A PLAN IN THE ARTS

MIDWAY THROUGH his four-year term as President of the newly renamed NUI, Galway (formerly UCG), Dr. Pat Fottrell is still a man with a plan. Since taking over the prestigious post in 1996, the former head of the college's biochemistry department has already overseen the building of a long-overdue student centre (at a cost of £4.5 million) and instigated a number of new and innovative programmes, both on and off campus.

Thanks to his efforts, NUI, Galway now boasts an overseas student population of 10% - the highest number of foreign students ever. However, given that 40% of NUI, Galway's 9,000 students are currently studying Arts and Humanities, the President is still highly conscious of the college's relative shortcomings in that particular area.

"We don't have a Chair of Music, we don't have a Department of Music, we don't have a Professorship of Drama," he says. "And that's something that the University is now looking at, but that's also something that will have to be done through private fundraising. You see, because of the skills shortage, the Government will fund a Chair of Engineering or a Chair of Computer Science and so on, but, for fairly obvious reasons, they're still quite reluctant to fund the Arts and Humanities."

Although the College's record in terms of the Arts is impeccable - all of the founding members of formed Galway theatre groups Druid, Macnas and An Taibhdhearch were graduates of UCG - Fottrell is still all too aware of the difficulties involved in convincing the relevant authorities of the importance of Arts education funding.

NEW THEATRE

"It's a hard sell, from our point of view, attempting to convince the government that a Chair of Music is more important than a Chair of Computer Science," he admits. "I mean, it's a difficult one. And also, they may say, 'well, there's a Department of Music in Cork and in Dublin - in Trinity and UCD - why do we want another one in Galway?' So if we want another one, we've got to make it a bit different. And I think we've got a great tradition of Irish music here really. That's what we're looking at - Irish drama and Irish writing.

"That's now a serious part of our fundraising," he adds. "We have various teams of people who advise us in terms of fundraising. Most of them are from a business background but we also call on the wisdom of certain people involved in the Arts. They may not have a lot of money but they tend to know what they're talking about and have the ability to interest big business."

Chief amongst NUI, Galway's Arts advisors is UCG graduate and Tony-winning theatre director Garry Hynes. "We're very closely involved with Druid," he explains. "We gave Garry Hynes an honorary degree long before it was fashionable to do so. I'm sure that now that she's won her Tony there'll be people queuing up. But we also celebrated their 21st birthday party with them here at the College, well before they got international recognition."

Given this, it comes as no great surprise that NUI, Galway is currently building its own new, full-size theatre, to be used by both the students themselves (Dramsoc etc.) and by

visiting theatre groups. The funds for the construction were raised entirely privately.

At the end of the day, however, Dr. Fottrell's main priorities have little to do with administration and fundraising. "Our core business here is education and it's important we don't forget that," he insists. "We send people out who

know how to learn. And that's almost more important than what they learn. We send people out to be thinkers for the rest of their lives. Ultimately, that's what a University is all about." n