that after a while, you can control the function on your own, without the presence of the reinforcement (light bulb). EEG There is one last thing that bridges the gap between Biofeedback and Neurofeedback that is confusing enough to warrant explanation here. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method of inferring brain activity by measuring electrical activity on the scalp. While it doesn’t tell us exactly what is going on (no technology really can), it can measure changes in activity in different parts of the brain. This gives us a great starting point for looking at what’s going on in different parts of the brain at any given moment. Coupled with our knowledge of which parts (or combination of parts) of the brain are associated with different physiological functions, means that we have a way to measure different kinds of brain activity in a similar way that a heart rate monitor measures heart rate. This means we can use it with biofeedback! And in doing so, we get...

Neurofeedback This technique was stumbled upon in 1965 by Barry Sterman, another American psychologist, again in studies involving cats. Sterman was conducting conditioning experiments on cats where he was measuring their brain activity while they were performing a ‘push the lever, get a treat’ type experiment, and discovered that he could condition the cats to get a treat by producing a certain quality of brain activity (increased sensorimotor rhythm). Essentially, the cats would enter a unique state of focused alertness for a short period, and THAT would trigger the treat. This is pretty amazing in itself, but the really interesting thing happened later in another study, where things unfortunately took a dark turn for the cats. Sterman was asked by NASA to test the toxicity of a new rocket fuel they were trying out, so out came the cats again. 50 cats were injected with the horrible stuff, and most of them went into grand mal seizures. But 10 of them didn’t. Sterman was surprised by this, and looked for an explanation. It turns out, the 10 unaffected cats (and only those 10) were from his previous biofeedback study. Sterman deduced that the biofeedback exercise had lasting effects on the cats’ brain function, which resulted in a heightened tolerance to seizures. This was a very important discovery. Raising tolerance to seizures without drugs has enormous implications for epilepsy sufferers, and

Dr. Jamieson hard at work

on a less urgent level, for all other people who don’t enjoy seizures. Since then, Neurofeedback has been shown to treat epilepsy, ADHD, and many other clinical disorders. It has also been shown to significantly improve focus in sport and music performance. The method is quite similar to the Biofeedback method above, using EEG signal to trigger a positive reinforcement whenever the ideal brainwave frequencies are achieved. Though instead of a simple reinforcer, you are asked to play a video game with your mind. Though the game is usually fairly simple; controlling the size of coloured blocks or steering a race car down a track, they add a whole new dimension of engagement and motivation to the process. The game is set up to respond to your brain activity, so when you produce the right quality of brain activity, you get points in the game, etc.* As with biofeedback, this produces lasting effects in the user, im-

proving their overall attention and focus in all other areas of life. Those who were lucky enough to take part in Harley Macnamara’s PhD research recently got to experience this first hand. Harley is asking questions in this field that no one has asked before, breaking new ground in the field. As things stand, we know that NFT (Neurofeedback Training) works, but not much is known about how. Harley’s work is trying to determine some key things in this direction; trying to determine if NFT is really doing what we think it’s doing, and if so, how do we measure it? He is doing this in part by exploring the effects of training one hemisphere of the brain independently of the other, something that has never been done before. As well as this, Harley is looking at the changes that occur in the everyday life of people undergoing NFT, trying to measure how people experience changes in their attention levels. Neurofeedback is still a very young field, and a lot of questions still need to be answered before it’s effects are fully understood, but the possibilities are truly astounding. This is definitely something to keep an eye on over coming years.

- Stu Horsfield

Harley demonstrating the NFT system at UNE

Bus Transfer Service for Intensive Schools - April 2013 Bus transfers between the UNE colleges, town, Armidale train station and airport are being provided for the April 2013 intensive schools. The dates for each of the morning and evening bus transfer services are provided below. Morning service: · 12 April to 2 May 2013 Morning: Transfer to Armidale train station and airport

Evening service: · 7 to 28 April 2013 The timings and pick-up/drop-off locations for these transfer services are as follows: Evening: Pick-up from Armidale train station and airport * Airport: 4.40 p.m. flight arrival - transport students to town (Armidale Post Office) and UNE colleges

* Train: 6.00 p.m. train arrival - transport students to town (Armidale Post Office) and UNE colleges.

* Colleges & town to train station and airport (in time for 9.00 a.m. train departure and 9.50 a.m. flight departure) × × × × × × × ×

7.50 am - Drummond & Smith 7.55 am - St Alberts 8.00 am - Robb & Earle Page 8.05 am - Austin 8.10 am - Duval 8.15 am - Mary White 8.20 am - Wright Village 8.30 am - Armidale Post Office

2013 April Intensive School Opening Hours Bef ore y ou buy y our books brand new, check if the Secondhand Bookshop has it in stock. You will sav e at least 30% of what y ou would pay f or a new book.

Monday-Thursday 9.15am-3pm Excluding ANZAC Day

Monday- Friday The Booloom inbah Collection com pris es , The Bras s erie - Affordable, inform al and quick place to 8.30am-2.30pm eat., The Courtyard Cafe - Snacks and light m eals are als o available, as well as excellent coffee, tea Excluding ANZAC Day and other beverages . The Lim erick Bar - An inform al area where patrons can relax and enjoy a drink. Friday Happy Hour 4.30pm-6.30pm Cam pus Es s entials as the nam e im plies is the hub of s hopping on cam pus . News agent, Student and Staff needs , general s tore and Aus tralia Pos t

Sit in our s eated cafe or out in the courtyard with friends and enjoy great cafe food and Baris ta m ade coffee. Friendly s taff and free WiFi

Monday-Friday 8.30am-5pm Excluding ANZAC Day

Monday- Friday 8am-4pm Excluding ANZAC Day Saturday- Sunday 8.30am-2pm

'The Breather' is located ups tairs above 'the Stro'. FREE to all s tudents . 'The Breather' offers tea and coffee. Microwave ovens and a fridge are provided for your convenience. There is plenty of s pace and com fortable s eating where you can relax, catch up on s om e s tudy, or chat with friends .

Monday- Friday 9am-4pm Excluding ANZAC Day

At Sleek Hair Studio we pride ours elves in providing our cus tom ers with the perfect cuts , colors , perm s and other hair s ervices , along with the highes t quality of cus tom er s ervice. Our s tylis ts are highly trained in today's lates t hair trends . They are renowned for their expertis e and attention to detail

Monday-Friday 8.30am-4.30pm Excluding ANZAC Day

Student Support offers a range of s ervices to as s is t new and continuing s tudents . Be it as s is tance with accom m odation or em ploym ent, Advocacy, ISIC Cards , Tax Help or Centrelink help, we can norm ally help you. So pop in and talk to us .

Monday-Friday 8.30am-4.30pm Excluding ANZAC Day

TuneFm is the Univers ity of New England’s cam pus radio s tation, a high power open narrowcas ting s ervice operated by Services UNE. With a forty plus year his tory, the s tation is Aus tralia’s oldes t univers ity broadcas ter, s erving UNE’s s tudents , s taff, and the broader Arm idale com m unity.

Monday-Friday 10.30am-4.30pm Excluding ANZAC Day

Welcome to Trimester 1 intensive schools

You want to make the most of your time at your UNE intensive school and The Services UNE Student Support team is here to help you do that. We have prepared some events and competitions to give you a taste of campus life and welcome you to UNE. To keep up to date with the latest news and events during your intensive school make sure you download ‘The Box’ phone app for Apple and Android. All changes to events will be posted on here and you get exclusive UNE discounts at many local businesses around Armidale. Download it now and have a look! Don’t have a smartphone? Don’t despair! Jump onto www. servicesune.com.au/thebox and you can register to have access to all the events and competitions. We hope you will be able to fit some of these events in around your busy intensive school period. And if you have any questions while you are on campus feel free to drop in and see us at Student Support between the Grind & Squeeze Café and TuneFM in the northern courtyard.

what’s on... Band and open mic night 7pm. TheSTRO. Bring along your guitars and singing voices and amaze us with your musical talent. Sign ups start from 6.30pm or email in before: scarter@services.une.edu.au

Tuesday 16

Heritage tour of Armidale 2-4pm. Come aboard Armidale’s Heritage Tour for a guided tour of Armidale, the city for all seasons. The tour takes in the major historic and architectural landmarks of the City. Volunteer guides provide an entertaining and informative commentary. Places are limited so contact scarter@services.une.edu.au to reserve your spot today.

Wednesday 17

BBQ and Bands in the central courtyard 12noon. Relax on the lawns of UNE enjoy the sounds of local Armidale band and free BBQ provided by Services UNE.

Thursday 18

Trivia-6.30 The STRO. Dust off your trivia hats and dazzle us with your general knowledge. Tables will be allocated on the night so if you don’t know anyone don’t worry we’ll find a friendly group of people for you. Bar will be open to purchase drinks and there will be a free BBQ

Friday 19

Happy Hour at Booloominbah 4.30-6.30pm. Relax in historical Booloominbah and enjoy a well earned Friday afternoon beverage with fellow students and lecturers from around UNE. Limited food available.

Monday 22

Movie night at Belgrave Cinema 6.30pm $10 and free medium popcorn when you show your ‘The Box’ App. Bus available from colleges 6pm. email scarter@services.une.edu.au if you are interested.

Tuesday 23

Wednesday 24

BBQ and Bands in the central courtyard 12noon. Relax on the lawns of UNE enjoy the sounds of local Armidale band and free BBQ provided by Services UNE.

Thursday 25

ANZAC Day. Dawn Service 6am, Central Park. UNE Service 8am, Rose Garden Northern courtyard. ANZAC March in town 10.30am

Friday 26

Happy Hour at Booloominbah 4.30-6.30pm. Relax in historical Booloominbah and enjoy a well earned Friday afternoon beverage with fellow students and lecturers from around UNE. Limited food available.

Saturday 27

Tune FM’s anniversary. Keep updated for this event on Tune FM’s facebook page or ‘The Box’ app.

win

Monday 15

Make sure you pick up your PassSUPPORT from the Student Support team to go in the draw to win an ipad mini. Check out the survey on ‘The Box’ app to go in the draw to win a beach getaway.

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Addy’s On Marsh Addy’s on Marsh is one of the most successful little Restaurant/Takeaway businesses in the region. Offering fresh homemade Pizzas, Pastas & Risottos at very affordable prices people can afford to dine out or have yummy takeaways. Located across from The Whitebull on the main Highway, they provide dine in (BYO), takeaway and cater for special events. Addy, (Adam Moore) and crew have been serving Armidale’s discerning pizza lovers for nearly 3 years from their Gourmet pizza and Pasta Restaurant. As a young man himself he caters for the student population with his special deals & functions that he has provided over the years & is open to any new ideas from the student population & public. Check out our website www.addys.com.au to view the menu & what Addy’s is all about. Call us for College, Societies and club function quotes.

I Love Culture Festival 2013: A celebration of cultural diversity. When twilight fell and full moon rose, our lanterns swayed in the wind with soft music floating in the night. The aroma of the luscious cuisine filled the space of the Northern Courtyard. There, we saw a long line of culture lovers with plates ready in their hands. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to taste the exotic cuisine on offer, but who wouldn’t be! Thanks to the culinary talents of our wonderful volunteers, there was a whole roasted goat, Indian Naan Bread with curry, Papadams, Chicken Biriyani, Kenyan Ugali, Butterflied Peri Peri Chicken, Chilli Chicken Stir-Fry, Pad Thai, Thai Green Curry, Bhutanese Potato Curry, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, plus dishes from Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Not so surprisingly, they were gone in the blink of an eye. It was a truly delightful banquet! “Best $2 ever,” we heard someone exclaim to his friend. That was true, indeed. The total cost to students was only two dollars (five dollars without a concession). No wonder we had over 300 students, staff and community members attend our mini festival! After much anticipation, Koru, the Thai wonder boy, kicked off the evening’s entertainment with a high energy song and dance number that had the whole audience cheering. He was soon followed by a cutting-edge Japanese martial arts demonstration, a charming Saudi Arabian dance, an all-around-fun Vietnamese bamboo dance, a graceful Chinese dance, an enthralling Bengali dance, and a mystical Bollywood dance. Somewhere along the line, Sewa Emojong, one of the coordinators of the AIA Buddy Program, initiated an impromptu dance in the centre of the courtyard which, after watching for a bit, we all joined in. The evening was a blast, and it was filled with high spirits and smiles everywhere we looked. However, we didn’t just dance our night away; we also got to indulge in music from around the world. Multiple live music bands took to the stage, and the sound was so captivating it put us all in a trancelike state. We had bands with members from East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, China and Australia. Our singers were also on par with the band, definitely top-of-the-range, hailing straight from Bangladesh and Bhutan. At the end of the night, when full moon rose high above our heads, a cross-cultural Thai-Bhutanese acoustic performance officially concluded our night with a love song. A song from the Land of the Thunder Dragon which cried, ‘Don’t go faraway. Come back, come back’. The guitar was mellow, and the voices were sweet. Even though the festival was officially over, many of our fellow culture enthusiasts were still eager for it to continue. Gangnam Style was then blasted through our sound system, and everyone mumbled through the song before belting out, ‘Hey, sexy lady’ in a joyous harmony. For a short while, our stage was also converted into a mini karaoke session when the guys

went up and sang about sunshine and rain, getting all hands to wave, and bodies to sway like it was a rock concert. “It was the most amazing night,” one of the girls said to us. She was there from the beginning to the very end, so we were sure she knew what she was talking about. It was indeed our most amazing and biggest event yet, and we couldn’t have done it without our generous sponsors, staff, volunteers and various student organisations. It really shows that, when we join hands for a singular cause, we can achieve even the greatest of our imagination. Last but not least, we would like to thank and congratulate all culture lovers who rocked up on the night. Nothing said ‘I love culture’ better than a full courtyard of people from all over the world gathering and having fun together!

If you missed out on the 2013 I Love Culture Festival, never fear, as it is now officially an annual event on our calendar! In the meantime, there are still many more fun events that we at the AIABP have in store, so watch this space, or keep in touch with us at www.facebook.com/AIABuddyProgram for instant updates on our latest activities. We look forward to seeing you all again soon! - Melalin Mahavongtrakul

VC’s Welcome Dinner

- Wright Village

On Tuesday the 19th of March the Vice Chancellor’s Welcome Dinner for Wright Village saw over 200 people attend the evening at the Wright Centre. Hosted by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Jim Barber and Deputy Vice Chancellor Geoff Fox as well as the Mayor Cr Jim Maher, community volunteers, management from the International Office, student representatives and Wright Village students and staff. Prof. Barber took the opportunity to welcome the new management team at Wright Village with the appointment of a new Residential Life Manager, Ms. Caroline Pflaumer-Winter, and Office Manager David Snell. There will also be a new Academic in Residence appointed in the near future. We hope to be building on the strengths of “the Village”.

Wright Village is host to students from all over Australia and from all parts of the globe. Residents were encouraged to wear traditional dress to celebrate their cultures. The dinner was a great way to come together as a college and to celebrate our diversity.

Change the World While at UNE - Join Enactus! Enactus UNE is part of an international movement of students who engage with community groups to run projects and add local value while they study. Getting involved in these projects can help you ground your skills while you study, while developing professional and other networks to enhance your University experience and career prospects.

in this exciting initiative!

But wait, there’s more! In keeping with acting locally, but thinking more globally about the causes of this injustice, we have recently started a national campaign for every child born in Australia (approximately 300,000 each year) to obtain free and automatic birth certificates as a fundamental As an example, one of the UNE Enactus projects started right of citizenship. With this aim firmly in mind, in Febabout eight years ago, with a financial literacy skills pro- ruary this year Enactus UNE students and a local New Enggram at the Minimbah Indigenous Pre & Primary school land Mutual Group representative travelled to Parliament in Armidale. As a result of this program in recent years we House in Canberra, to meet politicians and raise the issue found that many of the children of non-registration and birth certiwere restricted from opening bank fication of Australian kids. accounts because they did not have a birth certificate. We received amazing offers of support from both sides of Parliament Further research revealed that this during this visit, meeting with is not simply a local problem, and senior Government Ministers and that in Australia, 41% of babies their counterparts, who are now born to Aboriginal mothers go unworking at finding administrative registered and therefore never reand legal solutions to the probceive a birth certificate. A birth certificate offers a legal iden- lem. Over a couple of weeks the story was covered widely tity. It also allows access to everyday rights and mainstream through national TV, radio and print media. As a conseservices, such as obtaining a driver’s licence, opening bank quence of this coverage we have had further interest from an accounts, applying for a passport, joining a sporting team, international company, who is trying to address child slavand even obtaining work. ery issues in parts of West Africa, caused in part by kids not having birth certificates in this part of the world. In response to this need, over the past two years UNE Students have partnered with others to raise about $20,000, in So, would you like to get involved? Are you interested to order to pay for nearly 400 kids to obtain birth certificates learn how to effectively campaign? Would you like to build in local schools. This effectively gives them Australian ‘cit- professional networks and skills while you study? How izenship’, and enables them to fully participate in services about meeting politicians, and playing a part in bringing which most of us take for granted. This project has been so about lasting positive social change while you’re at UNE? If you say ‘yes’ to any of these, send an email to successful over the past 18 months that this year in June we enactus@une.edu.au. plan to sign up a further 800 kids through our regions local You won’t be disappointed! schools. We welcome anyone who would like to be involved

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If you only had $10 to do your groceries for the week, what would you eat? What could you afford? all, it’s all very well to be inspired, but exactly how does one go about keeping daily meals under $2? ASPIRE will be producing a support guide to show you what kind of meals and what to expect from the challenge, to provide that extra support. The website also has loads to offer. So 1.4 billion is a number that’s hard to get a grasp on - it’s if you’re keen for a challenge, to change your perspective more than sixty times Australia’s population, but just be- on poverty, or to fundraise much needed money to support education, sign up! Last year the campaign raised cause it’s hard to imagine doesn’t make it any less real. almost $2 million, which funded a project in Cambodia This is where Live Below the Line, a challenge to live on aiming to increase the quality of education. $2 of food a day for five days, comes in. Thousands of Australians will be taking on this challenge this May, us- On the weekend following Live Below the Line, ASPIRE ing it to raise money to fund projects that focus on ex- will also be hosting a number of events in a Maternal treme poverty in our region, but also a small taste and Health weekend to be held 10th-12th May. Events ininsight into the reality facing those 1.4 billion people. It’s clude a lunch with David Browning, founder of the Baran experience which gives the chance to connect, as well bara May Foundation (an aid organisation focussed on as spread awareness in our communities of the issue of maternal health in Ethiopia, whom ASPIRE support), an all-hands-on-deck birthing kit morning tea, where everyextreme poverty. one from the university is invited to help put together safe Already at least a dozen UNE students have signed up, birthing kits, a maternal health short course for people inspired to do the challenge by the direct impact the who want to learn a little more about global health and fundraising has, and the experience of the challenge it- maternal health, and practical maternal skills training for self. UNE’s own global health group, Armidale Students medical students. Look out for more info on all of these Promoting International Rights and Equality (ASPIRE), events in the coming month! will be supporting students as they take on the challenge, - Gwen Palmer, ASPIRE Vice-President helping out with meal ideas and fundraising tips. After Two dollars a day is considered the extreme poverty line, the Australian monetary equivalent (taking into account inflation and relative purchasing power) of the amount of money 1.4 billion people survive on every day.

hallenges Abroad... The moment I stepped out of the airport in Phnom Penh in Cambodia is a moment I will never forget. The colours, smells and heat surrounded me, creating a beautiful dizzying effect. The city was alive; moving and flowing in a way I couldn’t explain. It was the summer holidays of my first year of Uni and I knew from then on that I wanted to spend all my holidays overseas!

My travels through Asia gave me a deep desire to give something back to the amazing people I had met. I decided to do a volunteer program in Kathmandu Nepal with Challenges Abroad Australia. I travelled with 4 friends to Heartland Children’s Academy to set up a music department (more correctly one room!). We refurbished the room, painted and decorated it, sourced the instruments, and played games with the children. I felt I had done something so small but amazingly it had brought joy and fun to the lives of the children at the school. Working and living with the people of Kathmandu allowed me to see things I would never have seen as a tourist. I got to taste mind-blowing local food, get lost in alleyways no one knew existed and even participate in a local festival! I was also able to build real friendships because we were equals, not meeting over a monetary exchange. When I chose to do the program I thought I would be the one helping and teaching. In fact the people of Nepal had much to teach me. Through the program my mind was opened to another way of life, where family, relationships, tradition, culture and the next meal were the most important things in people’s lives. I left there with the realisation of how fortunate I am and with a new perspective on life. I think that when we dream of travelling it is these experiences we are seeking, and volunteering really is the way to get them! Challenges Abroad Australia offers an amazing range of volunteer opportunities in countries such as Nepal, India, Cambodia, Peru and Tanzania. The volunteer work you will do depends on your interests and skills and could be anything from teaching English, running activities or refurbishing a classroom. They also have programs for students who want practical experience in their field of study, such as Teaching, Medical and sports coaching. - Amelia Hicks If you want to get involved please email: amelia@challengesabroad.com.au www.challengesabroad.com.au or our student contact Taylor at: taylordolan1207@gmail.com phone: 0448 128 449

“The Box” is your Services UNE phone app. Summed up it is a diary and discount app that also keeps you upto-date with everything that's going on at uni. You can also connect with only the clubs and societies you choose. Latest news, upcoming events and campus maps are automatically updated in your interactive diary. Personalise your diary by adding your own events, notes and reminders or you can even view/edit your diary online via the web portal. “The Box” also brings you special deals at local businesses around campus and Armidale to save you money all year round. These oﬀers are located on a GPS map so you are never short of options! www.servicesune.com.au/thebox

WIN a beach getaway Check out www.servicesune.com.au for more details

STUDENT PROFILE

Amelia Rose Roberts

Studying: Bachelor of Arts majoring in Philosophy and Theatre.

Why did you choose to study at UNE? The reasons are quite practical; because I already lived in Armidale it was an easy decision to stay with my family and study at home. My choice was confirmed when I had a break half way through my degree and moved to Sydney to work. I then chose to come back to Armidale, finding I much preferred the lifestyle here. Sometimes I hear other young people complain that Armidale is a “hole”, which is simply not true! There are heaps of bingo and trivia nights throughout the week and Dixson Library is open until 9pm most nights. My mother studied at this university in the last few years before VSU, and I remember reading her issue of the Neucleus, or hearing her talk about the student demonstrations she was attending. These memories are part of the reason I chose to study at university, and UNE in particular. There were a few years after VSU where the university lost a great deal of the student life, but UNE is starting to wake up again, which is very heartening. How did you come to found the UNE Women’s Society? I decided to start UNEWS because I thought the university needed it. I was motivated by the experiences of the women around me, and the hope that they could be made better through community and cooperation; there isn’t much we can’t do if we stick together. What are some things you’ve learnt studying at UNE? Well, I won’t make a list of learning outcomes, but I’ve learnt heaps. University has exposed me to so many different types of people and, it sounds really cliché so I won’t go on too much. I will give the reader a piece of advice - get out there and get involved. You only get to be this young, free and energetic once. Trust me, I just turned 23 and I can’t be bothered to use the stairs at work anymore, which is a great pity because the vending machine with the good stuff is downstairs.

STAFF PROFILE

Eric Livingston Nucleus has discovered that UNE has its own ethnomethodologist, Eric Livingston. Dr Livingston was a student of Harold Garfinkel at UCLA for over 10 years, writing his dissertation on the work of mathematical theorem proving. “By the time I graduated,” Eric says, “the dissertation committee included seven people, among them Manny Schegloff [co-founder with Harvey Sacks of the field of Conversation Analysis], Mef Seeman [a distinguished sociologist] and Herbert Enderton [a distinguished logician who, for over 20 years, was an editor for the Journal of Symbolic Logic].” Dr Livingston is known to generations of UNE students for teaching SOCY101 Understanding Everyday Life. The unit had one reading of about 10 pages and sets of homework exercises (such as describing the ‘organizational lived-work’ of a setting and writing captions for magazine photographs). Reactions to the unit seem to have been somewhat polar, some finding it a challenging unit and one of best they had at UNE, others disliking the exercises and the lecture format, wanting a textbook, standard assignments, and a more typical final examination. After 13 years, Eric ended teaching ‘Understanding Everyday Life’ last year. “I had a very high workload for years and was burned out. But there was another reason. I think of teaching—especially teaching a subject in which you’re an active researcher—as a type of conversation where one group of conversationists is silent a lot of the time. I was working through different ways of engaging the sociological project, both for myself and for the students. I needed to move on. At the same time, some members of sociology wanted a different type of second trimester first-year unit.” Although Dr Livingston’s publications have centered on mathematicians’ work, he has also written an introduction to ‘ethnomethodology’, a book on the lay and professional practices of reading (using Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ as a central example), and an ethnographic study of reasoning. Recently Eric became a member of the new discipline of Criminology at UNE. ‘I was very happy the criminologists let me come along’. Starting in 2014, he’ll be teaching Researching Crime (subject to APC approval) and plans a further unit on Analyzing Crime Data. “It’s great being part of a group working together to develop something new, all of its members actively pursuing their own research, and all of them, I’m afraid to admit, better teachers than myself. Criminology is a wide-open field; official statistics tell you very little. It’s easy to see why sociologists and students, tired of labouring in worked out mines, are excited by new possibilities and socially-engaged, empirically-driven theorizing.” Dr Livingston concedes that he’ll probably never be a ‘real’ criminologist. “I’ll stay an ‘ethnomethodologist’. Criminology, however, has made academic life at UNE more interesting, at least for myself.” - Rory Mayberry

UNE Landcare

ENVIRONMENT

“There is no escape from our interdependence with nature… We must respect, preserve and love its manifold expression if we hope to survive” - Bernard Campbell

Landcare has been active in Australia since the 1980s, working with community members to reverse the degradation of farmland, public land and waterways. As a grass roots movement, Landcare harnesses the energy and enthusiasm of individuals and groups to care for the environment. Our natural environments play an important role in providing clean water, fresh air and healthy soil and are important to humans for many social and cultural reasons too. We need to preserve and look after our remaining urban bushland and creeklands so that we can continue to experience the unique plants and animals of this region. At UNE, Landcare groups have been active intermittently over the past twenty years working on bushland and creeklands on campus. For the plants and animals urban bushland and creeks provide important habitats for them to live, breed, eat and shelter. This year UNE Landcare is working with the university to rehabilitate Dumaresq Creek with the ‘10,000 Trees’ campaign. 10,000 Trees is the second stage of the Campus Creek Cleanout project, a partnership between UNEL, UNE’s Facilities Management Services (FMS) and the Armidale Urban Rivercare Group, which began in 2012 with work on the removal of in-stream willows and poplars that had been interrupting and diverting the flow of water. Support for 10,000 Trees from FMS, including the clearing and preparation of planting sites, has allowed UNE Landcare to focus almost all of its efforts and funding on revegetation. By July 10,000 native grass, shrub and tree seedlings will be planted in a series of community working bees along Dumaresq Creek These plantings will help stabilise the creek banks, provide food and habitat for wildlife, increase biodiversity values on campus, increase the area of native vegetation at the University and – we hope – engage UNE staff members and students. By participating in the ‘10,000 Trees’ campaign you can leave a leafy green legacy at UNE for students, staff members, visitors and wildlife to enjoy in the years to come. Working bees will be held on the second Sunday of the month until May. To get involved, contact Ellen Nyberg – ellen@snelcc.org.au.

- Ellen Nyberg

A Word with Judd Aberrant How many times have we all been in the situation where someone is doing something ridiculous and we have but the vocal dexterity to say that they are being ‘silly’? Would it not be better if you could impress and confound them with your usage of the term ‘aberrant’? The word ‘aberrant’, pronounced ab-erant, simply means to deviate from the normal, or as we say in common terms, being silly. Picture this You are taking a stroll along a lonely path, when out of the gloom emerges a figure. As the figure comes toward you, you can make out that he has lady-bug shaped tea cosy placed on his head. You have three choices; 1. To tell the man to stop being silly, 2. To tell the man to cease his aberrant behaviour, or 3. To move quickly in the opposite direction. I personally know what I would choose. Armed with the word ‘aberrant’ you can both belittle people and increase how pretentious you appear to the people around you; use it wisely.

Pontificate I am sure at some point in your life you have met a person who can best be described as being pompous. Well next time you catch them up on their podium, here is a nifty word to describe their behaviour - they are ‘pontificating’. The term to ‘pontificate’ comes from the word originally used to describe an official of the Catholic Church, and simply refers to the fact that they are exhibiting vocal expressions that could be regarded as pompous or dogmatic. So next time you catch them, tell them to stop pontificating, as it is irritating.

Deglutition Been on a date recently? If you want to offend someone without being offensive, use the term ‘deglutition’ to describe them swallowing their dinner. The word only means ‘to swallow’ so really you are not being rude. The results can be rather interesting, and it can make an exciting change for a dull night.

Fatigate Sick of the word fatigued? Next time you are feeling quite exhausted try the word fatigate - it means exactly the same thing, even has the same word origins, but just sounds a bit different. People will look at you like you have a speech impediment, but then you have a perfect opportunity to pounce and tell them, nose held ten feet in the air, that it is in fact correct terminology and they should look it up in a dictionary. See kids, this is how you get popular.

Cover Artist

This monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cover artist is

Melody Grace Batty

Melody lives in Armidale and studies Theatre at UNE.

Staunch, Fresh Nelson, One Vital Word @ The Armidale Club

27th March

You cannot download a live gig experience. This was clearly evident at The Armidale Club on Wednesday the 27th of March. The night was the second night of a tour organised by Mitch Whaley, lead singer of the band Staunch. Drumming up support for some local bands, this tour was to spread the word about all the bands that played, and also to advertise the upcoming album for the band One Vital Word. The jam-packed tour took Staunch and One Vital Word to Tamworth, Armidale, Lismore, Coffs Harbour and Grafton: 5 shows in as many days. It just goes to show how important the live scene still is today in our digital world. The crowd was meandering in to the homey venue, with its newly upgraded stage: decked out to look a little tougher in line with the music. This is where the magic is said to happen and no surprise it was felt in the Armidale Club that night. Staunch were up first: I had been lucky enough to chat with people who had seen Staunch before and I thought I knew what I was getting into. The lights dimmed, the guys got on stage and the crowd stood around the dancefloor. They were channelling Minor threat, bad brains, T.S.O.L, Adolescents, The Germs and many others. They threw themselves around and got into the crowd. They weren’t there for people to tap their foot, they were there to get inside your head and make it hard to forget the live show. Their set had a lot of “moments”; like Mitch jumping on the back of a person in the crowd and them running around while he screamed. Even the interaction between the band members exacerbated the passion in the style of music. People were left at the end of the set pumped, keen and ready for what else was to come. Fresh Nelson hit the stage next. They used the energy drummed up by the Staunch boys and really flooded the stage with their sound. These guys were keen to play a high quality show as it would be their last before heading to Tommirock Studios in Newcastle to record. They definitely did that, and the antics kept flowing. In an interview on Tune!FM’s Guerrilla Radio, Mitch from Staunch mentioned how bands like these love to interact with the crowd. This was proven throughout the night. Last up was One Vital Word from Newcastle. They were tight, they were connected. They really brought home the night in style. They finished off the night and that is when most people realised the energy had been peaking for almost 2 and a half to 3 hours. It felt like the night was a big success for the Armidale/New England hardcore/punk scene and also for the Armidale club in general. Hopefully we can get some of these guys back and start to kick off a scene in which people have the chance to voice their passions/concerns.

Love music? Want to keep up with what’s happening at UNE? Need podcasts to make your commute home less boring? Want to get to know your lecturers outside of Moodle? TuneFM, Aus tralia’s oldest university radio station, brings the campus to you wherever you are. With UNE students scattered around the globe, TuneFM helps you keep connected by playing great music during the day and an array of feature shows from 4pm onwards. Want to h ear something differen t? Have a favourite song you’ve just heard and want played? Found evidence that reality t.v. has been infiltrated by aliens? Join us on https://www.facebook.com/TuneFM106.9 and help us make TuneFM what you want to hear.

Listen live on:

www.tunefm.net/listen.php Are you interested in Journalism? Are you looking for experience writing for a newspaper? Or are you just looking to improve your writing skills? Nucleus is looking for student writers to work with us on future editions. We’re looking for people to who could do one or more of the following; • Research and write pieces on news and events at UNE • Write column-style opinion pieces on topics rele- vant to students • Draw, paint, sketch, sculpt, cartoon, or generally “do art” related to upcoming stories, or pieces of your own inspiration • Write short stories, poetry, haikus, crosswords, or other creative word-oriented things for our Arts Pages

If you feel you would be interested in any of these things (and can work to a deadline), or don’t have any specific talents or dreams but just want to help out, drop by our office in the Union Arcade (opposite Campus Essentials [looks like a hair salon but isn’t]) or send us an email! We also accept anonymous submissions by post! Email: editors@nucleus.org.au Post: P.O. Box U1, UNE, Armidale NSW 2351 Deadline for contributions for Issue 4 is the 6th of March. We hope to hear from you soon!

Nucleus is pleased to announce a revolution in journalism: The Gender Non-Specific Advice Device – or GNSAD. This revolution in journalistic technique is to Aunt Agony what your iPhone 5 is to your grandma’s stationary set, GNSAD is to Dear Abby what a modern motor car is to a sloth in roller skates. We’ve been working on its calculatorial capabilities for literally weeks and now its ready- spitting out the fast facts of life at NBN speeds. We’ve dialled the snark to 11 and loaded the memory stick full of relevance, so if you have a quandary a head-scratcher or any other social, moral or human difficulty who better to ask then the most up to date machine? Dear GNSAD, If I were to find a wallet on the street with money in it, would it be better to use that money to purchase wallets for the needy, or to return the money to the owner? Wallets for the needy are surely a worthy cause; statistics show that owners of wallets are more likely to have money, which is a key indicator of welfare. However, how are you to know that the owner of that wallet was not a poor pensioner teetering on the brink of destitution? It is not for you to adjudicate who should have the benefit of a wallet and who should not. Dear GNSAD, I really need some advice regarding my boyfriend, but I’m worried that if he reads this column he will know it’s about him and that I wrote it! You’re so vain, you probably think this column is about you, you’re so vain (you’re so vain!). Dear GNSAD, My flatmate keeps leaving their, ahem, business in the loo. It’s really getting to me, but I’m far too embarrassed to confront the issue directly. Can you give me some ideas? Start leaving your own business around the house in inconvenient locations. When your flatmate goes to make toast and finds you’ve left your business in the toaster they will start to understand your frustration. To contact the GNSAD directly, send your questions to GNSAD@nucleus.org.au