The Chinese University of Hong Kong Employee's General Union
E-Newsletter 29 Oct 2009
Call
for Participation at
the "Meeting with the Candidate for Vice-Chancellorship"
How does Prof Joseph Sung, the only candidate for Vice-Chancellorship, look at:
－ the trend of maintaining a big team of contract staff and the tendency toward casual employment?
－ the status, treatment and career prospects of Instructors?
－ the rule of “publish or perish”? and ways to correct the imbalance between research and teaching?
－ the Performance Review and Development System (PRDS) for non-teaching staff?
－ campus development?
The reactions of both the CU community and the public to the announcement of Prof Joseph Sung as the only VC candidate have been positive in general. Colleagues and students seem to have high hopes of him. In his inaugural address as the Head of Shaw College last year, he pointed out the problem of modern universities emphasizing research over teaching, opined that education “is about molding life,” and that we at CUHK “are an opposition party because we know what is right yet we are the minority who speak out.” The speech moved many at CU.
Today, one and a half years later, have these views of Prof Sung changed? If he successfully becomes our VC next year, will he still take the “oppositional view” of the campus positively? Will he be willing to listen to and adopt views from the frontline? From his high-minded ideals on education and leadership, is he able to propose viable solutions?
We therefore call for your participation at the consultation session with Prof Sung next Friday (Nov 6), and raise your questions or views to Prof Sung on the different areas of the University’s governance and management.
In the past five years, Prof Lawrence Lau, the current VC, has not held any general consultation sessions with staff members. We hope that the consultation this time, organized by the Council, will set an example for future communication between the VC and our colleagues. So please do make use of this opportunity, exercise your rights, and come to the consultation session!
Date: Nov 6 (Fri)
Time: 1-3pm (The Council invites all staff members. Therefore, as long as no urgent matters are left not attended to, you should feel free to stay for the whole session.)
Venue: Lecture Theatre LT6, Teaching Complex at Western Campus
*Sandwiches and drinks will be served in the foyer outside the meeting venue.
* Shuttle bus service will be provided for colleagues at the PWH. Buses will depart at 12:20pm and 12:40pm from the G/F, Li Ka Shing Medical Sciences Building. The service will also be available after the session.
Our President, Ms Emily Ng, will be moderating this consultation session together with the presidents of two other staff associations. You may first email us your questions or comments (cuegu@cuhk.edu.hk). We will read out your submissions during the session where timing allows.
Professional
Teachers Demand Recognitionand Dignity
－ latest development in the campaign
for the rectification of the status of Instructors
The Council approved in its meeting on Oct 20 the amendments to the Statues, disregarding our call for a revision. The amendments will now be put to the Legco to be enacted into law. This move in effect continues the exclusion of Instructors from the definition of “teacher” and thus deprives them of participation at all levels of decision-making in academic affairs and in other university policies.
We need to reiterate that Instructors are the group who bare the most of the teaching load and are most experienced in teaching. Take the Faculty of Business Administration as an example. In this academic year, Instructors are teaching half of the classes (47%) and student quota (48%).
The University’s discrimination against Instructors and the exclusion of Instructors from decision-making implies that our education policies are not sufficiently informed by this wealth of teaching experience. The students now suffer the loss. This discrimination also is illustrative of the University’s slights towards teaching and towards frontline colleagues.
We doubt that this is a situation our taxpayers are happy to see.
Under our pressure, the Council agreed to begin to review Instructors’ status and treatment. However, CUEGU is not a union that merely waits for the University’s “consultation”. We have already begun to contact Legco members, bringing to their attention the current problems, and have asked them to propose amendments and to urge CU to improve their policy towards Instructors. CUEGU’s “Instructor Concern Group” will also launch a survey and petition campaign soon. Stay tuned and take part!
香港中文大學員工總會
電話 Tel：8117 4594
電郵 Email： cuegu@cuhk.edu.hk
網址 URL：http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/cuegu
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