Copy of a letter to administrative staff at Lancaster University on redundancies, sent 8 Dec 2011
Dear all,
Please find below a letter that went out on 8th December 2011 from VC Paul Wellings to all administrative staff at Lancaster University.
It informs admin staff that they will face restructuring, redeployment and redundancies between now and spring, as part of the ongoing Business Process Review.
Please make a special note of points 6 and 7, which concern the of centralisation departmental administration and informs staff that “some reduction in numbers of administrative roles is anticipated”.
Given the source of this information, its “business-speak” rhetoric, and the inevitable aim of “damage limitation”, we must remain skeptical about any “assurances” given in this email.
What is clear is that, as part of this review, there is a push from accountants and external “consultants” to fundamentally change the way department administration operates, and to make many of the valuable and necessary staff who work so hard in our departments redundant. What the impact of such changes will be remains an open question. But, we can predict with some confidence that such changes would mean departments and courses operating less effectively, an increased administrative burden on remaining admin staff and on teaching staff, a worsened “student experience”, and less job security for remaining administrative staff.
Our only response to this can be to join together all staff and students, and staff and student unions, to tell the University accountants and so-called “managers” that we will not allow these destructive changes to go ahead.
Our warning here should be the Library, where we walked in one day to find most of the experienced, knowledgeable and trained librarian staff gone, replaced by cheap postgraduate labour and Tesco-style self-service checkouts. Let us not let the same happen in the operational centres of our departments.
To this end please:
- Disseminate this document by all means
- Find out more information and circulate this, too
- Come together to talk, plan and struggle against this
- Build pressure in departments, faculties, unions and all other arenas
- Write letters, emails, articles
- Keep in touch with Lancaster University Against Cuts (email: lancs-uni-against-cuts@lists.riseup.net)
Thanks
Letter to admin 8 Dec 2011
