Note: This document is set such that everyone with the link should have edit permission. So, just scroll down and type to add. However, I have now noticed that links that go through phones may be changed, and those may not be editable. The original link is:

Plain-text: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1smn9xkkKe-diV-n04BtaqRKep_vdANMrGgKjlk_MuSI/edit

Live link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1smn9xkkKe-diV-n04BtaqRKep_vdANMrGgKjlk_MuSI/edit

If you still can't access, or for anonymous addition, email names to n.matzke@auckland.ac.nz .

[Update August 21: We are having an open meeting (Senate members, non-Senate members, any other interested parties):Friday, August 23, 3 pm in Room 109-B10 - Main Library.

Also, a special Senate meeting has just been called for Tuesday, August 27, 4-5 pm.]

[Update: noon Monday, August 19. The VC acknowledged receipt late last week and said she would consult with Deans etc. and get back to us. However, the short timeline to the next University Council meeting (Monday, August 26) suggests we need a Senate meeting before that. The letter writers sent a second letter the morning of Monday, August 19, to request a meeting Friday, August 23. The Senate rules say that 3 professors can request a meeting as long as there are 3 clear working days in advance, so this was done.]

[Copy saved Thursday afternoon, August 22]

[Update: 1:15 pm, Tuesday August 13. The letter was saved and sent to the VC. We will however leave it open to collect more signatures for now. - NM]

Monday, August 12, 2024

Dear Professor Freshwater,

Recently, faculties across the University have been instructed to engage in a significant culling of their course offerings or ‘optimisation’ of teaching.

The proposed changes have significant implications for research and teaching at the University and have consequential implications for pedagogy. They affect the content and coherence of degree programmes. To the extent that redundancies will follow (as is explicit in the letters received by staff in the Faculty of Education and Social Work), the university risks losing core expertise that will affect the ability to deliver academic programmes. There are, therefore, also implications for research strategy and coherence, which departments and faculties have not had the time to discuss and develop priorities for.

These changes have not been discussed in Senate, despite this body having a statutory responsibility to advise Council on academic matters.

We note that the Curriculum Framework Transformation (CFT) is referenced in the proposed optimisation processes. Yet the curricular implications apparent in the current proposals were not manifest in the CFT mandate, which was never fully discussed in Senate before being sent to Council in 2022.

The July 29 meeting of the Senate had no discussion of the widespread changes and course cuts being currently proposed. We further note that the deadline for accomplishing these targets occurs before the next meeting of Senate scheduled for September 16, 2024.

We, therefore, request that you call an extraordinary meeting of the Senate at the earliest available opportunity to discuss the proposed course optimisation processes, in particular their relationship to the CFT and the academic coherence and integrity of teaching and research programmes. Any changes to faculty wide course-offering and related pedagogical and staffing matters need to be deferred until after this meeting or any other subsequent meetings.

Sincerely,

Title or rank and Name, School/Department, Faculty

Names withheld on request (tabulated by Matzke)

Senate members

Non-Senate members