Union officials have had no guarantees the University of
Otago will release a confidential restructuring proposal
report which could mean redundancies.
The Tertiary Education Union, which represents more than 1000
staff on campus, made an urgent Official Information Act
request on Monday asking the university to release a report
it believes refines plans to merge the departments of design
studies with clothing and textile sciences into a department
of applied sciences.
Staff believe the merger will lead to the dissolution of the
design studies department, with the jobs of about 20 academic
and general staff affected.
The union asked the university to respond by noon yesterday.
Organiser Shaun Scott yesterday said the university indicated
the report could not be released because it had not been
completed.
However, there were no guarantees it would be released once
it was completed, he said.
"They didn't really answer the request. We expect we will get
to see the report some time, but nothing was made explicit."
A copy of the union's Official Information Act request was
leaked to the Otago Daily Times on Thursday.
Mr Scott said he was "neither surprised nor worried" about
that, given the level of concern over the merger proposal.
In the letter, which was signed by him, Mr Scott said the
union had "serious concerns" about the way the university was
carrying out the merger process.
Its original plan was to review design studies, a formal
consultative process which would have allowed department
staff, students, the union and others to be involved. It had
since bypassed the review, instead sending a revised
restructuring proposal to the senate - the university's
principal academic authority. Senate meetings are in private.
That meant a "key opportunity" for input was lost, the letter
said.
"It remains our view that both the science and humanities
divisional boards should be provided the opportunity to
consider the proposal prior to the senate making decisions."
- allison.rudd@odt.co.nz
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