For those on the list that think that this is only "self promoting" (I 
fail to see how you arrived at this conclusion) I have gone through this 
myself - and the librarian corps (or should it be corpse ?) kept 
completely schtumm - SOAS students regret they didn't know that CILIP 
members' day was taking place chez eux, otherwise they would have 
organised a demo outside the Brunel Gallery - [I have permission from the 
orginal poster to disseminate this] - Emilce Rees


From: Graham Dyer <[log in to unmask]> 
Reply To: Graham Dyer <[log in to unmask]> 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Our students back AUT action 
Sent: 29 October 2005 12:40:39 
Dear Colleagues

SOAS Student Union has issued the following statement. What is absolutely
clear from it is that virtually all SOAS staff (academic and related) and
our students are united against management's disgraceful treatment of Sue
and Fujiko, and their cavalier disregard for SOAS' standing and future. Our
students are backing full strike action by AUT, and I think it's fairly
clear that they have some important cards to play themselves.

>
Some of you may have noticed that certain members of the School community
have become rather upset as of late by things that have been happening in
the Library.  Some of you may have heard that some quite senior academics
(eighteen of them in total) have resigned their non-contractual posts in
anger.  Some of you may know that post-graduate CJK (China, Japan & Korean)
teaching at SOAS is ‘effectively inoperable’ at the moment.  The
international reputation of our School as a world-class centre for research
is threatened.

And a few of you might even know that there is a very real danger that SOAS
will close its doors as from 21st November because of strike action by
members of the AUT (the Association of University Teachers) depending  on
the result of the ballot.  The ballot papers are with members as we write,
and emotions are running high.

But most of you will know not a lot about the issue in hand, because in
time-honoured SOAS tradition, the students’ are always the last to know.
The Directorate and Librarian at SOAS don’t believe that you – the
fee-paying customers – deserve to know about what is happening in the
Library.  This is why we are having to write to you all now.

Over the summer, and whilst many of us were sleeping (or simply away!), the
management of SOAS decided to make four senior librarians - with a
collective working experience of nearly a century - redundant.  The 
decision
was made in secret, in clear violation of School academic procedural 
policy,
with no consultation with fellow librarians, senior academics, or – most
importantly! – students and other library users.  The move leaves the
Library with no native speaker of Mandarin Chinese, and wholly inadequate
provision for Japanese and Korean; the languages effected are spoken by
nearly one quarter of the world’s population.  China will be the next
economic superpower, it is of utmost strategic interest to have linguistic
expertise in these fields.  The Union feels strongly that knowledge and
experience of this kind can not simply be thrown away.

On Friday 30th September at 5pm, Sue Small (China & East Asia Librarian) 
and
Fujiko Kobayashi (Japanese & Korean Librarian) were evicted from the SOAS
Library.  Fully intending to work their statutory notice period, they came
back to work the following Monday to find that over the weekend their 
office
locks had been changed, and the hard drives removed from their computers.
They have not been able to get back to their desks since.

This past Wednesday 26th October, nearly 700 of us (students and staff)
united outside the Russell Square campus to show an emergency sitting of 
the
School’s Governing Body that these two Librarians are NOT expendable, and
that virtually the entire school is opposed to these sackings.  We, the
Executive of the Students’ Union are both astonished and disgusted by the
cavalier treatment of these two respected staff members by Management; thus
far they have failed to listen to arguments from senior academics,
professors, post-graduate and research students’ and world renowned
academics from far outside of SOAS.  The petition to reinstate Sue and
Fujiko now has in excess of 2,000 signatures.  The dismissals have 
attracted
attention in The Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Times Higher Education
Supplement, Jewish Chronicle and Financial Times, further battering the
School’s reputation.

What is perhaps must surprisingly of all, these two Librarians - with a
combined commitment to SOAS of over 36 years, and who have committed
absolutely no crime or misconduct – are not permitted to work their
statutory three-month notice period.  Put simply, that means that the 
School
is paying them NOT TO WORK until December.  Do you really feel that this is
a good use of your tuition fees?

The collective arrogance of the Management of SOAS is simply breathtaking.

One small glimmer of hope from the Governing Body meeting was that the
situation will be referred for outside mediation, possible via ACAS; the 
AUT
will rightly stress as a pre-condition that Sue and Fujiko must be returned
to their correct place and unconditionally reinstated – working their 
duties
within the SOAS Library – before this can take place.  As we speak, the
ballot papers are still live.  SOAS Management has 25 days and counting to
sort-out the HR and PR disaster they alone have created.

Whilst recognising that industrial action is in no ones interest, the
Students’ Union wholeheartedly supports a ‘yes’ vote in the AUT ballot, and
will support academics and clerical staff in any way that we can.  We as
students’ also have ways that we can show our revulsion; we will reveal
those (if needs be) nearer the time.

As a Union, one of our big campaigns for this year is for extended opening
hours in the Library, including the possibility of Sunday opening; 
Professor
Colin Bundy has claimed that extending opening hours by three hours per day
would cost in the region of £80,000 per annum; put more simply, that is
equivalent to the tuition fees payable from just eight (yes, 8) non-EU
students.

We as a body demand longer opening hours, but NOT at the expense of skilled
and experienced Academic Related staff.

Mushtaq Ahmad
Co-President Students' Union

School of Oriental & African Studies
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