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As the sixth in this series of interviews with Catholic lay and religiousleaders we have pleasure in presenting this extended conversation betweenDr Greg Craven, the Vice Chancellor of ACU-National, and Brian Coyne, editor and publisherof Catholica Australia.
We have broken this hour-long conversation down into segments that aremore or less self-contained in which Dr Craven addresses variouschallenges facing the Catholic Church today and Catholic higher education in particular. Use the media controllersbelow to listen to each segment. For your convenience we provide a briefsummary of the subjects of conversation in each segment.
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 Introduction – Professor Craven's background prior to his appointment to the Vice-Chancellorship at ACU — The identity of ACU — How ACU is perceived — Recent AUQA audit — academic freedom at Catholic and secular universities
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IF THE MEDIA CONTROLLERS ARE NOT VISIBLE ON THIS PAGE: There should be a media controller above this block of text, and in the equivalent places further down this page. If you cannot see it you most probably do not have the Java or Media Player plug ins installed on your computer. You can still hear the segments by donwloading the original audio file and listening to them separately. To do that right click on the link and save the file to your hard disk and play it manually.
LINK: Greg Craven Interview – Segment 1 [18m04s 4.14Mb]
"I think this problem about academic freedom in Catholic universities is wildly over-stated … everybody likes to get really excited over a point of principle, especially if there is no sign of that point of principle being activated on the ground."
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Relations between Catholic universities and the institution — comparison with secular universities — public intellectual life — Catholic universities respons-ibility to support the ecclesial leadership in the life and social justice debates.
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IF NO MEDIA CONTROLLER IS VISIBLE ABOVE USE THIS LINK:
Greg Craven Interview – Segment 2 [17m36s 4.03Mb]
"I think there's a very rich relationship between Catholic Universities and the Catholic Church. I don't buy the division between the two. … I believe a Catholic university has to witness, with the Catholic Church, in some of its great battles."
"We live in a society that is not communally-connected; that is extraordinary ego-driven; and that is fundamentally selfish." |
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Argues that we live in a very anti-Catholic intellectual climate — Catholics now part of the mainstream —the importance of research at a Catholic university — future growth of the university — 20,000 student possibility
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IF NO MEDIA CONTROLLER IS VISIBLE ABOVE USE THIS LINK:
Greg Craven Interview – Segment 3 [13m48s 3.16Mb]
"We've already got a significant research base but I don't think we've systematised it and organised it the way we should. That's what we're going to do and I think we'll make dramatic research steps. We're already a research university but we're a research university at level one or two. We're going to take it to being a research university at level five or six over a period of four or five years. It's not an option for a Catholic university not to be a research university!"
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Relationship with other Catholic tertiary institutions — the challenges of a geographically widespread, national university — the challenges of communicating with young people.
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IF NO MEDIA CONTROLLER IS VISIBLE ABOVE USE THIS LINK:
Greg Craven Interview – Segment 4 [13m33s 3.1Mb]
"I do think we have to put some rigour — intellectual rigour — into some of the things we do. I also think, without being too nostalgic about it, that we do have a "lost generation problem". I did Year 12 in 1975 — and that's the period where nobody was certain about anything. I do believe that religious education and formation without a basis that's both faith-filled and intellect-filled is always going to be problematic. That's why John Paul II talked about integrating faith and reason. He was on a winner."
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Profile of Professor Craven from the ACU National website… |
 Professor Greg Craven, lawyer and academic, commenced as Vice-Chancellor of Australian Catholic University (ACU National) in February 2008.
An expert in public law, Professor Craven has published numerous journal articles and four books, including Conversations with the Constitution (University of New South Wales Press, 2004). A regular contributor to public debate, he is a columnist for the Australian Financial Review.
Prior to his appointment at ACU National, Professor Craven served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Strategy & Planning) at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, where he also held the position of Professor of Government and Constitutional Law, having previously served as Executive Director of the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy.
Professor Craven was Foundation Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Reader in Law at the University of Melbourne. He also served as Crown Counsel to the Victorian Government from 1992-95.
Australian Catholic University (ACU National), established as Australia's only Catholic, national, publicly funded university, is open to all. The University empowers its students and staff with a strong sense of social responsibility and concern for the moral and ethical dimensions of their study and their professional and personal lives.
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NAVIGATION: INTRODUCTION | I: Peter Tannock | II: Diarmuid O'Murchu | III: Bp Kevin Manning
IV: Michael Morwood | V: Barry Sinclair | VI: Greg Craven
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Brian
Coyne is the editor and publisher of Catholica.
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©2008Catholica. Permission granted for republication provided attribution
given to original source.
[Index to this series of interviews]
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