[lit-ideas] Re: Pausing Philosophically for Coffee off the B9086, with Tammie Norries

From: Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:38:13 +0100 (BST)
addendum

Donal's right.  We need good employment laws, strong safeguards against unfair 
dismissal, strong anti-discrimination laws, strong whistleblower protection 
laws, etc., for all workers.  

We also need (they also need) an end to rubbish like Quality Assurance 
assessment of teaching, i.e., assessment of the "quality" and amount of the 
paperwork departments present to the QA assessors, and rubbish like the RAE 
(etc.).  We also need (they also need) a more thoughtful implementation of 
assessment of tutors by students (I got some views on this from US students; 
clearly some, anyway, US universities and SLACs know how to do it fairly and 
well).  They/we need a system that allows Simon Schama to spend 12 years 
writing his first book -- but wait: Cambridge and Oxford had such a system; how 
would Schama have fared in the US?

But primarily we need to safeguard all workers equally. 

Incidentally, I bet US tenured academics convicted, like Russell, of an offence 
under a wartime act, would have had their employment terminated for just cause. 
(I don't support that.) 

Judy Evans, Cardiff


 

--- On Thu, 18/8/11, Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Pausing Philosophically for Coffee off the B9086, 
> with Tammie Norries
> To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Thursday, 18 August, 2011, 11:28
> The Institute of Education problem's
> an RAE one, I take it.  That -- the RAE -- has caused
> massive damage in some ways and in some places (and has
> massively increased the publication of rubbish).  The
> amount and type and timing of the damage did not, however,
> correlate with the number of faculty with tenure (NB, tenure
> was abolished *for new entrants to the profession and any
> others whose contract changed because they moved university
> and/or gained promotion).  Some universities, some
> departments, handled the RAE business reasonably well,
> others, in effect, made teaching a punishment; this did not
> correlate with tenure.
> 
> 
> US academics with tenure who moved here, for, of course,
> non-tenured posts, have written critiques of the UK
> system.  Not one mentions a lack of academic freedom in
> the traditional sense of the term.  Not one -- that I
> have read -- mentions tenure. They do mention the
> administrative burden (British academics have to do work
> elsewhere done by administrators, and often have almost no
> administrative or secretarial backup), the checks on
> academics and the scrutiny of their work. (They also note
> the -- relatively recent: last two decades -- emergence of a
> hyperprivileged group of UK academics, almost all of whom,
> by the way, lack tenure, whose teaching duties are very
> light and arranged to suit their convenience, whose research
> leave is generous, who receive massive backup, whose
> publications or "publications", whose grant-attracting or
> potential for grant-attracting, whose reputation for, well,
> having a reputation, make them into a new race of
> demi-gods;
>  people even more privileged than teir US
> counterparts.)  
> 
> I endorse their critiques.
> 
> I was tenured. I came to envy US academics with
> tenure.  Their life was nirvana, compared to
> mine.  But the difference lay in structures of
> governance, mores, and practical arrangements. My salary
> covered twelve months, I could be required to carry out
> administrative duties through the summer months.  I
> could not, as tenured US academics can, choose to write more
> slowly, forgoing promotion temporarily, without retribution.
> And so on.  
> 
> My London college had no research leave provisions. 
> Its "tenure" contracts didn't confer tenure.  It had --
> as most universities did then -- permanent heads of
> department with massive power (but it also had vibrant
> faculties). I had an academic freedom there that I was never
> to know again.  York had the second strongest tenure
> contracts in the country and good research leave
> provisions.  Academic freedom?  Not so strong...
> .  Governance structure?  (Never mind. It would
> take too long... . Suffice it to say, it was based on divide
> and rule, and it worked.)  Tenure in a snakepit doesn't
> change the snakepit. 
> 
> Here, universities have failed to stand up to governments,
> and faculties/schools/departments have failed to stand up to
> universities. (And some have failed more blatantly than
> others.) But tenure really has played a minor part in all of
> this, the US (and, it seems, Canadian) faculty system (for
> tenured faculty, yes) salary structure, and folkways, have
> made the difference. 
> 
> Have the courage to admit that it follows, as day
> > follows night, that
> > there is no academic freedom in Britain.
> 
> First, there is academic freedom here, still.  Second,
> the tendencies you lament do not even correlate fully with
> the abolition of tenure, as -- as I would agree -- the
> coming of the dawn correlates with night's ending, the dark,
> with the absence of light.
> 
>  
> Judy Evans, Cardiff
> 
> --- On Wed, 17/8/11, Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
> wrote:
> 
> > From: Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
> > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Pausing Philosophically for
> Coffee off the B9086, with Tammie Norries
> > To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
> "Donal McEvoy" <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Date: Wednesday, 17 August, 2011, 22:55
> > Quoting Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > --- On Wed, 17/8/11, Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > > There is no academic freedom, either in
> research
> > or
> > > > teaching without it. [I.e. tenure].
> > > 
> > > It would seem to follow, given that tenure has
> > virtually disappeared here as
> > > Judy says, that there is "no academic freedom"
> in
> > Britain. Hmm.
> > > 
> > > This is such a high horse to ride in defence in
> tenure
> > that it think it might
> > > be advisable to dismount.
> > 
> > Skipper's recent posting has definitely caused a
> decline in
> > our capacities for
> > rational argument; we are reduced to erecting 
> > positions embedded only in 
> > vivid and enticing sexual metaphors. 
> > 
> > Re "Hmm:" I strongly suggest that Donal rethink her
> > criteria of "advisability."
> > For it doesn't "seem" anything. Donal's position is
> surely
> > part of the problem
> > here. Have the courage to admit that it follows, as
> day
> > follows night, that
> > there is no academic freedom in Britain. There, it has
> been
> > asserted. Do the
> > planets continue in their orbits? 
> > 
> > When faculty at, zum beispiel, the Institute of
> > Education, University of London, are assessed
> according to
> > the degree to which
> > their research bears "impact" on practical policy
> matters
> > and when they are
> > criticized in government sponsored audits of their
> > departments for the  pursuit
> > of "academic individualism" that fails to contribute
> to the
> > coffers of silver
> > of
> > the University, you can be certain that Heather hasn't
> a
> > prayer.
> > 
> > Sir Walter of O
> > MUN
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > Donal
> > > London
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > >
> >
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References:
- [lit-ideas] Re: Pausing Philosophically for Coffee off the B9086, with Tammie Norries
  - From: Judith Evans
[lit-ideas] Re: Pausing Philosophically for Coffee off the B9086, with Tammie Norries

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