The dean of graduate studies has hit out at “very unfair criticism” of Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) President Shaz Oye over her role in controversial pay cuts on the College’s casual staff.
In an email sent to postgraduates this afternoon, seen by The University Times, Prof Neville Cox wrote that “I have nothing but sympathy for the GSU president” after she came under fire for not opposing cuts to teaching pay for casual staff. The cuts have since been reversed.
He said that Oye has “in my view, faced very unfair criticism” over her involvement in a controversy that this week drew out 80 postgraduate students in protest at a decision that saw some face teaching pay cuts of almost 20 per cent.
Oye has admitted to missing a proposal to reduce hourly teaching pay rates for casual staff when it was approved by the College’s Finance Committee in November. But on Wednesday, in an interview with The University Times, she argued that the document – which was not flagged for discussion and listed as an item for noting – was not given the prominence it merited.
“The way in which it was listed for noting and approval suggests, and suggested then, that it was not an item of such import to the postgraduate community”, she said. “Clearly, it needed robust discussion, and indeed more discussion.”
Today, Cox praised the “excellent work of the presidents” of both the GSU and Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union after the pay cuts were reversed on Tuesday morning, and added: “I can categorically promise that I have never read all the papers for any meeting (and let’s be honest, I have no intention of doing so for any future meeting – life’s too short).”
“The ‘for noting’ section of every agenda is supposed to be for non-controversial and cosmetic changes”, he said, “and that a change this controversial was supposed to go through the Finance Committee in this way must have been a huge oversight, precisely because it mean that invariably it would not be noticed”.
Speaking to The University Times this afternoon, Cox said that it’s “really important to treat student leaders like human beings”.
This afternoon, Oye told The University Times she was “really touched” by Cox’s comments. “I really appreciated it. Because for me, since that went out last night, a number of postgrads have individually come up to me and they’ve told me they have confidence in me, and that they believe in me and that they think I’m doing a good job. And that means a lot.”
Oye, who said the week has been an “isolating experience”, added that “I don’t mind taking the flak for my members, but there’s no doubt that I think there was a sort of compound aspect to this. So when something goes wrong, you put your hands up, you say: ‘Okay, I missed it’, and then you go and you fix it. So I did that, I fixed it”.
Today, in an interview with The University Times, GSU Vice-President Gisèle Scanlon didn’t give a direct answer when asked if she felt Oye was at fault for not opposing the pay reduction.
Scanlon, who on Wednesday night publicly challenged Oye over her knowledge of how much PhD students get per hour on their stipend, said: “I don’t engage in negative rhetoric about people. It’s not how I do my job. It’s not how I lay out my shop. It’s not how I am the vice-president. It’s not how I will ever, ever be a vice-president going into the future. I don’t do that.”
She congratulated Oye “and everyone involved” in reversing the decision. “I think it happened to everybody”, she said. “That’s the truth. And you have to commend everybody around that table that went in and came out with a different result. You have to commend everybody.”
Oye said the reception she received at Wednesday night’s town hall meeting was “very hostile”.
“I understand the anger and the frustration of the postgrads there, so I think it was understandable that it was so hostile. And it was understandable that postgrads were angry.”
Oye called Scanlon’s comments an “accusation”, adding that she “inferred – well, she didn’t infer actually, she was quite clear that she accused me of not knowing the different rates that our members are paid on stipends”.
“I think it is extremely important therefore that I have the unity and the support of my executive when I stand up to speak for the some 5,000 members of the postgraduate community that I represent”, she said. “I am bearing flak and trying to cohere the voice of the membership, and to do my best for them. And I think it would be nice to have the support of my executive.”
Cormac Watson also contributed reporting to this piece.
