An injury to one is an injury to all

An injury to one is an injury to all

The following blog post was co-written by concerned colleagues in the Performance department along with staff from the wider School of the Arts at York St John University. It expresses solidarity with two YSJUCU members at risk of redundancy and sets out, in detail, the serious shortfalls with the Executive Board and Head of School’s approach to redundancies in this area.

It is now roughly six weeks since the Performance team received the shocking and distressing news that one of our team had been targeted for redundancy. Unlike most others across the university in this situation, Elaine Harvey – a deeply respected lecturer of 19 years’ track record at York St John – had been placed in a pool of one.

The information used to justify this decision was simply not correct. It was claimed by the Head of School and Executive Board that Elaine’s job was only needed for programmes that no longer run – the BAs in Dance and Drama & Dance – whereas in fact she is a highly qualified Senior Lecturer in Performance who has been fully occupied teaching across the ongoing Drama, Acting and Musical Theatre degrees for many years, and had already been fully workload-planned and timetabled for the following year.

It was also claimed that she fulfilled no additional administration roles, whereas in fact she has been a stalwart contributor in this regard throughout her career at York St John – only this year taking a respite from her role as Head of First Year to create space for her doctoral research in dementia and arts practice. It was furthermore claimed that her workload could be absorbed by the rest of the team without detriment to our students – whereas in fact every team member already had a full workload, and indeed no revised workload modelling has been supplied.

Our colleague was, in short, unfairly targeted on the basis of false information. The claims listed above have been demonstrated to be untrue by Elaine herself, our UCU branch, and our team, in multiple communications with the Executive Board throughout the consultation period. However in the Board’s announcements about their final decisions, the same claims continue to be repeated, and on this basis their intention is to progress with Elaine’s redundancy.

Elaine’s unfair treatment is one of two cases within the School of the Arts. A member of the design team, who currently holds a senior lectureship, has also been placed in a pool of one. The business case submitted proposing her redundancy was also primarily based on unsubstantiated and/or false claims that she has refuted with hard evidence. This highly qualified staff member has an international research profile, has made vital contributions to YSJ policies, pedagogy and committees, and recently won a university award for offering excellent support to students.

Nevertheless, in both cases, the EB has continued to support the proposal submitted by the HoS.

No account seems to have been taken of the vibrant social justice project which Elaine has built up over many years at York St John. Moving Minds is a community of people with dementia and their carers meeting weekly on campus to express themselves through dance and movement. The project contributes to an international body of research demonstrating the positive impact of movement on the wellbeing of those with dementia – as evidenced by the inclusion of the project documentary in international film festivals on three continents, as celebrated in the university-wide staff newsletter several weeks ago. Numerous students who have had placements in Moving Minds have benefitted from rich learning opportunities in a rapidly growing area of arts practice. This project is part of our university’s claim to stand for social justice. It won’t be able to run without Elaine’s leadership.

In the current climate, none of us were surprised when the university announced it would be making difficult decisions, including around staffing. Yet we still have not been given a rationale for the need for this specific saving in Performance or a satisfactory explanation of why cutting this particular role was the chosen route. Despite – or because of – everything we feel about the unfair targeting of our much-respected colleague, we remain open to being part of a collective alternative solution. Some of us offered to drop hours or salary, as long as this could be collectively agreed in a way that would not jeopardise the overall provision for our students. Instead, all we were offered was the option to apply individually for partial voluntary redundancy, which would prevent us from ever re-applying for these lost portions of our contract should circumstances change. A necessary starting point for us to contribute to cost saving would be a justification for making this particular amount of saving in Performance, followed by an open collaborative process to determine the best way to make it.

Authored by 18 members of the Performance team and wider School of the Arts