|
|
||
|
"Pathologies" and destruction of evidence The two versions of the Corner/Esler report |
The "abusive and humiliating" behaviour of the Principal (Vice Chancellor)In Scottish universities the vice chancellor is normally referred to as the principal. There are three episodes documented in these web pages where the behaviour of Dr Brian Lang, the Principal of the University of St Andrews, was rather different from what one might expect from the vice chancellor of a major (or any other) British university. In the first episode, Dr Lang attempted to force me to withdraw my professional opinion regarding the suitability of a particular professor to be on an appointments committee. Such an attack on academic freedom goes to the very heart of a lecturer's contract and undermines one of the central purposes of a university. In the second episode, Dr Lang presided over a meeting where his behaviour was — in the words of one of my former colleagues to an employment tribunal — "abusive and humiliating". I remarked to the employment tribunal that this was the most disgraceful meeting I had ever attended as an academic. In the third episode, Dr Lang declined to give any response to a series of objections that were raised to a report that was commissioned by him. Known as the Corner/Esler report — after the names of the two members of the University Executive who compiled it — the report detailed a list of "pathologies" in the Department of Social Anthropology and said that there was "persuasive evidence" which made it possible to attach a name or names to each of these pathologies. This evidence, the report said, was "documented and on file" in case there was any repetition of the pathological behaviour "and further action is taken against a member or members of the unit". I wrote to Dr Lang asking him to clarify the nature of this allegedly "persuasive evidence". He declined to answer. I then wrote to the Acting Director of Personnel Services with the same query. She wrote back saying that Mr Corner, the Secretary to the University and joint author of the report, had destroyed all of the evidence (see " Pathologies..."). ********** Skorupski's Law: "The more vain one's ambition, the more redundant one's grasp of morality" |
