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Dear Frank (and other interested colleagues), You can get the Dean's details here: http://www.bris.ac.uk/classics/staff/martindale.html Best wishes, George Ferzoco -- George FERZOCO [log in to unmask] On 29 Oct 2010, at 17:07, Frank Finlay wrote: > Robert, do we have the actual name for the Dean of Arts, as opposed > to his email. Am about to write on behalf of AGS. Best, Frank > > From: JISCmail German Studies List [mailto:[log in to unmask] > ] On Behalf Of Robert Vilain > Sent: 29 October 2010 09:34 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Bristol: Dr Anne Simon > > Dear Colleagues > > I’m grateful to Frank Shaw for his post yesterday, and for the > numerous messages of dismay, support and advice that have reached > the Department, privately and more publicly, since then. I know Anne > is very grateful for the strength of support she is receiving from > the profession. > > The situation is this: Anne was informed on Tuesday that she was to > be made redundant because the University had decided to disinvest in > the Medieval/Early Modern area of our subject. As Subject Lead (but > not Head of Department – we are run via a School) I was warned that > the letter was to be sent very shortly beforehand. Anne told > colleagues on Wednesday and students on Thursday. > > Earlier in the year, colleagues in German were told that one of > their number was likely to be made redundant: this was in April , I > think, but at any rate a couple of weeks after I had signed my > contract accepting the chair in the Department. I was told later > that day ‘as a matter of courtesy’ and assured that this decision > had not been made until after I had accepted the post. We, the > Department, had been expecting further consultations between then > and the decision on which member of staff would be made redundancy > but have not had any such consultations. The announcement has thus > been sudden and brutal, especially for Anne. > > Colleagues have asked about the situation elsewhere in MFL in > Bristol. As I understand it (and I have no proper historical > perspective so can’t absolutely guarantee every detail), French will > have reduced from 14 to 9 over 5 years, without redundancies but > with one (I think) voluntary severance; Italian used to be 6 and is > now 5; Russian/Czech is 5 and HIPLA (Spanish and Portuguese) will > lose one member of staff to redundancy in a process that is ongoing > but not yet finalized. A Chair in Iberian and Latin American Studies > is currently being advertised (http://www.bris.ac.uk/boris/jobs/feeds/ads?ID=90449 > ) . There are to be redundancies and posts not filled in the other > Schools of the Faculty but I don’t currently have full information > on that. > > German will reduce from the 6 full-time academic staff that we have > been since I started on 1 September to 5 (not 4 as Frank suggested, > although he is quite right to point out the much more drastic > reductions that we, like many other Departments, have suffered over > a longer period). We have 3 other full-time colleagues, a permanent > language coordinator and 2 posts sponsored and supported (but not > funded, I believe) by the DAAD and the Austrian Government. We are > fortunate in having the help of a number of other staff, mainly > teaching language. And last but very much not least, we currently > have a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow. I say all this because, > whilst we are angry and disappointed about the cut, we are not > suffering the kind of savagery that Swansea is facing and it would > be wrong to put ourselves in that category. > > That said, I don’t need to tell this forum how damaging it is to the > profession and the discipline to lose the fields of Medieval and > Early Modern German and how much of a blow it is for a Department > with if not a unique range of areas of German Studies covered to a > high level then at least an unusually large one. > > Students have been quite extraordinarily eloquent and forceful in > their support for Anne and in their defence of the Department, and > we would very much welcome formal support for our resistance to this > cut from colleagues, too. Messages on this matter should be sent, I > think, to the Dean of Arts: > > [log in to unmask] > or > Dean of the Faculty of Arts > 3/5 Woodland Road > Clifton > Bristol > BS8 1TB > > I shall collate all the responses, internal and external, so it > would be helpful if colleagues could copy any messages to me, blind > or open as you prefer. Please get in touch with me directly if you > have any more questions. > > With thanks again, and apologies for such a long posting, > > Robert > > Professor Robert Vilain, MA DPhil (Oxon) > German Department > School of Modern Languages > University of Bristol > 21 Woodland Road > Bristol BS8 1TE > > Tel: (0117) 928 8794 > http://www.bristol.ac.uk/german/