P-cubed Newsletters

Contents HeadsUp The email traffic has increased and meeting frequency heightened. It must be Semester One approaching! At this time, I’d like to thank three groups of colleagues.  First, the ‘course build’ teams for the new suite of ENV-codes stage 1 courses. These...

Contents HeadsUp Welcome back to all! Ngā mihi o te Tau Hou! I trust the first weeks of 2025 have been good to you whether they have been mainly devoted to Annual Leave, research activities or teaching Summer School (or some combination).  I have enjoyed encountering...

Contents HeadsUp The email traffic has slowed. Many of our ENV team are on annual leave, away at conferences, doing fieldwork, or attending to late-in the year to-do lists.  But there remains both a last and first on Wednesday 11th this week: the last Faculty meeting...

Contents HeadsUp We’re into to that ‘last of the year’ stage. Christmas/New Year and summer breaks await. Last chance soon to seek reimbursements and arrange expenditure (see earlier comms for dates). Last opportunities to do Lab work before the holiday close-down...

Contents HeadsUp November is always a busy month for School ‘happenings’. Last week we had the new Dean’s visit, the New Stage 1 course workshop, the year’s last staff meeting and Nick Lewis’ Professorial Inaugural. Next up we have the Ako-sponsored ‘The Teaching...

Contents HeadsUp Hearing Masters/ Hons presentations, DCOs appearing in my email inbox, being consulted on catering for the end of year party…all signs that year’s end is fast approaching.  Even the supermarkets have starting stocking Christmas fare. And in the last...

Contents HeadsUp To say we live in challenging times is both an understatement and a truism. By way of one example, Saturday’s NZ Herald ran a story whose headline referred to the new Waipapa Taumata Rau Stage 1 offering as “University of Auckland’s Treaty of Waitangi...

Contents HeadsUp I am constantly delighted by the readiness of members of the Environment team to pick up a paddle and help move the waka forward. This last week has been a good example as I have drafted the Annual Report and 2025 Plan required by the Faculty.  A Head...

Contents HeadsUp Happy Te Wiki o te Reo Māori! Spring is here. There’s startlingly white puawānanga (NZ clematis) blossom in the bush and kowhai trees dropping their gold petals. The kuaka (bar-tailed godwits) have returned from Alaska and soon the plaintive call of...

Contents HeadsUp Two Saturdays ago I witnessed a number of ‘under-sung’ heroes of our School in action. Over the course of a very full day of thousands of visitors to campus, I observed those who staffed Environment’s stand at Open Day engaging with prospective...