Dear Minister,

No doubt your government has been inundated with submissions about the problems with university governance in Australia, following the recent Senate Inquiry into the Quality of governance at Australian higher education providers. The bloated salaries of Vice-Chancellors and managers. The declining enrolments of local students. The growing budget deficits. The ballooning spending on external consultants, and the conflicts of interest at the highest levels. But I want to tell you a personal story, an anecdotal tale of lived experience as university employee. A story of institutional disrespect, disinterest and dissimulation. 

I’m standing semi-naked in a room without windows and there’s a woman pushing and pulling at my left breast.

“Just relax your shoulders, yes, that’s good’, she says as I lean in to hug a huge white machine. I don’t want to be here, but I’m so grateful to be here. This woman and her machine could save my life.

Every couple of years a letter arrives in the mail, suggesting I attend a free Breast Screen appointment. These letters began arriving when I turned fifty and even during the Covid lockdowns the screenings continued, carried out by tired nurses in large caravans parked outside community centres.

I’ve been missing blogging so here I am again, with Some Thoughts. Or more accurately, some recommendations. The world is looking pretty grim right now. Despots, dys-bots, billionaire cranks, venal banks, climate shifts, social rifts … If you think about it for too long it becomes hard to breathe. So I am actively seeking out inputs and experiences that remind me there are still pleasures to be found in the Now, even if Later seems as scary as all get out.