Curious updates

Curious week, too:

1) Monday Morning @ UoS. Response rate for debate with Peter Fahy (Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police) going quite well - fair amount of third party interest. Will be speaking against him myself now after housemate has been banned from Union activities. Few councillors attending, as well as people from other unions/Universities. No executive level interest from University.

2) Unknown @ via email. Corrections offered for this blog RE: boy pushed through window. One of his housemates made protestation to Accommodation Department about how dangerous the glass installed is. Response given was that it was the students' own fault for being drunk (!!). Repondent also complains about the cost prospects of having to fund replacement panes of glass throughout HC to avoid further injuries. Complainant points out that if they don't it might be death next time rather than 'mere' disfigurement. Solution offered by respondent was to put two pounds on the price of every drink (!!). Doesn't fit very well with the Vice Chancellor publically reprimanding me for suggesting students in his institution might suffer from alcohol abuse problems, see here:

http://www.corporate.salford.ac.uk/leadership-management/martin-hall/blog/2009/10/senate/#comments

Have been provided with a signed witness statement from an existing student about drug problems in their flat. Reckon I can collate a few more of these.

Similar complaints raised in the estates department, who are apparently convinced that because in both instances of injury it was an accident the University are under no obligation to do anything. Boy in question apparently wants to just get on with his studies. I think this photo will tell a sufficient tale:


3) Wednesday, 7pm @ Manchester Town Hall/3pm @ Piccadilly Gardens. 'Town Takeover' protest and debate. Protest doesn't go particularly well as weather is terrible. I tell President about full event described above - seems concerned but says nothing. Speak to a Trustee about recent affairs and about housemate being banned from SU. Can barely believe what he is hearing - suggests we put in a motion of no confidence at AGM. I say it'll go nowhere if Quora is not met (it almost certainly won't be).
Former USSU president Usman Ali is at protest and debate. Is kind and curteous as ever - seems to be enjoying being on NUS exec.
Debate is OK. Before it kicks off have a chat with Wes Streeting (president of NUS). We had a drink a few weeks ago where I interviewed him for Student Paper. He asks me how the news story went - I explain I was dismissed the next day and subsequently replaced with President's boyfriend. Like everybody else, he's quite taken aback by this. Only thing he says is "I don't miss Student politics".
Councillor Owen also present. Debate isn't very exciting - chair is too strict. I am interviewed for radio afterward and give my frank analysis of the evening. Encourage Aaron Porter to run for NUS Pres. Lots of Lib Dems there who pledge to campaign with me in USSU elections next year. They all seem to know who I am but I don't know who they are. Very worrying.
Three Sabbs not present - two that are say nothing and then procede to berate me publically. Not the professionalism I'd hoped for. I joke about putting in a complaint "But we all know the procedures don't work".

4) Today @ Brammall Court. Written notification of housemate's ban comes through. No reasoning offered again.

5) Yesterday @ Maxwell. Several FOI requests go in for the expenses of two particular members of staff. This supplemented by mine for all staff expenses. Will they be accepted? Suspect information commissioner might need to get involved on this.

6) Today @ Online. VC's 'Question Time' is advertised. Panel consists of Pres, VC, Deputy VC and two students. Being chaired I believe by head of Student Life. I put in a question about expenses - questions are all vetted so will almost certainly be rejected.

7) Yesterday @ Online. Book a place for debate with Hazel Blears on Tuesday on the economic crisis. Looks exciting - Blears spoke in a debate in parliament for the first time since I started reading Hansard (i.e. a long time).

8) All week @ Student Union. One of the Sabbs not turning up for work at all. Nobody knows why and other Sabbs won't discuss it. Staff upset that if they did the same they'd almost certainly be fired.
I put in FOI request for details of Sabb expenses, absence from work due to ill health/annual leave/conferences/any other excuse and information of people banned during last 10 years. VP seems convinced SUs are exempt. Another email required to quash this suspicion.

9) Yesterday @ VC's blog. Head of my department makes excellent point about interdisciplinarity (to the effect of "if I need skills I don't have I can find the relevant people myself"). I comment PVC Research's report on REF.

Just Another Week

In accordance with the verisimilitude of blogs sprouting up all over the web concerning a place we all know and love, it only seemed prudent to subscribe to the same trend and point out some of the more troubling truths about a place we all know and love.

I find it astonishing that one can list so much as happening in just one week, but to begin:

1) Monday 26th Oct, approx. 10pm @ The Crescent. Member of staff attempts to defend VC's decision to accept (allegedly) a house worth £640,000 plus £80,000 of capital investment atop his as yet undisclosed salary, where his predecessor accepted a £1.1M (allegedly) house + benefits + a final salary of £240,000. Others suggest I'd do the same in his position, at which point I remind them that my manifesto commitment for next year is to cut my own wage. Fizzles out and all make up.

2) Tuesday 27th Oct, approx. 5:30am @ Horlock Court. Student is pushed face first through a pane of glass in halls of residence. Significant [edited] bleeds and apparently [edited] muscular damage. Ambulance reportedly takes 45 minutes to arrive [since been corrected to 25 minutes]. Overnight report distributed to UoS staff simply says "Boy hurt arm on window and was taken to hospital - nothing else known". In reality, he has undergone [edit] surgery on arm [edit] and as last reported is awaiting plastic surgery to repair his face, which is injured as a result of the accident.
I arrive at the scene at approx. 9:30am, cleaning staff are already cleaning up the whole affair (very unusual for Horlock Court). Glass has already been treated but get some photos of the blood stains and the general carnage as well as interviews. Within an hour of me leaving the pane of glass is replaced.
If one is wondering why the whole thing was being kept on the hush hush, it is not because of what took place. It was genuinely an accident (albeit a drunken one) and I am assured there is little blame that can be apportioned between the students. The problem is there was a similar such "accident" less than six months ago, which also resulted in injury with arterial damage and which also required three rounds of surgery to repair. It was the same positioned window in the same halls of residence under almost identical circumstances. Since then nothing was done to prevent a similar event happening again. Negligence?
Will be contacting the poor boy's parents to inform them of this. Horrific event.

3) Tuesday 27th Oct, 2pm @ University House. My housemate attends the investigatory hearing for his disciplinary. A grievance was taken out against him by the Editor of the student paper after he asked her to print a story about bullying and coercion tactics being employed by the Students' Union to enforce an exclusivity deal.
Grievance has five general points, which are:

1. Aggressor did not knock on editor's door.
2. Aggressor shut the door behind him after introducing himself.
3. Aggressor called Activities Staff "a bunch of retards".
4. Aggressor called President of Students' Union "a nazi".
5. Aggressor accused President of Students' Union of Bullying & Coercion.

Housemate denies 1 and 2, says 3 was possible, denies 4 and points out that 5 was what was democratically decided by the society he at the time was the chairman of. I suggest the investigating officer (Ricky Chotai) contemplates the accusations under the circumstances that if the chairman was being bullied, then it is tantamount to aggravation. Also suggest that the whole issue is a failure of process as Editor is a member of staff who has no right of reply and thus cannot get into an exchange with a student without being at risk of losing her job.

4) Tuesday 27th October, 5-8pm @ University House. Michael Nazir-Ali, 106th Bishop of Rochester, Fellow of both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Lord Spiritual of the House of Nobility and world renowned orator, attended the University to discuss the importance of Faith in a Plural Society. Despite literally months of notice, not one executive representative from the University bothered to attend (former Chairman had a reply from Deputy Vice-Chancellor saying he was "too busy", Vice Chancellor Hall demanded "more notice in the future" - they both had plenty).
Only two of the Students' Union officials bothered to attend. We played host to Rev. Doctors, Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, Leaders of Council and several other eminent guests - but the whole affair was evidently beneath the levels of exertion to be contemplated by most Union and University officials. I talk to Councillor Norman Owen about how I think I can win Irwell Riverside on May 6th - he seems sceptical.
After the debate, all Union officials refuse to attend private dinner, claiming they're busy. I am told in private it is because they are concerned that dinner with an Anglican Bishop might be perceived as religious bias. Dinner nonetheless goes well.

5) Wednesday 28th October, 6pm @ Mary Seacole Lecture Theatre. Times foreign correspondent who worked in Iraq gives interesting speech about the importance of a good translator in hostile environments. Executive level attendance from the University is again minimal. No Union officials there whatsoever and nobody from local press (from what I could see). Sit down dinner afterward - very tasty, with free wine, must have cost a bomb. They say it's paid for from Alumni Funds. Proportion of Alumni I can verify was rather low - mostly students from SoL.

6) Thursday 29th October, 10am(ish) @ Frederick Road Campus. President of USSU complains about the "state" we left board room in after Nazir-Ali event. Transpires that "state" equates to a few glasses and a jug - not a word of the significance of having such an eminent individual attend the University (for free!). Sums up the Union's attitude rather well.

7) Thursday 29th October, 4pm @ Manchester Students' Union. Q&A with John Leech MP for Manchester Withington. Goes badly for him but well for me - I intervene when he gets in trouble and answer a series of questions for him, after which I get a few claps for my troubles. Bump into editor of Manchester Student Direct whilst leaving who asks me how things are at Salford. Explain to her I've been fired and replaced as News Editor with the President's Boyfriend - she can barely believe what she is hearing.
Go on to explain recent endeavours with the Chief Exec of USSU and my housemate. Also explain the recent discoveries on University "Expenses" (see below). She is amazed and says any info I can't publish there to forward on to her. Lot of people give me their numbers and ask to meet up for coffee. John Leech MP seems convinced we've been for drinks before but I assure him he'd remember me if we had.

8) Friday 30th October, 10am @ Crescent House. Get a reply to my Freedom Of Information request for details of all UoS staff expenses for the period 2003-2008 inclusive. Broad parameters described in Executive Finance Director's stats suggest 7% of annual budget is going on "Expenses and Fees". Annual Accounts Report confirms that to this we can add over £4M for "Staff expenses (Conferences, Travel, Hospitality)", £5M for "Student Expenses" and a whacking £254k for "Household Expenses".
I reply saying that none of what I'm asking for qualifies as an absolute exemption and that if he thinks it's a qualified exemption I'll gladly put my case to the Information Commissioner. Also explain that exemptions did not stop the exposé at Leeds Met. He replies saying I've received a standard response.

9) Friday 30th October, 1pm @ UoS. I receive a leak of minutes from a department's executive meetings. It's incredible what intelligent people can fill a day wasting their time doing. Amusingly, under the heading "Student Experience" the only minute is "Nothing to report". How fitting. They try and sex up the NSS results and reckon we're in for a treat next year (!!).

10) Friday 30th October, 5pm @ Brammall Court Halls of Residence. Housemate receives notification from Vice President of the outcome of the investigatory procedure. VP decides to uphold the complaint and ban my housemate from all Students' Union facilities, activities and events, effective immediately. No reasoning offered in how he reached this decision. Housemate gets upset and realises he both has to resign as Chairman of the Debating Society (which he founded) and cannot attend the debates he himself has organised.

11) Time unknown @ Prof. Hall's online blog. I post my usual analysis of my concerns about where the University's research efforts are being expended (and wasted). Peter Brandon replies initially saying "I could not agree more" in his opening line, before realising it looks like he is agreeing with me rather than the VC. First line is quickly edited to read "I could not agree with the Vice Chancellor more". Image is everything at Salford - do not be fooled otherwise!

12) Time unknown@ UoS. Get lots of texts from students asking who Alex Berdalovskiy [sic] is and what he's been accused of. Don't answer as have no credit. Quite a few students wearing his badges. Pessimistic about his disciplinary on 5th Nov - not sure who the investigating officers are yet.
Also am leaked copies of the "Clemency" letter being drawn up by UCU for Mr Duke. Complete waste of time written by hacks who clearly do not have a legal brain cell between them. There is a very swift legal argument to overturn what has been done and none have identified it. I hope his tribunal goes better.

All in one week... incredible...