Last week, Arnold Cassola stated that career ambitions may have been the reason why academics did not sign the Zonqor petition. This is partially true. Professor Cassola rightly used the conditional in his reply. What I wish to add is that this may be also due to the fact that our University is a university of cliques. This is bound to happen in any organization that becomes bigger and bigger.
Thus, I agree with Arnold Cassola’s statement that there may be individuals who are eying the rectorship or one of the other top posts but it should be noted that only one lecturer can become rector and only a handful of academics can fill the top posts. In this issue 50% of the University of Malta academics failed to sign this petition. This had no bearing on last Saturday’s activity. Against all expectation, the protest was a success. The success was so great that it came as a surprise to the organizers too. The Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had to react. For the first time, he spoke in terms of wanting to listen to the protestors.
The hearsay at the moment is that the person touted for the post of rector is coming from overseas; to be exact from the University of Toronto. Therefore, those who refrained from signing a petition in the hope of enhancing their chances to be appointed as rector are not au courant with the situation at university.
Yet, there are other reasons why some lecturers did not sign the petition. For example, I am not on the petition despite the fact that I have voiced my opinion about the Zonqor University in more than one of my blogs. I spoke in favour of turning the Three Cities into a University Campus. Andrew Azzopardi has spoken on the same lines recently. I spoke about Fort Ricasoli and disagreed with using an industrial estate at Marsa as a site for this university. Even Government seems to be taking my cue as it is now speaking in terms of a split campus, a concept that I have also mentioned.
Nonetheless, I was not approached to sign the petition. I am sure that, like me, other academics have not been asked to sign. This demonstrates that lecturers at the University of Malta are not well organized and failed to ensure that all University staff was contacted. I hope that this is not due to the fact that some academics at the Msida campus work in cliques. Anyone excluded from these groups is not taken into consideration even though it is in the supreme interest of academia.
Cliques have the tendency to work in anonymity yet they are very close to the corridors of power. They follow Voltaire’s dictum to the letter and in the true spirit of the Enlightenment, they seek to ridicule those they dislike or consider a threat. In private, they resort to a policy of Chinese whispers to further their personal interests.
I am adding this comment for the reason, that the Malta Independent on Sunday of 21st June carried an article regarding the issuing of a white paper about the future of the University. As an academic, I got to know about this white paper from the media. Despite that we are academics, there was no discussion with us. I consider this serious when the discussion here is not only about the University becoming the full owner of its property but also concerns the issue that “government is considering reconstituting the university”. Unfortunately, the history of reconstitution with regards to our University is not a pleasant one. Our Rector spoke in terms of more administrative and academic autonomy. I honestly desire to know more what is understood by such wording.