The Clown House slaughterhouse Strategy continues

The slaughter and destruction of jobs, roles and depts continues at KU relentlessly: Vice-Admiral, Gold Commandant and Failed Architect Steven ‘Two Jobs’ Speer, AKA the Grim Reaper, remains determined to save £20m in the financial year 2025-26, no matter how he does it or whose careers he destroys in the process. After all, he’s got a big vision for Knights Park car park, and he needs to find that lovely £23m from somewhere, so he can finance his giant new shiny building at Middle Mill and leave a ‘legacy’ with his name stuck somewhere on it.

The latest damaging cuts will come from a ‘consultation’ on the Student Directorate, which will review things such as Student hubs (which have only been in existence for two years but have been disastrous, and Spier approved them in the first place!) and inconveniences such as library books and librarians. After all, this is Kingston University: who needs books? Such old-fashioned things. And library staff? Far too many of them. A ‘self-help’ automated library will be far better, and take up much less space. If students want ‘information’ and knowledge, they can use Wikipedia instead. Simples.

As many KU staff are all too painfully aware, Spier and his Senior gang of Silver Shirkers have brought a whole new meaning to the word ‘consultation’: they have altered its OED definition and it now means, in KU parlance, ‘decision that’s already been made’. It’s a CONsultation designed to insult our intelligence: Spiersy likes to announce a ‘consultation’ every time he wants to make cuts so that it sounds all nice and democratic (and appeases the Board of Governors, who like to see what they regard as good public relations), but the reality is always that its just a farcical con: the decision has already been made and there will be no backing down. Any views from staff are just dumped in the bin. This was on full display yet again with the recent so-called ‘consultations’ in FBSS and KSA, and we all know the outcomes of those – they were fixed (and fixed well in advance). Careers destroyed, departments wrecked. And all because the VC has been grossly incompetent when it comes to the proper management of KU’s finances.

Now the Uni faces the latest round in the ongoing slaughter: a ‘Redesign’ of the Student Directorate (which means, of course, reductions in staff), and an ‘external’ Review of Library and Learning Services. All this will include the relocation of Enterprise Education from Academic Services into Student Development and Graduate Success (meaning a reduction in staff), and loads of money spent on external consultants for the ‘Review’ of Library and Learning Services. More money down the drain. What a tragic farce.

Spiersy, as usual, never explains how using ‘external’ consultants will lead to cost-savings (the paradox where, in order to cut staff costs, you spend tons of banknotes on getting advice from ‘external’ consultants who are supposedly experts on how to get rid of staff and make savings). He just ignores such points, and ploughs on regardless. It’s the economics of the Madhouse, or should we just say the ‘Town House’? In other words, it is Spiersy’s ‘Clown House Strategy’ in full and hideous action again.