Genevieve McCabe, the EIS-FELA local convener of the further education branch of the union, said:
"It [Mr Harris's holiday] certainly has not gone down well. The staff feel it is a strange time for the chief executive of a very large educational organisation to be on holiday."
Ms McCabe said progress had been made at the meetings with management, but not enough to resolve the dispute.
Extract from todays Scotsman Article by Fiona MacLeod
4 comments:
Anyone who works at Telford (or Stevenson College) and has witnessed the arrogance of the Principal perhaps wont be completely surprised at his decision to take annual leave at this critical time. For staff at Telford it's daunting to see the article in todays Scotsman in which the Deputy Principal tells us that he has been left in control and can make decisions in the Principal's absence. No doubt that is his deputising right and responsibility and in any other college staff would not be so fearful of this. However, given our Deputy Principals reputation and track record it is completely understandable that staff are worried. You only need to look at his most recent bungled effort, namely the authorising of a deceptive letter sent directly to EIS members via HR falsely alleging that the strike is illegal and clearly attempting to scare staff into returning to work.
It was interesting to see reported the fact that teaching staff recently issued a vote of no confidence in the Principal, as indeed happened when he was in the same post at neighbouring Stevenson College. However it should be remembered that Telford lecturers vote of no confidence was directed at the entire Principalship.
I have worked at the college for three years now and have only ever seen Ray Harris twice in that time. Unsurprisingly both times were events where the press had arrived to do features on events which had only been made possible due to the hard work of the college's lecturing and support staff. On both these instances Dr Harris looked like he was happy to take the credit for events which he had had no input in whatsoever.
That said he's still doing better than Greg Irving as, in my three years at the college, the only time I have ever seen his face was when his photo was in the Evening News as a result of this dispute.
What these people seem to fail to realise is the fact that Telford is run, to a large extent, on the good will of it's staff. If the support and lecturing staff ever adopted a work to rule mentality very little would be done. At present we all pitch in out of good will for the students and our fellow colleagues. Management seem to be happy to erode that good will.
What I find really worring is the complete lack of accountability for the pricipleship. It seems that they have a completly free reign to do what ever they like. Where are the board of directors and why have they not commented on this. people need to realise that the lecturers have been forced to take this action and are taking a substantial pay cut because they feel they are the only ones trying to protect this college. Board of directors I wnt to hear what you think of all this.
This dispute has shown us the passion and commitment our students have towards Telford College and their tutors, and to my view that indicates the potential for the creation of a superb educational experience during the short time the students are with us.
However, the college management consistently fails to realise how important the student experience is, and instead have created an environment where students are regularly seen to raise their eyes to the heavens at the latest example of incompetent management and mutter "you can tell it's Telford". Our students have come to expect things to be wrong, or not working, or not in their favour. Timetables are often not in place until the students have actually started their course, and then go through a number of changes over the next few weeks causing chaos with their part-time work commitments; some classes are STILL without rooms seven weeks into the session; tutor contact time is cut further and further year on year; rooms are under-resourced and often inappropriate for purpose; an over-reliance on technology often lets everyone down; changes, such as access to external email providers being blocked, are taken without proper consultation; a student union is unsupported by the management . . . the list goes on.
Unfortunately management have only succeeded in creating even bigger divisions and bad feeling with their conduct in this dispute and have got their work cut out to recover from that. Historically they have NEVER interacted with the students, as evidenced in their complete misjudgment of the students' reaction to the strike, and it's only through this dispute that some students can now identify any of our management 'team'. Those few students who have managed to sit down and talk to Dr Harris and Mr Irving, without being dismissed as (quote) "unimportant", are now fully aware of the level of mismanagement, bullying and lack of consultation which the staff have had to put up with for years.
If the management truly believed that the students are at the heart of what we do in FE, instead of just paying lip service to that concept, and made genuine efforts to get both the staff and the students on their side by creating an environment where everyone feels valued and encouraged, then what enormous scope we would have for getting the very best out of our students and sending them into the workplace, or HE, with confidence and good memories of their college years.
Telford College belongs to the students, and management should be nurturing that instead of treating them as a commodity that can be fobbed off with a second class system of delivery.
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