And so farewell, everybody else

Thanks Vice-Chancellor. Your pay leaped from £145,000 five years ago to £212,000 the year before last (and we suspect you've had a decent raise last year too). You've called in expensive 'consultants' from McCann Erickson, and you've expanded the upper tier of management.

Meanwhile, down here where we do the, y'know, teaching, you've repeatedly told us that we're no good, and now you're sacking 250 staff. Or rather, not sacking but 'repositioning', 'achieving savings' and 'losing' staff, as though we're spare change down the back of the sofa.

Oddly, you don't find room to mention, in your list of financial pressures, management's failure to honestly and accurately record student numbers for the government - leading to having to give back several million pounds. Not a word of apology, no suggestion that you and your top table mates will take a pay cut, let alone a resignation.

Shame on you.

Rude management gits

I'd almost forgotten: some months ago, it was announced that the university, despite being several million pounds in deficit, had contracted McCann Erickson (a very expensive advertising/PR firm) to do some promotional work for us, even though we have all the resources to do it ourselves. I mailed the director of communications on April 9th to ask how much it cost - no reply so far.

So I've mailed him again, having heard that he mentioned my mail to his colleagues:

Dear A....., I mailed you several months ago asking you about the McCann Erickson arrangement.

Due, presumably, to an oversight, I appear not to have received any sort of reply from you. Do you think you could address my query?

Yours with thanks and in anticipation of a speedy response,