In brief

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Christmas catering

Christmas lunch (roast turkey or veggie alternative with all the trimmings, plus Christmas pudding and rum sauce) will be tempting your taste buds in the Laines Restaurant, Bramber House on Monday (18 December). Costing £3.99, the meal is available from 12 noon to 2.15 pm. A more upmarket three-course Christmas carvery is on offer in the Orange Room, priced at £12.75 (plus VAT where applicable). To reserve a table for 12.15pm on Tuesday (19 December), tel. Jenny on ext. 8221.

CVCP becomes Universities UK

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alasdair Smith, attended the launch of Universities UK (formerly the Committee of Vice-Chancellor and Principals, or CVCP) and its first meeting, which took place on 1 December.

Learner of the Year Awards

Do you know a student who has shown special effort to return to learning and whose experiences could inspire others to take part? To nominate someone - friend, employee or family member - for an Adult Learners' Week individual, group or senior learner award (aged 50+), see www.niace.org.uk. The closing date is 12 January and the awards will be presented during Adult Learners' Week in May.

University lays on school bus

Following discussions with representatives from the local education authority and Coldean schools, the University has decided to lay on a minibus from campus for children of Sussex students. The bus will run from January while plans are being drawn up for the longer term. Brighton & Hove Council decided at a meeting in October to axe the service that it currently operates between campus and Coldean, as part of a package of cuts in its home-to-school transport budget.

Budgie takes up roost in Saltdean

It looks as if the lost budgie of Bulletin (17 November) fame will be a permanent member of the Tugwell household, because no one has claimed the bird with no name. The Library's Heather Tugwell says: "He has settled in very well and has started to sing, so he can't be that unhappy. I have made a swing and a ladder, which he now clambers over and hangs upside down from and does a loop-the-loop. He's quite a character."

Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas, who has died aged 73, designed many campus buildings including Ashdown House, the Health Centre and the Trafford Centre. One of a host of architectural staff employed at Sussex as it grew in the 1960s and '70s, he rose to become University Architect and Engineer and continued to do consultancy work after he left for a lecturing post in the architecture department at Brighton Polytechnic. Jim's funeral was held on 5 December.

Learn a language

If your new year's resolution is to learn a foreign language, contact the Open Course Assistant in EURO, Arts A132, ext. 7258, email opencourses@sussex.ac.uk. Part-time (lunchtime and evening) open language courses at a variety of levels are enrolling now for January.

All change in the SEO

Having set up and developed the Student Employment Office (SEO), John Sander is leaving at the end of December to do the same with the new Employability Skills Unit for the Creative Industries. This joint venture between Ravensbourne College and the University is funded by the DTI and DfEE. Liz Murrary (ext. 8146) will be holding the fort in the SEO until John's replacement is appointed.