\u00bbCan you hear me?\u00ab asks head of the department, Karsten Kristiansen the staff of the Department of Biology, tapping the microphone.<\/p>\n
\u00bbYeah, but we don\u2019t want to,\u00ab is the immediate response from the hall, and people laugh quietly.<\/p>\n
They know what to expect. They have got used to receiving bad news for Christmas. Last year 38 people were laid off, and it doesn\u2019t look any better this year.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt\u2019s a terrible tradition, that we meet up at Christmas and I throw dirt in your faces, but there\u2019s nothing else for it. We have to reduce our staffing,\u00ab says Karsten Kristiansen, and is met with silence. He continues:<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe have to safe DKK 16 million, and that\u2019s painful. I can\u2019t as of yet say how many positions we\u2019re talking, but you can do the maths. We shouldn\u2019t expect to be saved by a Christmas miracle.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Again, no reaction.<\/p>\n
Staff rep Leif S\u00f8ndergaard breaks the silence. He has heard rumours that 20 scientific positions and 8 technically administrative positions will be shut down.<\/p>\n
He points out that firing another 20 lecturers would mean that 40 percent of the teaching staff would have been cut over the course of 2 years, and that this will have catastrophic consequences on research and teaching.<\/p>\n
Karsten Kristiansen acknowledges that although the cut backs are painful, his hands are tied.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThe annual 2 percent cut backs from the government hit us like a hammer every year,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
Kristiansen says that they can still offer an education of high quality, but that it will be difficult getting the timetables to work. Cutting down the modules might be a solution.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe won\u2019t lower our standards, but increase the understanding of the modules we currently have. The government wants mass education, so we will have to get people through the bachelor part, and then raise the criteria for masters \u2013 sort the good from the bad at an early stage,\u00ab says Kristiansen.<\/p>\n
He adds that the small, specialised courses may have to be shut down.<\/p>\n
A member of the audience says that they are in danger of \u2018saving themselves to death\u2019 \u2013 the head of the department agrees.<\/p>\n
The staff rep, Leif S\u00f8ndergaard asks if a plan can\u2019t be made as soon as possible, so they employees don\u2019t have to have their Christmas ruined wondering whether they still have a job or not.<\/p>\n
Karsten Kristiansen says it isn\u2019t possible to come up with any names before Christmas, as they are awaiting a report from the university administration.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI don\u2019t know whether or not I should say Merry Christmas and thanks for coming, but I can\u2019t say anymore,\u00ab he says, and switches off the projector with the bar graphs and curves of the department\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
\u00bbAnd goodbye to the 20 percent of you I\u2019m never going to see again,\u00ab whispers one of the employees to their neighbour. <\/p>\n
clba@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The staff at the Department of Biology took it with a healthy amount of calm and gallows humour, as the Head of the Department explained that a lot of people will have to be let go for the second year in a row. DKK 16 million will need to be saved this time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n