Dear all,

We wanted to give a union perspective on the recent HEFCE grant allocation
and the challenges facing HE staff at the moment.

First, although there is no reason to panic, there is cause for concern.
The cut to Goldsmiths of 1.7% (3.5% in real terms) is, to quote Hugh
Jones, "roughly what we expected". It is worse than some places, better
than others. The main point is that it does not justify the imposition of
any cuts that harm the quality of education we provide to students and
therefore undermine the reputation of the College. This will lead to a
spiral of decline which benefits no one. We cannot be complacent about the
financial situation and we don't know exactly what will be announced in
the forthcoming Budget or any post-Election Budget. But our priority needs
to be to protect jobs and  conditions as well as high-quality education
and research.

Second, we know that many staff are discussing ways of dealing with the
2.5% cuts demanded by management. There have been staff meetings in many
Departments and UCU meetings in some. What seems to be clear is that there
is very little left to cut, that many members of staff are unwilling to
sanction any further cuts and that, already, many of us have experienced
cuts in terms of posts NOT being filled and voluntary unpaid leave not
being fed back into the Department. 'Vacancy savings' together with the
proposed 2.5% cuts means that those of us who are left are likely to be
working harder, that staff/student ratios will increase and that stress
levels are certain to rise.

What should our reaction be? We should refute the notion that
'realpolitik' means that we need to accept uncritically course closures,
fewer VTs, flexible working arrangements, early retirement or 'voluntary'
severance. We can take inspiration from the victory at Leeds, from the
huge meetings and strike at Sussex, from the resistance to cuts at Kings
and UCL, from the growing number of student occupations against the cuts
(at Westminster, Sussex and Aberdeen) and from the vibrant march of staff
and students to Downing Street on Saturday. We should also call on our new
Warden to lobby UCEA to negotiate meaningfully on the entirety of our pay
claim for 2010/11 and, in particular, to recognise UCU's right to
negotiate safeguards on jobs at the national level.

Please call a meeting in your Department to discuss the proposed cuts so
that we can start to develop a strategic response.

We will be holding an open meeting with the Students Union to discuss HE
cuts early in the Summer term and have called an organising meeting for
1pm this Thursday, 25 March in the Stephen Lawrence room of the SU. You are
most welcome.

Goldsmiths UCU

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Pictures from 20 March demo 

 

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