Why I'm going to Live at the NCV in 2009

Above: My wife Carmen (left) with me and the Governor of our State (NSW) Dame Marie Bashir, at a New College dinner

This is a brief post to introduce myself as Master and the Dean of the NCV in 2009. I am Master of New College and will responsible for both the old 'New College' and the new NCV. But in 2009 I intend to act as Dean of the NCV as well. My wife Carmen and I will be moving into the Dean's Apartment within the building in late January. We're excited about being part of this new community.
Below: Carmen reading to our grandaughter Elsie
Carmen and I have been maried for 37 years in January. We have two daughters (both married) and 5 grandchildren. There's a good chance you'll see my grandchildren at some stage around the NCV. They are aged 2 months to 6 years, and needless to say, I think they're wonderful. Carmen was trained as a teacher and spent almost 30 years teaching infants and primary-aged children. In more recent years she spent 5 years in a pastoral care role within our church; a role in which she gave care and support to people with varied needs and of varied ages. She 'retired' from full-time paid work about 7 years ago and now spends a lot of time in voluntary work, doing things in our church and caring for our daughters, grandchildren and me!

I started life as a teacher too and became fascinated by the way children learn, especially the way they learn language. I then moved to University education where I spent over 20 years as a professor and senior University manager before moving to New College in 2002. My last role before coming to New College was as Pro Vice-chancellor (Research) at another university where I was responsible for the university's research and postgraduate studies. At UNSW I have an adjunct appointment as Professor within the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and am still active as a researcher and a scholar (in my spare time!) and supervise doctoral students at UNSW (you can check out my work at my personal website here).

Carmen and I are both keen to live in the NCV because we both want to be involved in forming what will be a wonderful community (see my earlier post on this here). I will do a post soon on some of the activities we have planned for in 2009. We look forward to meeting all of our residents in January to March. If you haven't applied yet, could I encourage you to do so as son as possible (online applications here).

Above: With Samuel (one of my grandsons who is aged 3 years) at a local wildlife park getting up close to a Koala

Why I'm going to Live at the NCV in 2009