About 60 members and friends of SUGUNA participated in the annual meeting, held July 23-26, 1998 at the Clark Kerr campus of the University of California (UC) Berkeley and heard outstanding, informative, provocative, and stimulating lectures by UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and San Francisco State University faculty as well as fellow alumni. It is not every day one has the opportunity to hear a Nobel laureate and other speakers of similar calibre. In addition attendees enjoyed a varied social program.
Vice-Chancellor Prof. Gavin Brown spoke of the success of the University of Sydney, surpassing all other Australian universities, in gaining new competitive research grants from the Australian Research Council, as well as getting new industry-linked grants. On the other hand the University has suffered about a 25% reduction in state funds and anticipates an additional 5-6% financial cuts. Prof. Brown discussed the need to make up such funds by charging fees for postgraduate students and more recently by accepting up to 25% of the total undergraduate enrollment as fee paying students. He also described the administrative restructuring of the University.
Prof. Ron Bracewell, who has recently been honoured by the Order of Australia, spoke on the possibility or probability of extraterrestrial life.
Prof. Stanley Tick made a strong case for the consideration of film versions of books as interpretations, not simply adaptations, to other media.
Prof. John Craig fascinated us with his recounting of early English books on diet and health. Although more than 500 years of such dietary advice was based on empirical experience, not scientific data, some of these remedies are in fact effective, as for example the ingestion of salads and citrus fruits to ward off scurvy.
Prof. Leslie Lipson presented his views of the American party system and traced the changing attitude of �liberals� towards the powers of the state and federal governments. He warned of the dangers of global capitalism, no longer controlled by any single national government, as a potential threat to democracy.
Prof. Steve Evans explained the intricacies of stock options by analogy to Einstein�s model for Brownian movement.
Prof. Alan Dundes amused all by his presentation on folklore and the modern world, differentiating between myths, tales and legends. Nations most interested in folklore are those with an identity crises, such as the Finns caught between Sweden and Russia or the Irish caught between England and Scotland.
Prof. Henry Scheiber warned of the mistaken notion of unlimited ocean resources, as evidenced by the increasing depletion of fishes. He told of changes in the Law of the Sea with obligations and restraints on all fishing nations.
Prof. Charles Townes, Nobel Laureate, recounted how the laser was developed as a case history of how science and ideas evolve.
SUGUNA speakers included:
Dr. Geoffrey Logan, who lead us through the sequence of events from when a person is apprehended for a crime to when he or she is brought to trial;
Allen McConnell recalled the contributions the building of the Snowy Mountain scheme made to hydroelectric development;
Robert Nielsen provoked many by his frank evaluation of the growing concerns in Australia to the issue of multiculturism and the recent electoral showing of the �One Nation Party�.
Prof. Bruce Bolt convinced us that there is no way to predict accurately when earth quakes will happen, only what the resultant earth movement will be.
Prof. Peter Quail reviewed the steps in genetically modifying plants and what genetically engineered traits are in the horizon.
Rod Holme, President of the American Water Works Association (a first for a Sydney graduate), assured us that our public drinking water is safe in spite of the growing popularity of bottled water. Finally,
Prof. Henry Albinski made a plea for continuing programs of Australian studies in the USA and American studies at Australian universities.
At the business meeting the following officers were elected or continued:
The next annual meeting of SUGUNA will be held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from July 29- Aug 1, 1999 where another outstanding program is already being planned. All interested alumni are encouraged to attend. Contact Ian Bund 3215 W. Dobson, Ann Abor MI 48105, ph 313-6636065, [email protected] or Michael Challis 4104 Thornoaks Dr., Ann Abor MI 48104, ph 313- 971-6186 for further information on local arrangements.
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