From: British archaeology discussion list [[log in to unmask]] on
behalf of Sarah Howard [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 June 2012 16:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BRITARCH] Save the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity!

Save the IAA!



Please sign the Save the IAA campaign:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-the-iaa/



Following a very rapidly conducted review of the Institute of
Archaeology and Antiquity (IAA), the review group, chaired by Professor
Malcolm Press, recommended that the IAA be closed. This will mean the
redundancy of 19 members of staff and have a large and detrimental
impact on the teaching and research of Archaeology and Antiquity at the
University of Birmingham. It also raises considerable concerns about the
commitment of the University to both the Arts and Humanities, and to
areas that (for whatever reason) are not considered to currently be
fashionable or commercially important.



Existing IAA students have already expressed serious concerns about the
impact this will have on their degrees, and staff and students expect
that the bad publicity generated by this decision risks putting students
off attending the University of Birmingham.



A campaign website has been created, which will be regularly updated at:
http://saveiaa.wordpress.com/



The main proposals of the University are:



*         Closure of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity

*          19 staff to be made redundant - that is over half of the
non-professorial academic staff currently in the IAA

*         None of the individuals involved in the review are included in
the list of staff at risk of redundancy

*         All Professorial staff are excluded from the threat of
redundancy, despite the assertion that the IAA has been failing for a
number of years and the questionable leadership of sections of the
Professorial staff in leading to such failure.



A number of very serious concerns have been raised with the University,
including with Professor Press and Professor David Eastwood (through
BUCU), by the staff of the IAA, regarding the process, timing and
legitimacy of the review. These include, but are not limited to:



*         The composition of the review panel consisted largely of
senior members of the unit under review.

*          The review took only one month to complete, with only one
hour allocated for staff to meet with the review panel. This compressed
timetable is unprecedented, and made it extremely difficult to make
coherent and collaborative responses.

*         Throughout the process, while a substantial amount of
information was provided to the review panel, little documentation was
provided to IAA staff, despite repeated requests for financial figures
and KPTs. The information that was provided appeared to have been
censored, or missing key sections, making it difficult for staff to
contribute anything noteworthy to the review panel

*         Due to the current lack of financial figures and associated
information, staff lodged a Freedom of Information Act Request over 20
working days ago to obtain all the material provided to the review panel
with the aim of producing an alternative plan that best fit the current
situation. The staff were informed on 8th of June that the University
would need more time to perform a Public Interest test. However, they
failed to specify which exemptions they are applying, and it appears now
that the University are stalling to provide any information that would
enlighten staff

*         A group grievance was lodged by the Project Group with HR
concerning serious problems with senior IAA management.



Staff within the IAA now find themselves within the 90 day consultation
period with a seemingly cosmetic opportunity to provide an alternative
proposal to the plan currently tabled.



BUCU will be supporting the campaign to save the IAA, and hopes that
members will provide support in the coming months.



Please sign the Save the IAA campaign:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-the-iaa/

-- 
Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114  22 25 109
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/people/albarella
For MSc in Osteoarchaeology see:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/postgraduate/masters/courses-available/osteoarchaeology
For Zooarchaeology short course see:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/zooarchaeology-lab/short-course
For Archaeologists for Global Justice (AGJ) see:
http://agj.group.shef.ac.uk/

"only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught we will realise we cannot eat money"