Sociology Department UCU members pass motion condemning the ‘deletion’ of professional service staff roles in their department
The Sociology Department met on 29 September to discuss Goldsmiths College plans to make three of the Department professional service staff redundant. As stakeholders and those most directly affected by this change, we strongly oppose this move. Removing this dedicated and experienced team of staff from our department will profoundly impact the positive experience of our students, our ability to teach and carry out research, and severely damage the overall running of the Department. We have already seen the loss of our Departmental Business Manager, our Department Manager and our Postgraduate Research Officer this past year. In staff terms, this represents a 50% reduction in administrative roles that have not been replaced and are instead now shouldered by the remaining professional staff, whose roles are now also being threatened. These highly competent, experienced and wonderful colleagues are an integral part of our department!
Sociology UCU Department Motion:
We are appalled that the professional services staff in the Sociology department are being made redundant. This should be stopped immediately. It will profoundly impact the positive experience of our students and their ability to learn. We are concerned about the immediate damage to the students, our ability to teach them, and their ability to learn in their degree. It will also impact our ability to carry out our research, which is necessary to sustain our world-leading work in the department. Our professional staff are dedicated, highly competent, and an integral part of our department.
