Thanks to the University’s corporate membership, staff at Kent can benefit from priority booking, exclusive offers and members’ evenings at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.

Among highlights for the theatre’s new season are £3 off the top three prices for Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap (1-5 September), 20% off all saver performances for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (27 November – 10 January) and £3 off the Thursday evening performance of Anton and Erin: Just Gotta Dance (4 and 5 February).

As corporate members, Kent staff can also benefit from the same priority booking period as Marlowe Friends – Monday 24 August until 7 September, after which tickets go on sale to the general public.

The latest Marlowe season brochure is available at: www.marlowetheatre.com/page/3566.
The Marlowe Studio brochure can be seen at: www.marlowetheatre.com/page/3576.

Find out more about Corporate Members exclusive staff offers here: http://www.marlowetheatre.com/page/3718

Information on Corporate Members’ Evenings is available at: http://www.marlowetheatre.com/page/3719

The discount code for these ticket offers, Members’ Evenings and The Green Room (10% off food and hot drinks) is: COR16.

Unlimited email space, better integration with Lync, and a new Outlook Web App are some of the changes you’ll see as part of the staff email upgrade planned for the Autumn term. We’re going to be upgrading the ‘Exchange’ system that underpins the staff email service.

Business as usual during the upgrade

Most of us won’t notice any interruptions to service. If a service interruption is needed, it should be very short.

After the upgrade, what will be different?

Apart from the unlimited storage, which is fantastic news, there will be some new features for Outlook Web App (OWA) users. OWA will look a bit different and have better SharePoint and Lync integration.

If you use Kent email on your phone, and don’t have a PIN set on the handset, you’ll need to set one.

If you have an older phone/tablet, your access might stop working if it’s insecure (using it on our network is a breach of University IT regulations). You’ll need to update it if you want to carry on accessing the Kent network.

When will we find out more?

We’ll email you nearer the time to let you know exactly when it will happen, with full details about anything that’s new or changing.

Dr Leon Schlamm who worked in the Department of Religious Studies at Kent from 1977 to 2011 sadly died on 3 August 2015, aged 67. Leon played a major part in the life of the University for over 30 years and played a formative part in building the identity of the Department of Religious Studies, enhancing its profile in comparative religion.

At Kent, Leon taught modules on the psychology of religion, Hinduism and Gurus and Disciples. He was important in bringing mysticism and the psychology of religion to Kent from the 1970s and took early retirement in 2011. He brought success, as the co-convenor with Dr Peter Moore, with the MA in Mysticism & Religious Experience (the first programme of its kind to be established in the UK in 1993/1994). It ran for many successful years and attracted a number of students who now have academic positions in the UK. He was also key in developing new and creative MA programmes, supporting the development of MA programmes in psychoanalysis and in cosmology and divination, which were both delivered for a number of years at Kent.

His research work focused on Rudolf Otto and numinous experience and on the psychology of Carl Jung and religion. He was particularly interested to show the relation of Otto and Jung to mystical experience and explored work in transpersonal psychology, particularly Ken Wilber and John Welwood. He produced important articles for the Jungian journal Harvest and in the journal Religious Studies. His commitment to this position was driven by thinking in relation to the history of religion and established a strong position for locating Jung in the history of mystical thought.

Many staff and students will remember him fondly.

Natalie Salunke, Chair of the Kent Law Campaign Young Alumni Group and Peter Wilkinson, supporter of the Kent Law Campaign, will be joining over 4000 participants to take on the Thames Path Challenge.

On 12-13 September, Natalie and Peter will walk the 100km Thames route challenge starting from Putney Bridge and ending at Henley-on-Thames in aid of the Kent Law Campaign.

The Thames Path is unique; it’s the only long distance path to follow a river for most of its length.

The full route begins at Bishop’s Park, next to Putney Bridge, and on through leafy Kew and Richmond past the last non-tidal lock at Teddington. It passes the Royal palace of Hampton Court, beneath Windsor Castle and on through beautiful countryside to Henley.

For Natalie this is the latest fundraising challenge she has set herself, although it is not jumping out of planes or throwing herself off 160ft cranes, this challenge requires stamina and commitment in order to complete the 100km route which could take up to 30 hours!

Please show your support by sponsoring Natalie and Peter through their JustGiving page. All money raised from their challenge will go directly to the Kent Law Campaign.

Human Resources are pleased to announce that the Privy Council has formally approved the University’s reformed Statute 7. With effect from Monday 17 August, all staff will now be covered by Statute 7 – which was previously only applicable to staff in grades 7 and above.

Statute 7 is the University Statute that sets out how key employment matters (such as grievance resolution, performance improvement and discipline) are to be managed. The revised processes are clear, transparent and will provide a consistent and equal approach to how employment matters are handled.

If you want to find out more about the reform process, view the revised Statute and the associated Ordinances (procedures), please visit the ‘Reforming Statute 7’ section of the HR website: www.kent.ac.uk/hr-staffinformation/statute

From 17 – 21 August 2015, as part of the ongoing works to the exterior of the Ingram building, the entrances to the Ingram and Stacey building which are beneath the link bridge between these two buildings will be temporarily closed.

Please be aware that you will not be able to access the buildings at these locations during this period, but if you are in either building, these routes can still be used as a point of evacuation in the event of an emergency.

An alternative temporary means of access to the NMR building will be maintained at all times throughout this period.

Wherever possible directional signage, will be strategically placed on approaches to the site, giving alternative routes that can be taken during the course of this work.

I thank you in advance for your anticipated co-operation, whilst this essential work is undertaken.

Should you have any queries then please contact the Estates Helpdesk on 01227 823209.