Skorupski's Law

Who spoke up and who was silent?

Of the academic members of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews besides myself, only Dr David Riches voluntarily testified to the employment tribunal about the abusive behaviour that we had witnessed in the University. Dr Riches was himself subject to extraordinarily pathological behaviour by a number of his 'colleagues' over a long period. There is little doubt that the resultant stress was the single most important factor leading to his being advised by his doctor to seek premature retirement. That this should have been forced on such a deeply honourable and wholly committed academic is to the enduring discredit of those behind the abusive behaviour and complicity in that behaviour which is considered in these pages.

That others were not prepared to testify at the employment tribunal alongside Dr Riches is shameful. One colleague in particular, Dr Roy Dilley, who had himself been at the receiving end of abuse and had frequently complained to his colleagues about unacceptable behaviour, refused to testify, saying that this would be too stressful for him. The same colleague had once shown the author a knife he kept in the drawer of his desk, saying that if Mr Platt (another 'colleague' in the department) attacked him, that was what he would get.

Dr Dilley had nothing to say when a crunch meeting was held on 2 November 2001 between the Principal of the University of St Andrews and some members of the Department of Social Anthropology (see The most disgraceful meeting I have ever attended.... Was there any connection between his refusal to stand up and be counted and the effect this might have on his promotion prospects? Dr Dilley, who had been seeking promotion for some time, was duly promoted to a readership in 2004 and to a professorship in 2006.

Professor Joanna Overing was ordered to attend the employment tribunal against her will and suffered several incomprehensible lapses of memory in relation to the abusive behaviour that was the subject of the tribunal. Neither of the other two tenured members of the Department, Professor Rapport and Mr Platt, was called by the University in its defence though the behaviour of both figured a number of times in the proceedings.

Dr Mark Harris, who 'kept his head down' during all of the proceedings, was mysteriously awarded promotion to a senior lectureship in 2004 in spite of only recently completing his probationary period and having spent a significant period of his lectureship in Brazil. Given that I had been teaching at universities for fifteen years and had previously held a readership at another university, one may ask if promotion decisions at the University of St Andrews were in any way connected to quiescence regarding the exposure of abusive behaviour within the management.

The former secretary of the Department of Social Anthropology testified to the employment tribunal. She said that she had resigned a few months after my departure from the University because she thought that those who were abusive were being rewarded for that abuse and that she had lost respect for all of her colleagues with the exception of Dr Riches.

There were others, both inside and outside the University, who could have ensured, by speaking out, that people did not have to lose their livelihood and their health.

The author

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Skorupski's Law: "The more vain one's ambition, the more redundant one's grasp of morality"