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26 November 2009 |
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 News
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• New
LSE website launches this week
Black, white and red all over - these are the colours of the new LSE
website to be launched this Friday 27 November. When you log on to the new
site you will find yourself on an intranet, specifically designed to serve
LSE students and staff. It will link to the externally-facing home page,
which will trumpet the lively discussion that runs through LSE's research,
new books and public events each week. The main School pages, the Library
website, and a number of academic departments and research centres will
spearhead the change, with the rest of the LSE website following.
From 30 November notices and other news will be posted on the School's
intranet, Staff and students, instead of in the grey login box that
currently appears when you log into a School computer. If you have a message
for this site, please email
pressoffice@lse.ac.uk and see lse.ac.uk/intranet to view the latest
notices.
Note: If you are involved in editing pages on the LSE website - i.e. an
editor or contributor - you should already have received information from
Web Services on these changes. Please see
Editors and Contributors for more information.
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• Head of Estates
Julian Robinson has been appointed Director of Estates (Management
and Development) at LSE.
Julian, who is currently Director of Planning and Development, formally
begins his new role on Tuesday and will be service leader for
the Division.
Julian's appointment comes as Chris Higgins, who has been Director of
Estates since February 2008, is leaving the School on Monday to
enjoy his retirement. In his short period at the School, Chris has made
significant contributions, in particular personally overseeing the
redevelopment of the Fourth Floor Restaurant and the new disabled access to
the Peacock Theatre, and making a number of key staff appointments to
improve the quality of estates services.
Allan Blair continues as Director of Facilities Management. His
responsibilities will expand over the coming year to include delivery of
facility management services to the residential estate.
An updated organisation chart for the Estates Division including
facilities management will be published in December.
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• LSE
Catering - considering the environment
Organising a reception or dinner? Then why not use LSE branded purified
water, available in still and sparkling.
Everyday drinking water is purified and bottled on site, into the new
returnable, reusable LSE branded bottles. This new initiative is part of LSE
catering's continuing commitment to helping the environment.
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• Longer
maternity leave in the UK would stop women getting to the top, warns LSE
expert
Harriet Harman's plans to extend maternity leave would create a backlash
against young women, making it harder for them to reach the top, a LSE
sociologist has warned.
The equalities bill, introduced by Ms Harman, Minister for Women, which is
making its way through Parliament, aims to protect women in the workplace.
It emulates Sweden, where maternity leave has been extended to three years
and fathers are forced to take paternity leave.
But in an article for Prospect magazine, Dr Catherine Hakim argues
the move would backfire, prompting employers to avoid hiring or promoting
younger women.
More
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• LSE takes master class to Valencia
LSE Enterprise, with the LSE
Cañada Blanch Centre, have signed a new agreement for an ‘LSE master
class on
growth and innovation.’
The project, which will be led by Professor Luis Garicano, will take
place in February 2010 at the National
Finance Congress in Valencia, Spain. Planned to be an
annual event, the project will take three senior LSE academics to Valencia,
where they will propose
and discuss new economic models and policies for helping the autonomous
community of Valencia, and Spain in general, re-invent its economic
model and move ‘from bricks to brains.'
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• Dr
Stephen Humphreys on climate change
Dr Stephen Humphreys was among the speakers at the Swedish Human Rights
Forum on Monday 16 November in Stockholm, where over 2,000 delegates met to
discuss climate change and human rights.
Dr Humphreys discussed the adequacy of human rights law in the face of
climate change. He also featured in a broadcast on the Swedish television
station SVT about a mock trial of humanity in which he participated, that
envisaged looking back on the devastation of climate change from the future. |
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 Notices
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• Spanish in motion
The Language Centre invites you to the first Spanish in Motion session
of this academic year. Spanish in Motion focuses on the use of
documentary films and cinema techniques in the acquisition of Spanish
for specific purposes (i.e. the social, political and economic
sciences).
On Tuesday 1 December, the centre will be screening 'Songs for after a
war' (Canciones para después de una guerra, 1971). The film will be in
Spanish with English subtitles.
In this documentary, the Spanish film director, Basilio Martín Patino,
presents a collage of images, voices and songs to tell us about the Spanish
Civil War, the post-war and Franco. It is an emotive and playful but
implacable portrait of that period. The film uses a complex montage
technique to create new meanings, going beyond the conventions of the so
called documentary cinema. It was banned by the censors for five years and
was not released until 1976, after Franco's death.
After the film, there will be a panel discussion on the issues raised by
the film. Speakers will include Professor Helen Graham, Spanish writer Lala
Isla and Professor Paul Preston.
More
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• Planning
and Corporate Policy Division Customer Survey 2009-10
The
Planning and Corporate Policy Division is conducting a survey to help
them gauge the effectiveness of their services, and also their visibility
within the School. Please take a few minutes to give them your feedback and
be in with the chance of winning £50 of Amazon vouchers.
The survey will run until Friday 18 December and can be found
here.
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• Staff
portrait dates
Nigel Stead, School photographer, will be holding a staff portrait
photo session on Thursday 3 December. The session will
be held in room A22 from 11am-1pm and 2-4pm.
New staff (or old staff who need to update their existing pictures) can
turn up at any time in the given time slots and there is no need to book.
All pictures are in colour and in a digital format and will be supplied to each
department/centre on a CD. Hard copy prints will not be provided. Pictures
will be sent after post production, which can take up to two weeks after the
shoot.
The cost is £15 per head charged to the department/centre and staff are
asked to bring their budget codes with them on the day. For more information, contact Nigel Stead at
n.stead@lse.ac.uk
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• ITS
Newsletter - subscribe today
The termly staff newsletter with all the latest news and information about
IT Services is now available, click
here.
Some of the articles in this term’s edition include:
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New email and H: space quotas
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Protect your own computer with free anti-virus
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IT support - now available 24/7
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AutoPowerOff - new service for staff
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Connecting your laptop to LSE resources
Make sure you don’t miss out on future newsletters -
subscribe today.
You can also keep up-to-date with the latest ITS news, by subscribing to
the news feed
Not familiar with RSS?
Learn about RSS and how to use it.
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• Run, Santa, Run
A group from the Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society will
be running 5k in full Santa suits to raise money for Community Links, a
charity which support vulnerable children and families in East London.
To give the team a helping hand, the society will also be manning a stall
on Houghton Street over the next two weeks with lots of things on offer,
including:
- Freshly made gingerbread men
- Krispy Kreme doughnuts
- Hot chocolate with marshmallows
Make sure you pop by and help them raise lots of money. For more
information, visit www.lsehkpass.com
or email su.soc.hkpass@lse.ac.uk
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• Producers looking for contributors for new show
Hat Trick Productions are in the early stages of a search for
contributors to a new
television series called 'Make Me British' which looks at the nation we are
today through the eyes of those who have chosen to make it their home.
They are hoping to chat to anyone who is new to the UK and is willing to
tell them about their experiences on camera. These short interviews will not
be shown on television. The series will celebrate all that makes Britain
what it is today in 2009.
If you are interested in taking part please email
amyw@hattrick.com or call 0207 184
6748. |
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 Research
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• Gulf
States carbon cuts will come from projects not people
Large-scale sustainable energy projects are more likely to be successful at
cutting carbon emissions in the Gulf States than initiatives aimed at
consumers and businesses according to a new report published by LSE.
The report's authors, Steffen Hertog and Giacomo Luciani, point out that,
although the residential sector is responsible for the bulk of electricity
consumption and there is a high domestic consumption of fuels such as petrol
and diesel, it will be too difficult politically to tackle this through, for
example, increasing prices or regulation.
More
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• Flu
study suggests pandemic panic would have more impact than the disease
itself
School closures and fear-induced absence from work are likely to have more
impact on the UK economy during a serious influenza pandemic than the
disease itself, according to new research conducted at LSE.
While the H1N1 virus appears to pose little threat at present, the report
examines what would happen in the event of a much more serious pandemic in
the future, such as the avian flu virus, H5N1.
The report, published in the British Medical Journal, studied
several potential responses to a pandemic, such as school closures and a
wide vaccination programme. The authors concluded that, whilst the disease
itself would have an impact, fear-induced school closures and absences from
work were likely to be far more detrimental to the UK economy. They also
advised that having sufficient stocks of vaccine would help substantially
reduce the economic cost of a pandemic.
More
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• Research
opportunities
Candidates interested in applying for any research opportunities should
contact Michael Oliver in the
Research and Project Development Division at
m.oliver@lse.ac.uk or call ext 7962.
The Research and Project Development Division maintains a regularly
updated list of
research funding opportunities for academic colleagues on their website.
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• RPDD
Research e-Briefing
Click
here
to read the October edition of the RPDD newsletter. To sign up
for research news, recent research funding opportunities, research awards
that are about to start, and examples of research outcomes, click
here. The next issue is out
at the end of November 2009.
More
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 Events
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• Don't miss the LSE Christmas Concert
Tickets are now available for the Christmas Concert, and can be purchased
at the SU Reception or at the Thursday lunchtime concerts.
LSE Choir and Orchestra Christmas Concert
Tuesday 8 December at 7.30pm in St Clement Dane's Church
Other public lectures and events include:
The Global Economics Crisis: one year in
Monday 30 November at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Professor Tim Besley, Professor Willem Buiter,
Professor Charles Goodhart, and Professor Chris Pissarides
The Value of Nothing
Tuesday 1 December at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Raj Patel
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• Media and Identity: reporting the Rwandan genocide
Tuesday 1 December at 5-6.30pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Two survivors of the Rwandan genocide, Patrick Iregura and Serge
Rwigamba, join Channel 4 News' World Editor Lindsey Hilsum to reflect on
how the story was told before, during and after the brutal events. They
will examine the gaps between reality on the ground during times of mass
atrocity and humanitarian crisis, and the public's perception of it, as
gleaned from the media in the West.
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on
a first come, first served basis. For more information, email
arts@lse.ac.uk or phone 020 7955
6043. More
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• Jazz trio with Asaf Sirkis (drums)
Thursday 3 December at 1.05-2pm in the Shaw Library, Old Building
An exciting electric mix of original materials written by Asaf Sirkis
and some Jazz standards arranged for this particular trio. The
Guardian has called him 'devastatingly creative' and All About
Jazz enthused 'Asaf Sirkis has earned a reputation as one of the
world's premier drummers.'
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• Business History Unit seminars
On Monday 30 November, Cristina Moreira of the University of Minho will discuss
The Business of Smuggling: Iberian contraband in the first half of the
19th Century.
This seminar will be held in room G305, 20 Kingsway Building. For more
information contact Terry Gourvish on ext 7073 or email
t.r.gourvish@lse.ac.uk
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• Risk and performance management in major UK public and private
sector organisations: a tale of contrasting cultures
Tuesday 1 December at 1-2.30pm in the CARR seminar room G305
Professor Margaret Woods, from the Nottingham University Business
School, will deliver this public lecture. For more information, click
here.
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 60
Second Interview
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• with..... Lesley Causley, manager of the Fourth Floor Restaurant
Lesley has worked in catering at LSE for 28 years. She started on the fourth floor where the new
café is. Back then it was a pizza/burger restaurant. She met her husband Patrick at LSE and they had their wedding reception in the SDR. Lesley now tells you why you should visit the Fourth Floor Restaurant.
What are the opening hours and
where is it situated?
We are open from 9am to 7pm,
Monday to Friday and we are on the
fourth floor of the Old Building.
What do you have on the
breakfast menu and what has proved
most popular so far?
We have a full English cooked
breakfast that offers any five items
for £2.30, which includes a free cup
of tea. We also offer healthier
options although the full English is
proving to be very popular...
Is the restaurant
self-service?
Parts of the restaurant are like
the fish and chips and salad bar. We
serve the main meals and our famous
stir-fry is cooked to order. The
customers are able to select their
own fresh vegetables from a wide
selection on the salad bar then
choose which oil and base of rice or
noodles, chicken, prawn or tofu and
then watch it cooked in front of
them.
Do you ever produce themed
menus, when you offer delights from
other countries?
Everyday the main menu is based
on a different country but we do
special theme days that we run in
conjunction with LSE societies. It
doesn't cost them any money just a
little bit of time. We ask them to
bring in flags and music, they write
the menu and we try and get it as
authentic as possible. We have been
running a Mexican, Indian and
Chinese week with the relevant
societies for several years now. We
would like to see more societies
coming forward to do theme days.
How many catering staff do you
employ and what is the capacity of
the restaurant?
We have 21 staff working on the
fourth floor and that includes the
café. The restaurant can seat just
under 400 people but will turn over
around 2500 people a day.
What do you offer in the way
of snacks and sandwiches?
We have a small range of
sandwiches in the Fourth Floor
Restaurant but make sandwiches to
order in the Fourth Floor Café.
Pizza slices are available all day
from 11.30am until 7pm and of course
we have tempting cakes in both the
restaurant and café.
What is your favourite dish?
I love Robert's,
the lunch chef's, curries.
When I came to LSE I had never eaten
a curry in my life and used to turn
my nose up at it. He made me try a
korma one day and now it’s the
hotter the better for me. I have had
many curries outside LSE but
love Robert's rogan josh. |
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 Training
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• Academic,
personal and professional development courses for staff
Courses on offer next week include:
- Tuesday 1 December
Moodle quiz training
Excel 2003: shortcuts and basic formulas
- Wednesday 2 December
Endnote manage your references
Meditation
- Thursday 3 December
Moodle next steps training
Communicating your research beyond academia
- Friday 4 December
Keeping up to date
For a full listing of what is available and further details, including
booking information please see
www.lse.ac.uk/training |
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 Media
bites
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• Guardian
(25 November)
A growing lack of trust
Christine Whitehead, professor of housing economics at LSE, comments:
'In London, for instance, the average house price is very high but there
are also a lot of poor people, so housing benefit takes the strain and
many are dependent on benefits, unable to work,' she says. 'There does
need to be greater rent flexibility, but there's no simple solution.
This is a problem we've been trying to solve for 50-100 years.'
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• Guardian
(24 November)
University investigates hacking of climate emails as scientists reject
collusion claims
Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the Grantham Research
Institute on Climate Change at LSE, called for an investigation into the
theft and online publication of hundreds of emails sent by scientists in
The University of East Anglia's climate research unit.
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• The
New York Review of Books (December 2009)
Velvet Revolution: the
prospects
'The last is the most demanding. I like the new definition of revolution
- or definition of new-style revolution - offered by George Lawson in
his valuable book Negotiated Revolutions. Revolution, he
suggests, is "the rapid, mass, forceful, systemic transformation of a
society's principal institutions and organizations." (This rightly
implies that mass nonviolent action can be "forceful" without being
bloody.)'
Reference to the book Negotiated Revolutions written by Dr George
Lawson, lecturer in the Department of International Relations at LSE.
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