Marking & Assessment Boycott

[aridapricot]

So how do you think this will pan out this time? Are you taking part? How do you think things will go in your university/department?
My uni is docking 30% pay. Also in my department (where the spirit tends to be "yes we'll do whatever UCU asks us to do but we'll also go out of our way to cause any inconvenience to students") people are already talking about mitigations... 🙄I am not a UCU member and won't be taking part but I also fear that at some point I will be asked to cover colleague's marking or (even worse) redistribute it (given that I'm HoD).

Ucu has only ever looked after those in permanent academic jobs. It’s not surprising the lack of progress on things they don’t affect high paid professors.

UCU apparently dropped 3K members between March and October this year:
https://twitter.com/SamMorecroft/status/1721652753968116033

This is quite different from the image UCU have been trying to portray throughout 2023, I think. I've seen lots of posts about a groundswell of new members prompted by different actions.....

I smell bullshit.

Just saw some gossip on X saying that Grady’s term is up in March - is that confirmed?

https://nitter.net/NagingtonUoM/status/1722358655910113398#m

Looks like it. Vicky Blake is going for GS. Jesus Wept.

https://vickyblakeucu.uk/2023/11/13/vicky-blake-for-general-secretary/

And here I was thinking I might see my way to rejoining ... she hasn't a hope really because AFAIK, UCU is driven by factions. But she's trying and she seems pretty grounded.

What's her definition of a woman, does anyone know?

She's been involved in UCU Women for over a decade and UCU Women defines 'woman' in the inclusive, self-identifying way.

VB was involved with UCU Women at a senior level in 2018-19 when: 'The UCU Women members’ conference 2018 agreed a motion reaffirming trans women are to be included in all UCU women’s organising agendas and actions.

She was tweeting about trans rights back in 2012:
'Forced sterilization in #Sweden? Ask PM #Reinfeldt to break the deadlock & stand for #trans rights and #humanrights: ^allout.org/en/actions/sto^^'^

Since then, there've been a few tweets about trans. So I wouldn't say she's a rampant TRA/MRA but most definitely believes TWAW.

Just seen that the other people going for GS are:

Dr Jo Grady (UCU General Secretary, University of Sheffield)
Professor Ewan McGaughey (King's College London)
Saira Weiner (Liverpool John Moores University)

Surely Grady has absolutely zero chance of re-election!

I can't find much about EM apart from his repeated poor luck with his EU flag when he was living in Cambridge😂 https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridge-eu-flag-stolen-12959239
He doesn't seem to have Twitter.

Saira Weiner tweeted just over two weeks ago in reply to UCU Left that: Absolutely. Trans Rights are Human Rights
She claimed in October 2021 that: Women's Rights and trans Rights are mutually inclusive. Let's have some unity of the oppressed eh?
Then just loads more handmaiden, virtue signalling tweets about solidarity with the trans community, spikes in transphobia, genocide, yadda yadda.

Looks like the best hope for female academics in UCU is a man-identifying male … my head hurts …

It would be nice to have a GS who is less intellectually challenged than Grady.

Erm, actually male is very biologically deterministic and reinforces the male/female binary which has been debunked by gender studies experts as a white supremacist construct rooted in colonialism and imperial power.

So, I think you mean 'a man-identifying cisgender bollock-possessor'

So sorry! Of course we absolutely ought to overcome the male/female binary! My thinking is outdated and demands urgent reform.

But, to be fair, ‘bollock-professor’ is also a tad biologistic. And do we know that said professor has the above mentioned body part?

The best policy might be to assume nothing, or, in the spirit of forward-looking thinking, assume that the bollock-professor is a minoritised transfeminine non-binary candidate who just isn’t out yet and is seeking to distract from their inner turmoil by getting into the local paper over their flag antics. That means UCU members can vote for him/her/them with a good conscience.

This is the only sensible way forward.
And I apologise for my biologistic language, I will educate myself and do better next time to be a better ally to my trans, non-binary, not-ye-decided, two-spirit etc. siblings.

You are causing me to snort my tea over my keyboard. 😂

Or should I say my drink heated up at the expense of the planet’s health to provide me with a beverage extracted at great expense by colonised bodies of colour?

Aaaargh! 🤯

I can't find much about EM apart from his repeated poor luck with his EU flag when he was living in Cambridge😂 www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridge-eu-flag-stolen-12959239
He doesn't seem to have Twitter.

A UCU gen sec who doesn't live life on Twitter?

I'm in already.

Agreed, though I think this may be his downfall.