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March 28, 2024, 10:04:38 AM

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University Challenged

Started by Alberon, March 16, 2020, 10:17:12 PM

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Attila

Why do I look at uni email at the weekend.

Apparently we're being sent the 'official line' on what we're meant to say about the redundancy threat to prospective students and their parents during out Open Days next week.

So not only am I stressed out about the thought of losing my job and vocation in the new few weeks, I have to cheerfully discuss it with the same set of students I'm meant to be recruiting for the 2021 intake. 'Hey, cool, sure, I know you'd love to study X history with me when you come, but that may well not even be on offer any more after 31st July! ::thumbs up:: '


Brace yourself for some HR-mandated variant of "we really appreciate your professionalism at this difficult time" ie. don't you fucking dare acknowledge, even obliquely, what a shower of cunts senior management are. Last time I went through this, various HR vermin were in attendance at Open Day to make sure we didn't say anything off-brand to students or parents.

Attila

No worries - fully expecting that 'thanks for all your help' email -- we were getting that shit alternating with the 'Some of you will have to be let go for the greater good of the university emails. In the original email this week that laid out how many people are up for the chop (and that all of us are on the full list), the VC had the audacity to crow about how we've all been working so hard and what a spectacular amount of effort we put in during the lockdown weeks of the semester, and then through the exam and marking period.

I was talking to my colleague this morning, who's had to update our programme's Open Day PowerPoints as a colleague has already said, 'Fuck this' and resigned. So that's at least four modules on our programme next year that won't be on offer.

And, yep, we've been told that senior management or 'their assistants' may be popping into our Open Day Teams at any time in case students/parents have any questions. Uh huh, thanks.

My dept is putting together a load of documents with numbers and cashflow to show how much money we bring in as a dept with PGR students, MA students, grants (all of which was overlooked in the report they sent us about why the dept has to be slashed) -- it all looks fantastic, but my wager is that senior management will say, 'Sorry, but we can't count that, as it's speculative: the students might drop out, and you may not get the grants. Soz. LOL. &c.'

pancreas

If this were happening in our university we'd be at every entrance handing out leaflets to parents: 'WILL THERE BE ANYONE LEFT TO TEACH YOU NEXT YEAR?'. If they want to carry on like that, then burn it the fuck down [figuratively, of course].

Attila

Annnnd the email came thing morning thanking us for all of our hard work over the Open Day from a senior manager -- they asked us who worked it to email them and let them know how it went because 'I don't participate in the Virtual Open days, just the ones on campus.'


Dex Sawash


News from the local covidersity

QuoteAs of right now, UNC-Chapel Hill plans to allow full capacity in dorm buildings. That could mean as many as eight students sharing one suite.     

2 to a room, 8 share a toilet room in the most common housing arrangement.

Duke University is housing at 30% and bought up an entire apartment complex that was just opening for incoming students.

Blue Jam

Been hearing rumours that the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and other people we rely on for funding are laying people off and downsizing. Getting worried about my job now.

fatguyranting

I haven't been able to access any library facilities for months, the promised 'networking with publishers and agents' also never happened on my MA, but luckily the finance team are so on point they sent a demand today for the £2 which I owe in fees.


Dex Sawash


UNC has 2 dormitories with covid outbreaks. Students have been back for about a week.

buttgammon

Quote from: fatguyranting on July 30, 2020, 04:11:21 PM
I haven't been able to access any library facilities for months, the promised 'networking with publishers and agents' also never happened on my MA, but luckily the finance team are so on point they sent a demand today for the £2 which I owe in fees.



That's crazy! Even in my cashcow of an institution, they extended all holds until September and deferred any fines.

Alberon

We're getting a three year pay freeze and a 5% pay cut for a year. For higher grades (managers and academics) it'll be 10 or 15%. A voluntary redundancy plan is going to be put in place, but nothing else yet.

It all depends on how many students we get now. If we do badly more redundancies will follow, if we do well not all the wage freezes and cuts will go into effect.

Blue Jam

Just been informed that the managers of the huge deserted lab building I work in where I can go an entire day without bumping into another soul have decided to make face coverings mandatory. Fuck's sake.

Had a town Hall meeting the other day where most of the questions posted were asking why we have such fucking ridiculous OTT health and safety guidelines and why the health and safety staff won't back the fuck off and stop patrolling the corridors looking for excuses to give people a bollocking. It does feel like we're being punished for upsetting the health and safety gods.

Work is such a pain in the arse right now that I can barely be arsed to go into the building as it is.

Is anyone aware of institutions shitting it over recruitment?

My place - campus based - is slutting it all over the socials, seemingly desperate to get anyone through the door. Recruitment was an ongoing issue anyway, with the bulk (around 2/3 I think) done through clearing. The tariff is quite high, but come clearing they do anything they can to get near enough anyone in - and that's under normal conditions. I'm also hearing from a former colleague who is now fairly hot shot management in a Russell Group uni, that he thinks there will be a knock on effect on the 'second division' universities, who won't get the spill from the top table as they are starting to guarantee places and offer deferrals into next year. Predicted grades will presumably mean more get their first choice even if it means kicking it into 2021. This obviously damages a university that cashes in on disappointment every August.

So what's the story out and about? I'm not hearing numbers yet, but find the above scenario conceivable. Are any Russell Group over-recruiting, or will that not become feasible when considering the student:teacher ratio and league tables?

Dex Sawash

Quote from: Dex Sawash on August 14, 2020, 09:47:07 PM
UNC has 2 dormitories with covid outbreaks. Students have been back for about a week.

Week and 5 outbreaks later, they've sent most all students back home and gone fully online. Other state schools doing the same. Forns and kids with hardship can stay on campus.

Alberon

Our university has been putting a lot of signage up about Covid making some entrances and stairs one way and the like.

Not sure how the halls are doing. We leased them out to a management company for the next century a few years back.

Quote from: drummersaredeaf on August 20, 2020, 10:15:09 PM
Is anyone aware of institutions shitting it over recruitment?

My place - campus based - is slutting it all over the socials, seemingly desperate to get anyone through the door. Recruitment was an ongoing issue anyway, with the bulk (around 2/3 I think) done through clearing. The tariff is quite high, but come clearing they do anything they can to get near enough anyone in - and that's under normal conditions. I'm also hearing from a former colleague who is now fairly hot shot management in a Russell Group uni, that he thinks there will be a knock on effect on the 'second division' universities, who won't get the spill from the top table as they are starting to guarantee places and offer deferrals into next year. Predicted grades will presumably mean more get their first choice even if it means kicking it into 2021. This obviously damages a university that cashes in on disappointment every August.

So what's the story out and about? I'm not hearing numbers yet, but find the above scenario conceivable. Are any Russell Group over-recruiting, or will that not become feasible when considering the student:teacher ratio and league tables?

Not Russell group but a large Russell group very nearby.

Initial numbers were poor but we're up to our target* now after clearing. Just hope the majority actually turn up.

*we didn't beat around bush - we have labs and the safe capacity in lab became our target for the year.

It's my colleagues that aren't helping now.

"We should make students sign a document to say that they won't party"
"You know we can't do that"
"But we should"

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Blue Jam on August 20, 2020, 10:01:59 PM
Just been informed that the managers of the huge deserted lab building I work in where I can go an entire day without bumping into another soul have decided to make face coverings mandatory. Fuck's sake.

Had a town Hall meeting the other day where most of the questions posted were asking why we have such fucking ridiculous OTT health and safety guidelines and why the health and safety staff won't back the fuck off and stop patrolling the corridors looking for excuses to give people a bollocking. It does feel like we're being punished for upsetting the health and safety gods.

Work is such a pain in the arse right now that I can barely be arsed to go into the building as it is.

what is your objection to that? stuffiness, pain in the arse, breathing issues? I don't see the problem in the short term. Fair enough if there is only a handful of you.

Blue Jam

Sweatiness, glasses fogging up. It's just horrible having to wear a mask for hours on end.

I can understand masks being compulsory in shops but I've been told that the lab building is operating under capacity, and while we currently have a limit of 30 people in the building at any one time (ie, ten per floor), the average attendance for the entire building is eight.

I also mainly go in to use a facility no-one else uses and spend the whole day in a room on my own- and being a cell-culture facility, it's an extremely well-ventilated room where the air is constantly being filtered and sterilised!

We had a town hall meeting recently where there were a lot of complaints about our OTT health and safety rules. There have been a lot of complaints about our health and safety peeps enjoying this whole Covid malarkey a bit too much and patrolling round looking for excuses to give people a bollocking. It's made for a really unpleasant atmosphere, to the point where the PhD students have been allowed back for a few weeks now but many of them are choosing to stay away and work from home instead.

I'd happily wear a mask if I was teaching a class full of students (for example) but right now it just doesn't make sense.

Camp Tramp

Quote from: Blue Jam on August 25, 2020, 10:07:09 AM

There have been a lot of complaints about our health and safety peeps enjoying this whole Covid malarkey a bit too much and patrolling round looking for excuses to give people a bollocking. It's made for a really unpleasant atmosphere,

This seems true of H&S people everywhere. The most irritating and argumentative employee was made the 'Covid Safety Marshal' at my work. He loves pulling people up for walking a meter up a one way travel path and just gets in the way

Alberon

So the UCU is starting a push against Universities reopening and they're not alone.

QuoteThe University and College Union (UCU), which represents over 120,000 academics, lecturers and university workers accused the government of "encouraging a public health crisis", warning that British universities are just "weeks away" from "sleepwalking into a disaster".

"A million young people are being encouraged to travel all around the UK, move into halls of residence and congregate in large numbers. This could lead to universities being the care homes of any second wave of Covid," general secretary Jo Grady said in an interview with the Observer.

On 20 August, the Independent Sage group recommended that all university courses should be offered remotely and online, unless they involved practical training or lab work. If students and staff do have to attend campus in these restricted circumstances, the committee said they should be tested for the virus on or before arrival, and regularly afterwards.

The National Union of Students said it wanted universities to follow the Independent Sage advice and focus on delivering face-to-face teaching only for lab-based and practical courses. "The government needs to work with universities to urgently take action and ensure that measures are put in place to prioritise student and staff safety," said Larissa Kennedy, NUS national president. "In-person teaching should only take place if it can be delivered safely for all staff and students, and social distancing guidelines and other safety measures can be maintained."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/29/uk-university-reopenings-risk-covid-public-health-crisis-teaching-union-warns.

My univeristy has plenty of signage and one way systems in place, and hand sanitisers inside the entrance of every building, but there's no PPE requirement or any testing program. There has been a spate of infections at colleges in the US, but is that simply due to the coronavirus being more out of control there?

At the moment, I'm expecting the universities to open, but with the record of last minute U-turns the government has lately I'm taking nothing for granted.

Attila

I made it through the awful redundancy rounds this past summer -- the cost being that three of my colleagues didn't, so all of our workloads increased for those who are left. Just got my timetable for the autumn, and it is awful: I have to be on campus five days a week (which, in normal times, yeah, ok, sure fine). But during this particular situation? Not so fab, sadly.

Every day I have several 'in person' seminars where I have to lead discussion to a small subset of a bigger class -- to those who show up, and streaming to those who realise everything on campus is going to be streamed and recorded anyway.

Feeling extremely resentful of colleagues who have had their on campus classes packed into two if not only one day a wekk (one colleague who lives a 5 minute walk has managed to have all of her classes on the same day. I've got a faff of a railway trip to get onto campus every day for my stuff, smack in the middle of the afternoon, so most of the day will be wasted commuting).

Fave parts of my timetable: I have an online lecture to one of the big cohort groups at midday, then an on-campus seminar 15 minutes after the online lecture ends. We're not supposed to do any of the online stuff from our office. So I have to figure out how in the living fuck I'm meant to teleport to campus.

Every Monday I have a seminar on our satellite campus, which is about a 30 minute walk from the main campus. 15 minutes after that ends, I'm meant to be on the main campus giving another seminar.

I've been trying to record lectures on Teams, but since Friday, none of my recordings are saving or transfering to Stream (which they were automatically Friday morning, then everything stopped working. Hours of work wasted, as the error messages didn't come up right away. No idea what I'm doing wrong -- I've tried it on several different devices and computers now, following everything to the letter. Nope. Can't wait for this to happen in the classroom). I have to record nearly 80 lectures (in 3-4 parts), and have no idea what is going wrong. Got a vague response that 'Microsoft servers are experiencing a global glitch and my lectures will upload as soon as that is fixed.' Uh huh.

I'm supposed to go to campus this Friday for 'training' on how we're meant to stream seminars at the same time as teaching them to whoever actually shows up. Senior management tells us that this is easy -- well, yes, for them, because all they do is stand in front of a camera while minions operate it, monitor the chatroom, take care of everything else.

Initially, they told us that everyone had to come onto campus at some point before the semester started for this training, so that we don't show up on the first day of the semester clueless and wasting the students' time (!) fumbling about in the classroom. Most recently, we got a scoldly email saying word had got round that staff were planning to come onto campus to train for using Stream in the classroom, and this was not a good idea because of saftey concerns. It's like Catch-22 come to life.

They tell us to walk or cycle to campus -- maybe drive if we absolutely have to (because there simply isn't enough parking). Anyone taking the trains will pretty much be regarded as pariahs. Fuck knows then how I'm meant to get to campus.

There is no way short of an actual asteroid strike that we will be allowed to go completely online, because the uni  charges the depts for the use of classrooms plus of course they are depending on students for housing fees (as well as tuition). We're already being threatened with a fresh round of autumn redundancies if they students don't come back, and we are being monitored for how well we do the online/hybrid teaching as part of the criteria whether we're made redundant at the end of the academic year.

Really dreading it, and the attendant stress and anxiety it's already bringing. I think I'd be a lot better if we were 100% online -- I've made a wager that we'll probably go online completely by week 2 or 3 due to a covid breakout, but my university delayed sending us all online in the spring til the last possible minute (although senior management disappeared the minute there was even a whiff that someone had tested positive -- we carried on for another two weeks). So I can see them attempting to soldier on in-person as much as they can get away with.

Apologies for the whingeing -- but it's an absolute clusterfuck for me. :(

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Alberon on August 30, 2020, 08:57:34 AM
So the UCU is starting a push against Universities reopening and they're not alone.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/29/uk-university-reopenings-risk-covid-public-health-crisis-teaching-union-warns.

My univeristy has plenty of signage and one way systems in place, and hand sanitisers inside the entrance of every building, but there's no PPE requirement or any testing program. There has been a spate of infections at colleges in the US, but is that simply due to the coronavirus being more out of control there?

At the moment, I'm expecting the universities to open, but with the record of last minute U-turns the government has lately I'm taking nothing for granted.

I saw the head of UCU on BBC this morning (forgive me, I've just emerged from 4 bed ridden days of food poisoning). The cunt BBC anchor was so antagonistic and missing the point "surely the University's have had enough time!!! Those kids will be part of the lost generation (a. they are adults, b. why has The BBC always highlighted remote learning on their tech shows-the future you cunts).)

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Alberon on August 30, 2020, 08:57:34 AM
So the UCU is starting a push against Universities reopening and they're not alone.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/29/uk-university-reopenings-risk-covid-public-health-crisis-teaching-union-warns.

My univeristy has plenty of signage and one way systems in place, and hand sanitisers inside the entrance of every building, but there's no PPE requirement or any testing program. There has been a spate of infections at colleges in the US, but is that simply due to the coronavirus being more out of control there?

At the moment, I'm expecting the universities to open, but with the record of last minute U-turns the government has lately I'm taking nothing for granted.

Although forbidden to say much, there will be some innovative measures coming in place to identify solutions for isolating cases even down to the building/dorm level. They have done this in Illinois (ND Uni) where a silent outbreak was detected early and those affected quarantined without further spread. I have to be careful to say anything really, but I have some confidence now that I'm on the outer edge of the inner circle. [p.s. not trying to appear cryptic or neckbeard egotistical)

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Attila on August 30, 2020, 09:42:09 AM
I made it through the awful redundancy rounds this past summer -- the cost being that three of my colleagues didn't, so all of our workloads increased for those who are left. Just got my timetable for the autumn, and it is awful: I have to be on campus five days a week (which, in normal times, yeah, ok, sure fine). But during this particular situation? Not so fab, sadly.

Every day I have several 'in person' seminars where I have to lead discussion to a small subset of a bigger class -- to those who show up, and streaming to those who realise everything on campus is going to be streamed and recorded anyway.

Feeling extremely resentful of colleagues who have had their on campus classes packed into two if not only one day a wekk (one colleague who lives a 5 minute walk has managed to have all of her classes on the same day. I've got a faff of a railway trip to get onto campus every day for my stuff, smack in the middle of the afternoon, so most of the day will be wasted commuting).

Fave parts of my timetable: I have an online lecture to one of the big cohort groups at midday, then an on-campus seminar 15 minutes after the online lecture ends. We're not supposed to do any of the online stuff from our office. So I have to figure out how in the living fuck I'm meant to teleport to campus.

Every Monday I have a seminar on our satellite campus, which is about a 30 minute walk from the main campus. 15 minutes after that ends, I'm meant to be on the main campus giving another seminar.

I've been trying to record lectures on Teams, but since Friday, none of my recordings are saving or transfering to Stream (which they were automatically Friday morning, then everything stopped working. Hours of work wasted, as the error messages didn't come up right away. No idea what I'm doing wrong -- I've tried it on several different devices and computers now, following everything to the letter. Nope. Can't wait for this to happen in the classroom). I have to record nearly 80 lectures (in 3-4 parts), and have no idea what is going wrong. Got a vague response that 'Microsoft servers are experiencing a global glitch and my lectures will upload as soon as that is fixed.' Uh huh.

I'm supposed to go to campus this Friday for 'training' on how we're meant to stream seminars at the same time as teaching them to whoever actually shows up. Senior management tells us that this is easy -- well, yes, for them, because all they do is stand in front of a camera while minions operate it, monitor the chatroom, take care of everything else.

Initially, they told us that everyone had to come onto campus at some point before the semester started for this training, so that we don't show up on the first day of the semester clueless and wasting the students' time (!) fumbling about in the classroom. Most recently, we got a scoldly email saying word had got round that staff were planning to come onto campus to train for using Stream in the classroom, and this was not a good idea because of saftey concerns. It's like Catch-22 come to life.

They tell us to walk or cycle to campus -- maybe drive if we absolutely have to (because there simply isn't enough parking). Anyone taking the trains will pretty much be regarded as pariahs. Fuck knows then how I'm meant to get to campus.

There is no way short of an actual asteroid strike that we will be allowed to go completely online, because the uni  charges the depts for the use of classrooms plus of course they are depending on students for housing fees (as well as tuition). We're already being threatened with a fresh round of autumn redundancies if they students don't come back, and we are being monitored for how well we do the online/hybrid teaching as part of the criteria whether we're made redundant at the end of the academic year.

Really dreading it, and the attendant stress and anxiety it's already bringing. I think I'd be a lot better if we were 100% online -- I've made a wager that we'll probably go online completely by week 2 or 3 due to a covid breakout, but my university delayed sending us all online in the spring til the last possible minute (although senior management disappeared the minute there was even a whiff that someone had tested positive -- we carried on for another two weeks). So I can see them attempting to soldier on in-person as much as they can get away with.

Apologies for the whingeing -- but it's an absolute clusterfuck for me. :(

fuck that. unionise.

I think Newcastle have now reserved a number of lecture rooms so that staff can do all this stuff on site safely and efficiently.

buttgammon

We don't even have timetables yet, but it seems the college is pushing for more face to face teaching than we expected despite the obvious pitfalls; there's no way we're getting through the term without shutting down and moving online at this rate.

There's absolutely no clarity about where this leaves casual staff like myself and as we don't even have contracts, they're probably going to cut a lot if not all of us loose if they're struggling financially. I got in touch with our main point of contact in the department about this (I'm one of the reps) and got an extremely rude and touchy reply - the sense of contempt was palpable. The whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen.

Attila

Quote from: BlodwynPig on August 30, 2020, 10:10:21 AM
fuck that. unionise.

I think Newcastle have now reserved a number of lecture rooms so that staff can do all this stuff on site safely and efficiently.

We do have a union. They've been quiet about this so far.

Quote from: buttgammon on August 30, 2020, 10:45:51 AM
We don't even have timetables yet, but it seems the college is pushing for more face to face teaching than we expected despite the obvious pitfalls; there's no way we're getting through the term without shutting down and moving online at this rate.

There's absolutely no clarity about where this leaves casual staff like myself and as we don't even have contracts, they're probably going to cut a lot if not all of us loose if they're struggling financially. I got in touch with our main point of contact in the department about this (I'm one of the reps) and got an extremely rude and touchy reply - the sense of contempt was palpable. The whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen.

We have to sign up for individual hours at a time that we can use our offices, to keep the number of people in the building down. In normal times, I'd get to campus around 730 and stay all day (makes it easier to get the train, means I can be more efficient with getting everything else done during the day). Instead, we're told there will be hot desks we can use as 'safe spots' if we need more time to work on campus.

Ummm...holing up in my own office with my books, papers, resources, &c, would be way more efficient than dragging everything to thes 'safe spaces' throughout the day.

In response to me practically begging to be allowed onto campus early (I have 9am teaching two days, but the rest all start at 11, 12pm, and 1pm) to work in and record/stream out of my office) due to my commuting issues has been met with 'Where you choose to live isn't our problem.'

Like you buttgammon, we were told that while we would have face-to-face teaching, it would be as efficient and maximised as possible to keep contact safe; my timetable tells a whole different story. Because they're insisting on face to face seminars, each one of m y modules is now split into several smaller groups, so I'm repeating stuff hour-to-hour as students shuffle in and out of the classrooms.

I can't even keep track of the pages and pages of rules and requirements that we all have to keep to for teaching, when we can be on campus, how the online stuff is meant to work, how we're responsible for sanitising the classrooms before and after each lesson, &c.

If I had somewhere else to go and even a modicum of financial security, I'd be out like a shot -- which depresses me, as teaching and history and all that has been my interest and focus since I was a kid. If I lose this job I'm royally fucked, but keeping it is a right misery. Yay!

I've got some colleagues back home in the States who are shocked that we're not going online, but others who say their universities are doggedly persisting in on-campus teaching as well.

Online teaching has its perils, of course -- I like to read a teachers/lecturers chatroom, and some of the stories about student antics on-camera have been...interesting.

BlodwynPig

happy to take some of your lectures to help out. I've read up on my Cartledge, Graves and B. Johnson

Attila

Quote from: BlodwynPig on August 30, 2020, 11:54:55 AM
happy to take some of your lectures to help out. I've read up on my Cartledge, Graves and B. Johnson

I don't mind teaching lectures, it's just arrgghhh why is nothing I try to record on Teams actually recording? I'm following everything to the letter, and I had no problems recording/transferring to Streams up to Friday afternoon.

(I've even gone round the houses by downloading what I've recorded and manually uploading to Streams, but you don't get the auto close-captioning that way -- we're required to have close captioning, otherwise I'd just slap everything up on my YouTube account.)

Apologies for all of the random screaming and ranting -- I try not to talk about any of this stuff at home.

My uni is bending over backwards to take precautions for the students (fair enough), but zero for the staff's well-being and workload.

greencalx

An email came round about our voluntary severance package halfway through an excruciating board of examiners meeting today. I was tempted. But alas they'd have to offer about 20x as much to buy me off.

Can't advise on lecture prerecording cos I took the easy way out by going into my usual theatre and activating the capture equipment. No new skills to learn. Did the whole lot in two long takes, bit like recording a game show.