Letter requisitioning a Special Meeting of Academic Board on the voice of the academic community


LETTER REQUISITIONING SPECIAL MEETING OF ACADEMIC BOARD TO DISCUSS THE DIRECTION OF UCL AND THE VOICE OF THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY 

To the Secretary of Academic Board
Professional Services

1 May 2017


We the undersigned,

Call for a special meeting of Academic Board, under Statute 7(6) of UCL's Charter and Statutes. This meeting is in response to

A) the suggestion by the Chair of Council, in response to representations by senior academics concerned by the current trajectory of the University, that Academic Board "discuss the issues around creating a sustainable future for UCL at the same time as maintaining staff morale [and] ideas for how to improve Academic Board, please take them forward with the Provost or other members of the Academic Board,"
and
B) the recent survey of all Academic Board members where 94% of respondents (out of a total of more than 300) supported the convocation of a Special Meeting of AB to discuss AB's functioning and the input of the Academic Community into the strategic direction of UCL.

This meeting is called with the explicit purpose of allowing enough time and focus to:
1.     Discuss ways that the views of Academic Board can be better represented in informing decisions over the current and future trajectory of UCL, and in light of this:

2.     To establish a special Governance Committee of Academic Board (as a sub-committee of AB, under Statute 7(12)) to: i) Advise AB on the running and structure of the Board, including proposing standing orders for its own running to Academic Board, and scrutinising strategic decisions that impact academic work at UCL, and ii) Improve the representation of the views of Academic Board on matters affecting the academic work of UCL to the Senior Management Team and to Council.

Membership of this committee, the quorum of which shall be 10, shall be as follows:
a.     Any person formerly (but not currently) elected to Council from AB within the last 6 years and who is still at UCL shall be invited to attend ex officio as a voting member;

b.     9 members elected from the professorial membership of AB as voting members;

c.     6 members elected from the non-professorial membership of AB as voting members;

d.     3 student members selected by the UCL Union from the AB student representatives in any one year, as voting members;

e.     2 members of Academic Committee elected by that committee, as voting members;

f.      Any expert persons invited by the committee to assist in its deliberations, as non-voting members.

g. The committee shall elect its own chairperson.

UCL Professional services shall arrange for election of this committee within 6 weeks of this meeting.
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3. Should Academic Board wish to defer deciding on the establishment of a Governance Committee at this stage, a Working Group will instead be established, chaired and convened by a Professorial member of Academic Board that is not a member of the Provost's Senior Management Team, to consider alternative proposals for Academic Board to consider on the better representation of its views to Council and SMT.

Signed:
Professor Jonathan Ashmore
Dr. Alun Coker
Professor Izzat Darwazeh
Dr Rachele Felice
Professor Maria Fitzgerald
Professor Derek Gilroy
Professor Hugh Griffiths
Dr. Evangelos Himonides
Dr Hans van de Koot
Dr Ruth Lovering
Dr. Margaret Mayston
Dr. Saladin Meckled-Garcia
Dr. Hynek Pikhart
Professor Ralf Schoepfer
Professor Tony Segal
Professor Sonu Shamdasani
Dr Reecha Sofat
Dr Sherrill Stroschein
Professor Bencie Woll
Professor John Wood
Professor Maria Wyke

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