EXCELLENCE CHIEF STAFF ATTRACTION

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 9

EXCELLENCE CHIEF STAFF ATTRACTION

Although the civil engineering department of the University of California at Berkeley was recently voted the best in the United States by the American Council of Education, its general facilities were no better than those at the University of Canterbury, said Mr F. P. S. Lu, senior lecturer in civil engineering at Canterbury, on his return to Christchurch. “The Berkeley civil engineering department has established its world-wide reputation solely on the quality of its teaching,” he said. Its staff salaries were not high by some American standards. Top men seemed to gravitate there simply for the stimulation of work with other good minds. Perhaps, said Mr Lu, the deliberate policy of recruiting for stability also played an important part. The department “went after” young men of promise who definitely wanted to stay at Berkeley. Staff turnover was extremely small. Mr Lu said Berkeley would soon have new structural engineering laboratories. Mr Lu worked in this department for seven months

on theoretical problems of flat plates of pre-stressed concrete. He said the big computer there enabled him to make thousands of calculations in quick time and staff were a great help. Berkeley had been in the news for student unrest but this could be attributed to a small number of agitators. The university's work went serenely on unaffected by all the talk.