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Letter
to Prof. Heather Munroe-Blum concerning her new reappointment
This letter is
still unanswered and so far has cost me five days salary. This punishment was given by the same Chair that
once sentenced me for my open letter to Mrs. Janine Schmidt (Library Director).
The
Chair was once again willing to “cooperate” with the revenge-driven
administration, as he was still having a hard time checking his financial
affairs with the auditors. It is
interesting that the administration is covering up this revenge by using other
issues, which I will later reveal.
Attn: Prof. H. Munroe-Blum- The Principal,
Subject: To
see more social justice and transparency in McGill’s policies/budgets
Dear Prof.
Munroe-Blum,
The latest e-mail to our community [announcing the reappointment of Professor
Heather Munroe-Blum as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University of
McGill University for a five-year term starting January 1 2008 and ending
December 31 2012]
asserts that during your
first term “McGill's profile has improved locally, nationally and
internationally, with a focus on the pursuit of excellence in all areas”. It leaves, however, room for a question: Was
it possible for the University to perform much better?
I believe that such direct questions can help you to modify some
questionable polices in your next a five-year term.
McGill is legally a private institution, but it is
financed about 80% by taxpayers and administrated as a super profitable
corporation.
This
hybrid structure has introduced a questionable system of values to
On a micro-scale, reflecting this biased treatment
of McGill community, I recently notified you of some safety issues in my
faculty. Unfortunately, you aren’t
interested enough to ask your subordinates to investigate and correct the
problems. In a nut shell these safety
troubles are caused by the budget cuts for basic services to compensate
reckless spending by those at the top of the central administration. It sets bad examples for some people. The top functionaries in my Faculty
(Engineering) are hiring substitutes for themselves
and expanding lavish offices instead of creating much needed
classrooms/laboratories. In this
situation there is also no money left to maintain a free supply of the required
safety equipment for the employees.
The milking of the institution by some managers cultivate a “corporate
culture” that is relatively new to McGill.
Of course, this parasitic approach cannot go unnoticed in a school
facing many troubles. At certain points
some problems become unbearable and cause open protests from students and
academics (ex. food service crisis, classroom size, libraries terror etc), but
it still doesn’t change the selfish administrative policy of securing better
work conditions for themselves first.
Your strategy is to create special commissions or announcing wide
consultations to solve problems. In this
way the administration pulls away attention from its own inability or
unwillingness to identify the source of problems and to present immediate
remedies. So, instead of our debating the real situation we hear constantly
repeated mantra about McGill’s severe under-funding
accompanied with happy news about a creation of the Principal’s Task
force on Student Life, the Provost’s Whitepaper on Strengths and Aspirations,
and the Campus Master Plan. In fact, all
of them represent a facade for covering their very own “old sins” and for
future excuses. Arranging such campaigns
costs almost nothing, and it allows the postponement of much needed costly
projects for another couple of years. In
the meantime the extra money is used by our dignitaries to secure their hefty
salaries and hiring substitutes in order to work less and to travel more. It together also dilutes responsibility for
the damages already caused.
In this situation your recent public request for “a
New Quiet Revolution” to support universities doesn’t sound
convincing when serious “SILENCED ERROSION” of many important elements and
values is not addressed.
My individual voice
questioning this development cannot change much, but you must take into account
that I am only articulating opinions of the majority. Silencing me by the people directly implementing
your selective policies (ex. the HR and the parachuted notables) cannot be
effective when taking into account a longer perspective. This represents a classical policy of
terror. What you need instead is a
policy of developing more trust/sympathy among people below the top hierarchy
levels.
Today, we see true intentions of people when analyzing their
budgets. McGill operates with about 80%
public money, which is very different from the corporate money involving a lot
of dirty politics and unfair competitions.
In this situation our community is supposed to see more social justice
and transparency in McGill’s polices/budgets instead of many questionable
corporate polices respecting only profits/power/networking. McGill’s profit is equal to the level of
social respect.
Please, analyze who profits mostly, and who starts to suffer more at
McGill, and than introduce considerable changes.
Regards,
Slawomir
Poplawski
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