If you’re looking for meeee, you better check under the seeeea…

Victoria University of Wellington’s new Coastal Ecology Laboratory was opened on Wellington’s south coast last Friday. Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh said that the laboratory represented a huge step forward. “Postgraduate students now number more than 40, making Victoria University one of New Zealand’s largest marine biology programs,” he said. The Coastal Ecology Laboratory replaces the old marine laboratory, which dates back to the 1950s, and was originally a fish liver oil refining plant.

Journal you don’t read turns 60

A special issue of New Zealand’s only professional journal for the discipline of Political Science has been released this week. Titled New Zealand: Independence and Prime Ministers, 1947-2007, it marks the 60th anniversary of the Political Science journal as well as 100 years of Dominion status for New Zealand. Political Science is published each July and December by Victoria University’s Political Science and International Relations program in collaboration with the New Zealand Political Studies Association.

Vicstudent to see how high Baltimore orioles can fly

The first recipient of the Fulbright New Zealand and Cognition Education Research Trust’s exchange award hopes her research will aid intellectually abled, culturally diverse and/or economically disadvantaged students. Jenny Horsley, a student at Victoria University of Wellington’s College of Education, will spend three months conducting research into programmes specifically designed for gifted minority students at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth in Baltimore, USA. Horsley will publish the results of her research after returning to New Zealand in late 2009.

Sport-related chalice appears on campus

The symbol of one of 2008’s most memorable sporting achievements, the Rugby League World Cup, appeared on campus last Wednesday as part of a nationwide tour. Flanked by former New Zealand Rugby League coach Frank Endicott, the cup sat outside the library for two hours posing for pictures, but otherwise doing very little. Salient Editor Jackson James Wood described the display as “one of the greatest moments of [his] life.”