________________OS in University Settings________part 2 of 3______________ Allison Baensch (mb...@iinet.net.au ) University of Western Sidney Allison experienced OST as a postgrad student at the University of Western Sydney in 1966. She is now using OST as a part of her PhD, and OST is still being used by the University. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Romy Shovelton (r...@wikima.com) Cranfield University I opened space at Cranfield University for their MBA programme. The issue was that they had been having some tensions within the highly diverse group of students - something like 57 different countries represented. Eg. the overseas students (many Chinese) feeling that they had no space to speak, 'cos the Brits speak up all the time... And the Brits feeling that they were doing all the work in their buddy times! The uni asked me to run something at the very start of the new year, to help ensure these tensions didn't appear. OST was the obvious choice.... And as a starting point I said that I personally do not wish to assume that there will be tensions in this coming year... And who knows what will be in the hearts and minds of the people coming. The OS theme we agreed on was "how do we live and work together as an international community" - the time at Cranfield being a fantastic opportunity to learn about other cultures and how to be together - especially as our business world is fundamentally global now and so we need to learn how to operate effectively in this context. Planned some time before, the event took place just a couple of weeks after 911. The contributions were outstanding and very moving (as heard in the closing circle). We followed up the OS with time together for various task forces to meet up and grow their work together. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Chris Corrigan (ch...@chriscorrigan.com ) University of British Columbia My experience with universities has included work with the University of BC working with the coordinator of health sciences, bringing 30 people from across the health spectrum together to form a new College of Health Sciences. The current director, who sponsored that event, said to me a couple of months ago that the OST was the key event in catalyzing the new college. Also I have worked with the First Nations House of Learning which houses some First Nations programs and provides a home for First Nations students and researchers at UBC doing some strategic planning between them, their internal and external partners and graduates regarding strengthening the role of the organization. Did another one with the office of access and diversity on, well, access and diversity issues on campus. This spring I opened space for the new Dalai Lama Centre in Vancouver on the question of how the community will support the Centre and vice versa. Although not an academic centre per se, it is championed by academics (focusing on educating the heart) and the vision is held by several UBC folks. There were many academics at the event. And just a couple of weeks ago I did an Open Space with all of the HR practitioners at UBC to create a network. They were thrilled with the work they did, having never really talked to one another. I have had several UBC folks in Open Space training I have done over the years, all from HR, or continuing education. Part 3 is coming up, Lisa ___________________________ L i s a H e f t Consultant, Facilitator, Educator O p e n i n g S p a c e <mailto:lisah...@openingspace.net> lisah...@openingspace.net <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
