lucyburkemcr.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Fado, fado, I successfully moved a change to UCU NEC's Standing Orders to require the publication of draft minutes two weeks after the meeting (subject to embargo on certain items if needs be). A clinching argument for some people was that if we don't, the information is a factional football.

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We are now in a position where UCU NEC members committed to "transparency" are denouncing people for publishing an account of a meeting more than a week ago, after Head Office has emailed members about it. For openness, could those NEC members not just publish the motions which carried?

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For info. This 👇 is the full text of one of the motions that was carried at last week’s HEC (text in Alt text). Note that it is clear that the union is not now balloting on this year’s pay & that it uses words such as “prepare for” and “potential” in relation to any future decision to ballot 1/4

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I have resigned as honorary treasurer of UCU. I have spent the past 21 months trying to make UCU more transparent, its senior officers and officials more accountable, its practices more ethical and imaginative; I have tried to democratise its financial decision-making. [1/2]

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Daisy visited @ducuuo.bsky.social today to show solidarity #dogsOfResistance #dogsOnPickets She thinks its important to #saveDundeeUni She also thought Dundee Pickets were extra good & enthusiastically friendly 11/10 would show solidarity again forever Followed by teach out then beach.

submitted 23 hours ago • 1 comment

It is unwise for Transport Minister @heidialexander.bsky.social to engage in identity politics by saying: “I am not some sort of flight-shaming eco warrior.” Stigmatising environmental concern makes climate targets harder to hit. 1/🧵 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 1 day ago • 19 comments

Come and visit us at our picket line as we strike to save jobs at the University of Dundee. We’re a friendly bunch and you may also even bump in to the lovely Petal, who visited us earlier this week. #PicketlinePets

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Democracy Dies in the Hands of Jeff Bezos

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We are increasingly concerned about the crisis in UK Higher Education. Read our joint statement with @royalhistsoc.bsky.social , History UK and the @histassoc.bsky.social https://buff.ly/4hSg16N #history #skystorians

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The University of Edinburgh is expecting to shed staff and curb capital spending in a bid to save £140 milllion over the next 18 months, according to its vice-chancellor. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

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In today’s issue of #picketlinepets we are joined by Frankie and @gbuttars.bsky.social Thank you for your support!

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Rightful Lives is co-hosting an event on 4th March at Doughty Street Chambers. It will look at the implications of the Mental Health Bill for autistic people and people with learning disabilities. Why not come along! www.doughtystreet.co.uk/event/deep-d...

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The cuts at the University of Edinburgh look really brutal. I had included it in my c.16-18 universities likely to get through still looking like a traditional uni teaching almost all subjects. Now I'm not so sure.

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Today's university slashing and burning is Edinburgh, where about 10% of the budget will be cut. There'll be another case every single day until UK govts actually do something. A country so stupid it actively trashes one of things it's good at and famous for. www.bbc.com/news/article...

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Our third university of the day getting into trouble is Birmingham City University, where all the staff have been offered severance terms. It's a tsunami now I'm afraid. www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...

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Cutting aid to fund defence, Mr Starmer, is both cruel and self-defeating. I agree we need to defend ourselves. But creating a less stable, less humane world is no way to do it.

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A senior US government official has called for “lower quality humans” to be sterilised en masse. – absolutely terrifying where the US is going right now.

submitted 3 days ago • 221 comments

Apparently, alongside all the other joints we have, it’s been decided that our biggest one - English and History - is to be scrapped, despite it not requiring a single bespoke module and therefore saving £0. Vandalism. Again.

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Thanks @illdoitanyway.bsky.social ! #saveDundeeUniversity

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Are you a researcher planning to apply for Wellcome funding in the next two years? We’re offering researchers the opportunity to observe a Wellcome funding advisory committee and learn how grant applications are assessed. Learn more ⤵️ wellcome.org/grant-fundin...

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❗❗❗ former leader of Reform UK in Wales has appeared in court accused of accepting bribes in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament that would benefit Russia, a court has heard www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Pour qu'un petit Breton puisse porter un prénom breton en Bretagne, il a fallu se battre. Il a fallu se battre de toutes ses forces ! #Fañch

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👀 Keep an eye on @the-polyphony.bsky.social this week for a three-part takeover from LivingBodiesObjects – a Wellcome funded project exploring technology and the spaces of health. It will be worth the read!

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Great arguments against ai - and brief and clear which I often struggle with! Thank you.

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The UK's anti-protest laws pre-legitimise far right authoritarianism. Labour must repeal them now. My column today. www.theguardian.com/global/comme...

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““None of this war on disabled people is necessary if Labour went after the real cheats – the tax avoiders and evaders and the billionaires just getting richer by the day just for being rich while disabled people are labelled and scapegoated for a crisis not of our making.”

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They are deliberately crossing the red lines, in order to make the unacceptable commonplace and, eventually, acceptable again.

submitted 6 days ago • 135 comments

NEH introduces new prohibited categories to comply with executive orders. This is an infringement of academic freedom plain and simple, and also nonsense: what is “discriminatory equity ideology”

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There’s half a story circulating about one motion that fell at HEC & its implications - it is essentially misinformation & it is really concerning that it is being used to electioneer. I also hope that members will be informed asap. And to be clear I don’t support an immediate ballot on pay.

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Really, really hoping that members are informed about what happened at the HEC meeting this week soon because there are some wild misrepresentations of the meeting's decisions and next steps circulating here.

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UCU NEC endorsement from @vickyblake.bsky.social Michael Carley is a dedicated, experienced and principled trade unionist who works on the basis of evidence and robust analysis. I commend having a good read of his blog for evidence of his attention to detail and sharp interrogation of fine detail.

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How apt the symbolism is, on this battered planet, with #biodiversity in freefall and the future of us all in the balance as we slash through #PlanetaryBoundaries www.bbc.com/news/videos/...

submitted 7 days ago • 13 comments

The latest episode of the Conversations about Arts, Humanities and Health podcast has me and the excellent Stuart Murray talking about uncertainty - as a critical approach, in #MedHums, and in HE more broadly. creators.spotify.com/pod/show/con...

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It's not hard to write a headline that accurately communucates to readers which type of salute Bannon did. www.wired.com/story/neo-na...

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This is so grim. I think about all the decent, principled people who were barred even from being shortlisted and smeared as “low calibre” & then read this www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

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Solidarity @dyfrigjones.bsky.social & all at Bangor. This is horrendous vandalism.

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Remarkable investigative journalism by @manchestermill.bsky.social here: "Why would a senior manager at a university – a man in charge of marketing, recruitment, admissions and HR – be asking for £56,000 in a bank account in Dubai, or transferred to his son?" manchestermill.co.uk/the-universi...

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It appears that the LRD survey on democracy in UCU doesn’t generate personalised links & can be completed multiple times - automatically casting doubt on the validity of the results. For people who know about these things - is there a way of establishing this once the survey has closed? 1/3

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment