Retroid Raving

The View From the North collective is bemused at all the fuss over 2009's Sax Appeal.

Not that it takes much to bemuse the collective, mind you, remembering that the IQ of any committee is the sum of the IQs of the members divided by the number of arms and legs...but we digress.

The fuss about Sax Appeal.

We reiterate: Hey, it's just...Sax Appeal, for the sake of any deities you could name!

Every year Sax Appeal is replete with bad taste, questionable humour, poor illustrations, and nasty digs at famous and not-so-famous people.  Every year since 1974 - which is as far as the collective's collection goes back - Sax Appeal has annoyed the righteous, offended the godly, and abused blondes and van der Merwes.

Pretty even-handed, if you ask us.

But this particular year, "Christians" have taken particular offence at a LIFE Magazine photospread parody (entitled "LIE", in white-on-red), which details "Top Ten Atheist Retorts to Fundamentalist Christians".  Most of the collective thought these were fairly clever, as Sax Appeal offerings go, and the atheists among us chortled heartily.  Some appeared pointless, though, and the C.U.N.T. panel - Christian who Understands No Theorems, to be explicit - was brash and could easily have been reworded.  Possibly along the lines of T.O.O.L. - Totally Out Of Line....

But no-one called Jesus a tool, as one newspaper detailed: rather, the panel read "I bet he feels like a tool now".  Just the kind of thing a brash young atheist might pop out with, especially after an amber nectar or two.  Why, one of the more unruly of us sort of remembers a time in a Zimbabwe Gents' facility, when an inebriated God-botherer who said he felt the Holy Spirit like fire down his throat, was told CENSORED...OK, OK, we'll leave that one out, grumble, grumble....

And now UCT has apologised for the issue, after the good and the godly induced Pick n' Pay to remove the magazine from their shelves.

Apologised for a Sax Appeal!!??...why, this just opens the floodgates!  Next we'll have the Leagually Blondes objecting to jokes like the ones which start "How does a blonde turn on the light after...*?"; whole families, nay, wagonloads of van der Merwes will seek to block any mention of their nominative kin; Al Qaeda and in fact the whole Qaeda clan will sue to prevent any tasteless suicide bomber jokes (both groups will obect to mention of an Afrikaans terrorist called Ossewa Ben Lategan) - and so on, and on, and on.

Ah, me us....  Seeing as he apologised for it, let's just called the thing "Max Appeal", and let him edit the sorry rag.  It certainly couldn't get any worse.

But people, a little perspective please: it is a student magazine, with all of the immaturity and bad taste that may connote, sold in the main by raucous scantily-clad young people - WHICH BENEFITS A CHARITY.

We can't help thinking, however, that Greyness stalks the land, with his handmaid Politikal Korrectness...and we should go meekly back to our whited sepulchres ivory towers, and behave.

* = she opens the car door.

The retroidal father is basking in the warm, reflected glow of the retroidal son's achievement today. 

The loinal fruit has, with his partner,  made an animated interactive computer model of an adjustable electrical circuit, and then tested the effect of the use of this in Physics lessons in various classes at their high school.  And there is a measurable difference in achievement level for those exposed to the demo, compared to those who were not, when all were tested on the identical material.  All of this, for a Grade 11 science project!  I remember making a pin-hole camera....

So why isn't everything scientific or technical taught this way?  Speaking for myself - and, I suspect, many others -I find that visual material and especially animated and/or interactive material is SO much more informative than chalk-and-talk, or even OH projector and talk, that I wonder why anyone serious about education ever tolerates the old ways.

But then, I note that the wonderful offspring had, in order to be able to do this, learned (a) Linux, (b) the use of a sophisticated rendering package, (c) mastered an unbelievably complicated-looking animation package...and how many people out there can do all of this AND know enough about the subjects at hand, to be able to produce useful material?

 Precious few, I am sure.

 And therein lies the problem.  So viva! all of you who work to such ends, viva!  You should be paid far, far more than you are.

Hey, who ever said that life at UCT was boring??  Just ten minutes ago, I could walk upstairs for a panoramic view over UCT's reservoir - and the fire on the slopes below Rhodes' memorial, and the large yellow helicopter industriously buzzing back and forth, dumping water on same.

Endless fun...B-)

Retroid was most distinctly UNamused to read the following article, forwarded with the caption "Some interesting reading", from his HoD, given that it has not a little bearing on arguments advanced in this blog for more recognition of the credit-enhancing activities of research-oriented academics at this institution.

First, the article - then the rave. 

Wanted: PhDs -- sans laptops

PRIMARASHNI GOWER AND MONAKO DIBETLE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Feb 10 2009 06:00

In their race to lure more postgraduate students, some universities are stopping just short of offering students a free semester to Jamaica where they can sip cocktails and finish up their research thesis.

Postgraduate students are cash cows because they bring with them high government subsidies, more than for undergraduates. Each master's graduate is subsidised to the tune of R130 000 and for each doctoral graduate, the university receives about R270 000. Tuition fees for master's and PhD students are significantly less, between R10 000 to R25 000.

Universities receive an annual subsidy based on student intake and research outputs -- the number of journal publications produced plus the number of students they graduate. The publication of an article in accredited journals brings a R90 000 subsidy.

Thus the postgraduate student package wars have developed, with universities offering discounted tuition fees coupled with generous bursaries and fee refunds in order to entice desirable students.

The Mail & Guardian has learnt that the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is footing the tuition costs for this year's full-time research master's and PhD students, regardless of which part of the planet they hail from, provided they complete their qualifications in the stipulated time.

Durban University of Technology says its master's students will receive awards of R60 000, paid in tranches, with the option of a laptop. "An amount of R100 000 is given to doctoral degree students whose proposals have been approved and also includes a laptop," which could be swapped for cash, according to Raveen Naidoo, acting director: Postgraduate Development and Support.

If you complete your research master's at North West University in one year, you pay R4 000 instead of R12 000 in fees. You'll get a bursary of up to R35 000 for a PhD, says vice-chancellor Theuns Eloff.

The higher education sector is an undergraduate one, with 85% of students (630 000) enrolled for such courses in 2006, according to Education Department figures. Of the 124 671 graduates and "diplomates" produced in total, only 7 879 had masters degrees and 1 100 PhDs.

UKZN vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba said the aim of such incentive schemes was "to make a greater contribution to scholarship nationally and globally. South Africa's contribution to global research is falling and the quality of research is declining."

Along with the carrot is the stick. UKZN students must complete their master's in one year and PhD in three years. If they do not, continuation fees will be charged for subsequent semesters. Similar financial penalties are also imposed by other universities.

"This will mean improving [student's] work ethic and ethos. We can't have them hanging around for eight years," said Makgoba.

Lauding UKZN's move as "brave and fantastic", UJ's research head, Adam Habib, said his institution will refund master's and PhD graduates registered this year if they complete their qualifications on time.

"We'll pay them back if it's not a government bursary. We want to grow our postgraduate student numbers and respond to a major national need for increased research outputs," Habib said

"This is not about generating increased profits but meeting national imperatives and reinvesting in university research."

For Rolf Stumpf, former vice-chancellor of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, "This is what you do in an environment of survival -- you look at ways of optimising income. You need the money to start this and you will only reap the benefits later on and must be able to survive in the interim. The very poor universities have to think twice before they do it and you must have excellent management information systems to track your student inputs and outputs."

For Eloff, these initiatives "might strengthen some universities. But when students pursue postgraduate studies they go to universities with academics who are the best in their field. If you have good academics, students will come to you."

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-02-10-wanted-phds-sans-laptops

Ja, boet....  So let's do some simple addition, shall we?  I know how many MSc and PhD students I have graduated recently, as I am presently going cap-in-hand to the URC to get some travel and possibly some discretionary funding - although it must be said up front that I can POSSIBLY get about R60 000 TOTAL for this exercise.

• 3 yrs worth of PhD and MSc graduating students = 4 PhD, 4 MSc (8 Hons graduates not counted)
• Income to OU^TM from my lab:
  • Subsidy @R130 000 / MSc, R270 000 / PhD: R 1 600 000 for R533 000 / yr
  • Publication subsidy @R90 000 / unit, 20 papers: R1 800 000 for R600 000 / yr
• Total: R1 133 000 / yr

Makes you think, doesn't it...?  Merely having students in my lab, and then having them contribute to publications, brings in >R1 million per year.  That is the same as a BIG research grant.  And how much of that would we see?  In real terms: the R60K-odd I MAY get from the URC this year.  A return of ~6% on investment...and I stress the MAY; there is no assurance I will get anything.

And the students?  What do they get from UCT?  Oh, a place to sit and a place to work...and I pay with research grants for what they sit on, what they work with, and the computers they work on.  For the rest: many is the postgrad student who has wondered just what it is that UCT does for them that justifies the fees they pay.

So, UCT: has ANYONE actually gone and done the REAL what-we-cost vs> what-we-bring-in calculation?  Given that the working model of what "research" costs UCT seems to be a largely thumbsuck-driven guess based on the percentage of time (20%) that some people at some stage SAID they were spending on research, extrapolated willy-nilly to support staff activities with NO regard to WHAT sort of research was being considered (really, I was at a Central Admin meeting where this was stated) - I doubt it.

I really, really doubt it.

So: can we expect UCT - sorry, the OU^TM persona will probably be to the fore here - to do anything like what lesser other Universities in SA are doing??

I really, really doubt it.

Devotees of this blog - yes, Transplant_Ed, I see you lurking there - will remember me diffidently proposing a solution to the Jammed Shuttle^TM / pedestrian / traffic problem at the north end of University Avenue (shortly to be renamed OU^TM Boulevard).

It was very simple: I proposed a traffic circle there, with a bus depot within the adjacent student parking area.

I did, in fact, receive feedback: an OU^TM luminary emailed me to say that they believed something of that sort was in fact in the works.  So, I vowed not to squich students against the Jammed Shuttles^TM as they squeezed between traffic and buses; I gritted my teeth, and promised not to face down shuttles swinging wide around the bend leading up to the west (I have more steel on the front of my car than they do)...because things would all get better.  Wouldn't they??

They have not.  Lo, the OU^TM machinery has laboured, and brought forth...a new bus shelter.  A slightly widened pull-off lane for the buses.  A marginally improved organisation of the curb around the offending bend.  No traffic circle.  No new bus depot.  Still the poor buses in blue have to swing left, swing hard right, and fight traffic to get back down the hill.  Still the students flock like lemmings across the road, heedless of the designated crossing, or of traffic, to catch imminently departing buses.

When they could have had a circle....  For that matter another traffic circle opposite the entrance to the Sports Centre parking lots would also be a good idea!

But on present experience, not one that will occur to OU^TM.  Ah, well.  I shall do a Marty Feldman*, and start to stencil pedestrians and shuttles onto the side of my Kombi as I contact them, as I undoubtedly shall.

* Google him.  Made the Pythons look like a school variety show.