Anyone in the UCU?

[Closetlibrarian]

And striking at end of Feb?

I joined UCU after the last strike, so this will be my first. Even though I voted in favour it, I'm now in an utter quandary. I have an absolute monster of a semester coming up and I'm fretting about all the lectures, tutorials, etc, I'll have to cancel as part of the strike.

If you've gone on strike before how did you present it to your students so that they didn't just get really pissed off with you for cancelling lectures (that we're then, according to UCU, not supposed to reschedule)?

Also, how did you mange with the loss of income? I'm the 'breadwinner', so 14 days of strike action is going to massively impact us (i.e. I'm not sure we'll be able to pay our bills).

whiskyowl, but for the fact that I guess that the lecturer who I'm thinking of at my daughter's university would have had more than one student involved in the occupation, I would have thought your DH was talking about my daughter! There must be so many pleasantly surprised academics across the nation!
Now my daughter had better crack on with her final year dissertation, which has been somewhat neglected during the past couple of weeks. Not sure she'll get bonus points for having rallied, occupied, sat in and been on the UCU picket lines

There are also clearly some direct lies being told at this point. At least one Cambridge college has this week put out a statement saying that they are happy to pay more, blah blah blah, when it is known that they were one of the ones in the infamous Oxford/Cambridge meetings pressuring for a "lower risk".

What is your impression of this, user? Is it a change of heart caused by the pressure, or is it a cynical PR move which belies continuing pressure for lower risk behind the scenes?

quais - how wonderful of your daughter! And yes, everyone I know has been surprised, humbled and delighted by the vocal radical vanguard of students who have done so much for us in the last few weeks. We are so grateful! I think it would be foolish to assume that all students feel the same way, unfortunately - but the others haven't found a voice (yet).

I really hope that this action may help the younger generation, who have been royally shafted economically, in fighting for their own rights. It would be wonderful if they were able to apply some of the ideas and techniques of this strike to their own battles!

Good luck to your daughter with her dissertation. Most academics I know are frantically trying to rearrange teaching to minimise harm to stuednts - both DH and I have decided to record ours so that students can listen to them at their convenience over Easter, and we'll both be putting on additional drop in sessions and Q&A face-to-face to help them out. I really hope future strikes will focus more on the audit culture and less on teaching.

whiskyowl have I understood you correctly - you are rescheduling/recording the teaching lost to the strike?

Thanks, whiskyowl, we're very proud of her and hoping she'll manage OK in the end, but it will be very stressful. Luckily, she seems to be doing OK for the degree mark required for her Master's course, so it's a matter of getting everything done in time. She will doubtless be uploading her dissertation two minutes before the deadline, but I'm afraid I would expect that even without the interruption of the strike!
I'm sure your students will appreciate your work to help them as much as you can in the circumstances. I think hope most students did get the message that it is up to the University Management to sort this out.

soupy - Yes, I'm rescheduling the missed teaching. I realise this is controversial - I know it's not union advice - but I strongly feel that it isn't right that students - very much innocent parties in all this - should lose out on their education. They are not the people we should be attacking. Since I am working all next week (before 2 weeks of leave, yay!), I've chosen to prioritise teaching in that time. However, I'm not working all night to do it. This prioritisation will mean that admin doesn't get done, and perhaps some project work too. I'm fine with that as a balance.

Quais - hopefully she has a few weeks before the final draft is due, and can make up for the lost time! While it would be foolish to diminish the importance of a good degree result at the end of all that work, I do think that radical action can be an education in its own right too. Hopefully she'll get the best of both worlds!

King's, Cambridge, reported that their bursar had responded to the consultation without full consultation in the college, because time was too short for that, and had said as much in the submission. The college fellows as a body disagree with what he said. So I don't think there's necessarily a contradiction.

King's, Cambridge, reported that their bursar had responded to the consultation without full consultation in the college, because time was too short for that, and had said as much in the submission. The college fellows as a body disagree with what he said. So I don't think there's necessarily a contradiction.

Yes, but that wasn't the college I was referring to, when I wrote about changes in attitude.

King's was one of the ones I meant when I wrote above, "even the colleges it came from did not necessarily represent the views of their Fellows".

BTW note that it was not really hat time was too short - it was the timing of the consultation, outside term-time, so hard to collect a quorum of the fellowship.

Is it a change of heart caused by the pressure, or is it a cynical PR move which belies continuing pressure for lower risk behind the scenes?

I don't know for sure. Picking up on the previous point, there is in any case not necessarily a single coherent view from a college, with the bursar/those responsible for managing finances often having a different view to the fellowship as a whole. But in at least one Cambridge college (of which I am a member but not a fellow) the "low risk" response last Autumn did heavily involve the fellowship and the statement this week is not open about this.

Very happy to see the Churchill statement:

www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/2018/mar/16/statement-from-governing-body/

(College led by Athene Donald.)

I am resigning from my external examining roles, but does anyone know if we should be resigning from PhD vivas. I have one next month and am internal examiner - in a collegaoal.system, so not my college, and then one as external following month.

Bah, collegial. Though college gaol could be good too.

I was told that PhD examining was ok, but best check with your UCU rep. Problem is that we don’t yet know about next strike, dates so it’s hard to be sure what’s going to be possible.

Great statement from Churchill. My old college has been excellent too and I know from lots of Oxford friends that this has been extensively discussed in most governing bodies. Many bursars are inherently conservative on the issue but the fellowships seem to be almost united in their resolve.

No one I know is rescheduling- that was a major plank of the rejection of the last proposal. To do so , even individually, imposes a huge burden on those in temp posts with nothing prepared. Part of the effects of the action is to endure univs have to rethink assessment. Obvs I will happily talk about the topics we missed, though.

By contrast, everybody I know already left materials/reading guides/videos of lectures on their virtually learning sites during the strike and is now doing some catch up to make sure students understand the material.

There is necessarily some difference between subjects, though. In mathematics, concepts follow sequentially from each other. If our first and second years don't cover the required material, we won't be able to teach them courses in later years. I.e. we would be making life hard for ourselves in the coming years if we don't cover the essentials now.

Part of the effects of the action is to endure univs have to rethink assessment.

Dream on.

No rescheduled in our department and I get the impression that fellow strikers (constituting about 70% of final year teaching) would be strongly opposed to that. We have secured the agreement in principle that if exam papers are to be amended to adjust for the strike, then they will be amended for striking and non-striking lecturers alike, so as not to disadvantage students who followed SU guidance not to cross picket lines.

We have secured the agreement in principle that if exam papers are to be amended to adjust for the strike, then they will be amended for striking and non-striking lecturers alike.

Isn't this going to annoy non-striking lecturers? Asking them to rewrite an exam that they have most likely already written? I cannot imagine implementing such a policy. In reality non-striking staff in my university have already picked up a lot of extra work, dealing with urgent issues, pastoral issues, crises with PhD students etc during the strike period. Asking people to rewrite exams that have already been written could well cause enormous resentment and fuel tensions.

That’s the decision the HoD has taken, based on concern for treating all students fairly. I’m sure it may well annoy non-striking colleagues, but striking colleagues are already annoyed by their lack of solidarity (esp those in senior positions), so swings and roundabouts I guess.

Friendly wave at everyone, and calming vibes for the onslaught that is the next week

Some people are still on strike, I know. We're having a boring what-now meeting, and I'd quite like to know the dates for the summer strike for planning purposes.
This week has two trips to London, a tedious REF meeting, and a paper deadline (there's also a grant deadline but that will have to wait as it's next month)

I feel really weird - scared and depressed. Just resigned my external examiner role. Such a f*ing shame as I loved it.

wizard - Oh, you poor thing. I am sure there will be other institutions who are on the side of the angels who will snap you up! But I do realise, saying that, that sometimes it's about personal relationships/friendships, or about a particular place you enjoy visiting and supporting.

I hope this doesn't sound lacking in solidarity, but while I realise that the action must go on, I am personally feeling quite upset and distressed by the whole thing. I feel overly defensive, ground down by it, and i wish it were over. I am worried about my own finances and, less selfishly, about my students. And I am not even an Important Person like those of you on here who really have to deal with the consequences in a meaningful way as leaders or union reps.

I'm just feeling fed up, devalued, and worried about whether more action is the right way forward. I don't even know if I'm being rational any more, in thinking that there is a really bad outcome here where we have the worst deal imposed on us?

Whisky your friendly wave, peace making, coffee and cake are much appreciated!

I know how you feel. It’s been a depressing few weeks.

What I’m most depressed about though is thinking how on earth I’m going to survive on very little money when I retire.

Yes I know that lots of people are in this position. But studying for three degrees and working 50-60 hour weeks as standard for decades, you’d hope I’d have more to look forward to.

No family to look after me in old age either. (Mostly cos I gave my all to academia in my 20s and 30s, and then it was too late.)

Very depressing.

I know how you feel whisky. I’ve found the whole thing very emotionally draining. I’m hoping for a quickie resolution, but not very confident of it. I suspect there will be a lot more angst to come.

Wizard: you’ve done the right thing though it might not feel like it right now.

Wizard good on you.

I actually feel slightly refreshed for having not been at work for the last 2 weeks (owing to working part time).
But it's really sad that it takes a strike to give me some work-life balance.

so there's going to be more strikes? I'm not an academic but my cousin is one at a place that didn't strike. She's against it, I'm for it and I was actually wondering if a non-academic like moi can donate to the strike fund?

I think we need a lot more rights etc in this country and I think what the VCs etc are being paid in contrast is shocking. I'd like to help out people who are missing out on pay - I think it's not just about uni posts, the wider point being made is valuable.