King's College Palaeography

[Greg Bailey]

Dear Dominik,

This is appalling and it is not just an attack on the individual but on the
humanities in general, if not of social-democratic values as well.

I read an article in the Melbourne Age today quoting something from the
Guardian to the effect that thousands of jobs are to be lost in British
universities.  Is that true? If so it will percolate elsewhere in the
Anglo-Saxon world, if not outside of it.

Cheers,

Greg Bailey


On 15/02/10 3:45 PM, "Dominik Wujastyk" <wujastyk at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Dear colleague,
> 
> News is circulating that the Chair of Palaeography at King's College London,
> David Ganz, is about to lose his job since KCL is in the process of
> eradicating 22 jobs in a manner that appears crude and inefficient.
> 
> Teaching staff at KCL have raised the idea of college-wide salary reductions
> as a way of saving actual jobs and avoiding cuts like this, but at a meeting
> last week the college management dismissed such a collegial approach on the
> grounds that it was "not progressive".
> 
> Here is part of the text from the Facebook page (see link below for full
> information):
> 
> King¹s College London is undertaking what they call Œstrategic
>> disinvestment¹ and have informed our colleague, David Ganz, on Tuesday that
>> funding for the Chair in Palaeography will cease from 31 August this year,
>> when David will be out of a job. This is part of a wider context whereby all
>> academic staff in the School of Arts and Humanities at King¹s have to
>> re-apply for their own jobs before the 1st March. They think this the ³most
>> humane way² of losing 22 academic posts.
>> 
> 
> 
>> KCL's Chair is the only established chair in Palaeography in the UK (held
>> by our late members Julian Brown and Tilly de la Mare). I am, naturally,
>> writing on behalf of the Committee to express dismay at the loss of the
>> Chair but the more people who write in protest the better.
>> 
> 
> 
>> The person to write to is: Professor Rick Trainor, The Principal, King¹s
>> College, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS and copy to Professor Jan Palmowski,
>> Head of the School of Arts and Humanities."
>> 
> 
> Fuller details are available at:
> 
>    - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=303202385890&ref=share
> 
> And the link below leads to an easy online system for signing a petition
> about this matter:
> 
>    - http://www.petitiononline.com/spkcl10/
> 
> 
> --
> Dominik Wujastyk
> University of Vienna