We Are The University

[TEU-academic] ] TEU update

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Fri Mar 15 2024 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Tēnā koutou katoa

Bargaining. We continue to prepare both our bargaining teams and our bargaining claims. We will be compiling both local claims (specific to Waipapa Taumata Rau) and national claims (common to the tertiary sector). I will attend a meeting at National office next week with BC member Antonia Verstappen on these matters. Members are encouraged to consider and suggest potential claims, or refine those we collate, in order that we present solid cases for them.

Reminder: Pay Equity claim meetings. Claims for low-paid university library, clerical, and administrative staff are underway, and your views are needed. The claims can only be assessed accurately if the real nature of your work is well understood. Job descriptions and process documents are not substitutes. Only you and your colleagues can describe in detail the actual work you do.

The TEU is continuing to run a series of meetings for members and non-members under the claim to:

The following meetings will be held in the next two weeks. Attend the meeting that works best for you. We have spread the meetings across campuses to make it more convenient, but feel free to attend whichever meeting you wish.

Monday 18 March 2024 1230 – 1330 Science Rm 303-257 City Campus Tuesday 19 March 2024 1230 – 1330 Engineering Rm 401-1202 City Campus Monday 25 March 2024 1230 – 1330 FMHS Rm 507-LG045 Grafton Campus Tuesday 26 March 2024 1230 – 1330 Northey – Law Rm 801-204 City Campus

Buy your own antiviral software. In response to our query (see last week’s Update) as to the rationale for this imposition on staff who use their own computers (at home, say, or while travelling) to do university work, Chief Digital Officer, Jason Mangan, acknowledged that the messaging may not have been clear, and wrote: “In brief, we are moving to Microsoft Defender as it offers a significant step change in cyber security protection for the University. Most other universities in the region are also undertaking a similar change. On personal devices at home, Microsoft Defender is free to use and comes bundled with normal Windows licensing. This free Defender license should be all that is needed for Windows devices at home.”

Not everyone is buying this. A member with expertise writes: “Within days, the university has lumbered you with two albatrosses. It's removed the availability of NOD32 antivirus for work-at-home machines, leaving you in the care of Microsoft Defender - widely seen as more of a basic cover against cyberthreats that is not top of the line (https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/microsoft-windows-defender-security-center; https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/windows-defender-vs-antiviruses-is-defender-enough-for-you/; https://www.howtogeek.com/225385/whats-the-best-antivirus-for-windows-10-is-windows-defender-good-enough/). That's if you know how to activate and configure it properly after your NOD32 license runs out. If anything goes wrong, it's presumably on you. Also, unless your mobile phone is a university one, they also want you to complete two-factor authentication using your private mobile phone. What's next? Bring (and pay for) your own device? Whatever happened to employers paying for the tools you needed to do your work?”

Yoga classes for TEU members. It is not too late to join in. Thursday mornings weeks 2-6 (inclusive) of semester 1 from 8 to 8:55 am at the Mclaurin Chapel. The classes will be led by Reha Kumar, winner of the Yoga Teacher of the Year Award from Sport New Zealand in 2023 and active yoga advocate and educator. Reha teaches accessible yoga for all body types. Each class is capped at 20 students and free for TEU members. Non-member guests are welcome but will need to bring a $10 contribution. You can register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yvJWm665HZv7xRhs7sdoVFZotquo4LWxCPgZj_q2fz0/edit In the second half of the semester the class will be offered at the Grafton campus, so if you are based there, please keep an eye out!

This year’s Auckland Writers Festival [Auckland Writers Festival • 2024https://www.writersfestival.co.nz/] runs Tuesday 14 May through Sunday 19 May. The previews are good. The Auckland Writers Festival 2024 lineup is here, and it’s a belter | The Spinoffhttps://thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-03-2024/the-auckland-writers-festival-2024-lineup-is-here-and-its-a-belter

The Dunning-Kruger effect gets elected. TEU Co-President Julie Douglas (AUT) on the costs of the new government ignoring expertise. Or maybe they are merely co-governing -- with corporate lobbyists. Dismissing expert advice is costly to us all | Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa teu.ac.nz.

A $45.5 million loss is a win. Of sorts. Massey loss not as bad as forecast | Stuffhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350206133/massey-university-loss-not-bad-once-feared. See also Otago student numbers stay steady as deficit reduced | Stuffhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350212951/otago-student-numbers-stay-steady-deficit-reduced

Get cited or be blighted. Publish or perish is so last century. The Dark World of ‘Citation Cartels’ chronicle.com

“I think there is a widespread sense…that many of our leading universities have lost their way”. Larry Summers on What Went Wrong on Campus - Persuasionhttps://www.persuasion.community/p/summers

“[T]he requirement of a literature review in some disciplines imposes “particular configurations of privileged knowledge” amounting to an “enactment of symbolic violence”. How universities killed the academic - UnHerdhttps://unherd.com/2024/03/how-universities-killed-the-academic/

Other reminders.

Please consider sharing this and subsequent Updates (electronically or print) with colleagues who may benefit from knowing what we are doing.

fraternally b

Barry Hughes, PhD 302.363 Science Centre School of Psychology University of Auckland / Waipapa Taumata Rau