Thread by @cathyhume

Since universities’ refusal to maintain staff pensions at USS universities, I’ve seen a lot of angry posts from academics saying that their good will is all used up. This is bad news for everyone: here’s why. #UCUstrikes #OneOfUsAllOfUs #USSmess #FourFights (1/9)

The intended and obvious victims are university managers, who rely on ‘good will’ aka ‘going above and beyond’ aka ‘vocation’ to have the workforce, from PhD student teaching a single seminar group to esteemed professor, working evenings and weekends, year in, year out. (2/9)

I’ve known professors working on books on Christmas Day. Senior staff who only get to emails at weekends. Staff on 1-year contracts spending every Saturday reading books they need to teach next week. Teaching-only staff on sick leave writing lectures for their return. (3/9)

Me, I’ve tried to be vigilant about protecting evenings and weekends for my young family and my own health, but at assessment time that won’t square with a schedule that has exams immediately followed by the start of the next term, so I end up marking essays until midnight. (4/9)

So I fail to update the Dept website. Don’t apply for grants I’d like to get. Can’t read the texts my postgrads work on. Decline to speak, write or review because I must moderate, evaluate, administer. Research becomes the preserve of those with no caring responsibilities. (5/9)

Managers chasing REF/TEF scores suffer, but so do students. As universities frenziedly recruit more students but don’t hire more staff, basics get missed. Staff stretched thin fail to pick up student problems, respond to worries – I’ve seen it this year more than ever. (6/9)

Staff suffer too. I came to work in a university to learn and teach. Not to get rich, but to be part of a learning community, sharing ideas with colleagues and students at all levels, engaging with the world beyond the university. I came expecting democratic governance. (7/9)

Good will should power universities. To help students find their voices and pursue their own interests. To make unpromising topics fun, to write references, to attend graduation celebrations. Good will to talk at local schools, to bring in non-traditional applicants. (8/9)

Good will to contribute to collective decisions, to listen to each other’s research, to mentor junior staff, socialise, meet. I see all around me drawing on less good will as our energy dwindles and I fear for us. We need good will. Don’t let the bastards grind us down. (9/9)