Education Portfolio 5 September 2019 Town Hall

Transcript

[Start transcript]

[Music]

[Belinda Tynan]

Good afternoon, everyone. I think it's such grand music that I feel like I am at the Academy Award. I'm going to ask you to bear with me. I'm going to make an entrance. I want a huge round of applause. The light should dim again, and then as I come on stage, the light comes up, huge applause. Got It? Got it. Good. Okay. I think I should [inaudible] *00:00:34.

[Applause] *0:00:41.8.

[Belinda]

Okay, that made me feel very, very special. Thank you, thank you very much. But Wominjeka everyone. It's so lovely to be in the beautiful Capitol Theatre, and I hope you appreciated the little bit of light display that you saw as you came in before. Who's actually been here since it opened? It's beautiful, isn't it? Can you believe RMIT did this? This will live into posterity. It's just amazing. I'll tell you a bit more about that in a moment. For those of you who are new in the portfolio, and I'm talking people who've probably arrived here, I don't know, in the last two or three months. Can you stand up, please? Who are the new people? Can we have the lights on please? New people.

[Applause] *0:01:32.9.

[Belinda]

Fantastic. Welcome to the absolutely fantastic, amazing education portfolio, and what a wonderful group of people you are. All those people who are coming in late, it's okay. You just come in in your own good time. It's all right, Murray, take a seat.

[Belinda]

Dionne, you're not expected. Look, we should give Dionne a round of applause. She's just arrived.

[Applause] *0:01:59.7.

[Belinda]

I'm going to have Q&A with Dionne a little bit later. I'd like to acknowledge the Woi wurrung, the Boon wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and the unceded land on which we hold our fantastic town hall today. I have a little story for you because when we were putting together some of the historical background of The Capitol, we discovered that one of the very first projectionists here was actually an indigenous man and was related to Aunty Di. And so, we actually have a connection with our elders as well, through The Capitol Theatre. So, we were really amazed to actually hear that as well. It's a nice little part of our history to remember.

When we talk about being on the unceded lands, and I mean quite often in my acknowledgments, now I talk about my own relationship and what it means to me. And I'm noticing more and more as I go around the university, and I hear people do their own acknowledgments, especially those people who've done the [Bunji giri] *00:02:59 credential. It takes you through a journey, so that when you get to the end of that, you can actually articulate what you think your acknowledgment might be.

It really feels to me that what we're being taken on as a journey here at our RMIT, is a relationship with country and a relationship with people and a relationship around a deeper understanding about what sovereignty might mean to us all. I think that as you start to personalise what it means for you, you have a great opportunity here at RMIT in this community. It's a very safe place to practice what that relationship means for you. So, be vulnerable, and feel safe, and be open about what that might mean.

Just one little story I told another group this week that I will share with you, is that I'm very lucky this weekend. I'm going up to see Uluru. And I'm taking my 16-year-old nephew and my brother with me. They never go on holidays. It's a huge, big deal that we're doing this together. I rang my nephew earlier in the week and said, "are you ready? Ready to go?" "Yes, aunty B." He calls me aunty B. "Yes, I'm really ready. It's going to be fantastic." I said, "Good." I said, "What are you planning? What should we do?" He goes, "We're going to climb the rock." I said, "Really? Why do you want to climb the rock?"

He goes, "You climbed the rock when you were younger." I said, "Yes, but maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe I should have thought about that. I didn't know really, much any better, but I should have known better." He goes, "No, I'm going to climb the rock. It's what everyone's doing." He goes, "This is the last time we can do it." I said, " yeah mate, just think about it. It's a sacred place to a certain proportion of the community, our indigenous people, but I also feel it might be-- I'm starting to think it's sacred for me too. I feel like I can own a bit of that as well. Would we really like it if we just let people climb over all our other buildings?"

You might know where I'm going here. He goes, "What do you mean?" I said, "I'm going to send you a video clip." I sent him the Chase's video clip. Have you seen the Chase's clip? The Chase's did that piece where they tried to climb a church. Did any of you see it? It's very, very funny. And so, the Chase's went along with the rope, they tried to climb a church with a rope and everything, like you would. When the police came and said, "Why are you doing this?" They said, "Why not do it? We can climb the rock, why can't we climb one of our churches as well?"

After Jaden had a look at that, I called him as a follow-up just to say, we're getting ready to go now, if you've got it sorted, what have you planned, and what we need to book because you can't leave it to the last minute. He said, "aunty B, I've decided not to climb the rock." I said, "Why is that, mate?" He goes, "Instead you and I are going to bike ride around the rock." I said, "Thanks mate, sounds like great fun." Because whenever he comes to Melbourne, we go on these massive bike rides. It's his sole intention to wear me out. I've got to get home huffing and panting and just completely destroyed. We're going to do the bikes instead.

I just thought it was interesting that's-- that's why I feel really lucky here at RMIT, to have been really exposed to what relationship to land might be, to ask those questions. Here he is, a 16-year-old, and I'm wondering his school, if they're helping them ask enough of those questions about why they want to do things, and what these things mean. With that in mind, I'm really excited about catching up with lovey Jaden and his brother Jason. I'm looking forward to my weekend away, but with that in mind, just acknowledge our elder's past, present, and those in the future as well.

Let's get back to The Capitol. It is an amazing place. We have reinstated it in Melbourne as a cultural landmark. And any of you come to-- did any of you come to the films, for the film festival in here? Nobody came? Some people did. Yes, a few hands up there. I came to a few films in here. It just was fabulous to see it being used for the intention that it was built for. I know that the creative community of Melbourne are really appreciating it as well, which is very exciting. It was once described by Robin Boyd as being the best cinema that was ever built or was ever likely to build.

In the late 80s, the film audience knew that if a film is to be shown at The Capitol, then it's a good film. One of the very first films I ever saw here was Towering Inferno, which is a pretty awful film actually, isn't it? Actually, at the time, it was fun, and I was still going to uni, and we came in here, and of course, every time there was fire scenes and lava, the ceiling went all red. It was all tuned into it. It was pretty extraordinary actually. It was fun.

Those of you who've been at RMIT for a long time will know that it went through the history of-- I think the College of Business camped in here for a while too, but really, for the last seven years, it's been reasonably inactive because it just hasn't been a safe place for us to operate in. Now, here it is in all its glory, and I think we should all be really proud that RMIT had a part to play in turning it into the wonderful venue that it is. And for us today, to be in here instead of in Storey Hall, it's really lovely as well. Thanks for taking time to come out of your really busy day, and to be with us all here today.

It's a very special one because we're going to be giving out some of our awards, and I've also invited our Chief Operating Officer, Dionne Higgins, to be on the couches with me, and we've got some questions, and hopefully, you'll ask her some questions too, about what happens in the operations portfolio and how that plays out. I'm also going to ask her a few questions about what she thinks leadership means, and how she sees that displayed at RMIT as well. Hang around for that too. After all that, hopefully, you'll hang around a bit more, and you'll have some tea and coffee and some afternoon tea with us in the foyer. But given we're in a theatre, we should actually play you something. I'm going to play you a video now. Over to you.

[Video playback starts]

Voiceover: We are RMIT. A global university of technology, design, and enterprise. What unites us is our purpose and our values. They are at the heart of who we are, and what we stand for. Our purpose is to offer life-changing experiences for our students, and to shape the world with research, innovation, teaching, and industry engagement. Our six values inspire us, guiding how we work together and make decisions. Inclusion. When we're inclusive, we respect each other, we embrace our differences, we build a sense of belonging in our team and beyond.

Imagination. When we're imaginative, we experiment and explore new ideas, we seek out different views to solve problems, we encourage innovation.

Agility. When we're agile, we adapt to changing needs, we see mistakes as an opportunity to learn, we find new ways to get better results.

Courage. When we're courageous, we act with integrity, we speak out on issues that matter, we are accountable for our actions.

Passion. When we're passionate, we empower people to learn and grow. We care deeply about the work we do and each other and take pride in it.

Impact. We always seek to make a positive impact. Empowering each other to achieve great things and recognising everyone's role in making a difference. By living and working in this way, we will shape the world for the better. It's up to you, it's up to me. Be the heart of RMIT.

[Video playback ends]

[Belinda]

I've got a test for you. Turn to the person next to you and see if you can recite the values. Go.

[Background conversations] *0:10:59.3.

[Belinda]

David Howard, were you able to do that? Okay. Now, hopefully, you got them. Now, given they're the values that we've had for the last few years, hopefully, you got them, but it's highly likely you might have missed one of them or maybe two of them. You never know, but working with another person, you should have been able to fill out that gap. Our values as we know them, sit around inclusion, imagination, agility, courage, passion, and impact, and we've reimagined them in a new way to take us through into this next period of time.

Hopefully, you've all got your values pins, and if you don't have one of those, I know HR will be issuing more of those at some point soon. You should have seen, around the corridors now, all the values have been put up, the posters are up, and all the managers should have this fantastic little box of cards which give us some activities and ways to think about our values as we move forward. It's really important to us all that we don't walk past our values. Every time we walk past them, we condone a set of behaviours and ways of working that we don't want at this institution.

So, I'm really relying on you owning these things, and acting them in the workplace, and when they're not there, call it out because that's the courage that we need. A part of today was to really celebrate the values of many of our people here because we've got our awards, and you've played an incredible role in terms of nominating people, and then we've had the unenviable position of saying, well, who should we give awards to? Because really, everybody who was nominated really deserved to win an award here today. There were a lot of people that came into the list. I was absolutely delighted with the amount of engagement that occurred, in terms of who you nominated.

And quite a few names of people I didn't necessarily know. And what's been really nice is that as I've been doing my walkabouts this week, and meeting different teams, I've been able to put more names to those faces. So, thank you all of you for what you do at RMIT every single day, and how you demonstrate the values already. Thank you to all the people who nominated other people. And some people might be surprised here today to find their names up here on the list. So, I have to do a little bit of a practice on how we're going to do this though. Because we can't really get everyone on and off the stage in a way, not as spectacularly as you took me onto the stage.

I know, but that's how it goes. What I'd like to do is to do a practice for how it's going to work. One of our executive leaders is going to take through each of the categories, and then recipients will be asked to stand to receive their applause. I need to pick somebody out. Now, did I see that Dana was in the house? Oh, Dana. Remember Dana? She's back. How fantastic. Dana, would you stand up for me?

[Applause] * 0:14:02.8.

[Belinda]

Now, Dana, if you were one of our-- no, staty standing, I need you to do something for me. If your name was called out, and we said, "the award goes to Dana." What I'd like to have happen is the lights will come up, and Dana will stand up, and she will face the audience. Face the audience. And we'll give Dana a huge round of applause.

[Applause] * 0:14:27.6.

[Belinda]

Dana will gosh suitably, thank people, thank her mother. That's it. Stroke her hair, do all of those things. You can sit down now Dana. All the people who get their names called out, and we want you to receive the award, we'd like you to stand up, face the audience, you'll get your lovely round of applause at that point too. Then after the whole event, those people who do win an award, I'll tell you what we're going to do, but we'll give you your-- we're going to take some photos with you, and give you your certificates and all of that as well. Hopefully, if you remember those instructions, we'll be tickety-boo.

So, all the recipients are going to receive a $100 gift card, and also $250 against their professional development account as well. So, I know it's a token of the respect we have for you. I do hope that you will use those prizes in the way that they're intended. Now, the first people that I'd like to call up on stage are-- who's coming up first? Let's see if they know who's coming up first. The first award that we've got really, is courage. Is it anyone of you that are coming up here?

[Female speaker]

No, it's you.

[Belinda]

Good. Okay. It's me. I was just checking. I was just checking to see if the executive are on the ball. Wait till Peter Ryan gets up here. Apparently, he's going to dance. Yeah, yeah, right. I have banned him. I've said, "You do not get up here and you do not dance." Okay, so who were the nominees for courage? Let's have a look. Fantastic. Look at that list. Adelle King, Angela Kopelis, Arna Singleton, Beck Hope, David McLay, Lena Kocovic, Marilyn Capper, Safer Communities and Tristan Damon. Let's give them a round of applause. They're all our nominees.

[Applause] * 0:16:16.6.

[Belinda]

Now, when you're nominated in this character-- in this category, courage is really about how we are our best selves. It's what we do right, and not what's just easy. We hold ourselves to account. We back each other up, and we call our actions out, and we just don't accept the status quo. One example of the courage which I reflect on, from within the organisation-wide perspective, is our support last year of marriage equality during the plebiscite. We knew it was the right thing to do from an inclusion perspective.

There were also lots of risks involved. If you remember, both Martin and I came out very publicly to support it in the sector and took us into that public debate. As an organisation, when that was passed, it had a huge impact in terms of how our LGBTQI plus community felt about what we'd done as an organisation, and that's real courage. Everyone in this organisation can really own that moment, but that's what we mean about courage. Let's have a look and see who the winners are.

[Applause] * 0:17:27.3.

[Belinda]

Now, because I'm the first one, and this was-- we had a practice before, we're going to see how well they listened. Could I please have David McLay, Marilyn Capper, the Safer Communities Team, Claire Ong, Helen Haydock, Lisa Negri, Michelle Ginnivan, Renee Handsaker, Sorayia Noorani, plus Tristan Damon, please stand up, and please face the audience. Thank you.

[Applause] * 0:17:57.6.

[Belinda]

Fantastic. And given Marilyn's right in the front row, she got the full feel of that. Well done, Marilyn. Okay. Now, we'll see who's coming up next for the next one, but I have a feeling it's David Howard. Let's give him a round of applause.

[Applause] * 0:18:20.5.

[David Howard]

Passion with purpose. The following nominees all demonstrate the value of passion in their day-to-day work. They are all people who take pride in RMIT and its achievements and are deeply committed to extending and deepening RMIT's positive impact. Not only do these people take pride in RMIT and its achievements, but they actively worked to provide excellence and impact in the work that they do. These people are all people who energise those around them and I, for one, I'm thankful to have people like this around me.

The nominees for Passion with Purpose Awards are, Adam Rowland, Chris Harris, the Corrigan Library Collections Project Team, Danielle Alvarenga, Deborah Wright, Elizabeth McKenzie, Evan Goulas, Jack Dunstan, James Ratasane, Jay Williamson, Kathryn Marriot, Malcolm Thomas, Rebecca Rata, the Student Communications Team, and Sally Tanner.

[Applause] * 0:19:37.2.

[David]

The Passion with Purpose Awards go to Chris Harris, Jack Dunstan, Jay Williamson, Malcolm Thomas, and Sally Tanner.

[Applause] * 0:19:57.8.

[David]

Congratulations.

[Applause] * 0:20:06.7.

[Peter Ryan]

Have I got a moment to dance? I'm only kidding. I'm not going to do that. It is like the Loggies, isn't it? Strangely, I saw Patton-- Bert Newton outside, and I had to turn him away, and said, "Hey, look, wrong place wrong time." Shows my age I suppose, doesn't it? Bring it beyond. Bring it beyond. The nominations, Connect and Student Life Leadership Team, Dale Sneddon, Dene Cicci, Lisa Williams, Mayuko McMillan, and Tass Katsoulidis. Now, I need to give just a little bit of an overview about this before we do.

This award is about someone who is an inspirational leader. And I think about it, and it's about someone, if we look at it, they sail off into the distance, they don't know where the shoreline is anymore, and they've got the passion and courage to go forward and take people with them, but not leaving behind the RMIT values as they go forward. So, someone that we all look up to, and someone that will go beyond, and deliver for the university around our values. Who is the go-lucky winner? The winner is-- congratulations, Dale Sneddon, Lisa Williams.

[Applause] * 0:21:44.2.

[Peter]

Well done.

[Sherman Young]

Thanks Bert. So, the shaping RMIT award is for an employee who demonstrates innovation and creativity. Who is really committed to developing and shaping what this institution should be and could be. I always think that institutions aren't nouns. Instead, they're verbs. They're constantly developing. They're constantly growing, and they're constantly becoming better and better. It's always down to us to be the people who make that change, and to make those institutions better and better. This award is for those staff members who have really shaped RMIT, who are really creating its future.

The nominees are, Adam Rowland, Amanda Pejoski, Chau Dovan, Elissa McKenzie, Joanna Gillespie, Kahan Nguyen, Karen Bird, Melanie Kidman, Michael Cassidy, Nicole Lane, Simon Baynes, Simon Williams, Pauline King and Pauline Tenaglia.

[Applause] *0:23:28.0.

[Sherman]

The winners. Congratulations.

[Applause] *0:23:38.4.

[Sherman]

Adam Rowland, Elissa McKenzie, Karen Bird, Pauline King, Pauline Tenaglia, and Simon Williams. Well done.

[Fiona Ellis]

Goodness. I'm not sure I can see very well. I'm Fiona Ellis, for those of you who don't know me. I'm the Director of Student Wellbeing and Inclusion, and it is my absolute pleasure to be up here today to award the inclusivity champion. We are, as a university, I think far better for our diversity, and the way in which that diversity plays out amongst our students and our staff. We actually listen to those who are different because their ideas challenge us, and we grow stronger together. When we feel like we're included, when we know we belong, we can achieve so much more.

We respect each other, we embrace our difference. We build a sense of belonging in our teams and beyond. The Inclusivity Champion Award is awarded to an individual or a team who has demonstrated efforts to achieve a more inclusive working environment. Who welcomes students and staff from diverse backgrounds, and honours the identity and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations, and they demonstrate this in their daily work.

Can I see the nominees for the Inclusivity Champion Award? The nominees are Adam Rowland, Bec Clarke, Caitlyn Crowley, Dale Sneddon, Elizabeth Langton, Hart Ely-Faulks, the I Belong Team, Megan, Michelle Mathieson, Rob Lazzoratti, and Sean Lynch.

[Applause] *0:26:15.2.

[Fiona]

Okay. Drum roll. May I see the award winners? Congratulations.

[Applause] *0:26:28.2.

[Fiona]

Congratulations to Adam Rowland, Elizabeth Langton, Hart Ely-Faulks, Meghan Jephcott, Rob Lazzoratti, and Sean Lynch. Well done and thank you.

[Applause] * 0:26:54.4.

[Dene Cicci]

Hi, I'm here to present the Agile and Adaptable Award. This is for an employee who shows us they can adapt quickly and effectively to challenges, and work through the opportunities with grace and with passion. Agility at RMIT is about having the opportunity to learn from our setbacks and from our mistakes and get better at what we can do. It's about adapting to our changing needs. If we see a mistake, we see it as an opportunity to improve, and we find new ways to get better results.

A number of years back, I remember reading a book by an author you may have heard of, Brené Brown. Back 10 years ago, she wrote a book called, The Gifts of Imperfection. For me, it was a great book to read back then because I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I don't like being imperfect. What that book helped me to do, was to become aware of how I can use that imperfection, and just get better. By risking and being vulnerable and brave and open to change, and working with that to become a better person, but also to make a bigger contribution.

With that in mind, the nominees for the Agile and Adaptable Award are, Angela Sparks, The Digital Media Team, Franz Abinella, Jacinta Porter, James Ratasane, Jason Pearce, Marnie Ford, Melanie Sordello, Noriko Wakai, Pauline King, Sarah George, Simon Baynes, and Vanna Garrick.

[Applause] *0:28:25.8.

[Dene]

The awards go to-- congratulations to Franz Abinella, Marnie Ford, Sarah George, Simon Baynes, and Vanna Garrick. Please stand up.

[Applause] * 0:28:40.4.

[Dene]

Okay.

[Sue Bolt]

I love my picture. That's great. It's not every day you can get up and disagree with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, but let me tell you, Towering Inferno is a spectacular film. Nothing with Paul Newman or Steve McQueen is not spectacular, in my book. We'll probably be hosting that at some point and playing it here, but here we are with moments that matter.

I think I need my clock to start again because this award is for-- a spectacular staff member or a team who has supported the students in the service and the learning journey at RMIT, and going beyond demonstrating the usual duty of care, and ensuring our students develop that sense of belonging at the time Fiona spoke to. This is really quite personal for me because quite recently, I attended the Student Life Awards, and some of the stories of our students were really quite humbling and deeply affected me. In notion of caring for our community and showing compassion and acknowledging that every moment that matters builds one upon another, I'm really proud to see the nominations as follows.

The nominations are Anna McLeod, Alison Bolger, Claire Ward, Elizabeth McKenzie, the Equitable Learning Services Team, who just do a spectacularly beautiful job. The I Belong Team, who I've known for many years now, Peer Mentoring, who are just absolutely gobsmackingly wonderful, and the Student Wellbeing Operations Team. Just thank you so much, and the nominees and the nominations were just lovely to read.

[Applause] *0:30:48.6.

[Sue]

And the winners are, oh gosh, I'm going to do all these-- no I'm only joking. It's fabulous. I just love it. Alison Bolger, Claire Ward, the I Belong Team, Andrea Brown, Annalise Mathews, Melissa Keenan, Narelle Desmond, stand up.

[Applause] *0:31:10.7.

[Sue]

Anthony Rigbye, Gabe Scomazzon-Ward, Emi Hirao, anyway, I'll go on, you've seen them all, the wonderful Sarah George, who works just across from me. So, thank you so much everyone.

[Applause] *0:31:28.4.

[Sherman]

Excellent. We did a little piece of work in RMIT studios over the last few weeks. Where we looked at the RMIT values, and we recast them to fit the RMIT studios piece of work, and what we do in the studios. And we thought that we needed to add something above the values. That was that we believe in the power of education to transform lives. And I think that that's something that everyone here believes in, and everyone knows that an institution like RMIT has an incredible ability to transform lives. That's the impact that we can have, and we have that impact on over 90,000 students every year. When you think about, it it's an incredible impact.

This award is about that impact. It's about rewarding and acknowledging the contribution of colleagues who have gone above and beyond. Who have contributed more than they need to. Who have really embraced the values of RMIT, and done amazing things through their work, their collaboration, their innovation, their learning, their problem solving. They have a lasting impact, not just on the university, but ultimately on the lives of all the students who pass by in their time.

The nominees for the Beyond the Call Award are Bec Clarke, the Digital Media Team, the Enrolment and Student Records Team, Jack Dunstan, Kirstie Williams, Lynda Jen, Nillofar Farooschi and Sarah Bell.

[Applause] *0:33:31.2.

[Sherman]

The winner, and I won't make the La La Land joke, the winners are the Digital Media Team, Amanda Pejoski, Carly Milanovic, David Heath, Rakesh Patibanda, Sam Malcom, Lynda Jen, and Sarah Bell. Congratulations.

[Applause] *0:33:58.6.

[Belinda]

And one of the winners in that last group-- where's Carly, is she here? Carly, you should stand up. Carly did all these beautiful slides for us. Aren't they gorgeous?

[Applause] *0:34:27.6.

[Belinda]

Absolutely gorgeous. Thank you, Carly.

So, there's one final award, we're calling it the DVCE Award, but it's really the executive award for one individual. The criteria we had was just that they were nominated as part of all the awards, and we all sort of converged onto a single name. There could have been a few names, and it's always really hard to come up with that single one, but we have got a single winner for this. I'd like to announce that the winner of the DVCE Award is, Adam Rowland.

[Applause] * 0:35:05.1.

[Belinda]

This is kind of Adam's greatest nightmare probably, that I've called him, hauled him out of the audience. He has no idea what he's going to say, but while I'm talking, he's thinking about what he's going to say when I ask him to say something. But my knowledge of Adam, and the way that I've worked with Adam over the past few years has been quite varied actually. He works, not only within his area, doing what he does in his day-to-day job, come a little closer Adam, while you're still thinking about what you're going to say, and I'm filling.

But he's also known for sending out these fantastic invitations to come and sit at tables where we win awards. I remember that one that was really cool. I think just given the sort of round of applause you got before your colleagues, really recognise that you are a very special individual, and we're really delighted. That's nice. You're still thinking about what you're going to say?

[Adam Rowland]

Absolutely.

[Belinda]

Do you think you're ready? Can I stop filling? You're ready?

[Adam]

Yes, I'm ready.

[Belinda]

Okay, he's ready. Adam, over to you. Give him a round of applause, go on.

[Applause] *0:36:18.0.

[Adam]

Extremely humbled to be recognised and nominated by my colleagues within RMIT. Certainly, would like to congratulate all other nominees, and finalists, and winners, for the various other awards. It is humbling, I don't know quite what to say, but certainly, it's very much appreciated, and it brings together a long period of work. Thank you to all the colleagues who've made much of it happen. Without you, things we strive to do, deliver that impact, would not be possible. Thank you very much.

[Applause] *0:36:56.6.

[Belinda]

So, thank you very much for that Adam. There's been a lot that's been going on in the portfolio though, and I wanted to share with you some of what you've been doing. I've got this fantastic infographic, which gives you a bit of an overview of what's been happening in the portfolio. Now, I'm not going to read through all of that, but hopefully, you can kind of see your area somehow represented up in there. But I asked the team, when I was doing my media review with Martin, like you've all done your media reviews with your line managers. I usually take in this spreadsheet which really lacks colour, and it lacks flavour, and I don't think it really represents the portfolio.

So, I asked all of my execs to put together for me a handful of things that they were really proud of, that they had achieved in the first half of the year. What came forward was way too much than I could put on a sheet. What we did was we pulled together some of the key things that had been happening in the portfolio, by all our people. If you look closely up there, you'll see all sorts of amazing statistics about our impact in terms of how we impact our students, and how we impact our staff.

In fact, more than 70% of the portfolio is student facing, in that you're directly in contact with students every day. And you're helping manage their aspiration as they travel through this university in their life. So, when you look up there and have a look at all the bits and pieces from other areas that you may not be in, you should be really amazed. Because it's been spectacular. If that's what you've done in six months, just imagine what our scorecard is going to look like at the end of the year. But more importantly, think about how you touch the people around you. Your peers, the staff that you serve, but the students that you make a difference in their day, every day. And for that, I'm really, really grateful, and I know the executive are as well.

So, you should all be congratulated for this work that you've done here because it's absolutely stunning. If you don't get an opportunity to talk to a peer from a different area, then I hope that you might now, when you see what everybody does. Because we don't know always share really well what each part of the portfolio is doing, and this gives you a real flavour about just what's actually happening. So, a lovely thing, or something I'd like you to do is, instead of turning to the person next to you, turn to the person behind you perhaps, give their hand a shake, and say thank you for the first six months. Please do that.

[Background conversations] * 0:39:39.7.

[Belinda]

Great. One of the things that surprise me when I look at our little scorecard up there of the things we have achieved-- one of the things that really surprised me was that over 10,000 students have enrolled in the library's digital literacy credential. That's berserk, David, isn't it? It's absolutely berserk. It's quite extraordinary. If you look up a little higher into the careers and employability's place, you'll see that the Future Edge student registrations are up 70% from 2018.

That's amazing as well. You got to ask yourself the question, what's changed? What is different? What have we done differently this year that's put these things on steroids? If I look at our community engagement and outreach area, you can see that we're starting to work with groups. We're doing more work with groups like the Midsumma Pride March, for example, stuff we did at ATSIAC, we did the creds team, also volunteered at the South Salvation Army, for example.

You asked to do more volunteering and you are now doing it. We're capturing all that, and we have some beautiful stories about how you've gone out into the community and taken the really good brand of RMIT, but also how you're giving back as well. So, I'm not going to go through all of them because there's too much to share, but I wanted to overwhelm you in a sense with just how much you have done and how much hard work you've put in, so a huge thank you from me and I know a huge thank you from the executive leaders in terms of how you face out.

I really do believe as Sherman does that, we're not in a business here per se. If we are in a business, it's in the business of transformation and it's to make the world a better place, a place where we all want to live, that we would be proud to live in. And you're making that impact every day with everything that you do with our students, with our staff, and with your peers, so it's a huge thank you from me. One more round of applause.

[Applause] * 0:42:03.8.

[Belinda]

Now, to finish off today, what I've done is, I thought that you've also asked in your feedback at times that you'd like to hear more from our executives who are on the Vice-Chancellor's executive and you'd like to understand a bit more about who those people are, what they actually do, and how they interact with us. And so, today, I've got a very special guest who I introduced to some of you as you came in, and that's Dionne Higgins. Where's Dionne? Here she comes. Let's give her a huge round of applause. I'm going to move over to the couch.

[Applause] *0:42:40.7.

[Dionne]

Thanks, Belinda. Wow, this is the second time I've done this this week. It's fantastic. I love it.

[Belinda]

Dionne, we've got a lovely, long list of questions that we would like to ask you. I've given you a little bit of prep, so you've got a few questions there, but we're probably going to get some surprises from the audience.

[Dionne]

Okay.

[Belinda]

I think all of you now know how to use GoSoapBox. Hopefully, you've got your-- what is it, Martin? What does Martin call it? The weapon of destruction. Pull it out. Make sure you've got your SoapBox up or if you want to put them on Yammer, you can, but I think Reece is going to be pulling them through SoapBox for me. Think of some questions you might like to ask Dionne as we go along. To just get us going, Dionne, give us a little bit of a flavour about the operations portfolio and what you're all working on at the moment.

[Dionne]

Operations is now at about 800 people. It's getting larger and larger because we've been gathering and changing actually over the time. The things that we focus on, the things that bind us actually-- maybe we talk about who we are. I think there's a slide about who Operations is. Perhaps it's got the whole team, does it?

[Belinda]

Can we change the slide up for Dionne?

[Dionne]

This is our team. Here we go, down the way. There we go. I should know who they are. We'll start all the way from global sales and marketing and student recruitment through to universities communications. I can see members of those teams out amongst us. Hi. We have in our people team. It used to be formerly known as HR people team. We have our ITS team.

We have a new team of which I saw some of your fantastic nominees are now part of which is Project Pi, which is led by Michael Vanderheide, the newest member of our team. We've of course got our operations team in Vietnam and we have our Property Services and Procurement led by Chris Hewison. It's a pretty diverse team. Sometimes, we struggle to say, but what is it that really binds us? It's really funny.

We did an exercise where we had our team diamond and we compared it actually to the education portfolio. It was really, really similar. What really binds us, for us, it's about providing impeccable services to all of our stakeholders. We do it in a values-led way. We like to be forward-thinking because we're trying to look across the horizon, but very much with a service culture in mind.

We do things in a very much of an enterprise-led way. So, they're probably the key things we focused on-- this year, obviously supporting a lot of the areas of focus, the five areas of focus. I lead a service culture area focus. It underpins a lot of all that we do, but we work across all of the portfolios. The things that we focus on as a team is around simpler, smarter systems and processes, brilliant basics because a lot of what underpins core operations is really-- we do need to celebrate that, it's not just the shiny things, it's actually making things run really, really well. Single source of truth for data and an engaged workforce is really our callouts.

[Belinda]

Basically, you keep the lights on.

[Dionne]

Pretty much. We say that we're the engine room. It's not that sexy, but we love it.

[Belinda]

When I think about how long you've been at RMIT, I don't think it's been much less than me. I think I've been, what, maybe--

[Dionne]

You were just before me.

[Belinda]

-- three or four months or something. I remember your interview when you came. I think Martin called us all together, and you blew into the room and off we went. I'm just wondering, you had a life before you came to RMIT.

[Dionne]

Yes.

[Belinda]

What were you doing before you came here? Can you remember back to that interview day and how that felt and then why you ended up saying, well, yes, I'm going to join this organisation.

[Dionne]

It's so funny because I feel like my whole working life was getting ready to come here in a way, but I didn't know that it was that. Before working-- and I probably hadn't really considered working at a university until I got to see really what was happening at RMIT and really understand what was the strategy and who was the leadership and what we were trying to do here and how perhaps my experience could complement that or could do some good here.

My previous life was I used to work for Pearson, so don't hold that against me. Is there any ex Pearson people here maybe? I was the Chief Operating Officer for everything outside of North America. That meant that I was on the periphery of not only just the education publishing business, but also, we had schools in India, we had universities in South Africa, and we had learning centres in China and Brazil.

So, I was very much working across all the elements of education and across many geographies and working at a strategic level, but I wasn't able-- my teams were very dispersed and so when I saw what RMIT was doing, the opportunity to have a much more direct impact on our learners, seeing actually probably some of those-- really, an executive there was wrestling with the strategies around education and how it was changing, but not having to be burdened by quarterly earnings and things that were short term thinking in a way that was returning back to a shareholder. Instead, it was about returning value directly back to the students, and for me, that was incredibly appealing.

[Belinda]

I guess when we started, we often talked to people who have come from the industry about what those key differences are, and you're starting to name some of those things there. Fast forward yourself in the first six months. Was there a point when you knew that, oh, yes, I'm in the right place, and this really aligned with who you were?

[Dionne]

There was a couple of points, but I've got to say my happiest day, the day that I was just absolutely pinching myself was my first grads. I just remember walking around the streets of Melbourne actually and just watching students, people watching families of graduates and proud parents taking photographs. It was just such a moment of just soaking it all in before it got to even the formalities of the parades, the big ceremony, being on stage and all that. It was just that moment of just watching lives change and dreams being realised.

[Belinda]

You can just see it in that moment. It's so rich, isn't it? You think you're in the right place, so for any of our new people who haven't seen one of the big grads before, very soon there will be a call. In fact, it might have gone out today for volunteers, for graduation. I'd really encourage you to join in on that. It's an absolutely fantastic opportunity.

Basically, you get to join the team and you'll see 9,000 students graduate and you'll have an audience of between 50,000 and 65,000 people. It's an incredible event. I know that many of you here already do volunteer, which I'm very pleased about, keep doing that, but newbies, yes definitely sign up for it because it's absolutely fantastic.

Now Dionne, can you remember your very, very first job?

[Dionne]

Yeah.

[Belinda]

How was it?

[Dionne]

We used to call ourselves munchy mongrels which I worked at an ice-cream, and cafe shop-- wasn't cafe, it was a corner shop where they make sandwiches and had ice-cream in the tub, nothing was fancy and we even had-- made cappuccinos, but there was only one coffee, so it wasn't all the fancy stuff now. If you could froth the milk that was good and it was called Munchies in the Mall because I'm from Bendigo not Mall, I now say Mall, because I've lived in the UK and others, but it was Munchies in the Mall and we were munchy mongrels.

[Belinda]

Were you still at school then?

[Dionne]

I was, I had jumped as soon as I could. 15 and three quarters, the legal age to go get a job that was my--

[Belinda]

And what did you spend your first pay on?

[Dionne]

It was probably a t-shirt from the Country Road I think, because that was probably the time back in the '80s.

[Belinda]

How many jobs do you reckon you've had in your career so far?

[Dionne]

Oh Lord, even right through Uni I think I had three jobs. I worked in hospitality, which was great actually for observing people, I think. I don't know, a lot-- probably not more than 10 actually, because I've been quite loyal to my employers. Even at Pearson, I had actually worked with the Financial Times, and Penguin and Pearson Education which technically was owned by the same holding company.

[Belinda]

What do you reckon you've learned through all of that? If you think back to the Mall, and the munchies, what did it teach you anything? Has anything from there flowed through do you think into the leader you've become today?

[Dionne]

People really. I would say probably a typical-- I sometimes get asked this when I mentor people about what is it that-- I would say that my career has been progressed in a way by listening to people, understanding a need, filling a gap, solving a problem. That probably can relate all the way back to hospitality. It is true being the bartender, seeing someone who is down in the face.

For me, that's why I guess working in the university gives me such joy because it's such a people business. We're not making widgets, we're changing lives and we do that through inspiring each other and mucking in and sorting out problems and improving experiences for our students.

[Belinda]

It feels to me like you're talking about your zone there. It's about people, it's about mucking in, it's getting involved and having an impact. When you're in your zone, are they the components? Are they the things for you when you're the most happiest?

[Dionne]

Yeah, and solving problems. I love the complexity of big complex problems as well and I think that's the thing for all of us now in leadership and actually in how we work. Sounds so scary, like change is always happening. Well, I feel like for me it's just the environment and it's no different for our students. The environment's always changing around and so I just feel that we get problems to solve and so much fun doing that.

[Belinda]

When you think about us as leaders, and the notions of you play to your strengths and you want to play your weaknesses et cetera and the whole zone piece. Where are you seeing your own leadership journey taking you in terms of the leader that you are?

[Dionne]

It's funny, I heard when Dean was quoting Brené Brown, I'm a huge fan of Brené Brown and that whole notion of the soft front, the strong back, the wild heart. It's harder than it sounds, because my leadership, I would say, and I think it's for all of us. The world around us is changing all the time and it used to be-- don't judge me, but I'm a chartered accountant. I started my early career by being accomplished at doing a specific thing.

And now, I have to lead through teams and generations actually that know how to do things better than me. And I have to be grounded enough in myself to create the environment where that can flourish, and I can learn through it as well whilst leading through it. I think that that's probably where I've arrived at and I've just had to accept that. I can't control the situation, I just have to be solid enough in who I am. I have to create an environment that is where success is inevitable for the team around me.

[Belinda]

Sometimes we hear the question of what's the advice you'd give your younger self? If we were to ask you what advice you'd give your younger career, what would that be? Has there been that moment where you thought, oh, I made a wrong left turn here, I should have gone this way or that way? What did you learn? What advice would you have given yourself perhaps a bit further back?

[Dionne]

I think a lot of people do that whole sort of self-doubting stuff. Just trust yourself more, know that you'll get to the end so that you don't need to worry so much. Perhaps probably in those earlier days where I wasn't as comfortable in my own skin and then perhaps then I tried to control too much because I was defending from a position of vulnerability. Perhaps maybe that would be just like relaxed, you're fine.

[Belinda]

Chill. I had an uncle once who used to say, take a chill pill, kid. Now tell me, what do you do for fun?

[Dionne]

I wish I had more time for it. I make sure I have it in my day. I love to travel.

[Belinda]

What's on your bucket list?

[Dionne]

On my bucket list, so I'm just actually I turn 50 not next year, but year after. I shouldn't be saying that out loud.

[Belinda]

Just embrace it, it's good.

[Dionne]

In January something came, what can I do in the Southern Hemisphere that's going to be good? I'm thinking maybe a bit of Chile or I don't know. Thinking maybe Central America.

[Belinda]

You got a bunch of kids? Have you got a bunch of kids? Just a bunch, two, three, four, one?

[Dionne]

Two, they are a handful, they're enough.

[Belinda]

They're enough How old are they?

[Dionne]

I have a 17-year-old daughter who is so fantastic, is my mystery shopper. I drag her around to all the open days and soon she's going to be too old which is lucky that I've got a 13-year old on the way coming through. After that, I'm up for borrowing children to help me mystery shop.

[Belinda]

It sounds like fun.

[Dionne]

Yes, they're fun.

[Belinda]

As we end off here, there's a whole range of questions we could ask you about what you're really proud of so far in 2019. I'm just thinking over the last three years you've been at RMIT, when you look around the institution, what do you see that makes you feel really proud?

[Dionne]

Three years that we've been here, I feel like truly, really leading into the student experience. I don't want to just say it generally because you're asking it and I'm thinking about so many points. I'm thinking about our belonging programs. I'm thinking about teams, I'm thinking about Office 365 and how we've turned over as this space that we made this available for students rather than making it a mothball.

It drives so much about a decision making and it also helps us to get over ourselves. Because we care about that, then we realise we have to work together to create that great experience. It means that we're disrupting ourselves so the areas of focus and working in agile ways and being more vulnerable and being a bit messy about stuff and crossing boundaries. It's all coming back from the key point that because it's such a strong focus on our students. You hear it everywhere at RMIT, so that's fundamental.

[Belinda]

That's actually a really nice segue into how our portfolios work together. Are there some collaboration points that you see that are working really well between us?

[Dionne]

It's so funny, I got this one as a bit of a Dorothy [inaudible] *00:59:32. It just made me smile because there's just so many. I know all of your executive team, we work together all the time. We work really from critical incident management to rolling out Canvas together to staff expo, to--

[Belinda]

Medical Centre this week. There's another example.

[Dionne]

Medical Centre, I feel like Sue Bolt is part of our IT team half the time to Project Pi.

[Belinda]

No Dionne, she's not part of your team.

[Dionne]

No.

[Belinda]

That's okay you can loan her sometimes. But you're right, I find that too-- that when you start to look at what we do as a portfolio, we can't actually do our job without actually effectively partnering with your teams. The cross-unit collaboration has become incredibly powerful because if we don't work together, then we can't actually deliver the promise to our students. I totally agree with you. That we start all the things that we do together, it becomes so enormous that you think well actually, we could almost be one portfolio on so many levels because we're so complimentary.

[Dionne]

With that 10-diamond exercise that we did in two separate locations and then we came together, and we shared them we were like--

[Belinda]

They're almost exactly the same. It was kind of extraordinary, it's quite nice.

I do have some question Dionne that have come through. I'll try and be kind to you. Keep your questions coming in. The one that's sitting right up on the top that a lot of people have nominated is one around our international students. The question is, with such a high number of international students, what sort of language study and living support needs do you think needs to be added or improved?

[Dionne]

On the international students first to be able to study at RMIT, first you not only need to be able to qualify as a minimum entry to get into any course that you study, but also with an English language proficiency so that's the first thing. I guess as an ongoing thing, I don't know. Maybe there's more that we can be doing throughout the studies, maybe something we--

[Belinda]

I just know that it keeps coming up in the news doesn't it? In fact, I was walking around the IRG teams yesterday and there's a compliance group in there that have been monitoring all the press that comes through around English language at the moment, in particular. And you'll see the techs are also reached out to the university recently to ask questions around how confident we are that our students have the capability to be able to learn with us.

I don't think we have the right answer yet about exactly what support our students actually need. I think year on year, we get better at it. I don't know if you noticed last year Dene Cicc and his team had put a lot of work into getting our students feel like they belong and that they feel engaged. The actual the survey result went up considerably on that.

We won't be able to test what our current activities are doing until next year though to see how they're still flying through. I don't think it ever ends. I think the medical centre is a nice example of a recent input that I know that our international students will really value because I think it's always been quite hard for them to deal with some of the issues of entering a new country and how to deal with the medical system. I think it's an ongoing piece of work. One would hope that our portfolios will work together really strongly, continue to partner--

[Dionne]

Have to support our students.

[Belinda]

-- lots of cross-unit collaboration to ensure that we are supporting students in the right way. Let's hope we use data to inform what we do. We don't make it up, we try and find out well what do our students actually need and then make sure that we get like as you said, bring in basics, moments that matter really locked down for them.

[Dionne]

I think that's a really key point because we're getting better and better at early interventions when we actually can detect when students are beginning to falter and we can take pride there.

[Belinda]

Its particularly how mental health issues are increasingly-- showing themselves. I think that were probably always there, people haven't had the same courage and the environment hasn't been safe enough for it to be called out and the environment's becoming safer. I think we're seeing more support in this space too. You've got a nice callout here. You've got a big shout out.

People have said, big shout out to the student comms team, who do an amazing job in collaborating with us and others to enhance what we do. It's really nice. Loads of other questions here. We're not going to get through all of these questions, but what we might do with what you have sent through is see if we can get some answers for them from everyone that's here. Oh, here’s an interesting one, it's a bit contentious. Are students our customers?

[Dionne]

Well, they're not actually our customers.

[Belinda]

I think that's the right answer.

[Dionne]

Yeah, so students are not customers because customers you give them everything that they want and students you can't always just hand them a degree. We absolutely need to provide amazing service and incredible experience so that they reach the outcomes, but they're not our customers in the same way.

[Belinda]

Last final question. If you could wave a magic wand. Shut your eyes and ponder this one. If you could wave a magic wand, what would you want to have happen for RMIT in the next six months?

[Dionne]

In the next six months. Can I say something that's really self-serving?

[Belinda]

Oh, absolutely.

[Dionne]

I really love to be on the other side of Project Pi where we have those amazing system of service and not have to go through the pile of getting there, if we've going to have to get there.

[Belinda]

Isn't that all the ways the way that you have these big hairy projects.

[Dionne]

It's going to be so good when we get there, but we've go to climb up the hill together further.

[Belinda]

Everyone in this room is going to be touched by that is some ways. I think we'll all be feeling the pain with you. Dionne, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

[Dionne]

Thank you for having me.

[Belinda]

And sharing a little bit about yourself and about your aspirations and where you've come from.

[Dionne]

Thank you.

[Belinda]

I don't think we're never going to forget the Mall. What is it called? Munchies.

[Dionne]

Munchies.

[Belinda]

Munchies. Is it still there?

[Dionne]

No. I think its-- no.

[Belinda]

It's actually gone?

[Dionne]

It's gone.

[Belinda]

It's probably good it's gone.

[Dionne]

Yes.

[Belinda]

Okay. All right, we'll leave it there Dionne. Let's give Dionne a huge round of applause.

[Applause] * 1:05:55.0.

[Dionne]

Thank you. Thanks, everybody.

[Belinda]

Okay. That ends up really what we're doing today for our Town Hall. I hope you've enjoyed what you've seen so far. There's just a few things that I might finish off with. As you know, we've got our staff survey opening up again in a few weeks’ time. You know that we really value your feedback. The portfolio is never shy in coming forward in giving us feedback.

And hopefully, we've been responding in ways that you want us to respond. We work very hard to try and address things like cross-unit collaboration, the volunteering work that you've been playing, career opportunities. In fact, just in my walkarounds this week talking to people who have been in the organisation for periods of time, who started at quite low levels and now find themselves in manager and leader roles as well and seeing their career across the organisation and the opportunities that are here for them.

There's still an awful a lot we can do, but we need to know what we can do. Please, when the survey comes through its the big one this time, it’s more than 100 questions in it. Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, find a quiet moment. Not that I want to be competitive, but there's always been this thing between this portfolio and the College of Business.

If I start coming around with the muffins and the chocolates saying, please, complete the survey. It’s because I've got a bit of a bet on with the College of Business that we'll get more people answering the survey than they will, but no, quite seriously, I do take it seriously. It is important to us as an organisation and we look forward to seeing your feedback.

I don't know the exact day-- oh, here it is. 17^th through to the 30^th of September is when that will be open. It will be in a bit of a different format than you’ve seen before because we've changed-- I think, the supplier of the company that actually does the layout. It should be easier, and it should actually explain to you what some of those questions mean as well.

For the last bit, what I'd like to see happen is all the award winners, if you could stay behind for a moment. You're going to go out through the door that’s up here on the balcony on my right which is on your left. If everyone else wanted to go out to the foyer, we've got tea and coffee and some snacks. I hope you'll take the opportunity to network with your peers. For all our award winners, if you just stay behind for a moment while everyone leaves and we'll take you out this way, we'd like to take photographs and celebrate you. Thank you, everyone, for coming. Bye.

[Applause] * 1:08:29.6.

[End transcript]

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