College of Science

Response from Leon Phillips to Jack Heinemann's email:

On the contrary - Ian Shaw's statement and use of the term "wholesale slaughter" performs a major service on behalf of AUS members by indicating the seriousness of the cuts that can be expected to arise from the administration's mindless adherence to a contribution margin scheme that might possibly be appropriate to a widget factory employing slave labour (though even there I have my doubts).

The only people who can direct the VC and his colleagues in the so-called senior management team to think again are the university council, whose primary role of guidance of the overall development of the university appears to have become completely lost sight of during the last 5-10 years.

What AUS members should do right now is undertake a campaign of writing to council members, pointing out their overlooked duty to the university, and mentioning how the contribution margin system has already knocked canterbury down a place in the PBRF rankings and now threatens to remove one of the few things about the university that make it possible for us to compete internationally in research and teaching, namely, our dedicated and underpaid technical staff (that has already been greatly reduced by attrition). A critical comparison of the performance of the Canterbury and Otago VCs might well be included.

Must rush to a lecture...

Leon Phillips