NEWCASTLE STUDENT VOLUNTEERS PRAISED BY MINISTEREducation and Employment Minister Tessa Blackstone praised the voluntary
work of Newcastle students when she announced £27 million to increase voluntary and community work by higher education students and staff
throughout the country. Speaking late last month, Tessa Blackstone commented:
When students get involved within their local communities the potential benefit is enormous. Staff and student involvement in volunteering Referring to the activities of Student Community Action in Newcastle (SCAN),
she added: For example, Newcastle University students are involved in a wide range of voluntary projects - including building a boardwalk, bridge,
and other access projects and developing children's activity packs and information boards around a nature trail; working with children, providing a
NEWCASTLE GRADUATE IN AUSTRALIA TO RECEIVE HONORARY DEGREEAlexander Downer (BA Politics & Economics 1974), Australian Minister for
Foreign Affairs, is to be awarded an Honorary Degree by the University's
Chancellor Christopher Patten. Mr Downer, who is married to fellow Newcastle graduate Nicky Downer (nee Robinson, BA General Arts 1974), will
receive the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. Olympic gold medallist
CAREERING AHEADThe Alumni Office and the Careers Service have teamed up to involve graduates
willing to offer careers advice to current students and/or other Newcastle
alumni. Hundreds of alumni have already expressed an interest so far, and
in the next few days the Careers Service will be launching a web-based directory of Careers Advisors for access by current Newcastle students. The
Alumni Office will shortly be launching a related service called NUlinks (as
USA ALUMNI TO FUND STUDENT AWARDSAlumni in the United States have responded warmly to a letter from Professor Terry Davies (MB BS 1971, MD 1978, Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York) seeking contributions to a Fund to support an alumni-sponsored exchange of students between Newcastle and the USA. The Fund aims to support an annual cycle of Newcastle students taking work placements in the States over the summer, and to provide bursaries for students from the USA wishing to study at Newcastle. Sufficient has already been donated to plan for two awards (one student in each direction!) for 2001. For more information contact Terry Davies at tdavies@smtplink.mssm.edu.
RESEARCH INTO EFFECTS OF CANNABISProfessor Heather Ashton of the University's Psychiatry Department has
claimed that far from being a relatively harmless "soft" drug, cannabis can
cause immense harm. Writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry, Professor
Ashton says the drug can affect almost every bodily system. For more information see the BBC's new Tyneside pages at:
NUGRAD NETWORK GROWINGThe Alumni Association's new on-line Directory - NUgrad - was launched
shortly before Christmas. Over 2,500 alumni have already signed up. Once
you are registered you can run searches for other alumni by department, by
yeargroup, by country of residence or by surname, and you can go back in to
update your record using your own password. All you need to be able to use
the site is your alumni reference number. For further details visit the
UNIVERSITY EXHIBITION CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF THE BEST OF BRITISH ARTA collection of rarely seen masterpieces representing the major developments
in British painting over the last 50 years opened recently at the University's Hatton Gallery. Large scale, bold, bright and colourful images
are the key to this collection of works by the cream of British artists,
from well-established names such as L S Lowry, Graham Sutherland, and Tradition and Innovation: British Painting from the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Art Collection runs in the Hatton Gallery from 27 January to 10 March 2001. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10.00am to 5.30pm and Saturday 10.00am to 4.30pm. Admission is free. For further information contact the Gallery on 0191 222 6059.
ALUMNI EVENTS ON THE WEBDon't forget to visit the alumni home pages every now and again to make sure
you're not missing out on current and future alumni events. The Events
page currently features details of dozens of confirmed and planned reunions
by department and yeargroup taking place at various stages during the year.
Visit http://www.ncl.ac.uk/alumni/events/
for further information. If you're interested in getting a group of contemporaries together, whatever Hoping all members of alum-news have had a happy and healthy start to 2001.
Chris Cox Newcastle Alumni can register for 'NUgrad' (an interative on-line database) - today at
|