Thursday, May 28, 2009
Danny O'Hare, international man of mystery
Irish politics are very hard to explain to outsiders. One of the reasons
is that 2009 was the first year that Ireland actually realized that
running a country involved prosecuting white-collar crime, as otherwise
the international community would lose confidence in its governance; and
so we just jailed someone (Frank Dunlop) for corruption, having
publicly let the far more corrupt go free for generations. It is also
fair to say that both of our leading parties, Fianna Fail (FF) and Fine
Gael, subscribe to an odd synthesis of catholic nationalism and
globalized corporatism. The sole difference in the past decade has been
FF's more active promotion of property development as the main
locomotive of the economy; this is ending in tears, to put it mildly. By
the time this is being read, FF will visibly be on the road to the
incinerator of history.
Originally formed from those who rejected the treaty creating an Irish statelet, FF morphed gradually into a celebration of the financialization of the world economy and there is no going back from there to the old shibboleths of a united Ireland and Gaelicism. While some of its original members did take part in a civil war, it eventually degenerated into a bunch whose sole core belief was that the rest of us owed them a (luxurious) living. They put their apparatchiks in everywhere from the boards of the semi-state bodies to the foremen on building sites. In the 1970's, they decided to create a university in northside Dublin.
The initial plan was to combine the tech colleges that eventually became DIT. Then Danny O'Hare had the idea of using the old agricultural college in Glasnevin as a new campus. After a few years of stand-off, the institution that has wrecked the lives of many began to take shape. Ironically, it started well, and would have continued that trajectory, absent its founding father's foibles.
A historical interlude may be necessary here. Danny was a godsend to FF. When his own governing authority threw him kicking and screaming from DCU in 1999, he went on to many appointments to lucrative and absolutely disastrous state boards like the famed Medialab, which single-handedly destroyed the cutting-edge of Irish software for the past decade:
Danny's board
Sunday Tribune and WSJ comment
After this trail of destruction was complete, he embarked on a little-known Bonoesque venture to save the world, and this may not be known to Irish readers. First was a sojourn at the Hoover institute at Stanford, home of the torture cheerleader Condi Rice. There he announced that he was working on a book describing how the original private US universities topped the rest. Perhaps fortunately for him, this book has yet to see the light of day. Then came “angel of mercy” trips to Vietnam with Chuck Feeney , the only philanthropist to have kept all his money after giving it away – ach sin sceal eile, involving Chuck's promotion of private Irish hospitals and a hot line to De Taoiseach (our Prime Minister, for the unininitated).
Danny's animus against tenure is what has destroyed DCU to the point that it needs to be started all over again. Northside Dublin deserves better than DCU; its cankered accreditation is described elsewhere on this blog. Prondzynski has done nothing other than implement the agenda outlined in Danny's halcyon days; the weakening of the contracts that the union had imposed on him began in the mid-1990s.
And so to the punchline. The rape-camps in Christian brothers' Canada were described in a book called “Unholy orders” and a famed drama documentary called “The Boys of St Vincent”. Fearing financial ruin, the order there transferred its monies to Ireland. In 2008, E400 million was transferred to a board involving Danny
Ireland's Boys of St Vincent
There is much else I could write; his innovation in linguistics, imitated by his successor, whereby the verb “resign” morphed from intransitive “(I resigned from”) and reflexive forms(“I resigned myself”) to a transitive such (“I resigned X from Y”, whether 3 months' notice was given or not - one assumes). Or the fact that, by his own admission, he became an administrator after realizing he was, at best, a mediocre scientist. His dictatorial control of DCU, reflected in the role of the "chief officer' in the deranged 1997 Irish universities act, extended to his sitting on interview boards conducted in Irish, a language he does not speak.
Perhaps, however, I might best refer the reader to the preceding entry on industrial schools. In the meantime, is it too much to ask that we might have a president whose family comes from elsewhere than the building industry?
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 28u Bealtaine 2009
Originally formed from those who rejected the treaty creating an Irish statelet, FF morphed gradually into a celebration of the financialization of the world economy and there is no going back from there to the old shibboleths of a united Ireland and Gaelicism. While some of its original members did take part in a civil war, it eventually degenerated into a bunch whose sole core belief was that the rest of us owed them a (luxurious) living. They put their apparatchiks in everywhere from the boards of the semi-state bodies to the foremen on building sites. In the 1970's, they decided to create a university in northside Dublin.
The initial plan was to combine the tech colleges that eventually became DIT. Then Danny O'Hare had the idea of using the old agricultural college in Glasnevin as a new campus. After a few years of stand-off, the institution that has wrecked the lives of many began to take shape. Ironically, it started well, and would have continued that trajectory, absent its founding father's foibles.
A historical interlude may be necessary here. Danny was a godsend to FF. When his own governing authority threw him kicking and screaming from DCU in 1999, he went on to many appointments to lucrative and absolutely disastrous state boards like the famed Medialab, which single-handedly destroyed the cutting-edge of Irish software for the past decade:
Danny's board
Sunday Tribune and WSJ comment
After this trail of destruction was complete, he embarked on a little-known Bonoesque venture to save the world, and this may not be known to Irish readers. First was a sojourn at the Hoover institute at Stanford, home of the torture cheerleader Condi Rice. There he announced that he was working on a book describing how the original private US universities topped the rest. Perhaps fortunately for him, this book has yet to see the light of day. Then came “angel of mercy” trips to Vietnam with Chuck Feeney , the only philanthropist to have kept all his money after giving it away – ach sin sceal eile, involving Chuck's promotion of private Irish hospitals and a hot line to De Taoiseach (our Prime Minister, for the unininitated).
Danny's animus against tenure is what has destroyed DCU to the point that it needs to be started all over again. Northside Dublin deserves better than DCU; its cankered accreditation is described elsewhere on this blog. Prondzynski has done nothing other than implement the agenda outlined in Danny's halcyon days; the weakening of the contracts that the union had imposed on him began in the mid-1990s.
And so to the punchline. The rape-camps in Christian brothers' Canada were described in a book called “Unholy orders” and a famed drama documentary called “The Boys of St Vincent”. Fearing financial ruin, the order there transferred its monies to Ireland. In 2008, E400 million was transferred to a board involving Danny
Ireland's Boys of St Vincent
There is much else I could write; his innovation in linguistics, imitated by his successor, whereby the verb “resign” morphed from intransitive “(I resigned from”) and reflexive forms(“I resigned myself”) to a transitive such (“I resigned X from Y”, whether 3 months' notice was given or not - one assumes). Or the fact that, by his own admission, he became an administrator after realizing he was, at best, a mediocre scientist. His dictatorial control of DCU, reflected in the role of the "chief officer' in the deranged 1997 Irish universities act, extended to his sitting on interview boards conducted in Irish, a language he does not speak.
Perhaps, however, I might best refer the reader to the preceding entry on industrial schools. In the meantime, is it too much to ask that we might have a president whose family comes from elsewhere than the building industry?
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 28u Bealtaine 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Industrial schools, industry's university
It came as something of a surprise to see that DCU still styles itself “industry's university” in its strategic plans:
Sell-out
Lifting the hem that high is close to mooning from the front. This is surely something worth commenting on in the media; are the other Irish unis less industry's? Or does it betoken a disinterest in the fuddy-duddy sort of academic endeavour that has given us every single technological breakthrough in these complicated modern times?
Of course, following the commission on child abuse, the term “industrial” applied to education now has a rather fearsome resonance in Irish society:
Child abuse
Approximately three generations too late, the Irish media is excoriating in the strongest terms behaviour that it showed no interest in whatsoever while it was actually ongoing. Then, of course, the state dogma was Roman Catholicism and the department of education inspectors appointed to assess these cesspools of abuse gave them a clean bill of health time after time.
Before moving on to the obvious current parallel, that of the current neoliberal/neocon dogma and its consequences for care of the vulnerable, let us quickly look at some recent heroic posturing by Madame Editor of the Irish times. That paper's move to the asinine right has been perhaps the single most damaging media event in 21st century Ireland. Madame has shown no sympathy whatsoever for the Rossport 5, sent to jail in a move she actively encouraged while Shell broke the law so flagrantly that legal documents had to be served on them by the government literally on the building site.
While we can only guess why Minister Sean Doherty bothered to tap her phone in the incident that secured her fame and fortune, she has received massive plaudits for refusing to reveal sources to the Mahon tribunal, and indeed destroying documents;
Support from Guardian
All of this is perhaps as it should be. However, let us consider a hypothetical situation. Let us imagine that, instead of supporting her in this way as the Supreme Court beckoned, the Guardian allowed Judge Mahon, Kennedy's accuser, prime placement for his blog on the home page of its website. Would in not be fair to assume that the Guardian had a particular view on the issue, just as we can assume that that the Irish Times has a certain view on academic tenure? Is it perhaps to corner the market in Ireland, so that the IT hacks would never have to face serious analysis on their pontifications on everything under the sun? The IT has not broken a story in eons; instead there is endless uninformed commentary, the great majority from the right.
There is a story of abuse of due process, and bullying of both staff and students, fully as disgusting in its general outline (if not scatological detail) as the abuse in the industrial schools. The Green party were aware of this before going into government, and asked a set of parliamentary questions based on students and staff that they had interviewed. Once in government, their tune changed completely;
Egregious violation of law
Despite what I frankly interpret as an assault by the IT, whose ownership is of course somewhat irregular in company law terms, we are not totally powerless. For a start, at least this blog is on the record. Secondly, we are in a position to summons Deputy Gogarty (now chair of the Dail committee on education, having resigned as his party's spokesman on the issue)to explain his change of heart. The author of the industrial school-type ruling that the unis could do “day to day” whatever they liked is a Mr Paraic Mellett of the HEA. It will be interesting to hear from him also. As a confirmed technocrat, he will do doubt have an ideological bent that we can unpack, in public, and on the record, for his employer, the Irish taxpayers who send their children to environments made abusive by irresponsibility like his.
It would have been great to have a chance to run a dogma-free Ireland within the rule of law for a while, just to see what happens. Maybe it's not too late?
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 27u Bealtaine 2009
PS I am somewhat in shock. It turns out that Tom Boland, head of the HEA was the civil servant most involved in cutting the deal that transferred the costs of the rape-camps in the industrial schools over to the taxpayer;
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/how-the-orders-got-more-than-they-bargained-for-1756645.html
We shall summons Mr Boland to the EAT to explain his John Yoo-type interpretation of the 1997 universities act, so similar to the dept of education's historical views on treatment of abuse claims.
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 31u Bealtaine 2009
Sell-out
Lifting the hem that high is close to mooning from the front. This is surely something worth commenting on in the media; are the other Irish unis less industry's? Or does it betoken a disinterest in the fuddy-duddy sort of academic endeavour that has given us every single technological breakthrough in these complicated modern times?
Of course, following the commission on child abuse, the term “industrial” applied to education now has a rather fearsome resonance in Irish society:
Child abuse
Approximately three generations too late, the Irish media is excoriating in the strongest terms behaviour that it showed no interest in whatsoever while it was actually ongoing. Then, of course, the state dogma was Roman Catholicism and the department of education inspectors appointed to assess these cesspools of abuse gave them a clean bill of health time after time.
Before moving on to the obvious current parallel, that of the current neoliberal/neocon dogma and its consequences for care of the vulnerable, let us quickly look at some recent heroic posturing by Madame Editor of the Irish times. That paper's move to the asinine right has been perhaps the single most damaging media event in 21st century Ireland. Madame has shown no sympathy whatsoever for the Rossport 5, sent to jail in a move she actively encouraged while Shell broke the law so flagrantly that legal documents had to be served on them by the government literally on the building site.
While we can only guess why Minister Sean Doherty bothered to tap her phone in the incident that secured her fame and fortune, she has received massive plaudits for refusing to reveal sources to the Mahon tribunal, and indeed destroying documents;
Support from Guardian
All of this is perhaps as it should be. However, let us consider a hypothetical situation. Let us imagine that, instead of supporting her in this way as the Supreme Court beckoned, the Guardian allowed Judge Mahon, Kennedy's accuser, prime placement for his blog on the home page of its website. Would in not be fair to assume that the Guardian had a particular view on the issue, just as we can assume that that the Irish Times has a certain view on academic tenure? Is it perhaps to corner the market in Ireland, so that the IT hacks would never have to face serious analysis on their pontifications on everything under the sun? The IT has not broken a story in eons; instead there is endless uninformed commentary, the great majority from the right.
There is a story of abuse of due process, and bullying of both staff and students, fully as disgusting in its general outline (if not scatological detail) as the abuse in the industrial schools. The Green party were aware of this before going into government, and asked a set of parliamentary questions based on students and staff that they had interviewed. Once in government, their tune changed completely;
Egregious violation of law
Despite what I frankly interpret as an assault by the IT, whose ownership is of course somewhat irregular in company law terms, we are not totally powerless. For a start, at least this blog is on the record. Secondly, we are in a position to summons Deputy Gogarty (now chair of the Dail committee on education, having resigned as his party's spokesman on the issue)to explain his change of heart. The author of the industrial school-type ruling that the unis could do “day to day” whatever they liked is a Mr Paraic Mellett of the HEA. It will be interesting to hear from him also. As a confirmed technocrat, he will do doubt have an ideological bent that we can unpack, in public, and on the record, for his employer, the Irish taxpayers who send their children to environments made abusive by irresponsibility like his.
It would have been great to have a chance to run a dogma-free Ireland within the rule of law for a while, just to see what happens. Maybe it's not too late?
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 27u Bealtaine 2009
PS I am somewhat in shock. It turns out that Tom Boland, head of the HEA was the civil servant most involved in cutting the deal that transferred the costs of the rape-camps in the industrial schools over to the taxpayer;
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/how-the-orders-got-more-than-they-bargained-for-1756645.html
We shall summons Mr Boland to the EAT to explain his John Yoo-type interpretation of the 1997 universities act, so similar to the dept of education's historical views on treatment of abuse claims.
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 31u Bealtaine 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Silly fukus; neocon attacks on tenure
Francis Fukuyama is the type of public intellectual who disgraces the
academic profession. A mediocre scholar, he has been involved in
promotion of the genocidal US campaign in Iraq. Later, of course, he
admitted that he and his neocon colleagues may have been a little de
trop in their promotion of torture and imperialism. It will be the task
of the next generation to try and undo the damage he and his ilk have
done.
Silly Fuku
is a summary of the man's life and “work”. Who has funded this idiot in his facile pronouncements of the “end of history” - later of course repudiated - and now the “end of tenure” in the Washington post? Even the facts are wrong - Britain reinstated many of tenure's protections after the Tories were defeated in 1997:
Fuku two
Similarly for Hawaii's own Rudy Rummel and others. Theirs is a pathetic attempt to take the ladder up with them. Both “scholars “ start with the disclaimer that they themselves have been protected by tenure – including through periods where their views would have ensured their dismissal, had a left-wing administration with an intolerance level similar to theirs been in power. That is indeed the critical point; tenure affords a mechanism through which often controversial and apparently extreme views can be tested in the academy before being inflicted on society as a whole. Among the first victims of an incoming totalitarian regime are always scholars.
Yet the defense of tenure can go deeper still. Let us forget for a moment the doomed, illegal and infantile efforts to get rid of tenure at DCU; for example, all issues surrounding my case have been decided at the Supreme court, and God knows what management are trying to do by continuing the agony at a lower court. Academic tenure offers the state an opportunity to domesticate scholars; and scholars, historically, have taken their domestication with gratitude. The alternative is immensely powerful ideas careening around improvised structures within civil society with enormous implicit danger to the state. The inevitable expression often is armed revolution led by a cadre with views as ill-informed as the Utopian socialism that begat the 1917 Russian revolution.
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 23u Bealtaine 2009
Silly Fuku
is a summary of the man's life and “work”. Who has funded this idiot in his facile pronouncements of the “end of history” - later of course repudiated - and now the “end of tenure” in the Washington post? Even the facts are wrong - Britain reinstated many of tenure's protections after the Tories were defeated in 1997:
Fuku two
Similarly for Hawaii's own Rudy Rummel and others. Theirs is a pathetic attempt to take the ladder up with them. Both “scholars “ start with the disclaimer that they themselves have been protected by tenure – including through periods where their views would have ensured their dismissal, had a left-wing administration with an intolerance level similar to theirs been in power. That is indeed the critical point; tenure affords a mechanism through which often controversial and apparently extreme views can be tested in the academy before being inflicted on society as a whole. Among the first victims of an incoming totalitarian regime are always scholars.
Yet the defense of tenure can go deeper still. Let us forget for a moment the doomed, illegal and infantile efforts to get rid of tenure at DCU; for example, all issues surrounding my case have been decided at the Supreme court, and God knows what management are trying to do by continuing the agony at a lower court. Academic tenure offers the state an opportunity to domesticate scholars; and scholars, historically, have taken their domestication with gratitude. The alternative is immensely powerful ideas careening around improvised structures within civil society with enormous implicit danger to the state. The inevitable expression often is armed revolution led by a cadre with views as ill-informed as the Utopian socialism that begat the 1917 Russian revolution.
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 23u Bealtaine 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Academic corporatism marches east..California, Arizona, Ireland....
The recent sycophantic coverage in the Irish times (IT) of our beloved
leader's "Diry of a nortsoide uni Prezident" indicates, yet again, to
what depths that paper has sunk under Geraldine Kennedy. The IT,
represented by a supposed liberal, was aware of the violation of
union-management agreements as far as December 2002 and, unsolicited by
us, asked questions about it. In 2003, she then interviewed the students
who were abused, insisting that one come to meet her on a Sunday as it
suited her, and has copies of his correspondence with Pron. She has
written nothing and the IT is a threat to academic tenure and the
welfare of students. This is exactly how the institutional abuse they
report on so copiously today - 50 years after the fact - occurred in the
first place
There are many of us who believe that the presence of a journalism department at a university is corrosive of the real pursuit of knowledge that the rest of us are engaged in. Not a word has been written in Ireland's so-called “paper of record” about the attempt to destroy academic tenure, and basic human rights for students and staff. Even the corporatist Sunday Independent has covered these stories,
Interestingly, this follows hot on the heels of public denunciations of Irish musicians (in Princeton, USA) by the likes of Fintan O'Toole. On Monday, Peter Murtagh launched a savage attack on the Mayo hunger-striker Maura Harrington. As for suing them; after a particularly intemperate set of rants by Siobhan Long (music “critic”) and Karlin Lillington, the IT responded to our complaints grudgingly and indirectly, and only after refusing normal “right of reply” channels.
There is a real story at play here about the demise of academic freedom in Ireland. Thus the regrettable necessity of this blog; I would much prefer not to write it. However, we find that the agenda to put universities under the direct control of businesses was tried before in 1990's California. That it failed is partly due to citizen Glynn Custred;
Californian corporatism
Of perhaps much greater interest in that the chancellor who attempted to bring this in , Barry Munitz, was exposed as dubious in the extreme by a set of articles in the LA Times, culminating in a summary by Vanity fair.
Faculty response to Munitz
Let us make it clear; we are aware that what DCU is trying to put in place is a university subject to the whim of corporations. Any faculty member is subject to summary dismissal in the new dispensation. Since this could not legally be introduced, in conjunction with SIPTU, management are attempting to do so by abusing due process.
What are our journalists doing? What kind of training are they getting?
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 20u Bealtaine 2009
There are many of us who believe that the presence of a journalism department at a university is corrosive of the real pursuit of knowledge that the rest of us are engaged in. Not a word has been written in Ireland's so-called “paper of record” about the attempt to destroy academic tenure, and basic human rights for students and staff. Even the corporatist Sunday Independent has covered these stories,
Interestingly, this follows hot on the heels of public denunciations of Irish musicians (in Princeton, USA) by the likes of Fintan O'Toole. On Monday, Peter Murtagh launched a savage attack on the Mayo hunger-striker Maura Harrington. As for suing them; after a particularly intemperate set of rants by Siobhan Long (music “critic”) and Karlin Lillington, the IT responded to our complaints grudgingly and indirectly, and only after refusing normal “right of reply” channels.
There is a real story at play here about the demise of academic freedom in Ireland. Thus the regrettable necessity of this blog; I would much prefer not to write it. However, we find that the agenda to put universities under the direct control of businesses was tried before in 1990's California. That it failed is partly due to citizen Glynn Custred;
Californian corporatism
Of perhaps much greater interest in that the chancellor who attempted to bring this in , Barry Munitz, was exposed as dubious in the extreme by a set of articles in the LA Times, culminating in a summary by Vanity fair.
Faculty response to Munitz
Let us make it clear; we are aware that what DCU is trying to put in place is a university subject to the whim of corporations. Any faculty member is subject to summary dismissal in the new dispensation. Since this could not legally be introduced, in conjunction with SIPTU, management are attempting to do so by abusing due process.
What are our journalists doing? What kind of training are they getting?
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 20u Bealtaine 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
"College view" backs down; DCU management chickens out of EAT
"The College view" has withdrawn the highly libelous and defamatory
article earlier published because it contained grossly inaccurate and
damaging statements about me made by Prondzynski:
Tissue of lies is now withdrawn and cannot be accessed on the internet.
I have also been offered the chance to write an equally prominent article with my reply in their next issue in October - in the meantime, watch this space!
In a related move, DCU has chickened out of the EAT hearing on June 9 and now want to reschedule in the hope that they can starve us into submission.
SIPTU allowed them to do this, in the same way as they have conceded every time that DCU management expressed a preference on anything. The 2004 hearing was originally adjourned at the request of Mallon, the DCU management barrister (SIPTU did not supply us with one) over my strenuous objections - I had come from the USA, and my legal advice was that there was no reason to adjourn. Btw, Mallon's knowledge of the case was such that he ran out of questions and sought an adjournment after 90 minutes.
A chairde, my dear friends - if you want to keep your jobs, home, and families together, call a strike NOW, and make sure that Paul Cahill's heroic stance is not wasted
This is the current scenario;
1. You are working, minding your own business, that of the nation and your students
2. A moment later, you are told you are sacked without any procedures whatsoever.
3. Prondzynski announces to the media and anyone who'll listen that you "are no longer a member of staff"
4. In the meantime, you are barred from campus, from your friends, from your work, and will not be able to make your mortgage payments
You now have two options;
A. Go the EAT route. Take a civil suit for defamation. I did both. My house and 20 years' work at DCU are gone. I have now had 7 years without salary and SIPTU still allow them to defer hearings for utterly spurious reasons (Question; why did IBEC back out of the case in the first instance?)
B. Take out a High court injunction. If tenured before 1997, use the Fanning Supreme court judgement. They will appeal and remove you from teaching, and take your lab from you - if you have one, a la Paul Cahill. 5 years and a million Euro gone. After 1997; the have been kind to Paul Cahill, nicht wahr? In fact, they openly defied Judge Clarke's recommendation that he should be allowed return to his duties, and to return to him (Clarke) if there was a problem. They then prohibited Cahill from returning to Clarke, and continued to delay the referral to the Supreme Court.
In other words, SIPTU has ceded arbitrary power to management, and everyone is now at risk. To delay a hearing and withhold payment (or force the risk of punitive legal fees) is effectively the same as a dismissal in any case. From 2002, DCU management has delayed hearings and/or not implemented the recommendations when the hearing eventually took place at least 7 times.
Specifically; Summer 2002: Numerous cancellations of scheduled meetings.
Then it went into the Labour relations commission (LRC)
1. 27 Aug 2002 DCU management refuse to attend a meeting scheduled at the LRC
2. Sept 16 2002 DCU management leave the LRC for reasons later declared spurious by Finbarr Flood of the labour court
After a credible threat of strike action, they begin to attend the LRC.
3 Dec 6 2002 Labour court recommendation, issued by Flood, ignored by DCU
4. 30 Jan 2003 Rights' commissioner recommendation issued; appealed by DCU 4 days before the deadline.
IBEC leave case, citing refusal of DCU management to provide witnesses
5. 3 October 2003 Appeal of rights' commissioner recommendation scheduled. DCU management seek and are granted a deferral by SIPTU
6. DCU management then seek adjournment of the hearing within 90 minutes of its starting in Nov 2003. It is refused, and hearing is to continue in Feb 2004. It is clear that the barrister they have brought in knows nothing about the case; a legal team on the other side would have mopped it up there and then in our favour.
7. Feb 2004; DCU management again seek adjournment of hearing. It is granted, for reasons that expert legal opinion considers invalid, and the case heads into limbo for more than five years.
8. May 13 2009: DCU management seek and are granted deferral of EAT hearing due to begin June 9, 2009, and after the supreme court has ruled against them on the central issue. They are granted this deferral 8 days after the deadline for such deferrals has elapsed, as specified in the EAT's own documentation, and for reasons that do not seem pressing, as the EAT's rules recommend (see below; notice received 30/4, deferral granted 13/5). The worker involved and his family, who live in the USA, have to change a very complicated schedule that had been established after the deadline had passed. No specific alternative dates have been communicated to him or his family. No expenses or reimbursement is available from the EAT for the plane ticket already bought to travel for the June hearing, or work lost in the USA for the week in question
SIPTU has allowed them to do this. Go figure. The original idea of the EAT - set up in its present form by Labour's ex-leader Michael O'Leary while in government - was to ensure speedy rectification of these cases ie about 4 months. The fact is that employers have now found a way, crude as it is, to render this legislation powerless and not just perform summary dismissal, but subject the worker to a time-wasting and humiliating process afterward.
7 years and counting................what a way to destroy academic tenure, and indeed any job security in Ireland! This situation always needed a strike. Of course, it is ultimately self-destructive by SIPTU; the truly terrifying latitude of behaviour that they have allowed DCU management effectively de-unionizes not just the academic workplace in Ireland, but the whole country.
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 14/15u Bealtaine 2009
Tissue of lies is now withdrawn and cannot be accessed on the internet.
I have also been offered the chance to write an equally prominent article with my reply in their next issue in October - in the meantime, watch this space!
In a related move, DCU has chickened out of the EAT hearing on June 9 and now want to reschedule in the hope that they can starve us into submission.
SIPTU allowed them to do this, in the same way as they have conceded every time that DCU management expressed a preference on anything. The 2004 hearing was originally adjourned at the request of Mallon, the DCU management barrister (SIPTU did not supply us with one) over my strenuous objections - I had come from the USA, and my legal advice was that there was no reason to adjourn. Btw, Mallon's knowledge of the case was such that he ran out of questions and sought an adjournment after 90 minutes.
A chairde, my dear friends - if you want to keep your jobs, home, and families together, call a strike NOW, and make sure that Paul Cahill's heroic stance is not wasted
This is the current scenario;
1. You are working, minding your own business, that of the nation and your students
2. A moment later, you are told you are sacked without any procedures whatsoever.
3. Prondzynski announces to the media and anyone who'll listen that you "are no longer a member of staff"
4. In the meantime, you are barred from campus, from your friends, from your work, and will not be able to make your mortgage payments
You now have two options;
A. Go the EAT route. Take a civil suit for defamation. I did both. My house and 20 years' work at DCU are gone. I have now had 7 years without salary and SIPTU still allow them to defer hearings for utterly spurious reasons (Question; why did IBEC back out of the case in the first instance?)
B. Take out a High court injunction. If tenured before 1997, use the Fanning Supreme court judgement. They will appeal and remove you from teaching, and take your lab from you - if you have one, a la Paul Cahill. 5 years and a million Euro gone. After 1997; the have been kind to Paul Cahill, nicht wahr? In fact, they openly defied Judge Clarke's recommendation that he should be allowed return to his duties, and to return to him (Clarke) if there was a problem. They then prohibited Cahill from returning to Clarke, and continued to delay the referral to the Supreme Court.
In other words, SIPTU has ceded arbitrary power to management, and everyone is now at risk. To delay a hearing and withhold payment (or force the risk of punitive legal fees) is effectively the same as a dismissal in any case. From 2002, DCU management has delayed hearings and/or not implemented the recommendations when the hearing eventually took place at least 7 times.
Specifically; Summer 2002: Numerous cancellations of scheduled meetings.
Then it went into the Labour relations commission (LRC)
1. 27 Aug 2002 DCU management refuse to attend a meeting scheduled at the LRC
2. Sept 16 2002 DCU management leave the LRC for reasons later declared spurious by Finbarr Flood of the labour court
After a credible threat of strike action, they begin to attend the LRC.
3 Dec 6 2002 Labour court recommendation, issued by Flood, ignored by DCU
4. 30 Jan 2003 Rights' commissioner recommendation issued; appealed by DCU 4 days before the deadline.
IBEC leave case, citing refusal of DCU management to provide witnesses
5. 3 October 2003 Appeal of rights' commissioner recommendation scheduled. DCU management seek and are granted a deferral by SIPTU
6. DCU management then seek adjournment of the hearing within 90 minutes of its starting in Nov 2003. It is refused, and hearing is to continue in Feb 2004. It is clear that the barrister they have brought in knows nothing about the case; a legal team on the other side would have mopped it up there and then in our favour.
7. Feb 2004; DCU management again seek adjournment of hearing. It is granted, for reasons that expert legal opinion considers invalid, and the case heads into limbo for more than five years.
8. May 13 2009: DCU management seek and are granted deferral of EAT hearing due to begin June 9, 2009, and after the supreme court has ruled against them on the central issue. They are granted this deferral 8 days after the deadline for such deferrals has elapsed, as specified in the EAT's own documentation, and for reasons that do not seem pressing, as the EAT's rules recommend (see below; notice received 30/4, deferral granted 13/5). The worker involved and his family, who live in the USA, have to change a very complicated schedule that had been established after the deadline had passed. No specific alternative dates have been communicated to him or his family. No expenses or reimbursement is available from the EAT for the plane ticket already bought to travel for the June hearing, or work lost in the USA for the week in question
SIPTU has allowed them to do this. Go figure. The original idea of the EAT - set up in its present form by Labour's ex-leader Michael O'Leary while in government - was to ensure speedy rectification of these cases ie about 4 months. The fact is that employers have now found a way, crude as it is, to render this legislation powerless and not just perform summary dismissal, but subject the worker to a time-wasting and humiliating process afterward.
7 years and counting................what a way to destroy academic tenure, and indeed any job security in Ireland! This situation always needed a strike. Of course, it is ultimately self-destructive by SIPTU; the truly terrifying latitude of behaviour that they have allowed DCU management effectively de-unionizes not just the academic workplace in Ireland, but the whole country.
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 14/15u Bealtaine 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
DCU: after Newsweek, the Daily show? Saturday Night Live?
My distinguished colleagues on “the Watchdog” have commented that DCU
has done well over the past decade. I can't comment on this, to a large
extent; I have been illegally banned from campus during most of that
period. However, there are certain objective criteria that can be
reported on. It can also be reported that its main strategic partner in
the USA, Arizona state University, is an international laughing-stock,
the Sarah Palin of universities.
First of all, despite the massive amounts of taxpayers' money with which the place has been flooded, it has failed to crack the top 200 in any ranking system (In fact, it seems to hover around the 300-550 mark). Quite how massive these monies are we will find out when accounts are finally published; DCU has never published full accounts this millennium, and even partial ones have not emerged for 5+ years. Secondly, I can report on conditions in my home department, computer applications, which was during the 1990's the flagship of the university
I am tenured there since 1988. It was understood that one taught 3 courses, 6-9 hours a week, and then also did the tutorials, an extra 6-9. (Several of us also did Ph.D.'s part-time). Moreover, unlike TCD, the faculty teaching a day course also taught that to the excellent night degree students. Yet we managed to create new programs, like the night degree and ACL degree.
It is fair to say that there was a degree of jealousy on the part of management of the (largely unsought) media profile of the dept. We found, for example, that our rooms were not being cleaned. After a brief lull in which we did not have to do tutorials, the rules changed again; we were asked to do tutorials, even as tutors for the classes lectured by our own grad students. Our head of dept was constructively dismissed, and then failure rates, already high, went through the roof from 1999.
I mention all this because I understand that things are right back to square one; the ACL and night degree were abolished by this administration at enormous cost to the taxpayer. Both initially ran at practically no extra cost. There is no funding for tutors, so 1987 conditions again prevail
However, darling, we'll always have Newsweek and Arizona State University (ASU). The problem with that is ASU, “the Harvard of date rape”, is now even more than before a comic byword after its announcing that President Barack Obama did not merit one of its honorary PhDs - unlike, to take one example, the disastrous Kim Campbell. It has pursued the path of academic corporatism with the same vigour as DCU, including the abolition of departments. Click on the links below, and weep. After "the daily Show" ran one of the intrepid Jason Jones' investigative forays, "Saturday night live" - who destroyed Palin - also got in the act through Amy Poehler and Seth Myers. One hopes for DCU's sake that they are now tired of the story.
ASU gets Palin treatment
Herald
Grid
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 13u Bealtaine 2009
First of all, despite the massive amounts of taxpayers' money with which the place has been flooded, it has failed to crack the top 200 in any ranking system (In fact, it seems to hover around the 300-550 mark). Quite how massive these monies are we will find out when accounts are finally published; DCU has never published full accounts this millennium, and even partial ones have not emerged for 5+ years. Secondly, I can report on conditions in my home department, computer applications, which was during the 1990's the flagship of the university
I am tenured there since 1988. It was understood that one taught 3 courses, 6-9 hours a week, and then also did the tutorials, an extra 6-9. (Several of us also did Ph.D.'s part-time). Moreover, unlike TCD, the faculty teaching a day course also taught that to the excellent night degree students. Yet we managed to create new programs, like the night degree and ACL degree.
It is fair to say that there was a degree of jealousy on the part of management of the (largely unsought) media profile of the dept. We found, for example, that our rooms were not being cleaned. After a brief lull in which we did not have to do tutorials, the rules changed again; we were asked to do tutorials, even as tutors for the classes lectured by our own grad students. Our head of dept was constructively dismissed, and then failure rates, already high, went through the roof from 1999.
I mention all this because I understand that things are right back to square one; the ACL and night degree were abolished by this administration at enormous cost to the taxpayer. Both initially ran at practically no extra cost. There is no funding for tutors, so 1987 conditions again prevail
However, darling, we'll always have Newsweek and Arizona State University (ASU). The problem with that is ASU, “the Harvard of date rape”, is now even more than before a comic byword after its announcing that President Barack Obama did not merit one of its honorary PhDs - unlike, to take one example, the disastrous Kim Campbell. It has pursued the path of academic corporatism with the same vigour as DCU, including the abolition of departments. Click on the links below, and weep. After "the daily Show" ran one of the intrepid Jason Jones' investigative forays, "Saturday night live" - who destroyed Palin - also got in the act through Amy Poehler and Seth Myers. One hopes for DCU's sake that they are now tired of the story.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Arizona State Snubs Obama | ||||
| ||||
ASU gets Palin treatment
Herald
Grid
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 13u Bealtaine 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Mayday, Mayday!! Or: How to save Ireland
Before this goes further, it is worth noting that, in contrast to the mad campaign against tenure and academic freedom, Pamela is fighting what would have been the good fight, had she not lied. There is no question; Ireland should comply with international refugee law, and so should the applicant refugees. On a personal note, we are the only Irish group ever to do live African-american jazz radio, and the only non-black band of any ethnicity to attend the Oakland meetings to lend support to the campaign against white jazz hegemony.
It is interesting to hear the arguments of apologists for high immigration, called the Doheny and Nesbitt school in Ireland in honour of the pub in which they draw up their plans to reshape the country after suitable refreshment has ensured that their already modest intellectual capacities are irrevocably impaired. So I just lost 40 minutes of my life hearing Sara de la Rica at UC Berkeley economics dept explain, given the theoretical work of Borjas, Peri, and Sperber, inter alia, why immigration is still such a great idea. She first of all denied the well-attested Spanish programs to send unemployed immigrants back to the their place of origin, then produced a baroque mathematical argument (note the beautiful reference in line 3 to "supplies offered by natives", at least until they get restless).
Notwithstanding the previous dispute of fact, we were duly impressed until Figure 3 of her paper showed a per hourly wage rate of E1.15 for immigrants. This she defended tooth and nail until it was pointed out that the top rate was E2.27, and she didn't know what she was talking about, like our local heroes. The economization of life due to neoliberalism is often misspelled as it takes flesh a la the CDOs, default swaps und so weiter that ensured this mess will continue for a decade.
It is time for a reality check. The IMF is imminent; even if it wasn't, what has happened in Ireland is less nationalizing the banks than bankalizing the whole state. This follows the attempt to create a pure (Milton) Friedmanite experiment in Europe I described on California Progress report in 2007. There are many savings that can be made and, fully aware of the barrage of PC BS I am about to face, here goes;
1.Cap civil servants' salaries at 100k. Savings in the 100's of millions pa. This includes the Doheny and Nesbitt financial wunderkinden, as indeed does the next section.
2.Do a review of all civil servants that do not deal directly with the public. For example, start at the HSE employees (3 in many small hospitals) who allocate beds, a task that used be done by the matron with some help. Good teachers, doctors nurses etc are safe. Get rid of 90% of the appalling HR staff in state institutions like DCU. Scrap the HEA, root and branch; they have allowed financial corruption, and – far worse – a situation where neither staff nor students at universities have any rights against management. Savings – perhaps 15 billion per year.
3.Get rid of SFI, PRTLI, SIPTU's closed shops, and (a state or rather FF institution)IMRO. Billions pa saved
4.Fire the director of corporate "enforcement" Appleby, the DPP Hamilton, and everyone associated with the banking debacle. Introduce proper adherence to the law, and watch the economy blossom again
5.We have about 100,000 immigrants each costing the state at least 10k a year on unemployment assistance. Do what Spain is doing and offer anyone not an Irish citizen wrt the 2004 referendum a way out. Billions pa
6.Ditto for any immigrant doing a job that can be done by an unemployed Irish citizen
7. Forget this Nama nonsense. Ask the ECB if our banks can borrow 100 billion which they are to pay back. If not, leave the Euro and make a single "take it or leave it" offer for our debt a la Argentina, nationalize all resources, and watch a competent set of politicians take over as the EU recedes. .
Yes, I'm serious. Time to decide if we want a country or not
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. Lá Bealtaine 2009
