Opinion
7 DECEMBER 2020
Transformation and Change: Who is management really saving and at what cost? Millie Glaister, BA Politics and International Relations While the institution posits the Transformation and Change (T&C) Process at SOAS as necessary to save the university, I have begun to wonder what it is exactly that they are trying to save. SOASians have a clear understanding of what SOAS means to them. Over time, SOAS has transformed from a colonial institution to one valued for its socially conscious, inclusive, and progressive environment. Never more clearly have we seen these characteristics undermined by senior management than over this past summer. Despite facing a pandemic and a recession, some of the most vulnerable in the SOAS community have been the targets of its most recent cuts. In Issue 13 of the SOAS Spirit, I wrote an article with an update on the T&C process. I spoke to a number of people fractionals, union reps, departmental officers, and lecturers - who truly opened my eyes. While I learnt about the severity of the financial situation, what I found more shocking was the desperation of those subjected to the ruthlessness of senior management. The process of bringing about the £17 million cuts was inherently flawed. Dr Feyzi Ismail (Department of Development Studies)
and Maia Holtermann Entwistle (PhD student and de facto fractional representative for the Department of Politics and International Studies) spoke about how responsibility for academic cuts was left up to individual departments in a way that ‘devolves accountability.’ Holtermann Entwistle spoke of the way the ‘decision-making was dressed up as grassroots or bottom-up decision-making,’ when in reality it ‘opens up space for prejudicial treatment.’ Unison Branch Secretary, Sandy Nicoll, said that, in reality, the union’s suggestions were ignored in the decisionmaking process. It is also important to mention that the jobs most at risk also happen to have the greatest concentration of BAME and female staff. In turn, this lack of communication resulted in departments across the university, both professional and academic, being understaffed and overworked.
“The jobs most at risk also happen to have the greatest concentration of BAME and female staff.” One of the most frustrating aspects here is that while senior management are pulling the strings with little regard
for the wider community, blame is being dissociated from them. They have willfully leveraged the safety of their workers against the desires of the students - letting resentment fester on both sides, counting on the pandemic to reduce the communication and solidarity we have shown in past rounds of cuts. We are seeing modules and programmes being cut, fractionals and professional services put at risk, lecturers and administration overworked, and ultimately, the quality of education provided at SOAS being diminished. So, I pose this question: if we are all taking a hit ‘for the institution,’ who are these cuts actually benefiting? The answer begins with the people that are yet to take a pay cut alongside everyone else, and those who are more concerned with their future profit margins: the senior managers. Are we willing to relinquish everything we have fought to establish at SOAS? Are we willing to let fractionals and professional services be unfairly targeted? There is no question that SOAS is in a problematic financial situation, but we must demand better from the senior management and address these institutional biases before even more people are sacrificed in such uncertain times. We must stand together as a community to ensure that while we fight to keep the university afloat, we do not surrender all those who make SOAS what it is.
‘A forest of red flags’: a warning from Poland Weronika Krupa, BA International Relations and Chinese
Protesting is the daily bread of Polish citizens. Practised for generations, once against the communist regime, today against a fascist government. We know what it feels like to lose - to lose your rights, your freedoms, your pride, or your hope. Even the youngest of us bear the burden of national trauma, fed to us in history lessons ever since childhood. When politicians want to suppress us, control us, divide us, we should be prepared. On 22 October 2020, the Polish government delegalised
abortion for almost all cases. The scraps of rights we have left make up a very pathetic consolation. The fanatic and corrupt government officially took charge of our bodies and left us hurt and devastated. For a country that seemed to be on the verge of embracing modernity, I can't help but wonder what went wrong. They say Poland is a woman, and I believed she was promising and ambitious. A woman that was ready to step up and claim what’s hers, to love, to cherish and protect. So what went wrong? I spoke to Magda, one of the activists from Dziewuchy London, a feminist collective fighting for the protection of reproductive rights run by the Polish diaspora
in the UK. She told me, ‘I remember one day when I was representing Dziewuchy at the Women of the World Festival at the Southbank Centre. It was February 2017. I remember, backthen I was saying that we should pay attention to the situation in Poland because it doesn’t matter to Poles solely. It’s a dangerous process for Europe as a whole. I think my point back then was that the attack on women’s rights goes hand in hand with those narratives of hate, which were fully present back then. I think at that time I compared this with Brexit. We need to be extremely careful about this, and how it will affect politics within the EU.’ I asked her what advice she had for people who live in socalled progressive countries. ‘First, I would pay attention to the new laws and legislations implemented during some sort of crisis, in moments of turmoil or chaos. You need to react to those tiny changes despite the circumstances. Secondly, we need to recognise the connections between the individual struggles of different groups and stand in solidarity with each other. When we fight for women’s rights we should also fight for migrants rights, racial justice, and against the discrimination of LGBT+ communities. We need to stay in this together, in solidarity. I think the strikes in Poland are so popular right now because it is not only about women’s rights, it’s about so much more – democracy, rule of law, free media altogether.” After my conversation with Magda, I felt fearful for what could be coming. We took it all for granted. We were the post-communist dream of a better future. For better or worse, change happens gradually. But before we wake up in Gilead or in Poland or without any sort of rights, we will always walk through a forest, signs popping up like mushrooms or flowers, until it’s just a forest of red flags.
Protesters in Poland (Credit: Reuters)
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