Public meeting calls University of New England management to account
Staff, students, and friends of the University of New England (UNE) have called for the sale of the university printery to be abandoned, along with the practice of paying bonuses to members of middle and senior management.
Dr Tim Battin, the President of the UNE Branch of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), said that yesterday’s 250-strong meeting held on the Armidale campus unanimously resolved to call upon the Vice-Chancellor to renounce all plans to sell the printery which has already lost 11 of its 30 staff.
“In the absence of any other rationale of the sale, we attribute the sale of the highly respected printery to the pursuit of bonuses. It’s the only available explanation for what is a very stupid act.
“Given that the capital investment needed to maintain and improve the efficiency of what is already an efficient service is modest, and could have been made at any time in recent years, and still can be made, the decision of UNE management to sell the printery defies logic.”
The meeting also resolved to form a working party to analyse information about the UNE’s introduction of trimesters in 2012.
“We often find ourselves doing the job of management because it refuses to do its own job properly,” Dr Battin said.
“We’re worried that the current model leaves little time between trimesters to mark, get results to students, and upload new course material. It’s causing a great deal of stress amongst staff and students.”
Other issues such as job cuts, and more particularly the “nasty spill-and-fill approach” to workplace change, and a general lack of transparency in decisions, were held over until another meeting at 1pm next Tuesday, 16 October, Dr Battin said.
A video of the meeting will be available on YouTube shortly.
Tim Battin, NTEU Branch President, University of New England 0401 599 043
Carmel Shute NTEU Media Officer: 0412 569 356
Comments
There are no comments. Be the first to have your say!