2016 Edition
Landforms
From the archives – 1975 DipAg and DipFM students.
Photo supplied by Graham Smith.
Landforms
ISSN 2253-2692 (Print)
ISSN 1179-7592 (Online)
Contact details:
Editor
Alumni and Development Office
Lincoln University
PO Box 85084, Lincoln 7647
Christchurch, New Zealand
[email protected]
Contents
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5
6
News and updates
from start of 2016
Alumni Association
Executive
Alumni Association
President’s Message
Celebrating success 2015
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Honoured at
Graduation
Welcome to this special ‘dual campus,
calendrically extended’ edition of Lincoln
University’s alumni magazine Landforms. Inside
you will read coverage of events and happenings
in 2015 plus a record of some key university
news from the first part of 2016. You will also
discover that this Landforms incorporates Muster,
the Telford Campus news publication.
Contents
Contents
From this edition onwards, Landforms will
integrate news from both of Lincoln University’s
campuses, Te Waihora and Telford. Look out for
us again in 2017.
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Sporting roundup
Dr Ann Brower:
Advocacy lessons
in university of life
On campus activity
Winning by degrees
Lincoln’s World Rugby
Cup trio
Stanford Bootcamp
impresses alumnus
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Lincoln women and
leadership roles
Hilgendorf family
visit marks building’s
demise
Blackmore Photo
Collection a treasure
Landforms
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Contents
Muster
Contents
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24
25
27
33
Telford Graduation
Sheep dog trials,
shearing and penguin
habitat planting
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Vernon Drive ceremony
and Te Whariki update
Faculty news and research
Telford students walk
on the wild side
‘Farmarama’ Camp
Alumni office and events
28
First LUAA Day
a success
Rural Field Cadet book
nears completion
Carroll memory
inspires Māori
agriculture
36
Staff appointments
and farewells
Off campus
37
Alistair Campbell
remembered
38
Obituary notes:
Peter Pottinger
40
Annual Appeal draws
generous support
Alumni re-visit their old
campus rooms
Staying connected
through alumni
reunions and
gatherings
Front cover:
2015 PhD graduands celebrating
at the 2015 Vice-Chancellor’s
Invitational PhD Dinner at Mrs O’s
Back cover:
Golden Years Jubilee at Telford,
Easter 2015, piper Regan Dowling
followed by jubilee MC Michael Self
2016 Update
2016 Update
Welcomes, farewells and roll
rises mark start of 2016
The first quarter of 2016 opened on a very positive
note for Lincoln University with significant
enrolment lifts in many key programmes and
a 13 per cent rise overall
Semester One 2016 began on Monday 22 February
and a week later the University welcomed new
Vice-Chancellor Professor Robin Pollard. A powhiri
was held on the campus in Te Kete Ika.
Robin is Christchurch born and bred and attended
Cashmere primary and high schools and the
University of Canterbury. He holds BSc (Hons) and
PhD degrees from Canterbury and an MBA from
Monash University. His PhD was in the area of
condensed matter physics.
Robin has spent more than 30 years in university
teaching and management overseas, including
Australia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. He has
come to Lincoln from the post of Deputy Vice-Chancellor
at the University of Central Lancashire, England.
Addressing Professor Pollard at the powhiri
Professor of Māori and Indigenous Development
Hirini Matunga welcomed him to ‘two institutions’
– the University and the partnership with the people
of Taumutu as enshrined in the jointly signed Charter
of Understanding.
Chancellor Tom Lambie noted Professor Pollard’s
“wealth of experience in university administration”
and said he had the skills to take the University
forward as it faced the challenges of the “changing
educational environment”.
As manuhiri Professor Pollard was accompanied at the
powhiri by family members, including his mother, and
he was introduced by his cousin Dr Simon Pollard,
Adjunct Professor in Science Communication at the
University of Canterbury.
Responding to the speeches, Professor Pollard said his
career specialty for a number of years had been the
transformation of universities.
“Building institutions is something we have in
common and I look forward to working with you.
Professor Robin Pollard
“Lincoln University has a very, very special role within
New Zealand. Our predecessors … their spirit is here …
it’s in the names around the district, Tancred, Birdling
and the like.
“I invite all of you to engage in the challenges ahead.”
At the time of the announcement of his appointment
at the end of January, Professor Pollard said he
was delighted to be returning to Christchurch and
joining Lincoln University “at a pivotal time on the
institution’s journey”.
“Key areas of focus for the University are continued
growth in student numbers by ensuring excellent
student experiences and outcomes, supporting high
quality research and teaching, and advancing the
Lincoln Hub including providing new opportunities
through collaborations.
“Challenges and opportunities lie ahead, which we will
approach with integrity and collegiality.”
Following the installation of the new Vice-Chancellor
Professor Robin Pollard in February, came the public
announcement in March that Chancellor Tom Lambie
ONZM was retiring.
In a message to staff on 22 March Tom said he had
already indicated to the University Council that 2016
would be his last year in office.
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2016 Update
Tom, a Lincoln University alumnus (BAgrCom 1981;
Kellogg Course 1995) and former National President
of Federated Farmers joined the Lincoln University
Council as a Government Appointee in 2002 and was
elected Chancellor in 2005.
2016 Update
“My time as Chancellor has been a life-changing
experience,” he says, “and the decision to step down
was not easy. However, I am very confident that the
time is right.
“I am a dairy farmer from South Canterbury and as
the industry enters challenging times it has become
obvious that I need to turn my focus to the farm and
hand over as Chancellor to allow the University to
receive the focus it needs.
“I leave the University in very good hands, with ProChancellor Tony Hall being voted in as Chancellor and
Linda Tame as the new Pro-Chancellor.”
Tom’s contribution over the last decade had been
hugely significant to the University and the wider
tertiary and land-based sectors, said new Chancellor
Tony Hall.
In-coming Chancellor Tony Hall (right) is welcomed by his
predecessor Tom Lambie
“A very strong feature of his time has been the
impact he has had on the people he has engaged
with at Lincoln. He has balanced his governance role
with a very personal regard for the individuals he
has met, whether they were students, staff, alumni,
stakeholders or visiting dignitaries. He will be missed
around the Council table,” says Tony.
Tom, who was made an Officer of the New Zealand
Order of Merit in 2014 for services to agriculture,
officially stepped down as Chancellor after officiating
at his 12th Graduation Day at Lincoln on Friday
8 April 2016.
New Chancellor Anthony (Tony) Hall has been on
the Lincoln University Council since 2004 as a
Council Appointee.
Mr Hall runs a small farm in North Canterbury, and has
been involved with farming all his life.
Tertiary Education Minister Hon. Steven Joyce and
Chancellor Tom Lambie at Lincoln
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He is Governing Director of Community Colleges New
Zealand, a University of Canterbury Council member,
Chairman of the Mainpower Trust Board, and a New
Zealand Olympic Committee board member and
2016 Update
Lincoln University
Alumni Association
2016 Update
The 2016 Annual General Meeting of the Lincoln
University Alumni Association was held in the Burns
Building on the Te Waihora campus on 7 April.
A new Executive was elected, with James Nell
now the President and Andrew O’Regan the
Vice-President.
Dr John Hay in one of his last duties presenting the
2016 Lincoln University Alumni International Medal
to the Hon. Jeremy Rockcliff in Hobart, Tasmania
Appreciation was expressed to Jo Spencer-Bower
for her service as President and her leadership of the
Association over the past five years.
Jo will continue to serve on the Executive as
Immediate Past President.
selector, among a number of other business and
sporting roles. Tony was made a Member of the
New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 for services to
the community.
A feature of the new Executive is the election of
former Lincoln University Students’ Association
President Kahlia Fryer.
The day before Chancellor Tom Lambie’s resignation
announcement on 22 March, the University officially
farewelled Interim Vice-Chancellor Dr John Hay with a
function in Te Kete Ika.
•
President, James Nell
•
Vice-President, Andrew O’Regan
•
Jo Spencer-Bower, Immediate Past President
•
Roy Evans
•
Andrew Lingard
•
Neil Gow
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Sharon Forbes
•
Andrew Owen
•
Kahlia Fryer.
John, a Lincoln alumnus (BAgrSc 1971, MAgrSc 1974,
PhD 1986) and former Chief Executive of the Institute
of Environmental Science and Research (ESR),
was appointed Interim Vice-Chancellor of Lincoln
University in July 2015 following the resignation of
Dr Andrew West in June.
Dr Hay was immensely popular as Interim ViceChancellor and tributes to his service were numerous.
He was praised for his stabilising influence,
transparency, humanity, integrity and loyalty to
Lincoln. Dr Hay said he had accepted the post of
Interim Vice-Chancellor to “repay what I had received
from Lincoln as a student. It was my duty to accept the
role. I always felt privileged that my time at Lincoln
had given me such a springboard for my subsequent
career. I felt that anything I could do to repay that debt
was not just a choice but my duty.”
Two other senior departures at the start of 2016 were
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Programmes and
Student Experience Professor Sheelagh Matear
whose last day was 12 February, and Deputy
Vice-Chancellor International and Business
Development Jeremy Baker who left on 26 February.
The LUAA Executive for 2016 is:
James Nell at the 2016 AGM
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Alumni Association President
Alumni Association President
Alumni Association
President’s Message
Welcome to this edition of Lincoln University’s
Landforms magazine, covering University and
alumni activities, and achievements and news from
the 2015 year.
It is a pleasure to address you through Landforms
once again.
We entered the New Year with a new University
Council following the Education Amendment Act 2015,
which came into effect in February 2014 and set in
motion processes for, among other things, reducing
the number of members on university councils and
removing representative requirements. University
councils must now have between 8 and 12 members
(Lincoln had 19).
The rationale for the changes is to ensure ‘faster
moving, more flexible, more responsive councils
that will support universities to respond quickly
and effectively to critical challenges resulting from
increasing competitive pressures’.
What this all means for alumni representation is
that there will no longer be two ‘elected by the
alumni’ members of the Lincoln University Council.
The University will ensure that at least one of the
appointed members of Council must be an
alumna/alumnus of the University. The University
has undertaken to make this appointment in
consultation with the LU Alumni Association Executive.
The new Council has 12 members, with four being
appointed by the relevant Government Minister.
The Vice-Chancellor sits on Council as does one
member of academic staff and one non-academic
staff member (both elected by their peers). The
Students’ Association president and a representative
of Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu, leaves three members to
be appointed by the Council, at least one of whom
shall be an alumnus of Lincoln University.
I’d like to wish the new Council all the best for the
remainder of 2016 and the coming years. We will be
watching, and providing support, to the University
as the organisation moves forward under its
new leadership.
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Landforms
In the meantime, please enjoy this issue of Landforms.
2015 was another busy year with some great events
for alumni as well as successes right across the
Lincoln family, from students through to alumni.
Best wishes to our Lincoln University alumni
everywhere.
Jo Spencer-Bower
President
Lincoln University Alumni Association
Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
Honoured at Graduation Ceremony
Leadership and the land are shared elements in the
careers of the four recipients of Lincoln University’s
highest alumni honours presented at the 2015
Graduation Ceremony.
Tā Mark Solomon, KNZM, and Sue Suckling, OBE,
of Christchurch received honorary doctorates,
while John Acland CNZM of South Canterbury
received the Bledisloe Medal and Dr John Morris
of Mt Eliza, Victoria, Australia, received the Lincoln
Alumni International Medal.
Tā Mark Solomon (Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kuri) received
the degree Doctor of Natural Resources honoris causa.
His is Kaiwhakahaere of Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu and
has spent 16 years leading his iwi on its post-Treaty
Settlement journey.
Ngāi Tahu settled with the Crown for $170 million in
1998 and today its net worth exceeds $1 billion.
One of the tribe’s priorities has been investment in
environmental initiatives, and Tā Mark is active in
ensuring his iwi is at the forefront of environmental
practice, whether that be in sustainable fisheries or
best farming practice. New iwi initiatives have included
Whenua Kura, a training programme to encourage
Māori leadership in agriculture in partnership with
Lincoln University and Ngāi Tahu Farming.
Chancellor Tom Lambie, Sue Suckling, Dr John Morris,
Vice-Chancellor Andrew West
Sue Suckling, received the degree Doctor of Science
honoris causa, and has throughout her career
demonstrated outstanding leadership in science
and contributed to the advancement of science and
technology in New Zealand. Her resumé of company
directorships is extensive, many of them associated
with land-based enterprises. She was, for example,
an independent director on the NZ Dairy Board
and chaired one of the dairy industry’s projects
that prompted the formation of Fonterra. Current
directorships include Barker Fruit Processors.
Ms Suckling was a lecturer at Lincoln for two years
before leaving to work in the meat industry as a
food technologist. She rose rapidly to become Chief
Executive of Pacific Foods.
Bledisloe Medal recipient John Acland (Intensive
Course 1956), has shown a lifetime of leadership
in farming, business and public service. He farmed
the famous Mt Peel Station from 1960 until 1990,
and over this period was involved in entrepreneurial
leadership in agriculture. This included the sustainable
development of tussock grassland, the introduction of
Ritchie ear-tags, cross-breeding exotic cattle for export
to Australia, deer farming and white water rafting.
Tā Mark Solomon
He served Federated Farmers for 20 years, was
Chair of Meat and Wool South Canterbury, a Director
of the Primary Producers Co-op Society, Chair of
Canterbury Frozen Meat Company and Chair of Meat
NZ. He was inaugural Chair of the NZ Walking Access
Commission, and was also Chair of the Historic Places
Trust, 2008-2010.
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Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
Dr John Morris (BAgrSc 1964, MAgrSc 1971), who
received the Lincoln Alumni International Medal, has
made an outstanding contribution as an educator at
universities worldwide. His business and academic
activities in the USA and Europe have been pivotal in
developing highly successful executive development
programmes in Australasia.
In 1998 he initiated the annual Rabobank programme
specifically for top farmers. In all facets of the
food production industry from primary production,
processing and manufacturing, to retailing and
international marketing, Dr Morris has shown
leadership and been a positive influence on the
careers of many people.
In the dynamic and competitive food and grocery
industry he is world renowned as a food marketing
expert, and has excelled as an educator, mentor,
communicator and businessman.
He started at Lincoln University in 1966 as a Lecturer
in Farm Management and today, after a
globe-encircling career, is Director of the Institute
of Food and Grocery Management, Australia.
Graduates turn value
of Lincoln degrees
into career success
Lincoln University graduates are making their mark
in the world as achievers in many specialised fields.
Commerce graduates Sam Swaffield and Madeleine
Martin are two of the young generation of alumni
reaping success from their Lincoln qualifications.
Sam Swaffield
Sam, at 24, is the youngest Operations Manager for
International Hotels Group (IHG) in Australasia. He
works at the Crown Plaza, Auckland, where he is
responsible for the smooth running of the 352-room
hotel and overseeing 130 staff.
In June Sam won the Hotel Industry’s Outstanding
Young Hotel Executive Award for 2015.
Originally from Orewa, and a past pupil of Orewa
College, he entered Lincoln University as a Future
Leader Scholar in 2010, graduating with a BCom, Hotel
and Institutional Management, in 2013
Sam joined IHG after graduation and quickly
demonstrated a strong aptitude and commitment to the
industry. The group recognised this and identified him
as having strong leadership and management potential.
Sam is full of praise for Lincoln University and the role it
played in preparing him for his career and his success.
“For starters, being on the Future Leader Scholarship
programme helped with leadership development.
On the degree side, a lot of the business papers
have been very helpful. And the general learning
environment at Lincoln was great. Things like the
intimate classroom style in our particular programme
– in some of our classes there were only 10 or so of us.
“Also the ‘open door’ policy for access to academics. I
was probably the top person in our group for making
use of this. I was always going to see my lecturers
such as Anthony Brien or Neil Ritson to double check
things, and we would sit and chat. It was very helpful
in the learning process.”
Madeleine Martin
John Acland
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Success in 2015 for Lincoln University alumna
Madeleine Martin was being named a finalist in the
Fronde Hi-Tech Young Achiever category of the NZ
Hi-Tech Awards.
Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
“My Lincoln degree has been very useful in my
management role at Ossis,” she says. “In particular
around human resource management and sales
and marketing.”
In November 2015 Madeleine attended the Medica
Trade Fair in Dusseldorf, Germany, the world’s largest
medical sector event and trade fair.
Sam Swaffield
Although she ultimately didn’t win the category,
the accolade of being a finalist in this prestigious
competition was high reward in itself for her
achievements, and she says she was delighted
to be selected.
A past pupil of Christchurch Girls’ High School,
Madeleine holds three degrees, the first of them
from Lincoln University, a Bachelor of Commerce and
Management, in 2006. Madeleine came to Lincoln on
a Sports Scholarship (Netball).
She works for Christchurch-based company OSSIS,
in the highly specialised field of customised design
and the manufacture of titanium orthopaedic
implants. She is General Manager of the company,
a leader in the field of 3D printed, custom designed,
titanium joint implants. Her other two degrees are in
mechanical engineering, from Canterbury University,
and in engineering in medical devices and technology,
Auckland University.
She pays tribute to Lincoln for the foundation of
business understanding that her commerce and
management degree provided.
2015 PhD Graduands
PhD successes
celebrated
The graduation of Lincoln University’s 2015 group of
PhDs was celebrated with a special Vice-Chancellor’s
Invitational Dinner at Te Kete Ika on 23 April, the
second year such a celebration has been held.
Twenty-four PhDs graduated in person at the 2015
capping ceremony — eight received their degrees in
absentia and seven degrees were conferred in the
period since the 2014 ceremony.
Master of Ceremonies for the dinner, Postgraduate
Director Professor Ken Hughey, said PhD students
were “absolutely vital” to Lincoln University’s
research role.
Guest speaker was 2014 Bledisloe Medal recipient,
Professor Stephen Goldson. The importance of PhD
graduates could not be underestimated, he said. They
“drive science”.
Madeleine Martin
He had a special word for ‘late academic developers
and plodders’. Coming late to academic study was
nothing to be shy about, he said, and he congratulated
in particular the more mature graduates at the dinner
on their tenacity.
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Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
Research centre’s
funding secured
In May 2015 Tertiary Education Minister Steven
Joyce announced the Bio-Protection Centre,
hosted by Lincoln University, would be funded
through to 2020.
All Blacks trio give
Lincoln unique World
Rugby Cup link
Could any other New Zealand university have been
closer to the World Rugby Cup than Lincoln, with three
alumni playing in the All Blacks starting 15 for the final?
Many Lincoln alumni will trace their affiliation
with the University to the campus-based centre,
founded in 2003 as the National Centre for
Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies, a Centre
of Research Excellence (CoRE).
Lincoln University’s association with captain
Richie McCaw (Rugby Scholar and BAgrSc student
1999) and world-class lock Sam Whitelock (BSc 2014)
is well known, but a third alumnus, Joe Moody
(DipAg 2015), burst onto the world stage.
To date it has trained over 100 PhD and MSc
students, but in 2014 the Centre’s future ability
to train post-doctoral and graduate students
was uncertain when it missed out on CoRE
funding from the Tertiary Education Commission
(TEC). However a resubmitted bid, after a lot of
work, proved successful in 2015. The funding is
competitively based and determined in six-yearly
cycles and worth $3.4 million annually.
Joe, a Rugby Scholar at Lincoln, like Richie and Sam
before him, was called over to the United Kingdom as
an injury replacement prop, and on the field showed
he was able to front it with the best of them. The
former New Zealand wrestling representative and
junior Commonwealth Games bronze medal winner
now has a World Rugby Champion’s medal to add to
his sporting honours.
The Centre, a partnership between Lincoln
University, Massey University, AgResearch Ltd,
Scion and Plant & Food Research, is vital for
the protection of New Zealand’s agriculture,
horticulture and forestry industries as they are
susceptible to biosecurity invasions, Centre
Director Professor Travis Glare says.
The funding is mainly used for postgraduate and
post-doctoral research with a focus on protecting
pastures, crops, forest and native plants from
pests, weeds and pathogens including the PSA
disease in kiwifruit.
The McCaw Family
Professor Glare describes the decision as
“extremely pleasing” and says it will allow the
centre to do the “fundamental underpinning
research that New Zealand needs to advance the
bio-protection of plants”.
“The period (between bids) involved taking a
good hard look at the research that was originally
proposed and there was much work by many
people redrafting the application. We have emerged
confident that the result is a better programme of
research for New Zealand’s benefit. The Centre’s
team, made up of members from across New
Zealand is excited by the opportunities ahead.”
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Joe Moody
Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
Belief and
confidence
at Stanford
Bootcamp
‘infectious’
Lincoln University alumnus Ben Todhunter
(BCom (Ag) 1991), Chair of the Lincoln University
Foundation and a Kellogg Rural Leadership graduate,
attended the 2015 Te Hono-Primary Sector Bootcamp
at Stanford University, California. The bootcamps
are part of Stanford’s Executive Education Program.
Here he reports on the experience.
Stanford in California’s Silicon Valley, between San
Francisco and San Jose, has its own DNA and energy.
There is so much belief and confidence in the people
that it becomes infectious. The university is very well
equipped and laid out, and has millions of dollars
in reserves and great connections with research,
teaching and industry. Something we need to aspire
to in New Zealand.
Ben Todhunter
It is a goal of mine to have these people come to
New Zealand to do speaking tours here.
I attended the Bootcamp along with primary sector
CEO’s and directors, including some from Māori
agribusiness, and leading Government people with
primary sector interests.
Our Māori culture was used strongly throughout
the week, singing waiata to speakers and performing
the haka. The uniqueness and connection that came
from embracing this aspect of our culture was
enormous, something I had not fully realised. It is
a key point of difference for our interactions with
customers and markets.
Like a Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference,
what stands out and makes these things work is
the quality of the lecturers, the interactions with
other people on the course, and the opportunity to
be away from your home environment and look at
things differently.
Having such a spread and representation of
New Zealand’s primary production leaders in one
place, and the opportunities this presented for
collaboration, was powerful. New Zealand has a
unique story and culture and how this is presented
to the world can be improved.
All of the lecturers and speakers were world class,
and a few have changed my thinking on some topics;
David Teece around strategy with his concepts of
dynamic capability, William McDonough with his
thinking around designing for a positive impact on
the world, a ‘Cradle to Cradle’ philosophy that aims
to enhance the environment through business and
design, and Jennifer Aaker on the power of
story-telling and what can be told in a six-word story.
It was a wonderful and stimulating week with a
fantastic group of people, and it will probably take a
couple of years to assimilate all the insights gained
from the experience.
The programme of Stanford University-New Zealand
bootcamps for Kiwi agribusiness leaders is now in its
third year. Another Lincoln University alumnus, Andy
Borland (BCom (Ag) 1986), also completed the Stanford
Bootcamp course in 2015. Andy is Managing Director of
Christchurch-based Scales Corporation.
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Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
Sports
Roundup 2015
Basketball
The U23 Bulls team have the distinction of two full
seasons unbeaten and their 81-63 victory in the 2015
final saw them retain the Canterbury Basketball
Association U23 Men’s Championship and the
Maurice Henshall Cup.
At the Canterbury Basketball Awards Lincoln students
James Levings and James Cawthorn made the
grade’s first team, along with former student and
Sports Scholar Aled Jones. Aled was also named
Most Valuable Player in the U23 grade while James
Cawthorn was Men’s Player of the Year.
LU Football Team, 2015
Football
Lincoln University Football is the newest club on
campus, and the team did well in their first year of
competition in Men’s Division 6.
Netball
Lincoln University’s A team are again the Christchurch
champions after winning the Christchurch Netball
Centre’s Premier A final at Pioneer Stadium on 25
August, beating Kereru 44-43.
There was a one point difference too in the final
between Lincoln University B and Kereru, with the
latter winning 40-39.
U23 Bulls Championship winning team
Premier Women’s Basketball Team, Charissa Theyers
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Lincoln University C were looking for victory in the
Senior Reserve 2 championship final against Riccarton
A on 29 August, but their opposition maintained an
early lead and took the match 39-17. Despite this loss
the C team had a fantastic season.
Premier A Netball Team
Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
Lincoln and Massey Ag Rugby Teams, 2015 LA Brookes Trophy
Rowing
Lincoln University rowers competed in the NZ
Universities’ regatta at Whanganui in 2015 finishing
fourth overall. The women took first places in the
double and single sculls, and the men a second in
the double sculls. Lincoln’s Rower of the Year was
Georgia Nugent-O’Leary.
Premier B Netball Team
In the 2015 Enid Hills Netball Trophy match between
Lincoln University and Massey University, played on
the same weekend as the LA Brookes Trophy rugby
match, the Lincoln netballers won 23-18. Both matches
were held at Lincoln University.
Club Netball Player of the Year for 2015, and winner
of the Claire Lewis Trophy, was Kate Shearer.
Rugby
The highlight of 2015 was the Lincoln University
senior team competing an unbeaten run through the
Christchurch Metropolitan competition to win the
Hawkins Trophy, the first time Lincoln have won the
city competition since 1981. In the competition final on
26 July Lincoln beat Christchurch 24-19.
Lincoln flanker Wade McRae won the Hawkins Medal
for the season’s Most Valuable Player in Christchurch
Metro Division One as well as the Lincoln University
Club’s Player of the Year title and John Ryan Trophy.
On their way through the competition, Lincoln
University played the University of Canterbury for the
Hart-O’Reilly Trophy on 23 May, beating them 45-25 in
an open, free-flowing game.
Lincoln and Massey Ag Netball Teams, 2015
In the annual Ag XV match against Massey for the
LA Brookes Trophy and MOG Shield on 19 September
Lincoln convincingly won 26-7 at Lincoln.
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Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
Advocacy
lessons
learned
in crucible
of public
opinion
Dr Ann Brower
The ‘university of life’ has a new graduate in
Lincoln University academic Dr Ann Brower.
Public and personal experiences in the past 10 years
since she arrived in New Zealand from the United
States of America have earned her the distinction
summa cum laude.
Well-known as the seriously injured sole survivor of a
Christchurch city bus crushed by the falling frontage
of a building in the Canterbury earthquake of 22
February 2011, Dr Brower already had a prominent
public profile. This was earned in a particularly hard
way, through challenging the Government’s high
country land tenure reforms which had enabled
farmers to on-sell, at very profitable prices, parcels
of former leasehold land they had acquired cheaply
and advantageously from the Crown.
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Management and her challenge originated in a
Fulbright Scholarship research project. Driving it was
a powerful and perceptive intellect and Dr Brower
supported her case with immaculate research, a
book on the subject, numerous lectures and public
addresses up and down New Zealand, media
appearances, including a lengthy hearing on TV3’s
Campbell Live, prolific writing of newspaper articles
and opinion pieces, plus academic conference papers
and journal articles.
The response, from vested interest groups and
partisan individuals throughout the country, was
electric and ignited a storm of personal vilification.
Public insults included questioning her right “as an
American” to come to New Zealand and to “lecture
us” on land reforms.
She described it as the world’s quietest rort, as it had
been happening under the radar of public scrutiny for
15 years.
Through it all, however, Dr Brower stuck to her
academic guns and over time respect and vindication
have come her way.
Dr Brower, a Yale alumna, is a Senior Lecturer in
Lincoln University’s Department of Environmental
The experience was the first part of her New Zealand
‘university of life’ course, but it came at a cost.
Landforms
Celebrating success 2015
The second part of her course has been full of irony,
as it has taken her from the earlier public vilification
in the land tenure field to glowing Ministerial praise
and public approval in another domain, with an
amendment to a piece of Government legislation
named in recognition of her “fastidious advocacy”.
That legislation enshrines the ‘Brower Amendment’
adopted when the Building (Earthquake-prone
Buildings) Amendment Bill went before Parliament.
In essence the amendment halved the timeframe
for making the country’s most earthquake-prone
buildings safer. The requirement now is that the
2000 most dangerous buildings in New Zealand
which have unsecured or unreinforced masonry will
need to be assessed within 2.5 years and fixed within
7.5 years.
The Minister of Building and Housing, Dr Nick Smith,
said the change was a direct result of Dr Brower’s
advocacy. That advocacy, for safer buildings, had its
origins in Dr Brower’s personal experience as the
lone survivor in one of the lethal building collapses
of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Fatalities in Christchurch demonstrated beyond
question that unreinforced masonry on buildings was
a killer in earthquakes, however doing something
regulatory and binding to reduce the threat for the
future was not simple, as Dr Brower found when she
was recovered sufficiently from her injuries to take
up the cause.
Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith said that making
legislative changes was a tricky balance between
trying to ensure that communities were as safe
as possible and being upfront that there were
significant costs involved.
Dr Brower brought the tools of public advocacy to
bear on the issue. She wrote opinion pieces for the
media, made submissions to Parliament, penned
letters to editors, wrote to Radio New Zealand and
the National Business Review.
“I had appeared before Parliamentary Select
Committees twice, written and spoken lots, and all
to little avail, and I felt that I had done my dash,”
says Dr Brower, “but then at the 11th hour, the NBR
wrote a hard-hitting series of a dozen or so articles
on quake-prone building codes. So I wrote just one
more opinion piece, published in the New Zealand
Herald and The Press newspapers, because I’d
noticed that the Minister, Dr Smith, and I happened
to be scheduled on the same panel of speakers for an
upcoming Auckland environmental event.
Celebrating success 2015
“It left me cynical about government’s intentions –
whether it even wanted to fulfill the public interest,
let alone whether it was capable,” she says.
“I then contacted the Minister’s secretary and asked
if I could have five minutes time with Dr Smith after
the event. It wasn’t hard to guess that I wanted to
talk about buildings, not the environment. I got my
five minutes and Dr Smith said that he had an open
mind on the subject.
“A week later I got a phone call from the Minister’s
office about meeting him for coffee while he was
on a visit to Christchurch. We met and the Minister
said he had changed the Bill in favour of shorter
timeframes for compliance. He asked if I would
support the move. The rest is history.”
The Minister later praised Dr Brower for her
“fastidious advocacy” for making New Zealand’s
buildings more earthquake-safe and he described her
as a “true Kiwi hero”.
Through involvement in these two big public issues
– high country land sales and earthquake-prone
buildings – Dr Brower says she has “learned a lot
about advocacy”.
“The high country battle made me cynical. The
changes to the Building Act have helped me believe
again in the power of the individual.”
Among the papers Dr Brower teaches are
Environmental Policy and Introduction to New
Zealand Government. In these classes she takes
her students through an exercise she calls ‘Top 10
lessons in politics for idealistic optimists from a
nearly converted cynical pessimist’.
The Top 10 list includes: ‘To challenge power,
carefully seek and forcefully proclaim the truth.
And never, ever, ever give up.’
It’s a creed taken from her experience at the
‘university of life’ and Dr Brower lives it daily.
(For the work that led to the Brower Amendment,
Dr Brower was nominated for, and became a finalist,
in the 2015 New Zealand Women of Influence Awards.
Dr Brower also received the 2015 Lincoln University
Excellence in Teaching Award for Innovation in
Teaching. The awarding panel was ‘impressed by the
way Dr Brower has shown students how her insight and
experiences can be used to influence policy change’).
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15
Celebrating success 2015
Celebrating success 2015
‘Brower
Amendment’
passed into law
The Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings)
Amendment Bill reducing the time frame
within which owners of older unreinforced
buildings must upgrade their premises had
its third reading in Parliament on 10 May
2016 and has subsequently passed into law.
The Bill enshrined what became known
as the ‘Brower Amendment’. Dr Brower
advocated long and hard for the legislation
under which owners of older buildings will
be legally required to have their premises
assessed and upgraded, and earthquake
prone structures strengthened within
specific timeframes according to the seismic
risk of where they are located.
The Bill had strong support across the
House with ACT the only dissenting voice.
During the final reading Christchurch Labour
MP Hon. Clayton Cosgrove (Waimakariri)
described the passage of the legislation
as a ‘good exercise in terms of cross-party
cooperation’ and fellow Christchurch MP,
National’s Nuk Korako, praised the ‘positive
input made by submitters to the Bill’.
Dr Megan Woods (Labour, Wigram)
referred to the ‘unremitting lobbying by
Ann Brower and her dedication to seeing
this Bill through and making sure it was a
constructive piece of legislation’.
It was Building and Housing Minister Dr
Nick Smith who brought earlier tabled
legislation (2013) ‘back to the drawing
board’ for review, and ultimately supported
incorporation of the ‘Brower Amendment’.
Dr Smith said the law was going to be
challenging to implement but he believed
it was a ‘sensible approach that strikes the
balance in an appropriate place’.
Dr Brower was in the House for the passage
of the legislation.
16
Landforms
LUAA Scholarship
winners appreciate
awards
The value of scholarships in helping students progress
through the University and achieve their ambitions is
acknowledged by the 2015 Lincoln University Alumni
Association Scholarship winner Tom Davies, of Brookside.
Tom was awarded the LUAA Diploma Students’ Scholarship
and says without scholarships he “couldn’t continue with
university study”.
He has achieved good academic results, progressing
through the Diploma in Agriculture in 2014, then the
Diploma in Farm Management in 2015, helped by the
LUAA Scholarship. He is now returning to Lincoln to do
a BCom (Agriculture).
His practical agricultural background is strong, and
between the end of school in 2010 and the start of his first
University diploma he worked on farms in Canterbury, and
in Wales and England.
As an old boy of Christchurch Boys’ High School, Tom has
a Sir Arthur Sims Scholarship, and as a former student at
Marlborough Boys’ College he holds an Argyle Scholarship.
These awards, combined with working part-time as a
farmhand and relief milker, help sustain him financially
while he studies.
His long-term career ambitions are to work in dairy
farming and later perhaps farm consultancy within the
dairy industry.
The winner of the LUAA Degree Scholarship for 2015 was
Justine Ferguson of Christchurch. Justine is a past pupil
of Hornby High School and has been studying at Lincoln
University for a BSc (Hons) in Agricultural Biotechnology,
Biochemistry and Plant Science.
In 2015 the research for her Honour’s dissertation
investigated nitrogen assimilation and the growth of beans
under different carbon dioxide levels. It looked at how
elevated carbon dioxide and nitrate levels may influence
carbon assimilation, root, shoot and leaf carbon and
nitrogen content and the nitrogen percentage in beans.
Her future ambitions are for a PhD in an area related to
plant breeding or biotechnology. Justine is particularly
interested in pasture and legume species and increasing
production from these.
On campus activity
He is also past chair of the WTO Subsidies Committee
and the OECD Trade Committee.
Professor Crawford Falconer
New professor a
distinguished NZ trade
negotiations leader
Serendipity can affect the course of lives
significantly. Lincoln University’s Professor in
Global Value Chains and Trade, Crawford Falconer,
appointed in 2015, recalls that it was through a
chance encounter and passing remark that he “fell
into” international trade, the field in which he has
found the “greatest possible career satisfaction”.
Professor Falconer rose to the rank of Deputy
Secretary of the Trade and Economic Group in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), and
was New Zealand’s senior trade official managing all
negotiations between 2009 and 2011, and all bilateral
trade and economic matters.
The pathway to these heady roles traces back to
when he was working for the Justice Department
after returning to New Zealand from Britain and
study at the London School of Economics at the start
of the 1980s.
“I ran into a friend in Wellington who suggested I
might be better employed down the road from the
Justice Department at the Department of Trade and
Industry, now MFAT. I took the advice and fell into
international trade, where I felt immediately at home.”
Before rising to Deputy Secretary of MFAT’s Trade
and Economic Group, Professor Falconer was New
Zealand Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) in Geneva, where he chaired the Doha Round of
agriculture negotiations from 2005 to 2009.
On campus activity
Immediately prior to taking up the Lincoln University
appointment in September 2015, Professor Falconer
was leader of the OECD Services Trade and Global
Value Chains/Trade in Value Added projects,
overseeing major research streams on services trade
restrictions, and the creation of value-added in global
value chains.
The new Professorial Chair in Global Value Chains
and Trade at Lincoln University, is personally funded
by Sir Graeme Harrison, founder and chairman
of ANZCO Foods. Sir Graeme says that Professor
Falconer’s many years of experience in trade
negotiations will be invaluable in positioning Lincoln
University as a “thought leader” in world trade.
Professor Falconer is a graduate of Victoria University
in government and politics, and a past pupil of
Rongotai College.
Campus events
encourage women
into leadership and
also mark women’s
suffrage
Two events on campus in 2015 drew attention to the
role of women in modern New Zealand society and
work places.
On 29 June the inaugural Celebrating Women at
Lincoln was held, attended by about 130 women staff
members, and on Friday 18 September, New Zealand
Suffrage Day was marked (a day ahead of the actual
date which was a Saturday).
Celebrating Women at Lincoln was organised and
hosted by Senior Marketing Lecturer Dr Sharon Forbes.
It aimed to promote the leadership development
programmes of Universities New Zealand among
women staff members at Lincoln University, highlight
contributions made to date by women here, and to
give Lincoln women added confidence and energy for
making further contributions in the future.
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17
On campus activity
On campus activity
Keeping
engaged and
connected
In 2015 the Alumni and Development Office hosted
visits by groups as varied as the Minnesota Milk
Producers’ Association, and the Kaiapoi Working
Men’s Club.
Alumnus John Dixon (BAgrSc 1983), Technical
Tour Manager for Farm to Farm Agricultural Tours,
Rangiora, brought the 40-strong Minnesota group to
the campus in February as part of a country-wide tour
the members were on. The Alumni and Development
Office hosted them for a campus tour and they were
addressed by Honorary Professor of Agribusiness
Keith Woodford.
Dr Sharon Forbes
Recommendations from the event included examining
the concept of a women’s caucus at Lincoln, similar to
Otago University’s.
Lincoln has been progressive at the governance level.
Women have been on the University’s council since the
appointment of the Hon. Margaret Austin MP in 1984
and Charlotte Williams was elected Pro-Chancellor
(deputy chair of the council) in 1989. In 1997 Mrs Austin
was elected Chancellor and served through to 2004.
Mrs Austin was guest speaker at the campus
Suffrage Day event, attended by around 75 women,
and organised by the Tertiary Education Union, with
sponsorship from Lincoln Hospitality.
As a woman MP for a Christchurch electorate, Mrs
Austin followed the path pioneered by New Zealand’s
first female Member of Parliament, Elizabeth
McCombs, who was elected for Lyttelton in 1933.
Although New Zealand adopted universal suffrage in
1893 it took 40 years for the country to have its first
woman MP.
Mrs Austin, an MP for 13 years and a Minister
of Research, Science and Technology, called it
“wonderfully satisfying to be an MP and engaged in
decision making in the interests of New Zealand”.
“One was involved in history every day,” she said.
18
Landforms
The Kaiapoi Working Men’s Club visited in May as part
of its programme of social outings. Dr Andrew Greer
of the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science gave
them a comprehensive address on the University’s
sheep research, and they also visited the University
Dairy Farm where Manager Peter Hancox described
its operation and answered questions.
Many in the group were retired freezing workers from
the Belfast area and they showed keen interest in the
research and farming ends of the sheep meat and
milk production chains.
Mr Dixon brought another overseas group to the
campus in July, 16 Japanese students from Kagoshima
Prefectural College of Agriculture, Kyushu. Again, they
were looked after by the Alumni and Development
Office, and Dr Andrew Greer gave them a talk on
animal science research.
Also visiting the campus in July was the University of
the Third Age’s Pegasus Botany and Geology Group.
They came for a programme of talks on topical
scientific subjects organised by Conference and
Professional Development Manager Faye McGill and
U3A coordinator Biddy Pollard.
The group was welcomed to the campus venue,
the Bert Sutcliffe Oval Pavilion, where they were
addressed by Dr Chris Winefield on genetic
engineering, Professor Keith Cameron on soil
nitrates, and Dr Bob Brown of Landcare Research on
wasps and biocontrol.
On campus activity
‘Hilgendorf’, the building and the man, were
commemorated at Lincoln University in the presence
of family members, the University Chancellor, and
invited staff on Friday 9 October 2015.
The gathering marked a final visit to the campus
by descendants of Professor Frederick William
Hilgendorf (1874-1942) before the end of the
demolition of the building named in his honour. It was
damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010-2011.
Present were granddaughter Jane von Dadelszen of
Central Hawke’s Bay, great-granddaughters Charlotte
Hilgendorf and Henrietta Scott of Christchurch, and
Prue Frost of Dunedin, Susan Dalgety, a member
of the wider family who is a current Lincoln student
(BAgrSc), and Jane’s husband Ponty, a Lincoln
University alumnus (DipVFM).
Chancellor Tom Lambie spoke about Professor
Hilgendorf’s career and pioneering contribution to
plant science in New Zealand, particularly in wheat
research and breeding.
Professor Hilgendorf was on the Lincoln staff from
1899-1936, finishing as Professor of Agricultural
Botany and serving as Acting College Director in his
final year. He then served on the College Board of
Governors until his death.
The Hilgendorf Wing was constructed over 1966-1967
and opened by the Governor-General on 8 March 1968.
On campus activity
Family visits campus as end of
Hilgendorf demolition nears
Architecturally it is of the Brutalist genre. Landscape
architecture teaching assistant, Dr Silvia Tavares,
described the characteristics of Brutalist architecture
and said that in its original form the Hilgendorf
building was a fine example of the style.
Jane von Dadelszen read from her grandfather’s
candidly written, unpublished memoirs about life and
times at Lincoln, while Ponty recalled that as a student
at Lincoln in 1969 he and his diploma classmates
weren’t allowed in the “shiny new Hilgendorf building”
and had to be content with premises “down the back”
of the campus.
Professor Hilgendorf’s lineal ‘descendant’ on the
staff, current Professor of Plant Science Derrick Moot,
recalled that earlier in his career when he was at the
NZ Wheat Research Institute he worked with strains
of Hilgendorf-bred wheat. Professor Hilgendorf was
foundation Director of the Institute.
Demolition project manager Albert Smit of
engineering consulting firm Coffey told how the rubble
from the building would be returned to the ground in
a large pit within the campus precincts.
To mark the visit, framed photos of the Hilgendorf
Building were presented to the family by the
Chancellor, and landscape architecture graduate
Lawrence Elliott presented a signed first print of his
painting of the building.
Hilgendorf family members with Chancellor Tom Lambie
From left, Henrietta Scott, Tom Lambie, Charlotte Hilgendorf, Jane von Dadelszen, Ponty von Dadelszen, Prue Frost
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19
On campus activity
On campus activity
Hidden photographic
treasure comes to
light at Lincoln
Lincoln NZ Aid Scholars
Pacific alumni
encouraged to keep
in touch
Lincoln University’s community of Pacific alumni
who have studied as NZ Aid Scholars grew by seven
in 2015 with the nations of Fiji, Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu represented
among those completing qualifications.
Two completed mid-year, one of them being the
Lincoln University’s Pacific High Achiever Student,
Alice Taos from Papua New Guinea, who graduated
with a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Science.
The other five attended a special NZ Aid Completion
Ceremony on the campus on 4 November.
Lincoln encourages its Pacific island graduates to keep
in touch with the University as alumni.
“Because the Pacific is such a vast region, and the
nations so dispersed, it can be difficult to maintain
a sense of community among our graduates there,”
says Postgraduate and International Scholarships
Administrator Sue Bowie.
“However, the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, in
association with the Pacific Alumni Network and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is doing good
work encouraging networking among graduates.
Networking can be a huge help to Pacific graduates
in, for example, the area of employment. Lincoln
University supports the Foundation’s efforts.”
Any Pacific graduates from Lincoln University who are
interested in establishing contact with fellow Pacific
alumni and with Lincoln University itself can contact
[email protected] or [email protected].
20
Landforms
In 2012 a fascinating collection of images taken
at, and for, Lincoln University between 1947 and
1966 came to light when a wooden cabinet filled
with photos and catalogues was removed from the
earthquake-damaged West Wing of Ivey Hall.
Since then a number of other sets of images and
large sets of black and white contact sheets have
been found in various locations, and more than
3000 images scanned in low resolution. Together
they form what has become known as the Ron
Blackmore Collection.
Ron was the first Visual Aids Officer at Canterbury
Agricultural College and Lincoln College, as
Lincoln University was known during his tenure.
Previously, photographs had been taken by external
photographers. Over a period of almost 20 years
Ron took an enormous range of photographs to
support and illustrate teaching at the College.
He also photographed all facets of campus life and
New Zealand agriculture.
Ron’s close connection with the institution over that
time makes the collection a vital and valuable part of
the University’s heritage. As a direct result of the find,
a new Museum and Documentary Heritage Committee
has been established at the University, chaired by the
University Librarian, to provide oversight of the care
and preservation of the University’s heritage material.
Born in Christchurch in 1909, Ron’s career as a
photographer included stints as a reporter and
photographer for the Otago Daily Times, and as a
photographer and reporter for the army which he
entered in 1941. In the 2NZEF he rose to the rank
of captain.
Lincoln University photographer David Hollander has
been working with the photographs and catalogues
since they were discovered.
He says the discovery of the Blackmore collection has
been like “stumbling across a treasure”.
“These images bring home just how much has
changed in both New Zealand and Lincoln over the
past 60 years.”
On campus activity
“I hope that these people will share their memories
and knowledge about the photos so we can enlarge
and enhance our knowledge, and understanding of,
the photos themselves and the period of Lincoln’s
not-so-distant past that they so effectively record.”
“While viewing, sorting and scanning these images
I have developed a real respect for Ron Blackmore’s
skills as a photographer. It is both fascinating and a
real privilege to be involved in this project to bring
this considerable body of work to the notice of the
present-day Lincoln community.”
In mid-2013 he gave a seminar on campus about the
collection. This generated a lot of interest with many
people from the Lincoln township attending, some of
whom had known Ron.
“After talking to some of these people I was able
to contact Ron’s two daughters, Jenny Russell and
Rhonda Lash, and tell them about our discovery of
their father’s collection of photographs,” David says.
In October 2013 they visited the campus.
“They showed me where their father’s office and
darkroom had been (present day Annex B, on Farm
Road).”
“We loved going into his dark room and watching him
develop the slides,” Jenny says.
“We have wonderful photos of us as children. All the
children of the staff had a great family picnic and big
Christmas parties were held on the front lawn of the
big house. The swimming pool was at our disposal at
all times.”
On campus activity
David anticipates the images will provide an
opportunity for the University to connect with
alumni who may remember the events, places and
personalities recorded in the photos.
Rhonda says Ron taught them both to swim there.
Jenny recalls that Ron always went out on the field
trips with the students.
“He had a great rapport with the students. We were
taken to Craigieburn Hutt for ski trips. Dad was also
a great friend of Professors Walker, Calder, Burns,
Coop, Dr Blair and Ham Bennett. They all went
fishing together. Professor Walker and dad built a boat
which was their pride and joy.”
Rhonda also recalls Ron’s love of fishing.
“He would go off fishing with Professor Walker to the L2
and take with him black pudding and blue vein cheese.”
Sadly, Ron passed away in May 1966 while still
working for Lincoln College.
More than 100 of the Blackmore teaching slides are
available on the Living Heritage website in
high-resolution along with many other Lincoln-related
items. Go to:
livingheritage.lincoln.ac.nz/nodes/view/2012
Jenny and Rhonda have fond memories of Ron’s work,
and life at the College.
An example of Ron Blackmore's work
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21
Muster
Friends made, skills gained – Telford
programmes gaining popularity
Muster
Head of Programmes at Telford Campus,
Roy Gawn, says entry to the Level 5 Diploma
for Rural Veterinary Technicians is becoming
increasingly competitive each year, with more
applicants than places on the popular course.
Enrolment numbers for 2016 have once again
exceeded the places available.
While some 2014 Certificate students chose to enter
employment rather than continue their studies, many
returned in 2015 to further their learning by enrolling
for a diploma – an “excellent bunch” according to Roy.
Roy says the Telford tutoring staff have been hard
working, flexible and supportive. “They’re prepared
to contribute that little bit extra which makes
management of each of the programmes so much
easier. Thanks once again to the farm staff and to the
work of host farmers who make the Telford Campus
experience so valuable to the students, with their
contribution to learning the practical skills necessary.”
A big plus for work experience hosts was the
availability of the FarmSafe health, safety and hazard
management course at the beginning of the year.
From left: Hana Linssen, Rebecca Davies, Mhirron French
Students at Telford were once again able to practise
the skills learnt in the workshops, classrooms, the
Telford farms and on a whole range of farm types and
in a wide variety of farm placements. Dog training
and stock horse handling still feature in the list of
activities recommended by most students as being
highlights of their studies.
Telford graduates are in demand by the workforce
and report having no trouble securing work at the end
of the year. Demonstrating their skills to at least 10
prospective employers during the work experience
component of the course has shown that actions and
word of mouth are still the most powerful advertising
Telford Campus has.
“I would like to congratulate the current cohort
of students in all programmes, most of whom I
would confidently employ,” says Roy, a testament
to the Telford Campus staff who have provided the
knowledge and skills and contributed to a year the
students will never forget.
DipAg students at Carr’s robotic irrigated dairy farm at Mayfield
22
Landforms
“Friends made, like the skills gained, will last
a lifetime.”
Muster
A deluge of rain stopped with the bagpipes
signalling the start of the procession through
Balclutha for the 2015 Telford Campus graduation.
After sheltering under cover ahead of the
procession, students, Chancellor Tom Lambie,
Interim Vice-Chancellor Dr John Hay, Council
members, Te Waihora campus staff representatives
and Telford campus staff were able to walk to the
Balclutha Memorial Hall cheered on by supporters.
From left: Rural Veterinary Technician graduates, Hana Linssen, Ali Maw
(tutor), Jamie Burrows, Rebecca Davies, Jodie Johnstone, Anna Hamilton,
Lauren Johnston, Elizabeth Mitchell, Bella Wright
In all 54 students graduated covering the Diploma for
Rural Veterinary Technicians, Certificate in Agriculture
and Certificates in Equine. Telford Campus Diploma
of Agriculture students will have the opportunity to
graduate at Lincoln in 2016 when they have successfully
completed their work practical requirements.
Successful Scholarship Students 2015
SALVATION ARMY
Shilo Morris
Rebecca O’Sullivan Webb
PETER WILDING ESTATE
Jacob Kirby
SOFFA
Amanda Cooper
Kate Vandermeer
Anton Wilson
Annelise Dyer
Josh Fogo
BEEF + LAMB NZ
John-Kurt Burnett
CLUTHA DISTRICT
COUNCIL
William Benson
Kate Vandermeer
DELAVAL LTD
Bella Wright
William Benson
BANK OF NZ
William Benson
TELFORD GOWRIE TRUST
Lisa Bonenkamp
Bayley Coates
Annelise Dyer
Jesse Rudd
Aimee Rutherford
Bella Wright
EQUINE LEASE
Samantha Golds
STAR
Alice Petersen
NZ PONY CLUB
Alice Petersen
DINING ROOM BURSARY
Charlotte Beavis
Nicholas Butler
Cameron Cox
GREENFIELD RURAL
PRODUCTIONS
Amanda Cooper
FONZ - Enterprise
Georgia Sheard
FONZ – Correspondence
Elizabeth Mitchell
WESTPAC TRUST
BURSARY
Jacob Kirby
Muster
Rain stops
for Telford
Graduation
Correspondence
Ecroyd Beekeeping Supplies
Highest Aggregate
Kate Smith
(Whitianga)
Ecroyd Beekeeping Supplies
Second Highest Aggregate
Craig Marshall
(Napier)
From left: John-Kurt Burnett, Nicholas Butler, Cameron Cox,
Matthew Bolton, Timothy Richards
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23
Muster
Shear skill
Muster
Highlights for Telford Campus students at the
end of each year are the dog trials and shearing
competitions. Student Cameron Cox took out first
place in both competitions.
The dog trials took place on Wednesday 25 November
2015 with 30 students participating in long pull,
yarding and straight hunt. The overall winner was
Cameron Cox. Best second year student dog trainer
was John-Kurt Burnett. The most improved second
year dog trainer was Ryan Brooks. The best first year
student dog trainer was Lisa Bonenkamp. And the
most improved first year student dog trainer was
Mason Jones. These students were presented with
certificates at Graduation in November 2015.
The shearing competition took place on Tuesday
24 November. This is an afternoon competition with
heats being held, then semi-finals and finals. Both
students and staff compete. The competition is a
great way for students to put their skills for shearing
from throughout the year into practice. The overall
winner was Cameron Cox.
SOFFA Bursary students plant native seedlings at Nugget Point
Planting for
penguins in
the Caitlins
Cameron Cox and Bonnie-May Gibson with a working mate
24
Landforms
Students who were successful in receiving the
SOFFA Bursary in 2015 had the privilege of joining
Jan and Brian O’Callaghan at Nugget Point in a
revegetation project planting native seedlings. Jan
and Brian, along with DOC and other volunteers,
have done an incredible job over the years
with seed and plant nurturing and creating the
penguin habitat at the Nuggets. Student Liaison
Officer at Telford campus Suzanne Carruth says,
“The generosity of SOFFA with bursary support
for the chosen individuals is an extremely kind
gesture and really helps the students.”
Muster
Muster
Nokomai and West Coast hunting trips
Telford takes a walk on the wild side
Telford students had the opportunity to take part in
two hunting trips in 2015, to Barn Bay on the West
Coast and Nokomai Station in northern Southland.
The trips were funded by the students and tutors
involved, who raised money by splitting and selling
firewood and running car washes.
The Barn Bay trip involved tutors Ken Payne, Tom
Jones, and Allan Roxburgh, along with six students
– Aimee Rutherford, Ella Speirs, Megan Ward, Troy
Steer, Harry Duncan, and Shilo Morris. The group
was flown in by Greenstone Helicopters and had four
nights there enjoying the scenery, bush and beach
walks and of course the hunting. Six to eight deer
were seen and one shot and brought home.
The trip to Nokomai was a first for Telford, and also
involved a helicopter flight in and out, by Nokomai
Helicopters. Ken Payne and Allan Roxburgh were
accompanied by students Kelsey Green, Amanda
Cooper, Rebecca O’Sullivan-Webb, Johnny
Fitzpatrick and Josh Nilsson. They spent three nights
camping out on the vast 40,000ha property. Although
only one deer was shot, numerous others were seen.
Tutors and students say the remoteness of the
camping and hunting area, and the awesome flight
out, made for a special trip, with some special
friendships developed along with fun times and
happy memories.
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25
Muster
Muster
Maurice started at Telford in March 2006. Roy
Gawn, Head of Programmes at Telford Campus,
remembers the day of Maurice’s interview:
“He rocked in on his Harley motorbike with
a neck brace on and we all thought, ‘Who is
this person?’ but my gosh did Maurice make
an impact. His way with young people and his
teaching ability were amazing. He had a real
natural ability.
Maurice Hamilton
He made a
difference –
Maurice Hamilton
The funeral for popular Telford tutor Maurice Hamilton was
held in Gore at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Friday
5 February 2016. He is fondly remembered by Telford staff
and students as someone who made a difference.
Maurice was known for being a caring tutor who had a gift
for relating to students. He had a wealth of knowledge
on almost anything – from plant species to politics – and
could capture the students’ attention with his easy style of
teaching. His classroom sessions were seldom boring. The
respect and esteem that students had for him is evident in
that he was invariably the person that ex-students asked
after: “How’s old Maurice, I remember when….” was the start
of each conversation.
Maurice at work with students
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“Maurice cared for each and every one of
those Telford students. Kids who had probably
struggled at school found someone to relate
to, someone who could relate to them,
someone who had the happy knack of making
learning possible and even easy. He had high
expectations for all students and in most cases
they met the challenge. He brought out the
best in good students and encouraged the not
so good to realise their potential.”
According to Roy, Maurice’s van driving
skills were legendary. “Although he seldom
had accidents, the interest he took in his
surroundings while driving, and his somewhat
reckless nature, ensured that every outing
turned into an adventure. Everyone has a
Maurice story! Not the best at observing rules
and regulations, his narrow escapes made
managing him a nightmare for successive
heads of school. He, however, would be the
first to offer help whenever there was a need,
could turn his hand to most things, and was
the ideal employee for Telford.”
Sadly there will be no more new stories but
his legacy lives on with those whose lives he
touched in their brief time at Telford.
Lincoln University Chancellor Tom Lambie addresses
guests at Telford’s Golden Years Reunion
Muster
Over 200 ex-students, staff, farm board
members and councillors attended
Telford’s Golden Years 50th Reunion
held in April 2015. Celebrations started
with the Farmlands Meet and Greet.
Formal speeches were given by Dr Gerald
Frengley, who has been the Lincoln
University representative on the Telford
Farm Board for 25 years, Clutha District
Council Mayor Bryan Cadogan, Tom
Lambie, Chancellor of Lincoln University,
and finally Lincoln-Telford Director Martin
Eadie who had only been in the position
for eight weeks at that time.
Three Telford Farm tours were held,
incorporating the equine arena, the new
dairy shed and the farm. Guests were also
able to view vintage machinery generously
offered for display by some of the local
community. A barbecue lunch kindly
sponsored by BNZ helped all to refuel prior
to a photo shoot. This was lots of fun with
the group from 1965 to 1976 having a photo
taken with Mrs Lynda Snell and Marylyn
McClintock. These ladies were like mothers
to the students while they were at Telford.
Muster
Golden
opportunity
to reminisce
The Silver Fern Farms Dine and Dance was an opportunity for
old friends and new friends to gather for a catch up. Sunday saw
the unveiling of a jubilee plaque by Dave Pearson, Telford Farm
Advisory Committee member, and Clutha District Mayor Bryan
Cadogan. The plaque is by a a beautiful Golden Totara, planted
for the jubilee. The guests were then given lunch and a chance to
reminisce about their time at Telford and say a few words. Some
said this was the most enjoyable part of the weekend as they
have precious memories of their time at Telford which are very
dear to their hearts.
Top Secret ‘Farmarama’
Camp
Head of Programmes at Telford Campus, Roy Gawn says It’s not
often you get the chance to see rugby players herding sheep
but in December 2015 Telford was lucky enough to host the
Highlanders rugby team for an ‘on paddock Farmarama style’
training session.
The team was put through its paces, with players doing a tractor
pull, erecting and dismantling an electric fence – which proved
to be far trickier than they could have imagined – rebuilding a
chainsaw, and even changing a car tyre without a jack.
The highlight of the day (for the spectators anyway) was the
‘human shepherds’ module, where the team had to act as the
dogs, and move sheep around the paddock, over a bridge, and
then draft them off into pens.
By all accounts it was a fantastic morning, followed by a lunch
and prize giving. The team continued on to Owaka for a fishing
competition, and then on to a training camp at Tautuku.
The Highlanders visit Telford
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27
Alumni office and events
Alumni office and events
2014 Alumni Association luncheon after that year’s
AGM. Sadly Monty died a few months later but the
reins were taken up by an old school acquaintance and
fellow DipVFM-er Bill Harrington.
The project team enlisted the assistance of editor
Robin Leech to pull together all the various strands of
the RFC story and compile the book.
Monty Monteath gives details of the RFC history project at the
2014 Alumni Association luncheon
Herbie’s Boys runs to almost 200 pages and is well
illustrated. Advance orders are being accepted.
If you would like a copy please forward a cheque for
$50.00 (or more if you would like to make a donation)
made payable to Lincoln University, or direct credit
the amount to ASB, Lincoln University,
A/c No. 12 3147 0016000 00 using RFC as the
reference and your surname as the code.
RFC history offers
understanding of
farming’s post-war
transformation
Publication is nearing for a book documenting a
significant slice of New Zealand’s social, educational
and economic history. Titled Herbie’s Boys, the
book tells the story of the Rural Field Cadet (RFC)
Scheme which ran for 30 years from 1941 at Lincoln
and Massey Agricultural Colleges, and seeded New
Zealand’s land-centred government departments
with graduates who helped transform the country’s
farming in the decades after the Second World War.
‘Herbie’ refers to senior public servant and farmer
Herbert Caselberg, who along with Lincoln College
Farm Management lecturer RH (Dick) Bevin, conceived
and founded the scheme.
In its 30 years of existence some 500 cadets passed
through the scheme, which was based on a gruelling
five-year commitment to practical farming experience
combined with academic study. At the end was
the award of the Diploma of Valuation and Farm
Management and holders embarked on career paths
which took many to the highest levels in departments
such as Lands and Survey, Valuation, Agriculture, and
Māori Affairs. Many others excelled in private practice.
A documented history of the RFC Scheme was a
project close to the heart of the late DipVFM-er
Monty Monteath. He announced details of it at the
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Dr Mark Wilson
Film brought
actuality to
Anzac Day service
A video message from Gallipoli from
Dr Mark Wilson, Head of Lincoln University’s
Department of Global Value Chains and Trade, was
a feature of the 2015 Lincoln Community Anzac
Service, held in the town’s Events Centre, on 25 April.
Dr Wilson, an army officer before turning to an
academic career, was at Gallipoli as a battlefield
historian accompanying one of the many tour groups
on the peninsula for the centenary of the 1915 landings.
Alumni office and events
Dr Wilson was filmed at the Lone Pine Memorial.
He showed the terrain the soldiers fought on and
indicated names of Lincoln students inscribed on the
memorial’s stone panels, placing poppies beside them.
The Event Centre service was attended by some 700
people, and addresses were given by the MP for
Selwyn the Hon. Amy Adams, the Mayor of Selwyn
Kelvin Coe and the Rev. Mark Barlow, Vicar of St
Stephen’s Anglican Church, Lincoln. The New Zealand
Defence Force was represented by WO2 Matthew
Gates and a contingent of soldiers from 2/1 Battalion,
Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.
Lincoln University postgraduate student Lucy Burrows
was also at Gallipoli, following the trail of two of her
great-grandfathers who fought in the campaign. Lucy
won a place at the Gallipoli commemorations in the
Government ballot.
Tā Turi Carroll’s
memory an
inspiration for
growth of Māori
agriculture
Public expressions of Lincoln University’s
affiliation with the whanau of its first Māori
Bledisloe medallist, and acknowledgement of
him as one of the University’s most distinguished
alumni, were key elements of a Tā Turi Carroll ‘life
and legacy’ celebration at Taihoa Marae, Wairoa,
over 6-7 November.
2015 was the 125th anniversary of Turi Carroll’s birth
and the 40th anniversary of his death.
Alumni office and events
The Lincoln Community Anzac Service is organised
jointly by Lincoln University and the Lincoln
community. For 2015 it was pre-arranged for Dr Wilson
to be filmed visiting one of the memorials carrying
the names of Lincoln students who, as soldiers, were
killed in the Gallipoli campaign, and for the video to be
played at the Lincoln Community Service.
Lincoln team members at Taihoa Marae
The celebration, co-organised by Lincoln University
and the Carroll family, had a serious educational
agenda around the theme Poutama Whenua: Growing
Māori Assets.
“We wanted to encourage conversations about the
future of Māori land development, farming and
agribusiness through a re-statement of Sir Turi’s
vision,” Lincoln University’s Kaitakawaenga Māori
Outreach Coordinator Ekara Lewis says.
To provide seeds for such conversations three
Lincoln University scientists, Professor Tony Bywater,
Dr Andrew Greer and Dr Jim Gibbs, provided
specialist workshops around livestock, animal
nutrition and farm management topics. The Dean of
the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Professor
Bruce McKenzie, also spoke on research, education,
environmental and extension opportunities his
faculty can offer to support the growth of Māori
agricultural capability.
Chancellor Tom Lambie confirmed Lincoln University’s
commitment to supporting the expansion of Māori
agriculture. Other speakers from the University were
Martin Eadie, the Lincoln-Telford Division Director,
and Ben Matthews, Lincoln University’s Māori
Development Coordinator.
Speakers from outside the University included
Traci Houpapa, Tiaki Hunia, Marama Fox, Murray
Jamieson, and Renata Hakiwai.
The workshops were received enthusiastically, as was
the whole two-day event. It was a first ever visit of
this nature by Lincoln University to Taihoa Marae.
Turi Carroll graduated from Canterbury Agricultural
College with a Diploma of Agriculture in 1912.
His brother Joseph preceded him to the College
and graduated in 1910. Turi Carroll was awarded
the Bledisloe Medal in 1940 for services to Māori
agriculture and Māori economic development in the
Wairoa region, and was knighted in 1962.
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29
Alumni office and events
Alumni office and events
All in the
family
Generational connections within Lincoln
University’s alumni family were typified by a
campus visit from Scott Kusabs of Auckland
in May 2015 and his father-in-law Rodger
Crossman of Western Australia in November.
Scott (BRS 1997) is married to Rodger’s daughter
Megan (BPR&TM 1999) and they met at Lincoln.
Scott’s career is in park ranger work while
Megan’s is in conservation, contracting for
DOC and others. Both worked as conservation
volunteers in Western Australia for three years.
Megan was born in Perth where father Rodger
(DipAgr, DipVFM 1964) settled in 1965, part of
the migration of Lincoln University valuation and
farm management graduates of that era. Six of
Rodger’s graduating class of 13 moved to Western
Australia (WA) where they helped consolidate the
valuation and farm management profession. They
were following in the footsteps of alumnus Peter
Falconer (DipAgr, DipVFM 1954) the doyen of the
profession there.
Rodger, originally from a farming family in
Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, says the
profession in WA is today being filled with
graduates from Australian universities, such as
Perth’s Curtin University, and the Lincoln trained
personnel are now moving into the ranks of the
retired. However, Lincoln’s name is still
well-known and highly respected.
He and wife Joan were delighted when Megan
decided to study at her father’s old university
and keep the family connection.
In Auckland Scott and Megan are part of a group
of Lincoln University alumni from their years who
meet informally every so often, and maintain
social connections established in student days.
Alumnus Rodger Crossman at the door of his old room in Hudson Hall
Rooms re-visited
Living in Hudson Hall is a strong memory among
alumni and two visits in 2015 emphasised the power
of this particular campus experience.
In May, Peter Mears (DipAgr 1959) brought Keith
Pirkis of Geraldine to the campus. Keith is the son of
English-born Michael Pirkis (DipAgr 1958), a
classmate of Peter’s. With the help of the Alumni
and Development Office they found their way to
the second floor of Hudson Hall and the exact room
occupied by Peter during his student days. Diagonally
opposite was Keith’s father’s room.
Reminiscing, Peter recalled Michael one night walking
back from the shower au naturel, as one did in an
all-male hostel, towel neatly folded over his arm,
when he suddenly encountered two nurses visiting
their boyfriends. Unperturbed, Michael bowed to them
in gentlemanly fashion, bade them ‘good evening’ and
continued on his way.
In November, Rodger Crossman (DipAgr Distinction
1964, DipVFM 1965), visiting from Perth, Western
Australia, made a similar pilgrimage to Hudson Hall
and rediscovered his old room. It is now the Chaplain’s
Office, the last room at the southern end of the first
floor, up against the outside wall.
30
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Alumni office and events
“Being against the south-facing wall it copped the
worst of the southerly weather and the walls dripped
with condensation. My aunt, a nurse, was concerned
for my health and insisted that I get an electric blanket
to help keep things dry. So I got an electric blanket,
turned it on, and the room steamed for a week.”
Michael Pirkis and Rodger Crossman both headed
overseas to jobs in warmer climes as soon as they
graduated – Michael to Africa and other tropical places
and Rodger to Western Australia and a career in the
farm advisory and consultancy profession.
Much personal
history in
archive’s blazer
collection
Lincoln University’s archive contains many items
of interest from the past in addition to standard
material stored in such repositories like documents,
photos and books.
Along with the crested plates and cups used by
students in the dining hall, sets of measuring
instruments from the laboratories, and ornaments
and plaques gifted by distinguished campus visitors,
there is also a growing collection of College blazers.
There are now 12, the oldest carrying a ‘blue’ for 1st XV
rugby dated 1918-19. Two were received by the Alumni
and Development Office in 2015, and both have
interesting histories.
In a corollary to the story, Michael’s daughters, Kate
and Allie, and grandchildren visited Lincoln University
from the UK in July, and the grandchildren were able
to see and be photographed with their grandfather’s
old student blazer.
Alumni office and events
“Brrr, it was cold,” he remembers.
In August, Michael himself attended Lincoln University’s
London reunion in the Millennium Hotel, Mayfair.
The second blazer donated in 2015 belonged originally
to Mary Fairmaid, the first woman to complete Lincoln
University’s Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree.
A West Coaster, Mary entered Canterbury Agricultural
College in 1946 and graduated BAgrSc in 1949.
The blazer was given by alumna Barbara Robertson
(nee Braithwaite) of Wellington, a horticultural
management and landscape technology diploma
student in the mid-1970s.
Barbara wrote: “Mary was a friend of my mother in
Napier. When she knew I was studying at Lincoln
College she passed the blazer on to me. I gather that
Mary ordered it while doing her degree but it didn’t
arrive until she had completed her studies, so she
never wore it. To be honest, I never wore it either.”
The Fairmaid/Braithwaite blazer is therefore in virtually
new condition and it is unique in another way too. It has
been patterned, or altered, for a woman’s figure and is
the only one of this type in the archive collection.
There is much social history in Lincoln College’s
blazers. ‘College Regulations’ stated where and when
they could be worn, and by whom, and where to
purchase them. There was also a distinction made
between the old students’ blazer and that for current
students; between the colours blue and green; the
type of buttons - gold, silver and plain dark; and the
monograms, of which there were two sorts.
But that’s all another story.
One is probably the most well-travelled Lincoln blazer
of all, as its owner, Englishman Michael Pirkis (DipAgr
1958), had it with him in the United Kingdom (UK) for
most of its life until donating it back to the University.
It returned to New Zealand with his son Keith in
May 2015.
Michael is a much-travelled alumnus having worked in
many places since his Lincoln days, including Australia,
Uganda, and Papua New Guinea.
Alumnus Michael Pirkis (left) at Lincoln’s London gathering August 2015
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31
Alumni office and events
Alumni office and events
Alumni staying connected...
In 2015 the Alumni and Development team organised or supported almost 70 events and
functions in New Zealand and abroad, connecting the global family of Lincoln alumni.
32
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Wellington
Singapore
Wellington
Southland
Wellington
Canterbury: Country comes to town
Alumni office and events
Alumni office and events
Alumni AGM
part of first
LUAA Day
The first Lincoln University Alumni Association (LUAA)
Day was held in 2015 the day before Graduation.
Cairns
The event was introduced by the Alumni and
Development Office to focus on all those who have
graduated or been students at Lincoln in the past and
the emergence of the next batch of Lincoln graduates.
The association’s AGM, and an Alumni Luncheon
in Te Kete Ika, were part of the event.
Brisbane
Association President Jo Spencer-Bower reported
that 2014 had been “very constructive for the
Alumni Association in terms of communications
with University management, connections
with the Lincoln-Telford Division, relations with
current students, the award of scholarships, and
the introduction of alumni through a telephone
campaign to the role and importance of a spirit of
philanthropic giving”.
LUAA officers elected at the AGM for 2015-2016 were –
President, Jo Spencer-Bower
Vice-President, James Nell
Immediate Past President, Craig Williamson
Executive: Roy Evans, Neil Gow, Simon Lee,
Andrew Lingard, Derrick Moot, Andrew O’Regan.
Sydney
Hobart
Guests at the luncheon included prominent
alumni John André and wife Sandy from Millicent,
South Australia. John was the inaugural Alumni
International Medallist in 2003, and Dr John Morris,
also from Australia, the 2015 Lincoln Alumni
International Medal recipient.
LUAA Luncheon 2015
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33
Alumni office and events
Alumni office and events
Lincoln ‘town
and gown’
union becoming
reality
From left, Shannon Goldsmith, Vernon Clark, Tom Lambie
Road name honours
unity advocate
Lincoln University Bledisloe Medal winner and
former staff member Vernon Clark, ONZM, a
tireless advocate and toiler for unity between the
communities of the campus and Lincoln township,
has received special local recognition for his work.
The main access road to Lincoln’s Te Whariki
residential development from the township’s main
street has been named Vernon Drive.
A ceremony acknowledging Mr Clark’s service and
the completion and naming of the access road was
held there on 23 May 2015. Those present included
Ngāi Tahu Property’s Development Manager Shannon
Goldsmith, who hosted the event, Lincoln University’s
Chancellor Tom Lambie, the Chair of the Lincoln
Community Committee Ivy Harper (a Lincoln alumna),
and representatives of Lincoln and Districts Historical
Society and Lincoln Rotary Club.
“The naming of the street will ensure that Vernon
Clark’s contributions to the community and career
achievements in animal science will be well
remembered,” Mr Goldsmith said.
In reply, Mr Clark recalled that his very first job at the
University when he started in 1940 was to help the
carpenter drive a bore into the ground for a water
supply on a site visible just a few hundred metres from
where everyone stood. It was then a cow paddock.
Mr Clark wished all who used Vernon Drive
‘safe travel’ and said he accepted the honour with
great humbleness.
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A vision held by Canterbury Agricultural College
Director Professor Eric Hudson in the 1940s and
1950s for a seamless connection between the
College and the Lincoln township community
is today becoming a reality thanks to a joint
venture between Lincoln University and
Ngāi Tahu Property Ltd.
Weaving the two together is Te Whāriki, a
118-hectare, modern, residential community
development making use of decommissioned
farm land to the east of the University’s Springs
Road boundary.
The joint venture dates from 2007 and the first
sections at Te Whāriki went on sale in 2010. The
plan is for up to 1000 sections to be released
in stages over 12 years. To date (2015) over 260
sections have been sold, 220 are built on or are
being built on, and nearly 90 titled sections are
currently available.
Not only is Ngāi Tahu Property involved in
this joint venture with the University, but it is
a significant employer of Lincoln University
graduates in commerce, property and valuation.
Alumni working for the company include
Scott McCulloch, Development Manager;
Russell Pyne, General Manager Development;
Andre Thompson, Property Manager; Shannon
Goldsmith, Development Manager; Geri Kerr,
Marketing Manager; Kerry Watson,
Development Team Manager; and Jane Higgins,
Project Manager.
Shannon Goldsmith was the inaugural Ngāi
Tahu Property Scholarship winner while a
student at Lincoln University, and he graduated
Bachelor of Commerce (Valuation and Property
Management) in 2003.
Faculty news and research
Adding value to agricultural products so they
attract premium prices in the marketplace, is a vital
strategy for New Zealand in today’s competitive
commercial environment.
Value can be added in many different ways and
pilot research by Lincoln University’s Agribusiness and
Economics Research Unit (AERU) for New Zealand’s
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
(MBIE) has investigated the importance of
‘credence attributes’.
Results are aimed at better informing food export
industries as they seek to enhance the value of their
products. New Zealand primary sector industries
generate over 60 percent of the country’s export
earnings. It is therefore economically important
to understand and cater for changing consumer
preferences for food product attributes in order to
maximise value and capture best possible prices.
The food on your plate or in your lunchbox is more
than a combination of vitamins, minerals, fibre, fats,
sugars, proteins, carbohydrates, and other nutritional
elements. Behind the motivation to buy a particular
product are qualities separate from its taste,
appearance and freshness. These additional qualities
are not immediately visible at the point of purchase.
They are called ‘credence attributes’ and include
considerations around food safety, environmental
condition, animal welfare, country of origin, functional
and /or health food and organic production. Each of
these can influence consumers, and have an impact on
the purchasing decision and the price set by the seller.
The AERU study, Consumer Attitudes to New Zealand
Food Product Attributes and Technology Use in
Key International Markets, surveyed a sample of
consumers in the United Kingdom, India, China,
Indonesia, Japan and Korea and gathered information
on consumer attitudes and preferences for food
product attributes. Selected ‘credence attributes’ in
food, beverage and other products were explored
with the targeted groups being middle and upper
Faculty news and research
‘Credence attributes’
offer price advantage for
NZ primary products
class consumers, expected to be more willing to pay a
premium for ‘credence attributes’.
The researchers began by surveying the importance of
a set of ‘key attributes’ then examined four of them —
food safety, environmental quality, animal welfare and
health food— in more detail, asking how important
the other factors were in relation to each of these.
Results showed that in relation to quality and price,
most participants in all countries said these were
either very important or important, with India and
Indonesia rating them particularly highly.
In relation to animal welfare, environmental quality,
health food and food safety, respondents from
developing countries indicated an overall higher rating
of importance than developed countries, particularly
the Indonesian, Indian and Chinese participants.
The survey also investigated the importance of factors
in relation to New Zealand. These were open spaces
and wilderness, not crowded, clean environment,
integrity, innovative, friendly and safe. For all
countries the most important of these were clean
environment and safety, but all countries ranked each
factor as important.
Participants in developing countries, particularly India
and Indonesia, placed higher importance on all the
factors than participants in developed countries.
The report’s authors – Professor Caroline Saunders,
Meike Guenther, Tim Driver, Dr Peter Tait, Professor
Paul Dalziel and Paul Rutherford – point out that the
results from the pilot survey are indicative only, as the
sample sizes (100 in each country) were small.
However, the findings will assist a planned larger
survey with 1000 participants in China, India,
Indonesia, Japan and the UK.
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35
Faculty news and research
Faculty news and research
Staff appointments and farewells
2015
Staff appointments in 2015 include –
Staff farewells in 2015 include –
James Agnew, Liaison Officer
John Boereboom, Library, Teaching and Learning
Mary Buckley, Director, Human Resources
Professor Penny Carnaby, University Librarian
Dee Coleman, Director, International and Student
Engagement
Associate Professor Bruce Chapman, Academic
Administration
Shona Devine, Events and Sponsorship Manager
Julia Innocente-Jones, Director, International,
Strategy and Marketing
Martin Eadie, Director, Lincoln-Telford Division
Crawford Falconer, Professor in Global Value Chains
and Trade
Howard Gant, Director, Finance
Dr John Hay, Interim Vice-Chancellor
Associate Professor Charles Lamb, Director,
Lincoln-Telford Division
Tony Moffatt, Business Development Manager, North
Island
Belinda Jeursen, Communications Officer
Mike Morley-Bunker, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of
Agriculture and Life Sciences
Damian Lodge, University Librarian, Director, Library,
Teaching and Learning
Jack Radford, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Agribusiness
and Commerce
Dr Teresa Moore, Director, Farms
Becky Turnbull, Marketing and Brand Manager
Ben Matthews, Māori Development Coordinator
Dr Andrew West, Vice-Chancellor
Kirsty Owen, Brand and Campaign Manager
Dr Alan Renwick, Professor of Agricultural Economics
Dr Karl Rich, Associate Professor of International
Rural Development
Dr Charlotte Marewa Severne, Deputy
Vice-Chancellor, Māori and Communities
Ben Skinner, Finance Administration Manager
Daryl Streat, Head of English Language Programme,
University Studies & English Language Division
Associate Professor Bruce Chapman
36
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Off campus
Off campus
Lincoln’s
domestic
fees move to
‘set price’ for
programmes
Alistair and Pat Campbell, 2013
Changes in fee-setting policies at Lincoln University
have been well received by students.
In 2016 Lincoln became the first New Zealand
university to offer domestic students a set price for
its programmes.
“As long as they make good academic progress,
students will pay the same set tuition fee for the
degree programme they enrol in, with the fee
remaining the same each year for the minimum time
it takes to complete the qualification,” Deputy
Vice-Chancellor International and Business
Development Jeremy Baker says.
The University introduced a set price for international
students in 2014.
“Since the concept was well-received by the
international community, our international students
will continue to receive this guarantee and we have
decided our domestic students should also benefit
from it,” Mr Baker adds.
Continuing students can take advantage of the set
price for the remainder of the minimum duration of
their programmes.
Lincoln is also offering package fees for key
programmes, making it more cost effective to enrol in a
full course of study than paying for individual courses.
“This is designed to encourage domestic students
to enrol in full-year programmes, rather than on a
semester-by-semester basis,” Mr Baker says.
Alistair Shand
Campbell
28.12.1935 – 3.10.2015
Soil scientist Dr Alistair Campbell, who died
in Christchurch on 3 October 2015, was Lincoln
University’s longest serving academic, with 44 years
as a staff member when he retired in 2003 as an
Associate Professor.
Born in Dunedin and an MSc (Hons) graduate of
Otago University, Alistair was enrolled at Christchurch
Teachers’ College when he was recruited to teach first
year chemistry at Lincoln. He confessed that he had
never heard of the place and had no idea where it was,
but he took up the offer and began in February 1959.
His temporary, one-year appointment lasted 44 years
with the ‘young whippersnapper’ (his term) maturing
into a respected and senior member of the University
community, deeply involved in campus activities.
His duties expanded and included soil chemistry and
mineralogy, remedial tutoring in English, mathematics
and chemistry. His research specialisation was soil
chemistry and clay mineralogy. Alistair’s PhD project
concerned the Reefton Chronosequence. It was
scientifically significant work and established him as a
soil clay mineralogist.
As well as being a focussed scientist who had the
respect of international colleagues and worked in
laboratories overseas, notably in Germany while on
sabbaticals, Alistair was a people person with a huge
network of friends and contacts.
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Off campus
A eulogy delivered by Lincoln University colleague
Dr Philip Tonkin at the memorial service for Alistair
in the Lincoln Event Centre on 24 October, covered
his deep involvement in the Lincoln community as
well as his scientific work. Another colleague from
the University, Rev. Philippa Horn, who conducted
the service, read numerous notes of tribute from
throughout New Zealand and overseas.
Through his interest in the Colombo Plan and
other international initiatives, Alistair developed
an unparalleled network of overseas contacts for
the University. He and wife Dr Pat Campbell (also
a Lincoln PhD graduate and staff member) were a
great team, and they kept in touch faithfully with
international alumni.
From the University’s international alumni community,
Datu Dr Ngenang Ak Jangu, a senior government
official in Sarawak, said in a note read out at the
memorial service that during his student days at
Lincoln University Alistair and Pat had been like
parents to him.
Among domestic students Alistair helped on their
path to achievement was Dr Sharon Forbes, now a
Lincoln academic herself. As a mature undergraduate
student who had never before studied chemistry,
Sharon recalled Alistair’s assistance with gratitude.
“What I learnt from Alistair of lasting value concerns not
so much the Periodic Table or chemical equations, but
how to treat students. Always be available, always be
ready to offer help, always be there for them. I have tried
to follow his example in my own career as an academic.”
These two comments, from hundreds of tributes and
stories, summarise the affection and admiration all
had for Alistair.
Dr Peter Pottinger in his rugby days
An alumnus
remembered
Lincoln University’s clean sweep of the Christchurch
Metropolitan Rugby Competition in 2015 revived
memories of another clean sweep, 55 years ago,
when the 1960 1st XV went unbeaten through the
competition in which it played, the Ellesmere
Sub-Unions Competition, scoring 434 points with
only 85 against them.
What’s more, Lincoln College (as it then was) won
all four of that year’s inter-varsity games, beating
Canterbury, Massey, Otago and Teachers’ College.
“This is unquestionably one of the finest
performances put up by any College 1st XV”, said
Lincoln’s 1960 magazine in its report. Of the team’s
434 points, 358 were scored by the backline, with
wingers Cam Mitchell and Peter Pottinger singled
out for special mention. Peter scored 17 tries.
He was also notable as a track and field athlete. He
set records in the 220 and 440 yards races and the
long jump event in the 1960 College Sports, and was a
South Island Universities rep for Easter Tournament.
Alistair and Pat Campbell, Colombo Reunion
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Off campus
Peter was appointed to the Lincoln College staff in
1960 as an Assistant Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology
and rose to the rank of Reader (Associate Professor). He
was twice Acting Head of the Entomology Department.
In 1975 he moved to MAF and worked in insect control,
pasture pest research and plant protection, rising
to Chief Scientist and Group Leader at Ruakura. He
undertook projects in South America as a consultant
and for 10 years he was a member of the FAO/UNDP
Panel of Experts on Integrated Pest Management. For
eight years he was National Coordinator of Pasture
Pest Research, across all government departments.
Peter was awarded Lincoln University’s Bledisloe
Medal in 1990 for outstanding contributions to New
Zealand’s primary production sector. The citation
said he was in the ‘vanguard of the evolution towards
integrated pest management’ and that his work
was ‘pivotal to the success of scientific endeavours
and acceptance by practitioners in the fields of
horticultural, agricultural and entomological research
which, when applied in the field, saves New Zealand
millions of dollars.’
Professor Stephen Bishop, BAgrSc (Hons), on 2 April
2015, in Edinburgh, Scotland, aged 54.
Dr Alistair Campbell, PhD 1975, on 3 October 2015,
in Christchurch, aged 79. Ex-staff.
Derek Ross Chapman, on 10 January 2015,
in Christchurch, aged 73. Ex-staff.
Ian William Clarke, on 19 March 2015, in Christchurch,
aged 64. Ex-staff.
Dr Eric Forbes, on 11 October 2015, in Christchurch.
Ex-staff.
John Glazebrook, on 8 April 2015, in Pershore, UK,
aged 91. Ex-staff.
David Haslam, MAgrSci (Hons) 1965, on 11 April 2015,
at home, Mid Canterbury, aged 74.
John Hotop, DipVFM 1952, on 30 August 2015,
in Hamilton, aged 85. University’s first student
All Black.
Graeme Howard, PG DipAgrSc 1964, on 26 February
2015, in Christchurch, aged 77.
Andrew Francis Jones, DipAg 1960, on 7 February
2015, in Richmond, Tasmania, aged 64.
Peter died in Auckland on 19 December 2013 aged 78.
Samantha Kudeweh (nee Stephens), BSc student
1991, on 28 September 2015, in Hamilton, aged 43.
Remembered
Dr James (‘Jim’) Armstead Pollok, BAgrSc 1946,
on 1 January 2015, in Auckland, aged 96.
The Alumni and Development Office has been
notified of the deaths in 2015 of the following
alumni, associates and former staff members. We
record their names with respect and in memory
of their association with Lincoln. Please notify the
Alumni and Development Office of any additions to
this list so that records can be maintained.
Ralph John Ballinger, BAgrSc 1940, OBE, Bledisloe
Medal 1971, on 21 February 2015, in Blenheim, aged 99.
Off campus
Peter’s academic ability was as good as his athletic
prowess. A West Coaster, he came to Lincoln College
in 1956 with a BSc from Canterbury University and
completed BAgrSc and MAgrSc (Hons) degrees.
He was subsequently awarded a Commonwealth
Scholarship and did a PhD in Entomology at McGill
University in Canada.
Ruth Mary Seba (nee Anderson), BPR&TM 1995,
on 22 April 2015, in Dunedin, aged 42.
Charles Henry Smith, DipAg 1959, on 12 November
2015, in Tasmania, aged 79.
John F. Sullivan, DipAg 1960, on 21 September 2015,
in Penguin, Tasmania.
Dr Royd Thornton, MAgrSc 1948, Bledisloe Medal
1977, on 27 February 2015, in Nelson, aged 90.
Udo Benecke, MAgrSc (Hons) 1968, on 15 April 2015
while travelling in South America, aged 75.
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Off campus
Off campus
Thank you for your support
2015 Annual Appeal
Other ways to support the university
The response of the Lincoln University community to
the 2015 Annual Appeal was very humbling. This was
our first ever Annual Appeal.
Major gifts/endowments
While we knew we had an amazing alumni
community it has been a privilege, through emails
and conversations, to discover that many of you
regard yourselves as stewards of the University, with
a responsibility to preserve and enhance the unique
contribution that Lincoln and its graduates make,
and that you wish to ensure the University is relevant
whatever era we are in.
At Lincoln University 100 percent of gifts received
support the purpose for which they are given.
Thank you to all who contributed to the appeal.
Donations were of all sizes with every one gratefully
received. They will have a lasting impact. Because of
your generosity, two students will be the recipients
of the Lincoln University Alumni Association’s
scholarships in 2016 and a further student will be the
recipient of a Global Challenges scholarship. To find
out more about the Global Challenges programme
please visit: www.lincoln.ac.nz/gcscholarship.
The University and the Lincoln University Foundation
prudently manage funds to be used by the University
for a range of purposes, including developing
academic capability and capacity, research, providing
scholarships and developing land and facilities.
Gifts are invested, and operate in accordance with
relevant legislation and sound investment strategy.
Leaving a legacy
A planned gift, or a gift in a will to Lincoln University
ensures that what is valued by the donor about the
University endures for years to come.
For more information or to discuss ways in which
you might wish to support Lincoln University please
contact me on:
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +64 3 423 0016
Thank you for believing in your University’s ability to
be as relevant in the 21st century as it was when it
was founded in 1878. Your support ensures this.
Jo Brady
Director, Alumni and Development
40
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The last word
Voices of wisdom
In the debate, discussion and
politics that accompanied this
particular buzz term, it might
be asked, what happened to
knowledge’s kinsman, ‘wisdom’?
Related they are, but not
interchangeable!
While it is widely acknowledged
that universities are repositories,
generators, and disseminators
of knowledge, and institutions
guard these roles jealously as their
rightful domain, are they equally
‘founts of wisdom’? Terms such as
‘ivory tower’, ‘remote’, ‘out of touch
with reality’, suggest otherwise
and even the word ‘academic’ itself
is often used in a derogatory way.
It is a shame that one occasion
when universities do offer their
students a solid serving of wisdom,
Graduation Day, it is too late to
have any impact and certainly not
a ‘teachable moment’.
At any graduation ceremony
anywhere one can hear earnest
addresses by chancellors, vicechancellors, recipients of awards,
student presidents, alumni
leaders and others. Unfortunately,
in the hurly-burley and ceremonial
of capping, probably few if any
graduating class members
remember the accompanying
oratory.
Over the years, those attending
Lincoln’s graduation ceremonies
have been privileged to hear from
many notable New Zealanders
who have received honorary
doctorates from the University.
Their acceptance speeches have
invariably offered words of wisdom
to the assembled graduands.
Distinguished New Zealanders
such as Sir Don McKinnon, Sir Ron
Trotter, Sir Peter Elworthy, Sir
Tim Wallis, Sir Tipene O’Regan,
Tā Mark Solomon, Sir Henry van
der Heyden, Sir Bob Charles, Lady
Isaac, Mark Inglis, and Richie
McCaw, have all had wise, wise
words to say.
In a graduation speech a few years
ago, former Lincoln University
Chancellor Hon. Margaret Austin,
offered advice about ‘never
forgetting your roots’.
“You can walk the corridors of
power, engage in diplomacy,
contribute to the highest levels
of academia, scientific research
and enterprise; you may become a
great writer or poet, a philosopher
or entertainer but your roots are of
extreme importance,” she said.
The last word
Some years ago the term
‘knowledge economy’ had
popular currency. Remember
management guru Paul Drucker,
author of set texts in many
university commerce courses?
Margaret’s own roots go back to
the small townships of Edendale
in Southland, Milton in Otago
and the borough of Waimate in
South Canterbury. Despite humble
origins as a ‘child of the Great
Depression’ Margaret grasped
educational opportunities and
through a career in education,
politics and other fields she can
now justly regard herself as an
‘international citizen’.
Margaret told some of her story to
Lincoln University staff members
and students as the guest speaker
at the 2015 Women’s Suffrage
Day celebration on the Te Waihora
campus. It was the voice not only
of knowledge but of wisdom, and
all the more powerful for being
unencumbered with the distraction
of some larger ceremony
happening simultaneously.
Let’s hear more from such people
on a regular basis, and not confine
the wisdom to simply once-a-year.
(Ian Collins, Heritage Writer,
Alumni & Development Office)
Left: Hon. Margaret Austin
as Chancellor presiding
at an honorary doctorate
ceremony, 2000
Right: Graduation speakers
Sir Don McKinnon and
Sir Ron Trotter, honorary
doctorate recipients, 1999
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LIN1651 / JULY 2016