LSE does it again!
LSE has won the Cityfathers Best for All Stages of Fatherhood Award. This is the sixth year the School has been recognised for its family friendly policies.

Wheelie important notice
Students and staff are reminded not to leave their bikes on the plaza bike racks on Friday 3 July as the Party on the Plaza event will be taking place

Amy Mollett, Social Media Manager at LSE, finds Pinterest a good cure for social media fatigue, and seems to be swapping her midlands accent for an east London twang.  

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LSE does it again!

LSE has won the Cityfathers Best for All Stages of Fatherhood Award and was also named as a Shared Parental Leave pioneer.

This is the fifth year the School has been recognised for its family friendly policies by Top Employers for Working Families. The Top Employers for Working Families Benchmark and Awards, founded by Working Families, recognise employers who have a long track record in family friendly and flexible working that continue to adjust and refine policies in response to employee and business needs.

As Sarah Jackson, CEO Working Families stated: “Getting it right can be a challenge, and one of the questions we asked this year was about evidence: how do you know that what you are doing is working? Fortunately, staff at the School are saying that the policies and procedures are working for them and the School. It is hoped that they will continue to spread the word."
 

Mike Redmayne, Professor of Law at LSE, has died at the age of 47.

He started his career at the University of Manchester in 1993, moving to Brunel in 1997 and then, in 1999, to LSE, where he taught until only a few weeks before his death.

Mike’s contribution to academic life was impeccable, his service to LSE exemplary. He sat on various Departmental and School committees and was awarded the 2008 Departmental teaching prize in recognition of his consistently high scores in student surveys and his exceptional contribution to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

Professor Peter Miller was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Paris-Dauphine on Thursday 4 June.

In his presentation at the Ceremony, Professor Berland paid tribute to Professor Miller’s distinctive contribution to the institutional analysis of accounting, and his many influential studies of the links among accounting, organizing and economizing in both the private and public sector. He also noted the impact his work has had on the French academic community.

Did you know? David Rockefeller, who celebrated his 100th birthday this month and is reputedly the oldest living billionaire in the world, studied at LSE 1937-38. Read more in LSE – Rockefeller’s Baby? by Mick Cox on the LSE History blog.

LSE academic advises Greek Debt Truth Committee

Dr Margot Salomon (pictured), LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Law Department and Professor Olivier De Schutter of the University of Louvain, have prepared a legal brief for the Special Committee of the Hellenic Parliament on the audit of the Greek Debt (Debt Truth Committee).

The paper, written at the request of the Speaker of the Greek Parliament, Zoe Konstantopolou, and the Special Committee of the Hellenic Parliament on the Audit of the Greek Debt (Debt Truth Committee), gives advice on social rights violations and the international responsibility of creditors.  

Covering the period 2010 to the present date, the legal brief unpacks the actors and vehicles through which the conditionalities were imposed on Greece and addresses the breach of human rights obligations and the questions of international responsibility. The authors examine the responsibility of the following actors: the Euro Area Member States, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the Council of the European Union, the EU Member States, the International Monetary Fund, the Members States of the IMF, and Greece.

Dr Margot Salomon, Associate Professor in LSE's Law Department, said: "The social rights obligations of states and institutions were ignored during the crafting of conditionalities imposed on Greece for the receipt of loans, with terrible consequences. Now is the time for accountability."

Read the full brief here.
 

Science undergraduates from Imperial College are joining forces with LSE undergraduates to conduct a unique series of research projects on the theme of social change in London under the LSE/Imperial GROUPS 2015 programme.

Imperial’s 25 undergraduates will work with around 70 LSE students on the intensive two week course, taking place at LSE from 22 June to 3 July. They are working full-time in groups of 5-6 with a dedicated research supervisor.

We are coming to the end of the last academic year to feature three ten-week terms. From the 2015-16 session, the School will be moving to a new structure of two 11-week teaching terms followed by a seven-week Summer Term. An additional exam period will also be held in the week prior to the start of Lent Term.

I would like to convey my thanks to academic departments for the significant work they have undertaken to prepare for the new academic year structure. Students will benefit from an exciting array of teaching and additional learning activities during the extra term-time weeks. The new Lent Term 'Week 0' exam period also creates the opportunity for appropriate half-unit courses to be examined at a time closer to teaching, something students have requested.

I am also grateful to professional services divisions who have worked hard to realign their services with the new structure.

Teaching Quality (TQARO has prepared a set of FAQs for departments for departments that provides further details about the important dates and features of the new academic year structure. It has also produced a timeline of the new year, here. A set of FAQs for students has also been prepared.

Provost's termly briefings for professional services staff

Deputy Director and Provost Stuart Corbridge’s termly briefing with professional services staff will take place in the Shaw Library, Old Building on Wednesday 1 July at 2.30pm and Thursday 2 July at 10.30am.

The agenda for both days is as follows:

Wednesday 1 July

• 2.30-2.35pm Paul Kelly, Pro Director: welcome and introduction
• 2.35-3.10pm Craig Calhoun, Director and President will update colleagues on the State of the School
• 3.10-3.40pm Shaun Harris, Deputy Director and Careers Education and Advice Manager, LSE Careers, will talk about the Careers Service's plans for the next five years as well as presenting some of the latest data on the types of jobs LSE students go on to when they graduate.
• 3.40-3.55pm Julian Robinson, Director of Estates, will update colleagues on the progress of the Centre Buildings Redevelopment works currently underway.

Thursday 2 July

• 10.30-10.35am Stuart Corbridge, Deputy Director and Provost: welcome and introduction
• 10.35-11.10am Paul Kelly, Pro Director will update colleagues on the State of the School
• 11.10-11.40pm Shaun Harris, Deputy Director and Careers Education and Advice Manager, LSE Careers, will talk about the Careers Service's plans for the next five years as well as presenting some of the latest data on the types of jobs LSE students go on to when they graduate.  
• 11.40-11.55am Julian Robinson, Director of Estates, will update colleagues on the progress of the Centre Buildings Redevelopment works currently underway.
  

Each presentation will be followed by a 15 minute Q&As session. These will be Professor Corbridge's last briefings before he takes up the post of Vice Chancellor of Durham University. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible

Students and staff are reminded not to leave their bikes on the plaza bike racks on Friday 3 July as the Party on the Plaza event will be taking place.

LSESU Memorabilia shop relocated

As part of the Centre Buildings Redevelopment decant, the LSESU Memorabilia shop has been relocated to Lincoln Chambers on Portsmouth Street (between George IV pub and SAW) and opened its door to customers on Monday 15 June. The remaining part of the LSESU shop in Lincoln’s Chambers will open on 1 July.
 

LSE Student Stewards were on hand all last week to help staff, students and visitors find their way around campus following the start of the Centre Buildings Redevelopment.

Research funders and academic journals increasingly expect research data be preserved and shared where possible, and that a process of management underpins design, collection, storage, and re-use of research data. In response, the Library now provides Research Data Management (RDM) support pages.

These pages help with RDM from planning research right through to offering data preservation and re-use. They provide information about good RDM practice, services the Library and other areas of the School can provide to assist with RDM matters, plus links to relevant policies, documents, and useful further readings.

The new pages complement existing RDM training. These drop-in sessions can be booked via the LSE Training and Development system and will run through the year.

Arrangements are currently underway for the School’s next staff survey, which will be undertaken during Michaelmas Term 2015-16. A Staff Survey Steering Group has been set up to oversee the planning, communication and implementation of the survey. We hope that as many staff as possible take part in the next survey and use the opportunity to let the School know what it is doing well, and what could be done better.

Are you a cyclist? If not, would you like to be?

LSE’s Health and Social Care Green Impact Team and LSE Cities are conducting a travel survey to seek your views on facilities around campus for cyclists. Even if you have no intention of ever being a cyclist, they would still like to hear from you.

To take part in the survey, go to http://delivr.com/2hm96. The survey has been extended to 1 July. Participants can enter a draw to win one of two £25 Waterstones vouchers.

On Friday 18 September, Advancement will welcome more than 500 parents of incoming undergraduates to campus for information sessions, tours of campus and a reception where they will have a chance to meet LSE staff and other parents sending their child to university.

Salto fob services suspended for two days

Securities have scheduled a Salto server upgrade for Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 June. This means that all Salto services will be suspended, including fob updates and issuing or reprogramming of new fobs for the campus and the Halls of Residences.

Research Briefing

Stay on top of the schools latest research funding, research ethics and policy, knowledge exchange and impact related news by subscribing to the Research Briefing designed for LSE academics, research staff and professional services.

Read our interview with Kathleen Scanlon, Research Fellow in LSE London and Chair of LSE's Research Staff Association (RSA) in June’s Research Briefing. To subscribe, email Researchdivision@lse.ac.uk 
 

Northbank Summer Festival

The Northbank Summer Festival, which kicks of on Monday 29 June, will include a free festival screening of the first rounds of Wimbledon in the beautiful Victoria Embankment Gardens, with music and more!

Come and enjoy the tennis with Savoy éclairs, Hotel Chocolat nibbles and Champagne+Fromage hampers. The event will also feature a collaborative community art piece, bee hotel-making workshop, hawking demo, Real Food Festival, charity picnic sponsored by Champagne+Fromage … and of course the mandatory strawberries and cream, and Pimms.

#NorthbankSummer for a chance to win prizes! More
 

Purrrrfect kittens available

Six beautiful tortoiseshell kittens with diverse colouring are available. They have not been sexed yet and will be ready to leave their mother from mid-August. £100 per kitten. Please contact Helen Reece, h.reece@lse.ac.uk
 

Are there specific topics you’d love a quick lesson on in Excel, PowerPoint or other Microsoft Office applications? Want a quick way to get your head around macros?

Microsoft has a free 15 minute video tutorial that will get you started on macros.

Tutorials on this free online training portal cover a huge range of topics in all versions of MS Office applications from 2007 onward. In addition, the IT Training Team can create an account for you to access whatever level(s) of training you require on any Office application through the online Microsoft Academy. (please contact IT.training@lse.ac.uk).

If you’d like internationally recognised certification of your advanced Office skills, enroll in LSE’s Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification programme. This provides internationally recognised, industry standard qualifications for your CV. Certification is offered at three levels: Specialist, Expert (Word and Excel only) and Master. Expert and Master levels demand very advanced skills, including use of macros and VBA. There are separate exams for each program (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc).

You are invited to lunchtime Praise and Worship sessions with LSE Rejoice every Friday at 12-1pm in the LSE Faith Centre, second floor of Saw Swee Hock Student Centre.

Security officer and former boxer Daniel Beckley is running skip fit lessons for all staff and students at LSE. Build up your fitness, burn calories and increase your stamina, all within an hour.

The next lessons will take place from 1-2pm at the Badminton Court, Old Building, on Tuesday 30 June, Tuesday 7 July, Tuesday 21 July, Tuesday 28 July, Tuesday 11 August, and Tuesday 18 August. Just turn up on any of these dates with your own skipping rope. All lessons are free.

This week's picture features.....

Due for demolition. A cartoon depicting a political infant or 'Poupon Politique', from the Normaland Wall by the artist Michel Herreria. The frieze of words and associated images from famous intellectuals or politicians was commissioned in 2010 by the Language Centre over two flights of stairs in Clare Market Building.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

On Wednesday 29 July at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Ryan Pyle

Join adventurer and renowned photographer, Ryan Pyle, as he recounts how he spent months exploring and photographing Western China’s remote Sacred Mountains in an effort to better understand these most sacred Tibetan regions. 

Other forthcoming events at LSE include:

Still Pushing for the Humanities
Date: Monday 29 June 2015 6.30pm
Location: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (pictured)

Above the Parapet - Women in Public Life
Date: Tuesday 30 June 2015 6.30pm
Location: Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Professor Ruth Simmons

When Firms Become Persons and Persons Become Firms: neoliberal jurisprudence in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores
Date: Wednesday 01 July 2015 6.30pm
Location: Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Professor Wendy Brown

On Monday 29 June at 6.30-8pm in NAB.1.04
Speakers: Stephen Booth, Open Europe, Lucy Thomas (pictured), Business for New Europe, and Peter Wilding, British Influence

‘Influence’ is a key measure of a member state’s effectiveness within the collective decision making of the EU, but ‘influence’ is an elusive commodity which can be hard to measure. As the EU’s ‘awkward customer’, does Britain materially damage its national interests or is Britain’s track record as an EU agenda-setter more creditable than it is often given credit for? A panel of experts will debate the issue.

This event is free and open to all. Admission is on a first come, first served basis. More
 

Would ‘Brexit’ spell the end of European defence?

On Tuesday 30 June at 6.30-8pm in NAB 1.04
Speakers: Dr Claire Chick (pictured), Franco-British Council, Dr Bastian Giegerich, International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Professor Karen Smith, LSE

Britain and France are nuclear powers, partners in NATO and the EU, permanent members of the UN Security Council, and are Europe’s leading security actors. Together they represent the EU’s best (only?) hope of building a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and, finally, sharing with the US the burden of collective Western defence in an increasingly unstable and dangerous world. Britain and France have taken major steps to pool their defence capabilities. What do they need to do to be more effective global security actors? A panel of defence and foreign policy experts will debate the options.

On Thursday 2 July at 6.30-8pm in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Michael Maccoby (pictured); Panelists: Marc Stears, Mari Sako; Moderator: Stefan Stern

Leadership training is big business around the globe. But can leadership really be taught? What does it take to lead nations, global cities, and corporations today with declining authority and sceptical populations?

Twitter hashtag: #LSELeaders

On until Saturday 11 July in the Atrium Gallery, Old Building (Mon-Fri 10am-8pm; Sat 12-5pm)

This exhibition, in association with LSE Arts, showcases the most stimulating and challenging responses to Theatrum Mundi’s 2015 ideas competition 'Designing the Urban Commons'.

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Hubris: why economists failed to predict the crisis and how to avoid the next one
Speaker: Professor Lord Meghnad Desai
Recorded: Wednesday 27 May 2015, approx. 84 minutes

Flood of Fire
Speaker: Amitav Ghosh
Recorded: Friday 29 May 2015, approx. 59 minutes  

Thursday 9 July, 9.30am-4.30pm
Led by: Prof John Wakeford (Missenden Centre)

Would you like to know what makes a successful grant application? Bidding for research funds is becoming increasingly competitive and professional; this workshop will help you understand how to start developing a research idea into a funding application, engage with collaborators and identify potential funders. In this full day programme participants will get individual and group feedback on an idea or draft proposal.

Participants are invited to provide a draft or previously unsuccessful bid for discussion in confidence. This will be returned to you at the end of the workshop with colleagues’ suggestions.

Research Division and TLC is delighted to run this popular workshop for the second time this year. The workshop is aimed at academics and researchers who are relatively new to writing research proposals and those who wish to refresh their grant writing skills. It will be delivered by Professor John Wakeford who runs the Missenden Masterclasses from the Missenden Centre.

Below are some of the vacancies currently being advertised:

• Accounts Assistant RCSD, Residential and Catering Services Division
• Assistant Financial Controller, Finance Division
• Assistant Registrar: Teaching, Quality and Review (internal), Academic Registrar's Division
• CEP/CVER Research Economist or Research Assistant, Centre for Economic Performance
• Coordinating Language Teacher (French) (internal applicants ONLY), Language Centre
• Department Manager, Strategy and Resources, Law
• Deputy Director for Constituency Relations, LSE Advancement
• Deputy Director of Development, LSE Advancement
• Development Events Coordinator, LSE Advancement
• Digital Marketing Officer, Management
• Disability Adviser, TLC: Disability Office
• Financial Accountant, Finance Division
• Graduate Administrator, Geography and Environment
• Graduate Admissions Communications and Customer Service Manager (June 2015), ARD: Graduate Admissions
• HR Administrator (Visas), Human Resources
• HR Analyst, HR Specialists
• Head of Digital Scholarship and Innovation, Library: Resources and Innovation
• IGC Policy Communications Manager, International Growth Centre
• LSE (Post-Doctoral) Fellow in Political Science, Government
• LSE Fellow in EU Politics, European Institute
• LSE Fellow in Health Economics (two positions), Social Policy
• LSE Fellow in Health Policy, Social Policy
• LSE Fellow in International Political Economy (two positions), International Relations
• LSE Fellow in Local Economic Development, Geography and Environment
• LSE Fellow in Population Health and Social Epidemiology, Social Policy
• LSE Fellow in Public Policy and Administration, Government
• LSE Fellows in Accounting, Accounting
• Planning Officer (Policy and Review), Planning Unit
• Research Officer (0.4FTE), Centre for Analysis of Time Series
• Research Officer (Environment and Development), Grantham Research Institute
• Research Officer (Spatial Analyst), LSE Cities
• Reservations Supervisor, Residential and Catering Services Division
• Senior HR Analyst, HR Specialists
• Senior Library Assistant Procurement and Access, Library: Collections Services
• Vera Douie Fellowship (research position), Gender Institute