Prior to the meeting, I chaired an informal meeting of two external Senators with several general staff. Such meetings are getting-to-knows for both the external Senators and the staff. There is no set agenda and staff can raise issues of their choice. My thanks to Kay Whitfield for organising these meetings - an initiative she introduced when she was a Senator and which she has offered to continue to arrange. Interested in attending such a meeting? Click here.
The V-C briefed Senate on matters of general interest, including that UQ had achieved compliance with the Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs). I had in mind to express concern at the fact that the General Staff Consultative Committee has still not been formed, four months after nominations for election to it and the Standing Committee on Change Management were called, at the time of certification of the HEWRRs-compliant Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. Before I could, the V-C suggested that any questions on the item should be addressed to the Secretary and Registrar after the meeting!
Anyway, the day before the meeting, the unions received a reply to a letter they'd written to UQ management expressing concern about the delay and a number of other matters that could have been dealt with the GSCC if it existed. Apparently the elections will be held shortly. Notwithstanding, a request for a meeting with UQ management to discuss a number of pressing industrial matters has been dismissed as being 'unnecessary'. The unions will pursue this unprecedented snub - a sign of the times under the Coalition Governments new 'Workchoices' legislation?
One agenda item was Membership of Senate Committees. The (Sub) Committees of Senate do a lot of the legwork and have as members Senators, as well as relevant UQ staff, and sometimes external people appointed to a given Committee by Senate. The composition of the Committees was being considered in the light of the reduction in size of the Senate from 35 members to 22.
The Finance Committee has traditionally had an academic staff rep and a student rep, but no general staff rep. I spoke on this issue, saying that it probably harks back to the original definition in the University as being the academic staff and the students. "But in these modern times", I said, "one would hope that the general staff could be recognised as having an interest in aspects of the running of the University, equal to that of the academic staff and the students". Accordingly I proposed an amendment to the constitution of the Finance Committee to include a general staff member, nominated by the General Staff Consultative Committee. I noticed that the Secretary and Registrar shook his head at my words. After a flurry of whispers at the head table, I was asked if the proposal could be taken on advisement. It was pointed out by the Chancellor that because three external members of Senate were yet to be appointed to Senate, there was not yet a full Senate to determine the matter, and my proposed change was a material, rather than consequential, change.
I accepted this and also suspected that management wanted to buy time to consider the proposal, so agreed to hold the matter over. It will be interesting to see if any objections are raised and what their premise is.
The Chancellor also said that Senators can, with the agreement of a chairperson, attend any meeting of that Committee. I wonder if that will make it into the minutes? (Postscript: It didn't.)
A motion was put up by the academic staff rep, seconded by the undergraduate student rep, that those Faculties that have spent much of the Enhanced Student Charge (25% HECS premium) on casual teaching staff rather than fixed-term or continuing staff be asked to reconsider their approach. Proponents of the motion were concerned about the divergence between rising casualisation and quality. UQ management's view was that the Executive Deans should have discretion over the type of appointments made. The motion was defeated 11 votes to 6, following a secret ballot.
Other matters on the agenda were either of a routine nature or strictly confidential at this stage.
