Kansainvälinen kampanja Sheila Rowbothamin puolesta
4.3.2008 klo 16:56
Ensimmäisessä kommentissa alla esimakua siitä, miltä Suomenkin yliopistojen tulevaisuus näyttää.
Kun virkasuhteet poistetaan uuden yliopistolain myötä, ja kaikki ovat vain työsuhteessa työnantajaansa, niin myös HY voi alkaa erottaa tai pakottaa varhaiseläkkeellä professoreita ja lehtoreita taloudellisista tai muista syistä. Voimme olettaa, että tulemme näkemään vastaavia kampanjoita viimeistään ensi vuosikymmenen toisella puoliskolla.
Onko kyse myös poliittisista preferensseistä? Alla olevassa vetoomuksessa Sheila Rowbothamin erottamista "taloudellisin perustein" verrataan bestseller-kirjailija Martin Amisin samanaikaiseen palkkaamiseen "luovan kirjoittamisen professoriksi". Martin Amisin kokonaistyömäärä on 28h vuodessa ja silti hän saa 50-60% korkeampaa palkkaa kuin mitä tavallinen akateeminen professori Britanniassa saa, eli noin 105 000 euroa vuodessa. Tämä tarkoittaa, että Amisin palkka on noin 4000 euroa tunnissa.
Molempien esittelyt löytyvät esimerkiksi Wikipediasta. Sheila Rowbotham on monia tutkimuksellisia kirjoja julkaissut sosialistinen feministi, kun taas fiktiokirjailija Martin Amisia pidetään oikealle siirtyneenä postmodernin yhteiskunnan absurdisuuden kuvaajana. Amisilla ei ole akateemisia kredentiaaleja, mutta hän on yliopistolle oiva markkinointivaltti.
Vastaaviin palkkaeroihin ei vielä UPJ:kään ole johtanut, mutta tulevaisuuden HY on vapaa solmimaan minkälaisia työsuhteita se haluaa, joten tulemme näkemään samanlaisia kuvioita myös tässä suhteessa.
Ehkä vuonna 2020 HY satsaa esimerkiksi siihen, että se palkkaa eduskunnasta vetäytyneen Matti Vanhasen valtio-opin professoriksi...? Vuosia alasajatun laitoksen profiilia nostetaan sillä, että Vanhasen palkkaan satsataan esimerkiksi viiden normaaliprofessorin palkka. Se ei haittaa, että Vanhaselle ei ole akateemisia ansioita - niiden merkitys on kuitenkin laskussa, ja olihan Vanhasen isä vuosia oppialan professori.
Tietenkään Vanhasen ei odoteta osallistuvan laitostyöhön kuin 10% työajastaan, onhan hänellä muuta tärkeämpääkin tekemistä. Mutta maksavia opiskelijoita Vanhasen nimi kuitenkin houkuttelee, joten lukukausimaksuja voidaan taas kerran nostaa reippaasti.
Dear Friends,
DEMOCRATIZING UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY: SAVE SHEILA ROWBOTHAM INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN (UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM)
Professor Sheila Rowbotham has been told that her contract is not going to be renewed at the end of 2008. The University OF Manchester is forcing her to retire on the grounds that they cannot afford to pay her salary (she only wants a third of her current salary to continue teaching). The University is currently paying Martin Amis £80,000 for 28 hours.....A YEAR. Sheila is an immense asset to our University and WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE HER.
Sheila was an integral part of many of the movements she teaches about, proving that her age is not a hindrance but that her experience and extensive knowledge make her teaching come alive. To see for yourself, please visit here.
If you have been taught by or influenced by Sheila in any way, please email the topshotters with whom this decision rests and FORCE THEM TO RECONSIDER THEIR POSITION. It doesn't matter how big or small the influence, or long or short the email, just let them know you strongly disagree with this forced retirement.
Please email by 10th March 2008,
Head of Social Sciences David Farrell
Dean of Humanities Alistair Ulph
President and Vice Chancellor
Pls. c.c your letter of support to Sheila Rowbotham.
Sheila is due to meet Prof. David Farrell, the Head of Social Sciences on 11th March about her request to stay on only at 1/3 of her current post. The Human Resources Department which processes her contract hardly knows who she is and Prof. Farrell himself admits that he is not acquainted with her credentials and background.
In other words, people who have the authority to decide her future in the University is not familiar with her work as a scholar and teacher. If her peers like yourself, fellow feminists and academics whom you know, and other internationally known academics who have known Sheila and her work could email the decision-makers before 11th March, it would help boost her case! The fact that 150 students have already signed up to support her attests to the fact that she is a valued asset for the University and the students love her.
Message of Thanks from Sheila Rowbotham May 20th
This is to thank you for writing in my support. Over 200 emails sent to the President Dean and Head of Social Science at Manchester were copied to me from all over the world from Hungary to Mexico, India to Brazil, the US to Ireland. Many people wrote at length.
Your emails and letters have not only been very, very important to me personally, they have undoubtedly strengthened the case that the union can make.
The Facebook that the students set up which started all this off now has over 700 members and there have also been several articles in the press. The students also did a petition signed by students who had been taught by me or who had read my books and got over 150 signatures.
However on April 10th my Head of School told me I could not stay on to do a third of my job for three years . Now I am busy appealing this. I have to wait and see what happens when my appeal is heard on June 26th. I hope they will revise the decision but if they say no again I will have to decide what to do.
The letters and the press coverage, along with the support of the union, the UCU have made me aware how this is not just my individual issue but is one faced by many older academics and, it seems, by women especially, because we tend to have broken patterns of work. It has also intensified my awareness of the changes in the structure of higher education and made me conscious of how these are occurring internationally.
I will let you know what happens at my appeal. But meanwhile, those of you within striking distance of Manchester may be interested in a conference some colleagues have organised in an attempt to put my case in a wider context. 'The Public Intellectual and the Left in the 21st Century' 1.45-6pm Sat 7th June Cross St Chapel, Cross St Manchester M2 1NL (opposite Ann St). Speakers Helena Kennedy, PeterMcMylor ,me, Lynne Segal, Hilary Wainwright. It is sponsored by the Lipman Miliband Trust and by Sociology, Cultural Theory Institute and Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at the University of Manchester. Admission is free.