Monday, February 28, 2011
Open letter to the new (deputy) Minister
I wrote to Fergus O'Dowd, the incoming (deputy) minister, today as follows;
It was a pleasure to talk to you today;congrats again. I think very few people suffered more directly from the corruption of this awful outgoing government than Melanie and myself. Mel was compelled eventually to take a federal court case in the USA , which she won, to stop the theft of her material from continuing. There was a final verdict in her favour on Feb 16, 2011 and hopefully the incoming government will help her and the (literally) dozens of Irish musicians similarly stolen from by Fianna Fail connected “businessmen” to retrieve their money;
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/4:2009cv03580/228656/68/
The DCU case is perhaps even more unforgivable, as it was the result of illegal action by a state body. In 2001, DCU governing authority passed a disciplinary statute that, contrary to the universities act, was not the result of consultation with the union, and - likewise in violation of that act – did not properly construct “tenure” for the officers of the university, as Justice Clarke ruled in the Cahill case in 2007;
http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2007/H20.html
Literally millions of taxpayers' money were spent both on the Cahill case and on my case, with massive adverse publicity for higher education in Ireland;
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/jul/12/lengthy-college-dismissal-case-may-cost-taxpayer-2/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6689569.ece
What makes matters worse is that there had been a labour court recommendation as far back as 2002 that DCU modify the statute within 2 months. Had that recommendation been complied with, much money and suffering would have been spared, and at least one very talented young man (Josh Howarth) who killed himself after undergoing a disciplinary procedure, would be alive;
http://www.labourcourt.ie/labour/labcourtweb.nsf/185190278967d05380256a01005bb35e/80256a770034a2ab80256c87003c73a4?OpenDocument
Yet the illegal statute is still on the website, and the one slated to replace it is similarly illegal and, if implemented, will undoubtedly cause more legal mayhem;
http://www.dcu.ie/info/statutes/statute3.shtml
http://academictenure.blogspot.com/2011/01/dcus-new-illegal-statute.html
The Clarke recommendation is strengthened by a supreme court judgement and award of all costs, with full reinstatement, to Paul Cahill in a further hearing;
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/836412m-bill-for-taxpayers-as-dcu-loses-dismissal-case-1971284.html
The Procedure that should have been used a decade ago is the appointment of a “visitor” (a high Court judge)to DCU, as the 1997 act demands when the university is acting outside the law. In fact, before their disastrous foray into government, the Green Party correctly demanded this. You can find their Dail questions and the disturbing answers on the links from;
http://universitywatchdog.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/the-greens-and-opportunistic-hypocrisy/
The answers that the state has no role in the “day to day” operations of the universities are wrong, but were repeated over and over to many questions from many sources about the behaviour of Irish universities' management.
You probably know that I have spent most of my time at Stanford since then, and we have had major success in both the academic and artistic fields, including opening the Irish writers' festival Thursday next in Washington DC. Had the Irish state spent a tenth as much resources on supporting us as it did on harassing us, dozens of jobs – perhaps more- would have been created both in Ireland and the USA.
Finally, since this will be available for FoI in any case, I am putting it on my website.
Comhchairdeachas aris
Is mise, le meas
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 28 u Feabhra 2011
PS 10 Marta ; Looks like there was some score-settling from Bruton's attempted coup
It was a pleasure to talk to you today;congrats again. I think very few people suffered more directly from the corruption of this awful outgoing government than Melanie and myself. Mel was compelled eventually to take a federal court case in the USA , which she won, to stop the theft of her material from continuing. There was a final verdict in her favour on Feb 16, 2011 and hopefully the incoming government will help her and the (literally) dozens of Irish musicians similarly stolen from by Fianna Fail connected “businessmen” to retrieve their money;
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/4:2009cv03580/228656/68/
The DCU case is perhaps even more unforgivable, as it was the result of illegal action by a state body. In 2001, DCU governing authority passed a disciplinary statute that, contrary to the universities act, was not the result of consultation with the union, and - likewise in violation of that act – did not properly construct “tenure” for the officers of the university, as Justice Clarke ruled in the Cahill case in 2007;
http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2007/H20.html
Literally millions of taxpayers' money were spent both on the Cahill case and on my case, with massive adverse publicity for higher education in Ireland;
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/jul/12/lengthy-college-dismissal-case-may-cost-taxpayer-2/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6689569.ece
What makes matters worse is that there had been a labour court recommendation as far back as 2002 that DCU modify the statute within 2 months. Had that recommendation been complied with, much money and suffering would have been spared, and at least one very talented young man (Josh Howarth) who killed himself after undergoing a disciplinary procedure, would be alive;
http://www.labourcourt.ie/labour/labcourtweb.nsf/185190278967d05380256a01005bb35e/80256a770034a2ab80256c87003c73a4?OpenDocument
Yet the illegal statute is still on the website, and the one slated to replace it is similarly illegal and, if implemented, will undoubtedly cause more legal mayhem;
http://www.dcu.ie/info/statutes/statute3.shtml
http://academictenure.blogspot.com/2011/01/dcus-new-illegal-statute.html
The Clarke recommendation is strengthened by a supreme court judgement and award of all costs, with full reinstatement, to Paul Cahill in a further hearing;
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/836412m-bill-for-taxpayers-as-dcu-loses-dismissal-case-1971284.html
The Procedure that should have been used a decade ago is the appointment of a “visitor” (a high Court judge)to DCU, as the 1997 act demands when the university is acting outside the law. In fact, before their disastrous foray into government, the Green Party correctly demanded this. You can find their Dail questions and the disturbing answers on the links from;
http://universitywatchdog.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/the-greens-and-opportunistic-hypocrisy/
The answers that the state has no role in the “day to day” operations of the universities are wrong, but were repeated over and over to many questions from many sources about the behaviour of Irish universities' management.
You probably know that I have spent most of my time at Stanford since then, and we have had major success in both the academic and artistic fields, including opening the Irish writers' festival Thursday next in Washington DC. Had the Irish state spent a tenth as much resources on supporting us as it did on harassing us, dozens of jobs – perhaps more- would have been created both in Ireland and the USA.
Finally, since this will be available for FoI in any case, I am putting it on my website.
Comhchairdeachas aris
Is mise, le meas
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 28 u Feabhra 2011
PS 10 Marta ; Looks like there was some score-settling from Bruton's attempted coup
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Saturday Feb 26; a paradigm shift for tenure?
The distinction between the two major parties in Ireland used to be
difficult to explain; it is likely we are now heading for a standard
European left/right dichotomy (and not before time). It is fair to say
that FF have historically been the more criminal of the two; that may be
simply due to more time in power. Fine Gael never really were able to
clean up the many scams FF put in place due to limited time in govt;
given that FF are unlikely to be even a majority partner in govt again
in our lifetimes, this is about to change. Much of the recent behaviour
of SIPTU – to take one example –outrageous as it looks, can be explained
by their view that de boys from de Northsoide could govern the country
permanently with the corporate unions/government structure established
in the 1990s.
The Hunt report (forgive me, I keep thinking of the “Hite report”) is just a little too obvious. Colin Hunt serves as the Division Director of Macquarie Capital which is a recidivist tenderer for educational projects in Ireland. At the very least, FG will want their own boyos in there, irrespective of moral considerations. It is also a good idea for us to spin killing off tenure as a honeypot for FF/Gomgreen-connected law firms. That will help FG become advocates for academic freedom.
For those in science, think of Sat 26 Feb 2011 as a paradigm change. We may replace the Ptolemaic cosmos; we may even get rid of Maxwell's equations. What is for sure is that the organs of the Irish establishment who were previously his most vitriolic critics decided to fall in love with Enda Kenny as the writing on the wall hit critical size last week. We may even see some fairness in the Irish Times approach to the tenure question. I did complain to the Press council, was brushed off, but will re-engage next week as the power structure changes.
The current hit movie in the USA, “Unknown” gives some clue as to the Times's motivation. Without giving away too much, suffice to say that it is about the attempt by a Monsanto-like company to prevent a bioengineering innovation from being released into the public domain. The chair of the Irish Times trust up to May 2010, was a geneticist whose fervour for private participation in universities led to his being nicknamed “Monsanto”
The Times, until stopped by another legal action (forthcoming) will continue its airy rhetorical style;
“While it is true that Mr Qaddhafi (sic) is acting harshly, we cannot envisage the governorship of any country in the hands of people who live outside the small even numbers of Dublin post codes..............”
It is rather simple to find recent examples of this.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 22u Feabhra 2011
The Hunt report (forgive me, I keep thinking of the “Hite report”) is just a little too obvious. Colin Hunt serves as the Division Director of Macquarie Capital which is a recidivist tenderer for educational projects in Ireland. At the very least, FG will want their own boyos in there, irrespective of moral considerations. It is also a good idea for us to spin killing off tenure as a honeypot for FF/Gomgreen-connected law firms. That will help FG become advocates for academic freedom.
For those in science, think of Sat 26 Feb 2011 as a paradigm change. We may replace the Ptolemaic cosmos; we may even get rid of Maxwell's equations. What is for sure is that the organs of the Irish establishment who were previously his most vitriolic critics decided to fall in love with Enda Kenny as the writing on the wall hit critical size last week. We may even see some fairness in the Irish Times approach to the tenure question. I did complain to the Press council, was brushed off, but will re-engage next week as the power structure changes.
The current hit movie in the USA, “Unknown” gives some clue as to the Times's motivation. Without giving away too much, suffice to say that it is about the attempt by a Monsanto-like company to prevent a bioengineering innovation from being released into the public domain. The chair of the Irish Times trust up to May 2010, was a geneticist whose fervour for private participation in universities led to his being nicknamed “Monsanto”
The Times, until stopped by another legal action (forthcoming) will continue its airy rhetorical style;
“While it is true that Mr Qaddhafi (sic) is acting harshly, we cannot envisage the governorship of any country in the hands of people who live outside the small even numbers of Dublin post codes..............”
It is rather simple to find recent examples of this.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 22u Feabhra 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Metabolism and meditation
While the war for academic tenure has being going on, readers of this
blog may note that I am regularly contacted about a paper on meditation
and consciousness that got published in 2009. It is not available
on-line (not my choice) so I am going to give a summary of its contents
here, by way also of attempting an edifying respite from this
dreadful, futile, and prolonged war. Since I have been illegally
prevented from normal academic activity – it is very expensive for a
private citizen to attend conferences – this is a necessary step.
Much of the context for publication of this work is the well-attested finding that meditators show sustained brain activity in the “Gamma oscillation” category, which goes roughly from 40 to 80 hz. Remarkably, there are solid indications that such gamma activity, particularly if synchronized over large areas of the brain, is a signature also of conscious states. There is also at least provisional evidence that meditation leads to improved health, and indeed a thickening of cortex
The work I did at Walter Freeman's lab at UC Berkeley indicates that there may be a unifying explanation for all of this. Very simply, the brain normally demands 18-20% of the total energy of the human organism (as distinct from 3% in th mouse). Synchronized gamma would briefly attenuate this demand by a factor on 10,000, and do so a few times a second. This frees up energy for many metabolic processes.
Several of the steps in glycolysis are endothermic. Energy released for use for the rest of the organism by states of meditation/consciousness can potentially be used for;
1 Getting glucose into cells. Lessening the need for insulin, which is -relatively – toxic. Dogs with their pancrases removed - if fit - do not become diabetic
2.Exploiting energy in ATP involves the endothermic glycolysis steps
3. Gene expression varies with the ratio of NAD+ to NADH which informs of the metabolic state and health of the cells. This will vary with the energy available
4 There also will be other effects like those on astrocytes with beneficial effects on the nervous system itself
5. Finally , there is solid evidence that conscious experience focussed on an external target can dull pain perception - and indeed increase blood flow
In our work,the first diagram shows power consumption decreases with gamma first with simulated, then with real data. The simulated data looked at neuron firing as random, as white noise. We then used the Hilbert transform to calculate how power consumption would vary if the “white noise” signal was convolved with gamma waves.
The second diagram uses data acquired, with her consent, from electrodes applied directly to the cortex of woman undergoing surgery for epilepsy (Incidentally, we also found that epileptic seizures – contra the official wisdom – do NOT involve any special correlation of activity between discrete brain regions). In any case, for the resting brain with gamma, you an see the ebbs in the power consumption.
Back to war next week
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 18u Feabhra 2011
PS It is worth pointing out that there is an assumption here that the extra energy freed up is "usable" for homostatic functions. For example, the body can autonomously drive up its own heat to fight off infections in fevers. In that case, however, "normal" homeostasis in lost; indeed, the extra energy available to the brain causes hallucinations. This is speculative in our current state of knowledge, admittedly.
PPS Paper to be published in "Biosemiotics" on-line this fall 2011
Much of the context for publication of this work is the well-attested finding that meditators show sustained brain activity in the “Gamma oscillation” category, which goes roughly from 40 to 80 hz. Remarkably, there are solid indications that such gamma activity, particularly if synchronized over large areas of the brain, is a signature also of conscious states. There is also at least provisional evidence that meditation leads to improved health, and indeed a thickening of cortex
The work I did at Walter Freeman's lab at UC Berkeley indicates that there may be a unifying explanation for all of this. Very simply, the brain normally demands 18-20% of the total energy of the human organism (as distinct from 3% in th mouse). Synchronized gamma would briefly attenuate this demand by a factor on 10,000, and do so a few times a second. This frees up energy for many metabolic processes.
Several of the steps in glycolysis are endothermic. Energy released for use for the rest of the organism by states of meditation/consciousness can potentially be used for;
1 Getting glucose into cells. Lessening the need for insulin, which is -relatively – toxic. Dogs with their pancrases removed - if fit - do not become diabetic
2.Exploiting energy in ATP involves the endothermic glycolysis steps
3. Gene expression varies with the ratio of NAD+ to NADH which informs of the metabolic state and health of the cells. This will vary with the energy available
4 There also will be other effects like those on astrocytes with beneficial effects on the nervous system itself
5. Finally , there is solid evidence that conscious experience focussed on an external target can dull pain perception - and indeed increase blood flow
In our work,the first diagram shows power consumption decreases with gamma first with simulated, then with real data. The simulated data looked at neuron firing as random, as white noise. We then used the Hilbert transform to calculate how power consumption would vary if the “white noise” signal was convolved with gamma waves.
The second diagram uses data acquired, with her consent, from electrodes applied directly to the cortex of woman undergoing surgery for epilepsy (Incidentally, we also found that epileptic seizures – contra the official wisdom – do NOT involve any special correlation of activity between discrete brain regions). In any case, for the resting brain with gamma, you an see the ebbs in the power consumption.
Back to war next week
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 18u Feabhra 2011
PS It is worth pointing out that there is an assumption here that the extra energy freed up is "usable" for homostatic functions. For example, the body can autonomously drive up its own heat to fight off infections in fevers. In that case, however, "normal" homeostasis in lost; indeed, the extra energy available to the brain causes hallucinations. This is speculative in our current state of knowledge, admittedly.
PPS Paper to be published in "Biosemiotics" on-line this fall 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The destruction of academic tenure in Ireland
Academic tenure is currently gone in Ireland; this post specifies what
happened. It was SIPTU's fault, and I'll end with speculation about
SIPTU's motives – in particular the cabal of SIPTU officials with
extreme left-wing political histories. No names will be mentioned. As
for rescuing the situation, good luck to them with dealing with a far
more right-wing administration from Sat 26 Feb 2011
As established through long struggle, most recently in the USA and mainly in the 20th century, academic tenure had the following components;
1.Academic freedom. This essentially freed staff and students alike to speak, write and research without any direction from management. It trumps even first amendment rights in the USA in that “academic freedom” neutralizes normal expectations from one's employer that one cannot criticize its policies. Of course, speech is relatively free, outside this context, on the web – as totalitarian administrations like Egypt's are finding to their cost
2.Freedom from threats of involuntary redundancy. A US Tenured professor can get fired – and rightly so – but cannot involuntarily be made redundant. Of course, the imminent new DCU statute has provisions for involuntary redundancy.
3.Retirement at the normal civil service age – 65ish, at which point tenure lapses. However, in Stanford, to take one example, faculty can continue in office as long as they like
Academic tenure is a sophisticated compromise between the state on the one hand and scholars within the society on the other. The scholars gain financial security without their freedom to research and teach being compromised; the state benefits from a forum in which difficult issues can be teased apart in a civilized way. Karl Marx would have been perhaps one of the greatest economists in world history , instead of synonymous with a decayed and violent social order, had he been allowed a university professorship.
The Irish situation has long been an accident waiting to happen. The 1990 industrial relations act prohibited strikes for “single dismissals”; the context was that the EAT could resolve the issue within 4 months. That now takes up to 9 years (as in my case), typically 3, and the EAT very rarely reinstates, instead giving risible financial compensation.
In any case, the university can appeal to ever higher and higher courts should they lose at the EAT. Highly unusually, it is allowed enunciate the same allegations repeatedly, or change them as it wills. Alternatively, the scholar can choose Ireland's stratospherically expensive High court, get an injunction, and run up legal fees of millions. In either case, the normally closed-shop unions refuse to help. Use of these mechanisms by the state is a declaration of war, and that is what we have faced at DCU since 2002.
When we signed contracts at NIHE, and in DCU up to 1995, the contracts explicitly mentioned tenure (see image) as well as academic freedom. These contracts were unilaterally and illegally changed by management in 1995 to exclude tenure, which is what the current trouble is about; staff at many institutions realize they have no permanency. The new contracts - pace IUA - also specified a "place of work" at the university, and the “academic freedom” paragraph was gone.
In 2001 DCU introduced an illegal disciplinary – or rather summary dismissal procedure – or, rather, lack of procedure. In 2002, Ferdie made an attempt to use it on me – as he knew, illegally – and, correctly, I told him where to get off. My colleagues responded courageously and voted 150-0 for my reinstatement. SIPTU instead decided to put me through the mediaeval Labour court/rights comm system in 2002-2003, all of which we won., and all of which management laughed at. In the meantime, I refused to sign various documents given me by management offering money for rescinding the strike action, as well as rejecting 2 very generous severance packages, one offered through John Gormley's office by Ferdie (annual salary until I got a new job), the other offered through SIPTU (two years' salary as starting bid). I was NOT going to be party to the loss of tenure in Ireland.
My colleagues, particularly Paul Cahill, also behaved impeccably, which is why this is such a crying shame; tenure need not have been lost. In fact, a credible strike threat could still reinstate it.
DCU staff were prepared to vote for strike action; the majority would almost certainly have been much higher than the “no confidence” passed in Ferdie. SIPTU misinformed them that a strike about the statute was not possible; in fact the branch sec blatantly lied to my DCU colleagues about that. Had they been allowed to vote, we would have saved EVERY aspect of tenure at the subsequent negotiations. When I confronted the branch sec about her actions, she mentioned the name of two very high SIPTU officials, including its then and current president, as being against a strike. The behaviour of the the DCU section committee chair as she lied to me that the staff had rejected a strike is too awful to get into here.
Instead, DCU continued to laugh at our negotiators, and the statute will indeed have redundancy, and summary dismissal for those employed post 1995. So, cui bono? The only explanation for SIPTU's behaviour is that they were trying to ingratiate the Labour party to the Ahern party machine in North Dublin. On the lunatic fringe, 3 of the SIPTU personnel involved in the statute negotiations are from nutso left wing backgrounds. They are now joined by their fellow-traveller also from the “League”
What has happened since then at DCU, which is the thin end of the wedge, is a rearguard action fought by Paul Cahill and myself. We have managed to bring things almost back to 2003 at truly horrendous cost to our own lives, and no help from our “union”. In fact, with downright hindrance in my case, as it is largely SIPTU's fault that the EAT case was in limbo 2004-2008. (Incidentally, my experience with SIPTU as a co-founder of the musicians' union(MUI) was exactly the same; the critical court cases on copyright had to be taken in the US Federal court after SIPTU refused to act against IMRO, and SIPTU's president bullied the MUI's most effective communicator and activist from his position)
While claiming to be about “academic freedom”, the current movement is in danger of looking like a rearguard attempt to maintain grotesquely high salaries and low workloads. So I support academic freedom, but not the current “ academic freedom” movement until it explicitly decouples freedom from salaries. Third level staff should be treated with respect by the state, but be willing to accept a fraction of their current grotesque salaries as a true index of their international worth. If they think they are worth more, prove it by going elsewhere. The current situation, with perhaps 1,000 university staff earning over 100k a year, is not one that the incoming government can countenance.
The clear danger is that tenure (including academic freedom) will be sacrificed for the current outrageous salaries unless the current movement clearly decouples these issues. The result will, paradoxically, be detrimental to the state as good scholars head to the wild west of the web, a la Karl Marx to the Reading Room of the British Museum.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 15u Feabhra 2011
PS Good to see someone else deplores SIPTU's closeness to the govt, and particularly B Ahern;
http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/844/shall-we-storm-liberty-hall/#comment-2910
DCU must get rid of SIPTU before others get sacrificed in defiance of the will of the workers there as I was
As established through long struggle, most recently in the USA and mainly in the 20th century, academic tenure had the following components;
1.Academic freedom. This essentially freed staff and students alike to speak, write and research without any direction from management. It trumps even first amendment rights in the USA in that “academic freedom” neutralizes normal expectations from one's employer that one cannot criticize its policies. Of course, speech is relatively free, outside this context, on the web – as totalitarian administrations like Egypt's are finding to their cost
2.Freedom from threats of involuntary redundancy. A US Tenured professor can get fired – and rightly so – but cannot involuntarily be made redundant. Of course, the imminent new DCU statute has provisions for involuntary redundancy.
3.Retirement at the normal civil service age – 65ish, at which point tenure lapses. However, in Stanford, to take one example, faculty can continue in office as long as they like
Academic tenure is a sophisticated compromise between the state on the one hand and scholars within the society on the other. The scholars gain financial security without their freedom to research and teach being compromised; the state benefits from a forum in which difficult issues can be teased apart in a civilized way. Karl Marx would have been perhaps one of the greatest economists in world history , instead of synonymous with a decayed and violent social order, had he been allowed a university professorship.
The Irish situation has long been an accident waiting to happen. The 1990 industrial relations act prohibited strikes for “single dismissals”; the context was that the EAT could resolve the issue within 4 months. That now takes up to 9 years (as in my case), typically 3, and the EAT very rarely reinstates, instead giving risible financial compensation.
In any case, the university can appeal to ever higher and higher courts should they lose at the EAT. Highly unusually, it is allowed enunciate the same allegations repeatedly, or change them as it wills. Alternatively, the scholar can choose Ireland's stratospherically expensive High court, get an injunction, and run up legal fees of millions. In either case, the normally closed-shop unions refuse to help. Use of these mechanisms by the state is a declaration of war, and that is what we have faced at DCU since 2002.
When we signed contracts at NIHE, and in DCU up to 1995, the contracts explicitly mentioned tenure (see image) as well as academic freedom. These contracts were unilaterally and illegally changed by management in 1995 to exclude tenure, which is what the current trouble is about; staff at many institutions realize they have no permanency. The new contracts - pace IUA - also specified a "place of work" at the university, and the “academic freedom” paragraph was gone.
In 2001 DCU introduced an illegal disciplinary – or rather summary dismissal procedure – or, rather, lack of procedure. In 2002, Ferdie made an attempt to use it on me – as he knew, illegally – and, correctly, I told him where to get off. My colleagues responded courageously and voted 150-0 for my reinstatement. SIPTU instead decided to put me through the mediaeval Labour court/rights comm system in 2002-2003, all of which we won., and all of which management laughed at. In the meantime, I refused to sign various documents given me by management offering money for rescinding the strike action, as well as rejecting 2 very generous severance packages, one offered through John Gormley's office by Ferdie (annual salary until I got a new job), the other offered through SIPTU (two years' salary as starting bid). I was NOT going to be party to the loss of tenure in Ireland.
My colleagues, particularly Paul Cahill, also behaved impeccably, which is why this is such a crying shame; tenure need not have been lost. In fact, a credible strike threat could still reinstate it.
DCU staff were prepared to vote for strike action; the majority would almost certainly have been much higher than the “no confidence” passed in Ferdie. SIPTU misinformed them that a strike about the statute was not possible; in fact the branch sec blatantly lied to my DCU colleagues about that. Had they been allowed to vote, we would have saved EVERY aspect of tenure at the subsequent negotiations. When I confronted the branch sec about her actions, she mentioned the name of two very high SIPTU officials, including its then and current president, as being against a strike. The behaviour of the the DCU section committee chair as she lied to me that the staff had rejected a strike is too awful to get into here.
Instead, DCU continued to laugh at our negotiators, and the statute will indeed have redundancy, and summary dismissal for those employed post 1995. So, cui bono? The only explanation for SIPTU's behaviour is that they were trying to ingratiate the Labour party to the Ahern party machine in North Dublin. On the lunatic fringe, 3 of the SIPTU personnel involved in the statute negotiations are from nutso left wing backgrounds. They are now joined by their fellow-traveller also from the “League”
What has happened since then at DCU, which is the thin end of the wedge, is a rearguard action fought by Paul Cahill and myself. We have managed to bring things almost back to 2003 at truly horrendous cost to our own lives, and no help from our “union”. In fact, with downright hindrance in my case, as it is largely SIPTU's fault that the EAT case was in limbo 2004-2008. (Incidentally, my experience with SIPTU as a co-founder of the musicians' union(MUI) was exactly the same; the critical court cases on copyright had to be taken in the US Federal court after SIPTU refused to act against IMRO, and SIPTU's president bullied the MUI's most effective communicator and activist from his position)
While claiming to be about “academic freedom”, the current movement is in danger of looking like a rearguard attempt to maintain grotesquely high salaries and low workloads. So I support academic freedom, but not the current “ academic freedom” movement until it explicitly decouples freedom from salaries. Third level staff should be treated with respect by the state, but be willing to accept a fraction of their current grotesque salaries as a true index of their international worth. If they think they are worth more, prove it by going elsewhere. The current situation, with perhaps 1,000 university staff earning over 100k a year, is not one that the incoming government can countenance.
The clear danger is that tenure (including academic freedom) will be sacrificed for the current outrageous salaries unless the current movement clearly decouples these issues. The result will, paradoxically, be detrimental to the state as good scholars head to the wild west of the web, a la Karl Marx to the Reading Room of the British Museum.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 15u Feabhra 2011
PS Good to see someone else deplores SIPTU's closeness to the govt, and particularly B Ahern;
http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/844/shall-we-storm-liberty-hall/#comment-2910
DCU must get rid of SIPTU before others get sacrificed in defiance of the will of the workers there as I was
Sunday, February 13, 2011
A brief catalogue of criminality at DCU
Michael Lewis and others have publicly mused about the passivity of the
Irish in the face of clear criminality from their political masters.
They are clueless; Irish public opinion has bounced the government into a
snap election to be held 3 months after the IMF's visit, and it is one
that the government parties will lose ,resoundingly. This despite Dermot
Desmond's Berlusconi-modeled attempt to buy a political party, and
install a style of government suitably streamlined for a non-democratic
executive.
The incoming government will eviscerate many of the state bodies and quangos that currently seem like part of the natural order, and arguments that currently seem cogent will suddenly lose their impetus and be seen as specious. Moreover, distractions will be needed to avert the public's eyes from the ongoing economic disaster, and it is not inappropriate to begin with the clearly criminal activity sponsored by a generation of maFFia rule. While the music business (particularly IMRO) is not a bad place to continue after the banking sector, DCU is not far behind. My guess is that Mac Craith will be lucky to serve out his term; it is clear that conry, Byrne, Burns, smeaton and Morris have all participated in crimes for which they should be prosecuted.
This is an abbreviated list of clear criminality at DCU;
1.The continued use of an illegal disciplinary statute, which will be in place for over a decade when the new government takes office;
2.Abuse and intimidation both of students and staff, the subject of many parliamentary questions;
3.Theft of research money. This was the subject of a parliamentary question as far back as 2002 on foot of a complaint made at whitehall Garda station to Det tom McCarrick, which tom never followed up. Anyone wishing to follow this up - I have lost faith in the Irish justice system in north-side Dublin - can contact Tom (the last number I have for him is 086 2431206);
4.Creation of useless degrees (“Education and training” prepared the hapless students for – nothing) and cramming 300 into a computing degree in 1999. The 50% or so who dropped out in the latter should know that we tried to help them; I spoke out publicly against this, and several of us protested it. Academic freedom was not honoured, and I faced a disciplinary charge for pointing out the failure rate on a website. Btw, the HEA just accepts DCU's failure rate figures, without checking;
5.The HEA similarly does not check DCU's accounts, and allows blanks in many key fields. Given that GV Wright was treasurer of the DCU trust, one need not say more;
6.All contracts issued by DCU since 1995 are invalid and have to be redrafted. Specifically, they require academic staff to be at DCU in their offices, and rescind academic freedom and tenure;
7.The accreditation of DCU was destroyed by a conflict of interest, as Micheal Gleeson, chair of the accreditation committee had accepted a job at DCU before parliament considered the report. The many brilliant students who went through DCU deserve better.
These and many other issues will provide provender for many a parliamentary committee over the next 5 years as the government seeks some circuses in the absence of bread.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 13u Feabhra 2011
The incoming government will eviscerate many of the state bodies and quangos that currently seem like part of the natural order, and arguments that currently seem cogent will suddenly lose their impetus and be seen as specious. Moreover, distractions will be needed to avert the public's eyes from the ongoing economic disaster, and it is not inappropriate to begin with the clearly criminal activity sponsored by a generation of maFFia rule. While the music business (particularly IMRO) is not a bad place to continue after the banking sector, DCU is not far behind. My guess is that Mac Craith will be lucky to serve out his term; it is clear that conry, Byrne, Burns, smeaton and Morris have all participated in crimes for which they should be prosecuted.
This is an abbreviated list of clear criminality at DCU;
1.The continued use of an illegal disciplinary statute, which will be in place for over a decade when the new government takes office;
2.Abuse and intimidation both of students and staff, the subject of many parliamentary questions;
3.Theft of research money. This was the subject of a parliamentary question as far back as 2002 on foot of a complaint made at whitehall Garda station to Det tom McCarrick, which tom never followed up. Anyone wishing to follow this up - I have lost faith in the Irish justice system in north-side Dublin - can contact Tom (the last number I have for him is 086 2431206);
4.Creation of useless degrees (“Education and training” prepared the hapless students for – nothing) and cramming 300 into a computing degree in 1999. The 50% or so who dropped out in the latter should know that we tried to help them; I spoke out publicly against this, and several of us protested it. Academic freedom was not honoured, and I faced a disciplinary charge for pointing out the failure rate on a website. Btw, the HEA just accepts DCU's failure rate figures, without checking;
5.The HEA similarly does not check DCU's accounts, and allows blanks in many key fields. Given that GV Wright was treasurer of the DCU trust, one need not say more;
6.All contracts issued by DCU since 1995 are invalid and have to be redrafted. Specifically, they require academic staff to be at DCU in their offices, and rescind academic freedom and tenure;
7.The accreditation of DCU was destroyed by a conflict of interest, as Micheal Gleeson, chair of the accreditation committee had accepted a job at DCU before parliament considered the report. The many brilliant students who went through DCU deserve better.
These and many other issues will provide provender for many a parliamentary committee over the next 5 years as the government seeks some circuses in the absence of bread.
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 13u Feabhra 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Academic freedom redux; no more Nacht und Nebel
In 2009, some of us got together to talk about the veil of silence over
the whole academic tenure/ Academic freedom issue in Ireland. Paul
Cahill’s case had gone to the Irish Supreme Court on June 29, 2009,
without a single Irish academic currently teaching in Ireland there,
nor a single journalist to cover the case. The Irish times, which fully
deserves to go bankrupt as it soon will, had a senior journalist in the 4
courts that day who did not deign to write about this case. The Times
is now scurrying to run article after article about what a great thing
academic freedom is; when it mattered, in 2009, they refused even to
consider an opinion piece on the subject (when put on the web, the piece
got good circulation)
DCU’s strategy indeed was first “Nacht und Nebel”; attacks to be done in night and fog. It is clear that corruption in SIPTU prevented DCU staff from having a strike ballot, as was their right, in 2003. It is likely that they would have chosen to strike, and that would have saved academic tenure – which has been lost in Ireland (more on this later). Future generations, please note – Paul, I and the staff at DCU did everything it took to save academic freedom and its de facto loss is SIPTU’s fault.
The second leg of the strategy was the use of wholly disproportionate legal force to attack single individuals like Paul and myself. Bankrupt Ireland still has 3 of the top 20 biggest law firms in the EU, and the law society makes no attempt whatsoever to control them (I submitted a detailed complaint about Arthur Cox some months ago and have not even gotten an acknowledgment). This use of law as an instrument violates basic human rights. The very fact of the state using these vast resources after SIPTU tied our hands behind our back destroyed all permanency in the civil service, including tenure.
Of course, DCU decided to go the extra kilometer and hired the one Irish barrister who gets such a kick of destroying people whose shoes he is not fit to tie at the EAT that he refuses to become a senior counsel, as this would prevent his carrying on at the EAT - Tom Mallon. Mallon is also the cretin who approved the illegal disciplinary statute at DCU (drawn up by John O'Dwyer of Arthur Cox) and still on the DCU website - a full decade of illegality.
So we decided to involve the media. As could be expected, the Dublin establishment initially rallied around their own, and the Times in particular ran articles on Ferdie so alternately inaccurate and gushing that it had to issue 2 retractions, one apology, and yet is still being sued. See bottom of
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0731/1224275874952.html
and
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0129/1224263355098.html
Then, academic tenure gone, the state overstepped its mark with the Hunt report. It is now in a fine mess; the previous media coverage has alerted academics that they may indeed lose their jobs.
Taking on isolated individuals like me is easy, particularly with a corrupt union like SIPTU in a closed-shop role; taking on thousands of irate and well-resourced third-level teachers is well outside the competence of this and the incoming government. Better to force nurses to do 3 extra shifts a month, instead.
For the record, I believe that many third level staff in Ireland are grossly overpaid, and often underworked; a great deal of the unpleasantness of their jobs comes from the incredibly incompetent admin staff (who are all tenured, without PhD’s) hired by the likes of Danny O’Hare. Moreover, my experience is that many of us would be prepared to work for less money if afforded a little respect from the state. Instead, the discourse is going to be about “academic freedom” so – let the games begin!
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 10u Feabhra 2011
PS Finally from the Irish times, CHIU got to speak;
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0205/1224289077130.html
“Some have suggested that this is to have the effect of physically shackling academics to the university and banning remote working etc. We want to stress that this is categorically not the case. Our concern is fundamentally about accountability for work and, in practice, this provision is simply to consolidate a framework which protects against cases of obvious abuse of the freedoms which currently exist and which we support. Thankfully, those abuses are extremely rare, but it cannot be denied that they have occurred.”
The abuses is question have come almost exclusively from incompetent uni administrators, venal lawyers and incompetent barristers
Rhetoric aside, DCU has issued contracts since 1995 - which claim to be agreed with the closed-shop union but are not - which explicitly set down a "place of work" at the university. This paragraph in NOT in the previous, legal contracts. I know of at least one case in DCU where the academic was compelled to be in his office 9-5pm 5 days a week, apart from meetings.
So CHIU's statement is yet another lie. This debate has to elevate itself beyond lies, or very bad things will happen
PPS I can't keep up with these quangoes; it was actually the "Irish Universities Association" or CHIU's paramilitary wing.
DCU’s strategy indeed was first “Nacht und Nebel”; attacks to be done in night and fog. It is clear that corruption in SIPTU prevented DCU staff from having a strike ballot, as was their right, in 2003. It is likely that they would have chosen to strike, and that would have saved academic tenure – which has been lost in Ireland (more on this later). Future generations, please note – Paul, I and the staff at DCU did everything it took to save academic freedom and its de facto loss is SIPTU’s fault.
The second leg of the strategy was the use of wholly disproportionate legal force to attack single individuals like Paul and myself. Bankrupt Ireland still has 3 of the top 20 biggest law firms in the EU, and the law society makes no attempt whatsoever to control them (I submitted a detailed complaint about Arthur Cox some months ago and have not even gotten an acknowledgment). This use of law as an instrument violates basic human rights. The very fact of the state using these vast resources after SIPTU tied our hands behind our back destroyed all permanency in the civil service, including tenure.
Of course, DCU decided to go the extra kilometer and hired the one Irish barrister who gets such a kick of destroying people whose shoes he is not fit to tie at the EAT that he refuses to become a senior counsel, as this would prevent his carrying on at the EAT - Tom Mallon. Mallon is also the cretin who approved the illegal disciplinary statute at DCU (drawn up by John O'Dwyer of Arthur Cox) and still on the DCU website - a full decade of illegality.
So we decided to involve the media. As could be expected, the Dublin establishment initially rallied around their own, and the Times in particular ran articles on Ferdie so alternately inaccurate and gushing that it had to issue 2 retractions, one apology, and yet is still being sued. See bottom of
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0731/1224275874952.html
and
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0129/1224263355098.html
Then, academic tenure gone, the state overstepped its mark with the Hunt report. It is now in a fine mess; the previous media coverage has alerted academics that they may indeed lose their jobs.
Taking on isolated individuals like me is easy, particularly with a corrupt union like SIPTU in a closed-shop role; taking on thousands of irate and well-resourced third-level teachers is well outside the competence of this and the incoming government. Better to force nurses to do 3 extra shifts a month, instead.
For the record, I believe that many third level staff in Ireland are grossly overpaid, and often underworked; a great deal of the unpleasantness of their jobs comes from the incredibly incompetent admin staff (who are all tenured, without PhD’s) hired by the likes of Danny O’Hare. Moreover, my experience is that many of us would be prepared to work for less money if afforded a little respect from the state. Instead, the discourse is going to be about “academic freedom” so – let the games begin!
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 10u Feabhra 2011
PS Finally from the Irish times, CHIU got to speak;
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0205/1224289077130.html
“Some have suggested that this is to have the effect of physically shackling academics to the university and banning remote working etc. We want to stress that this is categorically not the case. Our concern is fundamentally about accountability for work and, in practice, this provision is simply to consolidate a framework which protects against cases of obvious abuse of the freedoms which currently exist and which we support. Thankfully, those abuses are extremely rare, but it cannot be denied that they have occurred.”
The abuses is question have come almost exclusively from incompetent uni administrators, venal lawyers and incompetent barristers
Rhetoric aside, DCU has issued contracts since 1995 - which claim to be agreed with the closed-shop union but are not - which explicitly set down a "place of work" at the university. This paragraph in NOT in the previous, legal contracts. I know of at least one case in DCU where the academic was compelled to be in his office 9-5pm 5 days a week, apart from meetings.
So CHIU's statement is yet another lie. This debate has to elevate itself beyond lies, or very bad things will happen
PPS I can't keep up with these quangoes; it was actually the "Irish Universities Association" or CHIU's paramilitary wing.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Vincent Browne chickened out of a debate
Ireland's brief economic success was built largely on the volunteer work
of Irish people; its recovery will likewise be our work, and there is
no ethnicity I would rather work with when the chips are down. It will
be necessary to revoke the work permits of the hordes who were brought
in to replace us, not least in the universities. Of course, those who
have seen fit to take Irish citizenship can and should stay.
Like many others, I worked long and hard for DCU; one opportunity I saw was the creation of annual conferences in two area; Cog sci and consciousness (the “mind” conferences) and the Cog sci of natural language processing (CSNLP). The former ran annually 1995-1999; the latter annually 1992-1999. we suspended them when the Irish state inflicted Medialb on us, the effective end of cutting-edge software in Ireland
John Benjamins published the “Mind” conferences as books, Kluwer offered to do the CSNLP. They brought revenue into the country to the tune of tens of thousands annually and DCU refused to pay toward either on my watch, leaving me with a financial risk of around five thousand pounds each year, as we flew in high-profile speakers ( of course, I encouraged attendees to take less environmentally damaging means like boats and train )
This kind of initiative is what will get Ireland back on its feet. In 1999, I had a particularly stellar lineup for the “Mind” conference; Stuart Hameroff, Karl Pribram, Jacob Needleman et al. DCU as ever refused to support it, and I had bills to pay; I took an ad out in the Irish Times inviting the public to a day in which consciousness in its relationship with the arts, sciences and religion would be discussed. Those of the public who attended all asked permission, which was given, to stay for the full academic conference afterward.
Then – hallelujah! - after repeated requests, Vincent Browne's producer agreed to feature the conference on their Sunday morning show. Pribram's name in particular rang a bell; he is one of the great neuroscientists of the 20th century. It was Friday before I heard the bad news; VB had vetoed the item, and the producer could not reverse him. Why? As it turned out, said the producer delicately, he likes to look knowledgeable
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 7u Feabhra 2011
Like many others, I worked long and hard for DCU; one opportunity I saw was the creation of annual conferences in two area; Cog sci and consciousness (the “mind” conferences) and the Cog sci of natural language processing (CSNLP). The former ran annually 1995-1999; the latter annually 1992-1999. we suspended them when the Irish state inflicted Medialb on us, the effective end of cutting-edge software in Ireland
John Benjamins published the “Mind” conferences as books, Kluwer offered to do the CSNLP. They brought revenue into the country to the tune of tens of thousands annually and DCU refused to pay toward either on my watch, leaving me with a financial risk of around five thousand pounds each year, as we flew in high-profile speakers ( of course, I encouraged attendees to take less environmentally damaging means like boats and train )
This kind of initiative is what will get Ireland back on its feet. In 1999, I had a particularly stellar lineup for the “Mind” conference; Stuart Hameroff, Karl Pribram, Jacob Needleman et al. DCU as ever refused to support it, and I had bills to pay; I took an ad out in the Irish Times inviting the public to a day in which consciousness in its relationship with the arts, sciences and religion would be discussed. Those of the public who attended all asked permission, which was given, to stay for the full academic conference afterward.
Then – hallelujah! - after repeated requests, Vincent Browne's producer agreed to feature the conference on their Sunday morning show. Pribram's name in particular rang a bell; he is one of the great neuroscientists of the 20th century. It was Friday before I heard the bad news; VB had vetoed the item, and the producer could not reverse him. Why? As it turned out, said the producer delicately, he likes to look knowledgeable
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 7u Feabhra 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Investigate the HEA
That was Feb, 2004; 7 years ago. It bears repeating that IFUT never showed up again for any other case; to repeat, I was the only person in the spectators' gallery at the Cahill Supreme Court case on the pro-tenure side, having flown from the USA to do so. SIPTU did not send as much as an observer; TCD sent a well-mannered elderly lawyer with a “watching” brief. I bought him lunch after he ran after me with my PDA which I had dropped; it was clear to him that the court was not buying the DCU side's arguments.
I am fully aware that this blog will be seen as - putting it gently – the more radical side of Irish university debate. It is very hard for me to take people like Paddy Healy, Steve Hedley and so on seriously. There has been a consensus view that surely the government would see sense, and the infinitely moderate debate hosted on the likes of 9th level etc would prevail?
As it happens, that view is after all correct, as FF are about to lose power. We may even have an election debate about something other than TV debates; now there's metadebate! There was one glorious outburst from Colin Coulter before everything settled down into civility;
Coulter's broadside
It is not unfair to say that Coulter believes that Hunt may have had a conflict of interest, in that the consulting firm for which Hunt works as a day job has a financial interest in the future of the Irish colleges that Hunt is attempting to shape. Colin Coulter missed Hunt's earlier career as a McCreevy sidekick and property booster but fingered McWilliams beautifully as part of the same cabal.
So what is the HEA's role? Essentially, it was to let management at colleges like DCU and UCC do whatever they wanted, to staff and students alike. As previously cited here, all Dail questions pointing out serious illegality at colleges were met with guff about “autonomous responsibilities” and a redefinition of “academic freedom” to encompass illegality on the part of management. The notion that “day to day” behavior was outside the remit of government – and how ingenious it is! - was drafted by a HEA hack called Padraic Mellett.
In the meantime, his boss Boland guest-blogged on Ferdie's sewer of consciousness venue, and has allowed DCU keep an illegal disciplinary statute on its books for a decade (and counting) as well as submit accounts with blank spaces in key fields:
https://universitydiary.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/the-view-from-the-hea/
This section from Boland's musings is irresistible;
"For a variety of reasons trust has been lost by a significant number of people in a wide range of important institutions – politics, the broader public service, the Catholic Church, bankers – the list goes on. Such a widespread loss of confidence is probably unprecedented, and certainly very unhealthy for our society. On the other hand, our higher education system continues to enjoy a high level of confidence for its capacity to deliver what people need in their lives and careers."
Not any more, Tom. Mainly thanks to your regime, there is now a national movement for academic freedom, and a rubric in place that says staff and students can be abused at will; and an ethos that there is no need for universities to obey even basic laws. The sooner you crawl back again under the rock where FF found you, the better.
To the incoming government, I say; investigate the HEA!
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 5 Feabhra 2011
