“We’ve had a gutsful;” staff and students left in the dark about covid outbreak at VUW

News from Tertiary Education Union
“Management jargon about agile systems is cold comfort for staff, students and their families facing an entirely predictable wave of COVID infections sweeping our community,” says Dougal McNeill, branch president of the Tertiary Education Union at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Wellington. “We brought the dangers of this approach to management’s attention in January. That message fell on unwilling ears.

“We were amazed to have to learn through the media of hundreds of cases at Victoria on only the first day of teaching, and are dismayed that the University’s management has not proactively engaged VUWSA, the students’ association, as this wave hits. Staff and students are facing this pandemic and need to be a part of the response to its effects. Instead we are left in the dark.”

“Health and safety are not just buzzwords,” McNeill continued, “all practicable steps need to be taken by law.

“University management talk of a ‘dual delivery’ system to offer students a ‘face to face experience’, but who is it that takes the risks for this promise? What guarantees are there for the least empowered in our community – tutors, fixed-term staff, students – to protect themselves from infection?”

“Victoria’s management has spent the past two years downplaying the impact of COVID, from opposing border closures in March 2020 to campaigning to having the border opened through 2021 to, now, insisting on face-to-face teaching and not communicating crucial infection information with staff and student unions. All of this on top of cuts to staffing over the past year that makes the job of serving our students that bit more difficult.”

“We’ve had a gutsful. Staff and student voices, and their unions, need to be brought in to make safety a real priority. We extend our solidarity to VUWSA and all students dealing with this outbreak now.”