P-cubed Newsletters

Contents HeadsUp My career in high school Latin was brief, but long enough to remember the origins of the word education. It is ‘educare’: to bring out what is within.  Few colleagues I know are as skilled at achieving that goal as Melanie Wall. Hence it was my...

Contents HeadsUp Going the ‘extra mile’ First-up, big thanks to those who go the ‘extra mile’ for our School. Recently I thanked those who joined me in interviewing lectureship candidates until 10 pm on three evenings in a week. This time its thanks to those who...

Contents HeadsUp A full-on time continues in the engine room of the School.  First, My thanks to Murray, Sila, and Tom who joined me and representatives of FSC to interview candidates form the GISci lectureship (and to those of you who generously joined the online...

Contents HeadsUp As employees of the University, we’re used to reading between the lines, but rarely are we colouring between them. At a recent School morning tea celebrating Matariki, we were doing just that (see below for proof). Many thanks to Debbie Larkins...

Contents HeadsUp Two weeks rolls around quickly. Its suddenly the teaching semester again and we have had the second iteration of Matariki as a public holiday. In my community we gathered at 6am to observe the constellation in uncharacteristically clear skies, be...

Contents HeadsUp I write as I dash out the door to Wellington. In my capacity as a Board member of Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (NZ Geographic Board) I’m going to a launch by the Minister of Land Information at Parliament of new tangata whenua place names maps of our...

Contents HeadsUp This week sees the winter solstice roll around on the 21st June and Matariki to follow shortly after on 14th July.  Time flies as they say, but the darker shorter days of winter also bring delights….the crispness of the stars on clear nights, the fog...

Contents HeadsUp Gratitude I am grateful to George Perry for ‘holding the fort’ as Acting Head while I was away in North America for 2.5 weeks. And to Michael Groom for assistance in diverting various delegations so that I didn’t need to be typing that ‘approve’ word...

Contents HeadsUp Robin is away (last I heard, sampling the delights of north-eastern Mississippi), so he has asked me to write a piece for P3. It’s the pointy end of the semester when marking ramps up, as do requests for extensions, so I will keep this short. First, I...

Contents HeadsUp One of the perks of knowing someone in the corporate sector is learning of various quirky attempts to sharpen the delivery of service. Some seem cheesy but on occasions something resonates. Like that word ‘perk’ as an acronym.  Once capitalised, PERK...