|
subtext | Truth: lies open to all
Issue 161 - 'stronger and bolder subtext'
27 April 2017
*****************************************************
Fortnightly during term time.
Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk
Back issues & subscription details: www.lancs.ac.uk/subtext
In this issue: awards, football, feminism, fees, spine, Hungary, garden, tower of tyranny, swoosh, Wales, HE Bill, boycott, election, shart, clowns, obituary, letters.
*****************************************************
EDITORIAL
First subtext of summer term and readers will note that some hardy perennial issues continue to attract our attention – the HE Bill, the NSS boycott, the Spine, and, of course, the Football University. It’s hard for us to gauge the impact of our modest publication but, as with the best ongoing projects, the real impact might not become apparent for years, or even decades, to come. We know, though, that every issue is read avidly in University House and that titbits of information continue to come to us from the unlikeliest sources (not all of which, unfortunately, we can print). We have also been greatly heartened by the increase in the number of readers’ letters and – especially in this issue – the number of contributed articles.
We have to say, though, that sustaining a fortnightly publication has placed a strain on our much-loved subtext warehouse. Built at a time when the quill pen was still a recent innovation, our revered premises are in danger of becoming, in a term much used by management (but not about themselves), ‘not fit for purpose’. How much longer can our boiler continue to function with its many elastoplast and chewing gum repairs? Not to mention our electrical systems, installed only after years of agonised debate, and now a health and safety nightmare. There is a growing feeling in the collective that drastic action may soon be needed, and that subtext may have to - oh the horror! – renovate the warehouse. This is a course of action that is not to be lightly undertaken and so we are seeking to enlist the help of our dear readers. We will be launching a major project to be called ‘Design the subtext’ and inviting you to submit your ideas. Look out for the ‘subtext roadshow’ with its 3-D design visualisations coming to a venue near you and fill in our user-friendly online questionnaire. Or just drop us a line.
*****************************************************
THELMA, THEA AND LU
Readers will no doubt be delighted to hear that Lancaster University has made the shortlist for the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards (THELMA) in not just one but three categories. They are for ‘Outstanding Student Admissions Strategy’, ‘International Strategy of the Year’, and ‘Outstanding Student Services Team’. These awards, according to the THES, are intended to acknowledge ‘the less celebrated teams who work in the engine rooms of our institutions, guide them through challenging terrain and lay the foundations for future success’. The THELMAs, though, should not be confused with the THEAs, the Times Higher Education Awards, billed as ‘the Oscars of the higher education sector’ and also sponsored by the THES.
If the THEAs are the Oscars, then it seems that the THELMAs are, if not the BAFTAs, then perhaps the TV Choice Awards. And this is a bit of a puzzle. The THEAs are intended to ‘exemplify the talent, dedication and innovation of individuals and teams across all aspects of university life’. Are we to presume that they don’t include those sweaty, grimy individuals and teams toiling away in the ‘engine rooms’ of our great institutions, who can only aspire to a THELMA? And some of the categories in each award are remarkably similar. What, for instance, is the difference between being an ‘Outstanding Student Services Team’ (THELMA) and providing ‘Outstanding Support for Students’ (THEA)? Or between having the ‘International Strategy of the Year’ (THELMA) and achieving the ‘International Collaboration of the Year’ (THEA)?
The best international strategy nomination is intriguing. A strategy, by definition, is forward-looking, identifying key goals and how they are to be achieved, within realistic timescales. It does not dwell on the past which, in Lancaster’s case, is just as well. The award judges will not be concerning themselves with what went wrong with COMSATS, or those difficult quality issues with Goenka, or the failure to achieve recruitment targets in Ghana, or the long running and ultimately fruitless negotiations with GDUFS and the regional authorities in Guangdong. These were all products of a previous international strategy and therefore irrelevant.
Lancaster has had but modest success in the past with these awards, sometimes making the shortlists but inevitably being denied the final accolade. Let’s hope this year will be different and when the THELMA results are announced on 22 June we will be celebrating a treble achievement. And if the university managers want to show their appreciation of the hard work and commitment of these and other teams they might consider resourcing them properly, providing them with a decent career development structure, and, above all, desist from stressing them out with their ever-increasing demands.
*****************************************************
OWN GOAL
It simply is not the case that subtext is willing to do absolutely anything to keep the story of the Gary Neville University alive by any means possible, however tenuous (see every issue of subtext from last term). Nope, guv', not us. Nothing could be further from the truth...
...That being said, the following story did hit the front page of the Daily Mirror the day after subtext wrapped up for Easter: http://tinyurl.com/ljw7qzk
...And lest readers are unclear about the world of the bung, the bribe and the buy off that is modern football, see this from today’s Guardian:
http://tinyurl.com/lhqfkws
*****************************************************
THE BRIDGET ROARS TONIGHT (BUT THERE’S MORE ROARING GOING ON)
Yesterday marked the start of Lancaster’s very own annual Feminist festival, Hear Me Roar!, which runs until May 3rd. Featuring public lectures and debates, arts events, film showings theatre and comedy shows, it promises to offer much that will interest subtext readers. Tonight’s comedy performance at The Dukes by Bridget Christie, in which she single-handedly takes on Britain’s Brexit delusions, seems to be sold out (expect a review in the next issue of subtext). But there are a number of other events that are not ticketed or have tickets available listed on the Hear Me Roar! Website, www.hear-me-roar.co.uk
This move to a more political arts programme by Lancaster Arts, the University’s public-facing arts provider, seems to have started with the Festival of Questions in February last year (see subtext 142). It marks a welcome continuation of cultural engagement in topical issues that affect our lives.
*****************************************************
GOFUNDHE.COM [NOTE: IT’S A REFERENCE TO GOFUNDME.COM, OKAY?]
The discussion on £9250 tuition fees at Lancaster continues to be a heated one, with the University showing no signs of climbing down from its decision to hike up the fees for students who are about to progress into their 2nd year. Eager to hear justifications straight from the horse's mouth, subtext snuck a drone into a recent panel discussion on just this matter, which featured none other than Deputy Vice Chancellor Andrew Atherton.
It was a long and interesting discussion, but most striking were some of Professor Atherton's justifications, as well as his premonitions for the future of Higher Education in the UK.
There was the usual guff about fee rises being absolutely vital to meet the costs of paying the gas bill, as well as the suggestion that the rising costs of the staff pension scheme necessitated higher fees. This is odd, as the main justification for the recent USS pension ‘reforms’ (nicking thousands of pounds from future USS pensioners) was to make them ‘affordable’ for the employers.
In response to a question on whether other streams of funding would soon crop up to complement student fees, Professor Atherton said that while he felt tuition fees would be the 'bedrock' of any new system, new funding streams such as commercial partnerships, US style philanthropy, and 'crowdsourcing' might soon become a 'thing.'
While the thought of increased commercial partnerships are revolting, but nevertheless realistic enough, the thought of 'crowdsourcing' is peculiar, and mildly hilarious. Crowdsourcing, at the moment, largely involves individuals soliciting donations for a sponsored bungee-jump into Mount Vesuvius, or asking for money for a tech start-up that got rejected (probably for a reason) by the big corporate players.
What these endeavours usually have in common is a kooky 'hook' or a pluck at the heart strings. The subtext collective isn't entirely sure how ANY University is going to have much luck with crowdsourcing, certainly to the extent that they might draw in considerable amounts of money. But maybe we lack ambition and vision. We invite readers to write in their suggestions on ‘pitches’ for donations.
*****************************************************
VISITORS TELL IT LIKE IT IS
A visiting scholar giving a seminar on 'Positive Youth Justice' at the end of last term commented on the need to employ diversion regarding children entering the criminal justice system. As an aside he noted that folk at Lancaster must be very familiar with the concept judging by the signage and the rather convoluted route he had to undertake to get to the lecture theatre.
*****************************************************
HUNGARIAN (UN)RHAPSODY
subtext understands that the Vice Chancellor has been asked if Lancaster University could officially express solidarity with the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest. The Hungarian government is to introduce a law that ostensibly seeks to put CEU on a new legal footing but, it is claimed, will practically force CEU to close. See: http://tinyurl.com/kgv4gbd
CEU Master's and doctoral programmes are accredited by the Hungarian authorities as well as by the State of New York, and the University's accreditation is overseen by the Middle States Commission, which certifies American institutions such as Princeton and UPenn. However, the novelist Tibor Fischer, writing in the Guardian recently, points out that CEU is registered both as a Hungarian and a US HEI, awarding Hungarian CEU degrees and US CEU degrees, so it is two legal entities under the same roof. He claims that its status as a Hungarian HEI able to award Hungarian degrees is not under threat and that CEU is not going to be closed. The Hungarian government has resolved that it should not be permitted to award US degrees because it does not have any campus in the USA and so is not "really" a US HEI. This does not look dissimilar to the UK government’s rules on accredited degree providers.
George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire (and hate figure of the 'alt-right' in the US), founded the university in 1991 and continues to be the main donor. This is not a new phenomenon - all major universities receive private donations, sometimes from controversial figures, and nothing that has been visibly contested by British HE institutions. However, should the Vice Chancellor, and indeed Lancaster University, be offering solace to a private institution? Perplexingly, it is not so simple. While CEU is a private university, it is the only institution in the entire region that provides full scholarships based on merit (for both MA and PhD students), livable wages for both academic and administrative staff, and childcare facilities, health insurance and language programmes.
The Vice Chancellor might be minded to note Lancaster University’s recent ‘We Are Lancaster’ initiative which aims to celebrate the enduring values of the university, to be inclusive, to be open to the world and to be welcoming to all, promoting a feeling of unity and inclusivity following the EU referendum result. CEU has always been committed to diversity and equality (reflected in the composition of its academic staff and student body), and has promoted research initiatives and educational programmes that tackle racism, gender-inequalities, and discrimination. The 'Olive' programme is the only higher educational initiative in the country that provides refugees with access to scholarships to HE (something Lancaster University is yet to do). The Roma Access Programme is active in supporting Roma students from across Europe, and CEU has also always been a sanctuary for LGBT community. It has championed free speech initiatives and facilitated academic interchange with HE institutions around the globe.
subtext waits to hear if the Vice Chancellor is minded to offer some words of solidarity. Perhaps our readers could advise accordingly.
*****************************************************
NO MORE GLORY OF THE GARDEN
Sadly, we have to report that the beast that is Design the Spine has finally caught up with the 'Making Time' garden situated outside the Peter Scott Gallery (see subtext 157). Gone are the flower beds and the shrubs. The mature trees have been chopped down and their trunks sawn into neat roundels. The quirky wrought-iron pergola has been cast down. All that remains is the garden shed, naked and forlorn, resignedly awaiting its fate. As has become customary, the vandalism was carried out over the vacation to avoid any unpleasant scenes with the students (not that this was ever likely). Perhaps readers might want to help themselves to a small piece of this remnant of the artwork before it is consigned to the flames so that it might live on as a hundred thousand slivers of the True Shed.
*****************************************************
THIS COULDN’T POSSIBLY HAPPEN HERE - CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE
Once upon a time, in a faraway land there stood a Great Seat of Learning (GSL). The GSL contained so much Knowledge that many different methods were needed to control it and prevent it leaking away in an unprofitable fashion. One way was to use abbreviations that only TITK (Those In The Know) could decipher. One day the leaders of the GSL, the MoW (Men of Wisdom), decided to build a new tower which they called the HIC (High Intensity Corporate).
The MoW were very pleased when they saw the design for the new tower. It had lots and lots of room for the MwL£ (Men with Lots of Money) to visit. The MwL£ would really like the great big entrance hall. It would make them feel right at home. They would like the big plate glass windows. They would like the rolling acreage of carpet. They would like the way it complemented the rolling acreage of meadows beyond the plate glass windows. For the MwL£ were men of taste and discretion. That is what having L£ does for you.
Tucked away at the very top of the tower, far, far, away from the MwL£, were the KPs, the Knowledge Producers. It was very important that the KPs did not realise how much the MoW depended on them to attract the MwL£. Because this was so very, very important many different methods were needed to obscure the fact. Most of the KPs were hired on FTCs (Fixed Term Contracts). This made them easier to control or KTOTT (Keep Them On Their Toes). They knew that if they were naughty they wouldn’t get another contract when theirs ended.
Also, the KPs knew that only a few of them would get PJs (Proper Jobs) eventually. This also helped KTOTT. This is called market forces, some of the MoW (and many of the KPs) knew a bit about market forces. Unfortunately the MoW mostly knew the wrong bits. The bits they knew said Competition was a force for good. So keeping the KPs insecure, OTT and anxious about each other doing well was a VGT (Very Good Thing). It was a shame it had such a deleterious effect on their health but hey ho, the MoW knew all about omelettes and eggs...
Another good way of obscuring the importance of the KPs was to make them feel small. The MoW decided that in the new HIC tower the KPs would no longer sit together in little rooms. (This had tended to foster Cooperation in the Old Tower and this was a market force the MoW were much less sure about. It was uncomfortably close to Solidarity which the MoW definitely didn’t care for.) It would also be much easier to keep an eye on the KPs if the place looked more like a call centre. Some of the MoW were quite impressed by what call centres had achieved in terms of 'employee productivity'.
Thank goodness this is only a fairy tale. Just imagine if things were like that at Lancaster! Wake me up somebody...
(With apologies to Bourdieu)
*****************************************************
YOU CAN’T GET THE STAFF
Have the Brand police been disbanded? The magnificent swoosh gleams atop the Chaplaincy Centre, the first major building most visitors see. There continue to be posters and indeed signage around the University adorned with the swoosh. And visitors using the pay and display parking tickets can take away a pretty red swoosh commemorating their visit.
*****************************************************
CYMRU AM BYTH!
For those sad, social misfits who DON'T spend their evenings digesting daily roundups of BBC Parliament, the government decided about a year ago to do away with the NHS Bursary - a source of funding that cancelled out tuition fee and means tested maintenance loans. It was an attractive package that meant bright and bushy tailed youngsters with a vocation could go away and become paramedics and nurses and oncologists without worrying about mountainous debt.
It doesn't exist in England anymore. It does, however, exist in Wales...
... But on one condition.
From 2017/18 onwards, if you're Welsh and you want an NHS bursary, you can have it on the condition that you study it at a Welsh university. Not only that, but you must also sign an agreement committing yourself to working only in Wales for the next two years following your graduation.
The Welsh Assembly government, in its wisdom, has decided that if it's going to defy central convention, it had better ensure that it gets to keep the skills and the money of the people it financially fattens up - a reasonable move to make, but one that has the disadvantage of appearing to be overly-possessive, and affecting not only English universities’ funding, but also having an impact on English cities such as our own.
Up until the 2016/17 academic year, any Welsh student wanting to study an NHS course could take their bursary to anywhere in the UK they wanted. They could come up to the University of Cumbria and become nurses, or they could have come to the University of Lancaster to become doctors. Who knows what else would have bubbled over the Welsh cauldron into England once the Health Innovation Campus opened its doors?
Among all this talk of Brexit being the death knell of diversity and foreign students bringing us their skills (and money!), people ought to wake up to the fact that current HE policy is pulling up England's drawbridge and denying entry to people within its own union.
*****************************************************
ACTING UP?
The Higher Education and Research Bill continues to rattle along to the finish line and may - by the time some readers have settled down to pour over these virtual pages - have finally found its way to becoming the Higher Education and Research Act 2017.
The Bill returned to the Commons yesterday, and is back with the Lords again today, and then looks set to ‘ping-pong’ through amendments before all is dissolved.
As it now stands fees will still be tied to TEF, but not until 2020-21. Until then everyone will charge at the higher level. TEF itself will be reviewed in 2019-20, so lessons can be learnt before staggered fees come into action. There will be tighter rules on entry for new providers than than the (current) Government had hoped for, though new providers will not need a four year track record before being granted degree awarding powers.
Given all of its time in the spotlight, the final days of the Bill have been largely anticlimactic . It could all be null and void in a few month's time: the dearest legacy of a Universities Minister who could be either out favour or out of power. Jojo has survived under May so far, but his market libertarianism does not really seem to match with rose-tinted Little England vision the current PM has for primary or secondary education. As with most things at the moment, only time will tell.
*****************************************************
A HEFTY BILL
While we're on the subject of the HE bill, subtext would like to return briefly to the discussion of the NSS boycott - a bit of direct action against the HE bill proposed by some of the pluckier student activists across the UK. Readers might remember that Lancaster's own student leaders weren't overly keen on leadership when it came to taking a stance on the NSS, citing the potential damage to Lancaster's place in the league tables.
Whether or not slipping in the league tables would actually spell disaster for the prestige of a Lancaster degree remains debatable (and also, incidentally, untrue), but what has always been obvious is that for an NSS boycott to work, there would have to be a broad groundswell to support it across the nation, rather than pockets scattered around the odd university.
According to a recent article in the Cambridge Student, as many as 9 UK universities have found their NSS return rates fall below 50%, thus making them invalid for inclusion in the national league tables. It is understood that completion rates "were as low as 27.5% at Russell Group universities such as Bristol." Given the trepidation from the vast majority of student bodies, these 9 universities that are alleged to have fallen foul of the student voice will likely suffer in silence.
Just imagine if the majority of students were willing to bet on nationwide unity, and the vast difference it would have made if dozens and dozens of universities were forced to rethink their strategy? After all, the strategy at the moment seems to be to rely on sowing fear for the value of their degrees among students, who, in the process of complying, give universities carte blanche to send fees skyrocketing and justify insane levels of expenditure. And, after all, a working life without a bad NSS score for your department keeping you uncomfortably alert like the Headmaster's cane would be a better one for all of us.
*****************************************************
HERE WE GO AGAIN
subtext dusts down its swingometer and offers five thoughts on the general election.
1) Not as many seats will change hands as you might think
Most people change their vote relatively rarely. At just two years, this will be the shortest gap between general elections since 1974. Despite Brexit, Corbyn and May, the majority of people are likely to quietly vote the same way they did in 2015. Don't expect a repeat of 1997. 1966 might be a better guide.
2) But keep your eye on the drop in the UKIP vote
Ah, the irony! The biggest victors of the Brexit referendum look irrelevant and their voters from 2015, never solidly behind them, may revert to the Tories en masse. Look out for the seats where the Conservatives lost in 2015 by less than the UKIP vote.
3) In many seats it'll be 2015 - the rematch
Almost all local parties haven't had time to properly select their candidates, let alone boost their profiles, and if the 2015 challenger - or loser - is willing to give it another go, then he or she is likely to be welcomed back with open arms. We already know that Lancaster & Fleetwood will see Cat vs Eric - Round 2.
4) It won't be a great advert for local party democracy
The lack of any time to conduct selections means we're about to witness more co-ordinated parachuting than the D-Day landings, as party HQs manoeuvre rising stars, and 2015 losers, into safe (and safeish) seats. Labour is conducting all its selections centrally; the Conservatives are offering local members shortlists of one (if the 2015 candidate agrees to restand) or three (otherwise).
5) Next week's elections will be the most scrutinised local results ever
Pretty much everyone outside London will be voting on the 4th May - and pretty much every pollster will be extrapolating the results to predict the outcome on the 8th June. They'll probably get it right.
*****************************************************
ELECTION TRIVIA
A snappy response to the snap election. Slogans don’t win elections on their own but t-shirts just might. Spotted this week: 'Stop May In June' t-shirt.
*****************************************************
SHART ATTACK
From: Mike M. Shart, VC, Lune Valley Enterprise University (LuVE-U)
To: LuVE-U Opposed to Private University, Laissez-faire Economics, Non-renewables and Tariffs (OPULENT).
BCC: Hewlett Venkklinne, Lead Developer, Media Engagement & External Goodwill Development (Internal).
Subject: Your Protest.
Dear all,
I noticed four of you exercising your right to protest outside LuVE-U HQ last month, and in keeping with the LuVE-U mantra of supplying the highest quality customer service, I am taking the time out of my day to engage with you guys personally [Mike, let me know if you think this line is too impersonal - Hewlett].
As far as I could ascertain, you were all deeply unhappy with our decision to increase tuition fees for current first year students. Now, even though this is something of a non-issue, and even though only four of you showed up to the protest, demonstrating your inability to mobilise anyone into caring, I take the complaints of my students very, very seriously. As such, I have decided to take the appropriate action, and I think that it will fit in very well with your ideological displays.
In keeping with your desire to show solidarity with other students, I can think of no better way to develop unity by increasing the tuition fees of ALL year groups. This way, you can develop excellent collegial relations on a cross-cohort level, and there will be an equal distribution of wealth to the University.
I would also like to reassure you on one thing, namely, your complaint that the current building works that you are funding will not be completed before most current students graduate. I ask you not to forget, your struggle is for the comfort of future generations.
I trust this will be to your satisfaction, and I thank you for taking the time out to offer your feedback, which, as you know, we value.
Check your privilege,
Mike.
*****************************************************
A PARABLE FOR THE TIMES - CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE
Bring on the Clowns
There was once a famous clown who lived in a very rich and powerful country. His name was Ronald Grump. Thousands and thousands of people used to go to his extravagant shows and watch him perform his silly acts, saying very silly things and making very silly jokes. He also told lies, but because he was such a great fool, he managed to fool lots of people in the country to think that his kind of foolery was good. This meant, of course, that they were also foolish. So when the time came round for the citizens of this rich and powerful country to choose a new leader, a lot of them foolishly chose Grump. So the clown became the leader of his country, but many people around the world didn’t find it a laughing matter.
Far way across the seas was another, much smaller – in fact, quite insignificant – country, a tiny island that also happened to have a well-known clown called Neil Garbage. His picture was often in the newspapers with his big silly grin. Although Grump and Garbage didn’t really like people from other countries, and called them nasty names, they soon became friends. So friendly did they become that Grump invited Garbage to come over to his country to act as a kind of helper to keep both their countries nice and friendly. So Neil Garbage went on a voyage and joined Ronald Grump. Again, many people didn’t think this was a laughing matter.
Very soon, some other countries started to fight each other, a situation that both Grump and Garbage agreed threatened their own unespecial relationship, and something had to be done about it. Grump then told Garbage that since he had become leader of his rich and powerful country, he had been given a special toy, which only he – as clown-in-chief - could play with if something was wrong. The toy was just an ordinary looking box with a button on it. So Garbage said to Grump, ‘Why not try it out?’ And Grump said to Garbage, ‘Yeah, why not, just for a laugh?’
So Grump pressed the button.
And suddenly there was no-one left to laugh.
*****************************************************
OBITUARY: DR STEVEN R. DEMPSTER
Contributed by Dr. Gareth Stockey
Last month, the terrible news reached us that Steve Dempster – 'Stig' to almost everybody he knew – had passed away. In the age of social media it is perhaps easier to bear witness as private grief becomes public, but even so the immediate, enormous and genuine outpouring of loss and sadness at this news surprised nobody who knew this lovely man. It probably would have surprised Stig, and doubtless he would have taken less than a second to offer a witty and self-deprecating call for us to cheer up. Alas, we cannot.
Most of us at Lancaster knew Stig through his long involvement with The County College or through his work in the Department of Educational Research. Before arriving in Lancaster, however, Stig had been a teacher at several secondary schools, including a stint in his home town of Ulverston. His last teaching post had been at Little Lever Secondary School in Bolton, my own home town, and it gave us plenty of room for reminiscing about the highs and (let's face it) lows of living there. Peter Kay had nothing on Stig's ability to wield the sarcastic knife in regards to this corner of the north-west. Having decided to leave the profession and return to university at Lancaster in 2001, Stig could be heard often speaking of the horrors of secondary-school teaching, but this did not extend to criticism of teachers themselves. 'There is no such thing as a bad teacher', he would say, and he did not need his extensive reading and training in educational theory to make his case. When the news of Dr Dempster's passing came through last week, one friend recalled how Stig would regularly be asked by Lancaster undergraduates for advice before entering the teaching profession. His gruff response of 'don't do it' was usually followed up by several hours of patient tutoring on how to get into the profession and succeed in it.
Steven Dempster became Dr Dempster after completing his postgraduate studies in Educational Research, with a doctoral thesis on 'laddish' culture in Higher Education. In the process, many a pint of Strongbow had been sacrificed on the altar of stats. Like too many of his generation of academics, he faced several years of temporary contracts in the department. Unlike many, he rarely complained about it. Nor did Stig allow contractual uncertainty to affect his determination to offer time and support to students and colleagues alike. He was finally offered a permanent lectureship in the spring of 2014, recognition of his contribution to the department and his outstanding potential. He quickly began to forge an impressive research output, while remaining characteristically modest about the significance of his work.
From an early stage of his postgraduate studies in Lancaster, Stig took an active role in the college system, and in particular in the senior common room of The County College, first as college tutor, then Dean and finally Vice-Principal. Stig was instrumental in reviving what had become a moribund senior common room, a permanent fixture in Friday-night gatherings of colleagues and a stalwart of graduation ceremonies, college socials and the annual Extrav. He understood the colleges to be more than a place of residence, but instead a genuine community of both staff and students learning from each other outside of the classroom. Stig was a regular sight perched at one end or other of County bar, a wit, counsellor and mentor, both to colleagues and to the hundreds of students who came to rely upon him.
Stig arrived in County at a time of transition, one of several new faces in the early noughties brought in under the encouragement of Mike Pengelly, then Senior Tutor and lecturer in Educational Research. We were young, dumb and full of... ideas for changing things, but more often than not left fighting defensive battles against a university with its own rather different view of the colleges' role. It is testament to Stig's commitment that he carried on with it, long after most of our generation of postgrads and early-career academics had left the university. Quite properly, he became more and more important to college life with each passing year. Stig's dedication and good humour was well masked beneath an often grim visage ('My face was made this way, mate'). In or out of his cups, he could be grumpy, witheringly sarcastic, and brutally honest. He was an antidote to pomposity and self-obsession in an age where academics are rewarded for 'showcasing' both. We loved him for it.
The County College has a sad tradition of its long-standing servants succumbing early to ill-health. Upon arrival in County in the early noughties, our generation was frequently reminded of the escapades, the brilliance, the integrity and the commitment of recently-passed giants such as Ralph Gibson and Gordon Inkster, both of whom are now commemorated by memorial benches beneath the County oak tree. Too often these days the word ‘legend’ is rendered meaningless through overuse. But judging by the hundreds of messages of condolence, reminiscences and tributes appearing since his death was announced, we can safely apply the word to Dr Stig.
You are a County legend, comrade. We will miss you.
Steven 'Stig' Dempster
2 November 1970 – 29 March 2017
Those who wish to learn more about the life of Stig can visit stig.dempster.muchloved.com. We also welcome letters from readers who wish to share their own memories of Stig.
*****************************************************
LETTERS
Dear subtext
From subtext 160:
"These include Nottingham University’s Amenities Building, which has the distinction of being runner up in 2009 for the Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest building of that year. Readers can see it at http://tinyurl.com/kmz6tn9 but a stiff whisky and soda is recommended before clicking on the link."
Looks like the ISS building – but in red! Isn’t that on-brand for Lancaster?
Phil Tubman
********
Dear subtext
While no longer a Lancaster academic, I still receive subtext and the UCU newsletter. In the latter, I read of concern about the use of personality tests. I underwent a personality test once. Luckily they didn't find one*.
Bill Cooke
University of York
*Tommy Cooper, c1976
********
Dear subtext
Your readers might be interested to read this blog post (http://tinyurl.com/knckdw7) by Ben Johnson, Research policy Advisor at HEFCE which outlines the work of the UK Forum for Responsible Metrics, and some of the key issues that came out of The Metric Tide report from 2015.
It also highlights a number of UK Universities who have signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) or otherwise may statements about the responsible use of metrics in research assessment.
While I'm fairly confident that Lancaster University colleagues are aware of the limitations of metrics based on citations for assessing research impact, or indeed performance, I wondered whether there’s any appetite at Lancaster for a similar statement of principles.
Tanya Williamson
Academic Liaison Librarian (Research)
*****************************************************
The editorial collective of subtext currently consists of (in alphabetical order): James Groves, Lizzie Houghton, Ian Paylor, Ronnie Rowlands, Joe Thornberry, and Johnny Unger.
|