In Principio v14 no3 (2003)

Arts to become Notre Dame's seventh college FROM the start of next year The University of Notre Dame Australia wil l open its seventh college - the College of Arts. Associate Professor Simon Adams, recently appointed Dean of the College, said the move was a great step forward for arts at Notre Dame. "This reflects the extent to which arts has grown at Notre Dame," Professor Adams said. "Australia-wide arts course are under attack or in decline, with similar colleges being shut down, but Notre Dame seems to be going against that trend. "You'd think it would be a difficult task to establish more arts courses at a private university, but over the past four years numbers of students enrolling in Notre Dame's arts courses has grown significantly. "Our enrolments have more than tripled," he said. The biggest growth has been in Politics and History, although new major programs in Theatre Studies, Sociology and Aboriginal Studies have also performed well. In 2004 the College of Arts will also be establishing a new Legal Studies program. In the past two years Notre Dame has also started two new language courses, Greek and Italian. Professor Adams said both these courses had been set up in collaboration with the local Greek and Italian communities. Professor Adams said it was stimulating and refreshing to be a part of this growth. "Arts courses play a unique and distinctive role at Notre Dame," Professor Adams .a. Simon Adams said. "The arts and social sciences are at the heart of what we offer as a Catholic university. "Part of our role is to further recon– ciliation with Aboriginal people and work for social justice, and the arts are central to understanding the world in order to change it." The new college will offer subjects including Politics and History, English Literature, Theatre Studies, Aboriginal Studies, Sociology, Italian, Greek, Communications and Legal Studies. The college will move into the building formerly occupied by the College of Education on the corner of Croke and Mouat Sts. A new Communications laboratory will be built in Croke Street next to the Theatre Studies Workshop. Professor Adams said establishment of the College of Arts and the allocation of new buildings was an indication of the University's support and commitment to t he arts. • Top researcher to head School of Medicine THE University of Notre Dame Australia has appointed anatomist and neuroscience researcher Professor Adrian Bower as the head of its new School of Medicine. He takes up the full-time position in January 2004. English-born Professor Bower, a medical graduate from the University of Liverpool, is currently Head of Anatomy at James Cook Un iversity, Queensland and was a principal designer of the University of Queensland's graduate entry medical school program. He has extensive experience in medical education and is well-known for his neuro– science research on repairing the injured brain. Professor Bower has been working for Notre Dame for the past six months as a consultant. He was excited about his new appointment and looked forward to the challenges it would bring. "One of the reasons that I accepted the offer of head of Notre Dame's School of Medicine was because it was one of the most exciting and innovative I have ever seen," Professor Bower said. "Notre Dame has developed an imaginative clinical teaching program and I look forward to building on that good work." In another School of Medicine appointment, Dr Rachel Sherrard, a neuroscience researcher, will head the research area. She is currently an anatomy lecturer at James Cook University. Professor Bower and Dr Sherrard have been a research team for more than 15 years. They hope to progress their research on repair– ing the injured brain when they move to WA. The demand for places at The Universit y of Notre Dame Australia makes us the fastest growing University in the country. At the same t ime, t he University is operating from one of the smallest capit al bases of all tertiary institutions. Notre Dame provides a different and very special learning experience for our students, many of whom will have a significant influence on f ut ure generat ions. Our biggest challenge over the next few years is to fund the demand for new lecture rooms, laboratories, equipment and t o support our teaching body to cope with this expected growth. Ring t he Development Office on (09) 9433 0690 to find out how you can help or email us at development@nd.edu.au for informat ion on donations, bequests and " gifts in kind". 9 ............................