Arms Dealers at UQ

Below is the latest of a twice-yearly report from Lee Duffield, a member of the University of Queensland Senate, elected by graduates of the university. I note one entry by Lee relates to Andrew Liveris, former CEO of Dow Chemicals that made toxic chemicals and war materials, through the manufacture of Napalm and Agent Orange for Vietnam. Andrew Liveris provided $13.5 million towards the building of a new Engineering building named after him. Liveris oversaw the merger of Dow with Dupont, another contributor to US imperial wars in Indochina and elsewhere. Liveris began studying at UQ in 1972 and joined Dow in 1976 after graduating from the UQ Engineering school. This is an oft employed strategy by DowDuPont using philanthropy to cover up its history. The University should never have accepted the money. Dow was responsible for providing Agent Orange and Napalm during the American war in Vietnam causing countless deaths and maiming of Vietnamese people and of soldiers involved in the conflict.

Just prior and during the time Andrew Liveris started studying at UQ engineering school, students like myself participated in the anti-vietnam war moratoria and democratic rights struggles. At the time Dupont offices were off campus in the nearby surburb of Toowong. I can recall attending the ‘Quang Incident’ in the Relax Block on ‘Black’ Friday 4th September 1970 which was a significant event in the conduct of the anti-Vietnam war movement. Moratoria both preceded (May 1970) it and followed it (Sept 1970). In the same week people broke into the University Regiment barracks (the C.M.F. Occupation) on campus and destroyed a number of files.

Around that time, there was an attempt to firebomb offices of DuPont Chemicals in Toowong. However those concerned mistakenly set fire to offices of a suburban solicitor, John C Walker, on the floor above, destroying his files of trusts, wills and the like.

Despite DuPont and Dow profiteering in a murderous US war of aggression in Vietnam, Dow-Dupont made it on campus and had some involvement in UQ’s base on Heron Island Marine Research Station in attempts to profit from the lucrative Beche de mer industry, particularly in Asia.

Whenever radicals opposed to war or those who were involved in the democratic rights struggle marched past the Engineering school on UQ circular drive, the Engineering students would water bomb us. Eventually we forcefully challenged these puerile engineering students and they desisted.

So there you have it … how war profiteers, Dow-DuPont, made it on campus at UQ. To this day there are protests against the likes of Boeing and Dow-DuPont both on and off campus. The next one is Land Forces International Land Defence weapons expo at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from October 4-6 2022. – Ian Curr, Editor 14 Sept 2022.

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
– Bob Dylan

__oOo__

NEWSLETTER #3 FROM LEE DUFFIELD – MEMBER OF UQ SENATE ELECTED BY GRADUATES OF THE UNIVERSITY

This is a message based on a reading-in and discovery process since the formation of the present UQ Senate on 1 January 2022, intended to give also an outline of main issues.

As general background it is fair to say the University of Queensland generally stays true to reputation, and makes sure that it obtains a clean bill of health. It can build on its existing lead position in Higher Education (HE), for example by being first choice for high-achieving graduands, or getting optimum results from its financial endowments, the envy of the newer universities. It is also proactive looking for new opportunities, keeping up with changes in the natural and human ecologies, looking to build strength at its weak points. So it keeps ahead and can be a standard setter, while also going through the stresses and changes applying across the HE sector.

Projects and Events

There are projects of the university, and university-run events tied to agendas commensurate with its published Strategic Plan. Some of those events attended by me for my education:

3.2.22. A webinar, part of the Changemakers program, an outreach series where prominent alumni occupying senior corporate positions showcase specialist knowledge. In this session it was engineering, themed ‘profit, planet and people – navigating corporate social responsibility’. It highlighted the strength of the university, producing leaders in their fields; its policy of linking to industry; and the ecological crisis. The discussion focused on problems like, achieving sustainable production, and the contradiction in public expectations, which have been shifting towards anxiety about the environment while they are still focused on the generation of wealth. (Possible to have it both ways?).

9. 5.22. The opening of Kev Carmody House, in Hood Street near International House. It is an hotel-style, 14-story building, with elevators and a roof-top pool area, providing accommodation for 610 students, a mixed cohort taking in several International Students (ISS); a new facility meant to contribute to the goal of sustaining life and movement on the campus. Fees start at a basic $350 p.w. with several add-ons, making towards $600 p.w. in semester for some rooms. A university entity with finance from UQ investment sources, it is not a college as we know them, with a warden, tutors, or much in the way of common study areas; the building is instead run by professional management staff. I’ve been told some students there have been wanting a grievance procedure, addressing this to the UQ Union. A second building is being considered. Kev Carmody, the singer and long-time activist performed the opening and gave a few songs. He reminisced about some hard times as an Indigenous UQ student, and opposing the Bjelke Petersen government in the 1980s. He said he confounded one of his friends who said he could not read right through the Bible, by doing it.

13.5.22. The opening of the Andrew Liveris building, for Chemical Engineering, another tall tower, located near the old Staff House, named for the engineering graduate who became CEO of Dow Chemical in America, now back home in semi-retirement mode and making some impacts: as well as the building and its functions he has become President of the Queensland Olympic Games Organising Committee. Mr Liveris, there at the opening, presents as a genial and sharp-minded American businessman. He has weathered some criticism, and protest because of the involvement of Dow in making toxic chemicals or war materials, through the manufacture of Napalm and Agent Orange for Vietnam, were before his time there.

No sign of such trouble at the christening of the new building, attended by two previous Vice Chancellors, who had to make strenuous efforts, we were told, to get it built. Mr Liveris and his wife contributed $13-million towards the $140-million cost of the building, for the Liveris Academy, an off-curriculum institute based on the top floor that provides a ‘leadership’ program to selected students who receive scholarships. A group of four, achievers from second-year through to post-graduate level in different courses, told me they’d been enjoying it; a few sessions were being undertaken by the founder, others by UQ teaching staff.

The top floor is shared with a new research centre, the Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation, which focuses on sustainability with use of chemicals, endowered by the company with another $10-million towards the cost of the building. Environmental protection and compatibility is being featured in the work of the School of Chemical Engineering on the other floors, where for instance visitors can see arrays of experimental batteries, in-demand on account of climate change.

The Liveris Academy goes together as an associated institution of the university, with the Ramsay Centre, a brainchild of conservative politicians wanting to see more teaching of ‘Greats’ representing Western culture, and the Confucius Centre, for cultural learning supported by the government of China. Questions asked many times are, whether these are precedent-setting for other such ‘centres’; will they take over recruitment of staff and admission of students to UQ; will their course material seep into the main curriculum; does the university, as repository of academic expertise otherwise have satisfactory control of them and control of standards; how much of a financial commitment might the university end up making to these bodies out of its own resources?

Different but with similarities, maybe as an alternative model, is the UQ College, an off-shoot similar to other such colleges at several universities. Initially giving a leg-up to prospective International Students with their preparation, mostly learning English, they have potential to be large academies and fees-generators. The UQ College provides language teaching, preparation or ‘pathways’ to entry into university courses for International and domestic students, or vocational and technical programs. As an entity of the university the college will have the UQ brand. There is pressure from such places for their course credits to be transferrable into degree courses at the home university; which always needs to be watched.  Billed as UQ College Limited the college has buildings in Campbell Road in front of the Duhig Tower.

6.8.22. ‘Deadly Noize’ on the Forgan Smith lawns, a curtain raiser for Open Day; this was a great gift from the university in its function as a promoter of on-campus activities. A concert featuring highly talented Indigenous performers (incl. Becca Hatch, Budjerah), it drew a crowd, over 400, including many ISS; reflecting a policy of the university to support both more life on campus, and inclusiveness and appreciation of Indigenous cultures.

‘Civil Society’

An interesting claim has come from student leaders that they want to see such activity, financed and organised by the university administration, complemented by so-called ‘organic’ activity coming from within the student body – called ‘civil society’ activities by me. The UQ Union has welcomed increases in Student Services and Amenities funding provided to it, to be able to extend the range of student-run activities.

That in turn draws our attention to the future of the Union complex slated for extensive restoration work. A plan to bull-doze the area and erect a building complex run by university management, with an incursion of teaching space into the area, was scrapped in 2021, after extensive protests. Consultations have been going on this year towards a new design. The Union precinct was set up in the late 1950s as a student zone, to be run by the UQ Union — which has a prime claim to continue in that role.

‘Benchmarks’

As is published widely, UQ has its Strategic Plan and policies, which, as such emphasise measurable outcomes over ‘intangibles’. Some main themes in the UQ program:

Maintaining and building up research partnerships, with government, other research institutions and with industry, for example linkages in biomedical research. UQ is a clear leader in obtaining medical research grants though Queensland overall is well-eclipsed by Victoria and NSW in that field.

Ratings, where UQ is in the top 50 world universities affirmed by several leading agencies. These concentrate heavily on research achievements, but such rankings across subject areas , where teaching is done, also show a strong competitive position. Even Arts and Humanities, in a climate of Science mania and against a head-wind of federal government policy to force higher fees in that area, is within the world top 100. No wonder: UQ wearing the ‘sandstone’ mantel in a credible way, gets the best students, receiving by far the lion’s share of first-preference nominations from matriculants. In the ‘ATAR’ game, using the current centralised selection system, UQ was 5^th in Australia for 2021, in average rankings determined by the level of the ‘cut-off’ for admitting students in their subject areas. It means UQ is hard to get in. I think these students who have found their own level, need support with their development, from knowledgeable teachers, getting a reading habit, learning to inquire, learning how to think, and so on; more than being inducted into a working-the-system kind of system: no cynicism, no techno-boosted cheating allowed, no fake learning or dumbing down.

The goal of ‘rich and varied educational experience’ for students, with a concentration on activity designed to encourage campus activity. In a trend common across the universities, monitoring of students’ online presence shows fairly high attendance on campus outside of class time, along with a fall in student satisfaction during the Pandemic, with so much teaching done online, though recovering in 2022. The COVID episode has highlighted universities’ conundrum over providing off-campus learning for the immediate future, while needing to maintain contact and quality of experience.  Lectures and note-taking get falling support — maybe too different to students’ experiences of discovery learning and projects methods deployed in schools? In Queensland, making the St Lucia campus more open to graduates of UQ, with proposals for a future ‘hub’ for people to gather, was signalled by the inclusion of an Alumni program in the 2022 Open Day on 7 August. Would such a facility go well together with a restored Union precinct, accessible to the outside world?

Global profile of the university. The Study Abroad movement built up this Century sees universities including UQ aiming to enable students to spend as much as a quarter of their time in overseas universities, while themselves making a large commitment to hosting International Students. Numbers of ISS have been steadily returning in Australia post pandemic except for China, where those continuing are overwhelmingly still doing it on line.

Study Abroad has been built up under the aegis of agencies like the OECD, to achieve major industries involvement in education, focused on certain international student cohorts, according to demands of the world economy – towards a global workforce planning. It is more structured and less marginal than traditional student exchange programs that would emphasise cultural learning – called “ideological” in later writing on internationalisation. Global engagements can have large impacts, as in the UQ case, with the university able to give the example of 100 joint PhD projects with the ITT Delhi Academy of Research.

(For those interested I humbly submit some of my own reports on internationalisation here, see Student Reporting Abroad or Journalism reporting field trips …).

UQ’s ‘Queensland Commitment’, that projects the university’s presence throughout the state, under the motto “university for Queensland”, with a roadshow program, aims to increase enrolments from areas beyond its traditional echelon of high-scoring entrants from metropolitan Brisbane: lower Socio-economic Status (SES) groups, Indigenous students, and ones from regional and remote areas. The theme of outreach to the community envisages an association of graduates, partner groups from industry, staff and students as an extended university community. An aspect is setting up the Brisbane CBD campus with heritage buildings, for post-graduate learning and as social hubs. The Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, launched the Queensland Commitment in the atrium of the recently acquired, former National Bank of Queensland building at 308 Queen Street, at a function on 24 August. Even if more for modern-day ‘networking’ than a return to the universitas (‘the whole, the universe’ …) this project should provide good opportunities for community building.

Not a building boom. Beyond the discussion of goals, I would note here, it is good that UQ is not heavily concentrated on new building programs at this time, because the current crisis affecting skills and supplies has been raising the costs of construction to unsustainable levels. The university has made known one large, costly but just commitment, to remove flammable cladding from several of its buildings.

See attached. Several issues keep coming up as to how universities are going, governance, how and why these institutions are set up, and I have been writing some articles provoked by these developments. I will attach here one about the curse of industrial scale cheating, a real threat, for your possible interest. Some other articles will follow.

Lee Duffield

12 September 2022

Please pass these postings on to other graduates of UQ you may know, who can also make contact with me to be put on the list; please give feedback if moved to do it; send a message “discontinue please” if the service is no longer required.

Lee was elected in 2021 on a platform of support for building the university community as a home for freedom and truth, and therefore social justice, and as a main resource of society through cultivating best practice in the professions. I oppose any excess of corporatisation in the structuring of universities, considering that dysfunctional for them. It is because their ‘product’ is supposed to be knowledge, and I see that in terms of development and growth of each person. 

There are plenty of ways these principles can be applied including through contributions to governance and to oversight of the regular running of the institution. The newsletters might illustrate that, through commentary on different issues, while intended especially to provide information on any matters that might be of interest to you as alumni.