24 October 2002 Minutes
Board of Scrutiny
Minutes of the Meeting Held at Noon on
Thursday 24 October 2002 at Selwyn College
Present: Stephen Cowley,David Howarth, Robin Lachmann, Susan Lintott, Jack MacDonald, Timothy Milner,Christopher Forsyth, Elisabeth Leedham-Green, Oliver Rackham, Jennifer Rigby,John Spencer, Helen Thompson.
1)Minutes of themeetings of 27 September 2002 and 10 October 2002. These were approved after minor corrections.
Matters arising (not covered elsewhere):
i)CAPSA/CUFS.The Chairman has been invited to an executive meeting of Council in earlyNovember.
Action: SusanLintott to pass date to Chairman.
There was a discussion concerning the LauterpachtResearch Centre which overspent by over £300,000 allegedly on the basis ofincorrect information provided by the Finance Division. It was resolved todiscuss the matter with Andrew Reid when we next met. It was agreed that thecontinuation of the CAPSA/CUFS sub-committee would be worthwhile, with amembership of the Chairman, Jennifer Rigby and Oliver Rackham.
Action: Chairman to write to theRegistrary.
ii)Discussion ofSeventh Report. It was reportedthat this had been deferred again. A draft version of the Chairman’s intendedremarks was circulated. It was noted that we had been given notice of no majorcomplaints by the central bodies. It was resolved to note at the Discussionthat the press coverage of our Report had given us no pleasure.
iii)Buildings. Susan Lintott reported that her letter re the Englishbuilding was still in draft form. There was a discussion of the proposedvisitor centre, e.g. costs. It was agreed to ask EMBS whether there was anyinformation available.
Action: Secretary to write toEMBS re the visitor centre.
iv)Visits toofficers. It was reportedthat a date had been fixed for the Chairman and Susan Lintott to meet withPro-Vice-Chancellor Malcolm Grant (the Secretary may also attend). DavidHowarth agreed to provide a list of measures for coping with a deficit. It wasagreed that it would be more appropriate for Helen Thompson, Jennifer Rigby andthe Proctors to meet with the Director of Personnel. The Secretary was toprovide information to these members.
Action:David Howarth to provide list of measures toChairman.
Action:Secretary to provide data to Helen Thompson.
v)Administrativehelp. It was reportedthat there was a job specification somewhere. It was agreed that David Howarthwould try and find it, and that the Chairman would then write an advertisementand send it to the Registrary.
Action: DavidHowarth to track down the job specification.
Action:Chairman to write advertisement.
2)IPR. It was noted that most speeches at the Discussion had notbeen in favour of the proposals. It was agreed that it was only equitable thatthe University should share in any financial reward of an invention developedin university time and/or with University facilities, but that the way theReport had been presented seemed to have further broken down the trust betweendifferent sections of the University. This seemed to be another case where expertisewithin the University had not been fully exploited. It was agreed that theChairman would write to the Registrary observing that it would make good senseto employ the expertise within the University on committees.
Action: Chairman to write toRegistrary.
3)Top-up fees. Susan Lintott had circulated an appeal to alumni from theChairman of CUSU asking them to not to give to the University until theUniversity agreed not to impose top-up fees. The Secretary reported that theUniversity were going to put out a press release stating Council’s oppositionto top-up fees. It was understood that the VC was opposed to them unless it wasforced on us by HMG.
4)Conduct ofballots. It was noted thatfor the third time in two years there had been an infelicity in the conduct ofa ballot (in this case the flysheets on one of the two ballots had not goneout, and some members of the Board noted that they had not received theirballots yet). It was agreed that the Chairman would write to the Registraryexpressing some concern.
Action: Chairman to write toRegistrary.
5)Any otherbusiness. There was adiscussion as to whether we should ask for the Board to be added to thecirculation list for the Minutes of Council, General Board, the FinanceCommittee and the PRC. It was agreed that this was not necessary if the[unreserved] Minutes were on the WWW.
Action: Secretary to checkwhether Finance Committee Minutes on the WWW.
It was agreed that the previous Chairman andSecretary would hand on their records to the new post holders.
It was noted that there had been a hic-cup with thenew library software as a result of someone hacking into the system. However,it was reported that when it worked the new software provided much improvedfacilities. A concern about access to electronic journals was raised. RobinLachmann agreed to provide details for next time.
Action: Robin Lachmann to investigateelectronic journal access.
6)Date of next meeting.The meeting ended at 1.45 p.m.The next meeting will be held at noon onThursday 7 November 2002 at Selwyn College.