Carney and Lawson Elected to UNSW Council

UNSW Law Alumni President Nicholas Carney and former Australian Test cricketer Geoffrey Lawson have been elected members of the UNSW council, the Vice-Chancellor announced Monday.

The council, responsible for acting on behalf of the University to promote its goals and interests, was in need of two graduates to fill the twenty-two-seat board.

Nominations opened on Monday, 8 March for elections to the University Council, Academic Board, and Faculty Board and closed on Friday, 12 March. The terms of office for the University Council are four years, from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2014.

Nick Carney says he wasn’t even aware of his nomination until he heard from friends. “The university never officially notified me,” he laughed, “and it seems that everyone knew about it except for me.”

Carney, who studied Commerce, Finance and Law at UNSW from 1999-2004, is a solicitor at Freehills, an international law firm in Sydney. He has worked as Executive Officer for the Human Rights Act for Australia, President of the UNSW Student Union, was previously a member of the University Council and is currently involved in numerous activities and organizations in the UNSW law community, including the Law Society, the Law Faculty Board and the Law Revue as director in 2003.

As a member of the council, Carney hopes to resolve some of the major issues facing the university, such as the federal government reducing its financial support for universities. “Universities need to be more accountable with what they receive, more efficient with what they’ve got and innovative in their identification of funding streams that won’t undermine the goals of the university,” he says. 

Geoffrey Lawson, former coach of the Pakistan cricket team, graduated from UNSW in 1984 with a degree in Optometry. In 2004, he was re-elected Vice-President of the UNSW Sports Association, after holding the position for eight years.

Lawson is also on the Australian University Sport Awards Committee, is chairman of the UNSW Optometry Building Appeal committee, and was previously the director of the NRMA Member Services. He is a former member of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Appeal committee and sits on the Advertising Standards Board of Australia as well as the Sydney Cricket Ground/Sydney Football Stadium Trust. Currently in Pune, India to participate in the ICC European Men’s Academy, he was unavailable for comment on his election to the council.

Nominations for one postgraduate student and one undergraduate student for the University Council will be accepted until 29 March 2010.

  

Information on University Council Elections obtained from:

The Elections Office:  (2) 9385 3528 or elections@unsw.edu.au

CONTACTS:

Nick Carne
Ph: 0418 688 693
Email: nicholas.carney@freehills.com