Vice-Chancellor Takes Office

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 16

Vice-Chancellor Takes Office

“I must see the men, I must see the things”—this quotation from Burke was used by the new ViceChancellor of the University of Canterbury (Professor N. C. Phillips) when asked, on taking office yesterday, what he considered were the immediate tasks ahead.

“Even after more than 20 years here as a teacher, I have still many personal, physical, academic, and administrative details to master. Plans and policies that are not founded on an accurate grasp of detail are dangerous forms of self-delusion,” he said.

“I foresee some weeks and even months spent, as time permits, in trying to fill in the background. I shall look forward to seeing colleagues within the university and people outside, both official and private. There are buildings to be more closely inspected and a site to be carefully explored. There are files to be studied, regulations to be re-read, and an administrative machine to be more fully comprehended. “Meanwhile, as routine business goes on, some items appear high on the agenda: certain administrative appointments, several new academic developments, pressure to sustain the momentum of building at Ham, and preparation of claims for the next quinquennial grant (though the present one does not end until 1969). In a long dialogue we shall be hammering out together an order of priorities,” said Professor Phillips.

Some consequential appointments are needed. Professor A. Crowther has been elected deputy-chairman of the Professorial Board in succession to Professor Phillips: a new pro-vice-chancellor will be elected in place of Professor A. J. Danks, who will leave this month to become chairman of the University Grants Committee; and Professor Phillips’s former chair of history will be advertised.

Spread Of Duties

Professor Phillips emphasised that the distribution of top administrative responsibilities would not necessarily be the same as in the past. Professor Phillips hopes all members of staff will find him “approachable and ac-

cessible.” He hopes also to call on every department at least once a year. “I attach very great importance to the grass-roots views of the staff,” he said. Likewise Professor Phillips wants to keep in close touch with students. "I hope always to be able to address freshers, I intend to confer with student leaders regularly, and I hope to devise means of helping the whole student body to understand better the functions and problems of the university, with a free flow of ideas up and down,” he said.

its second century. Professor Phillips expects to honour previous commitments. He will continue as an adviser on New Zealand war histories, he will continue as editor of a five-volume history of Europe (though he may not now be able to write one of the volumes himself), and he expects the final volume of the Canterbury centennial histories to be completed soon.

Professor Phillips has promised himself “one luxury I could never afford as a professor—l hope to do the bulk of university work in my

office and not at home.” This will enable him to spend time with his family: keep up his personal reading in history (“I will need something to occupy my mind when I retire”); cultivate a neglected field of modern novels, follow his interest in painting and architecture, and enjoy his favourite pastime of walking. All this, Professor Phillips said, would help In determining the direction in which the university wanted to go and the kind of university Canterbury would be in spite of