香港中文大學員工總會通訊 2009年11月4日
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Employee's General Union
E-Newsletter 4 Nov 2009
 

     
  CUEGU Reminder and Food for Thought
 

CUEGU Reminder: Meet the New VC Candidate this Friday

Date: Nov 6 (Fri)
Time: 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Venue: TCW LT6

Responding to our call earlier for questions and comments for the consultations, a colleague sent us the following email, which is much worth reading for people who care about CUHK’s development. Here we append it as food for thought.

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“As I'm not able to attend the consultation due to a work duty, I'd like to send in the 2 comments below:

1. CUHK becoming a university with no character
As a staff member who has served CUHK for 19 years, under 4 VCs, I have found that CUHK is becoming just like any other university in Hong Kong, keen only to compete for external funding, without considering how external manipulation by agencies such as UGC and QAC have distorted the purpose of university education. As a result, in the last few years, CUHK has only been REACTING to external policies, such as OBA, the Audit report by the Visiting Panel, etc. (And now the assessment policy: we are letting bureaucrats tell us how to assess our students!) The University has been playing nice to the authorities, in order to secure more funding, without critical reflection on the educational value of these policies. I believe that we as a university should take an active role in leading society's reflection on the purpose of university education, instead of just joining the dog fight. As for 中大人是「屬於少數知道自己是對，而且敢說出自己觀點的人」（‘we at CUHK “are an opposition party because we know what is right yet we are the minority who speak out.’）, I haven't seen this for years.

2. Manipulating staff through short-term work contracts and appraisals
When I joined the University in 1991, the norm was to offer a new recruit superannuable appointment after probation. That was an indication of respect to academic staff. I can understand that in case the future of a department is not exactly certain, it might be necessary to put aside a small proportion for contract staff. But now, even when this is not an issue, the University is using short-term contracts to manipulate staff and to stretch their performance. Appraisal in those days was re-affirmation of a colleague's contribution to the department and university. But now, it has become a race with no definite finishing line. We can all accept the importance of minimum performance standards. But the situation now is one of using contract renewals and appraisals, to keep exploiting staff endlessly. I hope the University will understand that the best way to motivate staff to strive for excellence is to respect them, take pride in them, and make them proud of their work, not by manipulating them through contracts and appraisals.

I can understand that the global trend of managerialism and so-called public accountability, and league tables, have resulted in many universities, both locally and globally, joining the rat race. But this is exactly the moment when we have to show society that CUHK is DIFFERENT: CUHK is a caring university; she cares about society; she cares about her staff. CUHK is a leading university: she leads society in demonstrating what real university education is all about; she leads by exploring what is really good for humanity.”

　
     
  Some Issues Concerning Contract Staff and Supporting Staff
 

Some Issues Concerning Contract Staff and Supporting Staff

Contract Staff: Especially for you, I wanna let you know what I was going through
It is estimated that contract staff now constitute about a half of all CUHK employees. Even though the Univ finally introduced the “Continuous Appointment”(CA) system for non-teaching staff in 2007 after years of CUEGU’s advocacy, the terms for conversion to CA are very mean. A staff member has to have served in the same rank for over 6 years and graded “very good” or “excellent” for the immediate last three years before s/he can be nominated. Then, the nomination still has to be approved by the Univ. Even for exceptionally well performing staff, the minimum years of service for conversion to CA is four. As for the CA conversion criteria for teaching staff, they are even more opaque and ambiguous.

This being the case, we must congratulate our Registrar, Mr Eric Ng, who joined CUHK just two years ago. The Council on Oct 20 approved his conversion to CA as a “special case”. He also simultaneously became the first fulltime Registrar of CUHK. (Registrar used to be a concurrent post carried by an academic staff member.)

The rationale of the approval of this “special case” is that this new Registrar can then set his mind to assisting CUHK in preparing for the four-year curriculum without worries. It is also to reward him for his performance in the Quality Audit last year.

While we are happy for Mr Ng, we contract colleagues – and those unit heads who hope their staff can be converted to CA terms to ensure a smooth transition in 2012 with colleagues in good morale, also cannot help being melancholy: for we frontline employees who have no access to the management, how can we apply to be “special cases” even when we are agreed to be excellent staff? Or say, in what kind of mood or morale should we help CUHK to prepare for the four-year curriculum?

Supporting Staff: That’s why you go away, I know
The starting point of Government Executive Officers (EOs) was drastically raised in 2007. Since then, the salary level of EOs at the CUHK has lagged far behind. Due to uncompetitive salary and precarious contract employment, the turnover rate of EOs is high. Perhaps the University is not in the position to improve their remuneration. However, EOs’ work is also considered important to the school’s operation. The vacuum period between the leaving and hiring of staff causes troubles to departments. Therefore, earlier the University issued a new policy to either make the talent stay or make transition smooth. Currently the EOs only have to give a one month notice for resignation. Since July 2009, all new EOs appointed after this date have to give a two-month notice. For the serving EOs, the new provision applies to them upon contract renewal. So now we can guarantee the turnover of EOs doesn’t cause us troubles!

Oh, but by the way, if the external offer is really good, would a colleague refuse a good offer only so to avoid the paying wages in lieu of notice?

　
     
 

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