Updated 01/07/25 22:58
“I’m going to be controversial,” said Acting Chair of Court, Dr Ian Mair, calling many eyes and ears in the room to attention.
This afternoon, a Townhall meeting took place in the Dalhousie building in light of the two “embarrassing” parliament meetings last week, which showed the true incompetence of the former University Executive Group (UEG).
Acting as a Q&A session, the meeting was hosted by Interim Principal, Prof Nigel Seaton and Acting Chair of Court, Dr Ian Mair. It aimed to address the concerns of staff about the recovery plan for the university going forward.
Seaton started off by reiterating what he had said last week, announcing to the room that the previous Recovery Plan headlined by ex-Principal ‘Shame’ O’Neill, “clearly isn’t valid anymore.” There will be no mandatory redundancies.
Although both hosts said that they wanted to “ensure” staff input going forward with the Recovery Plan in mind, they also said that the UEG will still be making the majority of decisions on their own. And so, the truth to their statement will only be realised in time.
Controversially continuing, Dr Mair stated that he did not think the “reasonability” argument highlighted within the Gillies report was entirely valid.
To recap, the Gillies report said that a “reasonable person” would have been able to detect the issues within the university that led to the financial crisis, possibly as early as December 2023. Dr Mair argued that the situation was “not as straightforward as that.”
His reasoning was that the working environment the former UEG had created for themselves was self-reductive. Due to this, they were unable to reasonably detect the build-up of issues, and the dwindling cash reserves of the university effectively went under the radar.
Dr Mair also stated afterwards that he did not disagree with the Gillies report.
A member of staff present said: “we need more people [senior staff] with financial literacy.”
Aside from the Recovery Plan, the university Resilience Plan was also mentioned. This contains the plan of action when a company falls into crisis, in order to contain or halt the crisis. However, as the entire country now knows, Dundee university was quite unprepared for the financial crisis that struck almost a year ago.
“[Resilience Plans] are often written by people at a time of immense calm, and for scenarios they don’t imagine will happen.” Stated Dr Mair.
“I’m not going to say that the Resilience Plan was perfect, it isn’t. It did not account for the Principal and the Chair of Court positions to be vacant at the same time.
“Would the university have come up with a better one if there was time? Possibly, but this is the situation we have found ourselves in.”
Last week, during the second Education Committee meeting, ex-Principal Iain Gillespie was questioned multiple times on whether he would give back his £150k contractual leaving package to the university, initially saying that “it had not crossed his mind.”
Tánaiste Custance, newly-inaugurated DUSA President, asked Interim Principal Seaton if the university had made any comments about the possibility of this £150K returning to the institution. “We would like it back,” the former said, with many in the audience concurring.
“He [Gillespie] signed it, we signed it,” said Seaton in reply, “I wasn’t here then, but that’s what happened.”
Essentially, this means that Gillespie is under zero obligation to return that money. Considering his silence after his resignation and desertion back in December 2024, the chances of him giving a clear answer, let alone giving the money back, are extremely small.
The £40m recently given to the university by the Scottish Government was also questioned towards its use. No clear answer could be provided at this time, as “further discussions must be had” about it.
“If we’ve learnt anything this last year it’s to judge by actions, not words,” Tánaiste said afterwards.
“Some of the interim principal’s and acting chair of court’s words are welcome. We’ll have to see how meaningful the proposed consultation is. I am in favour of giving everyone a first chance.
“We will have to wait and see how the cuts to jobs and DUSA’s budget effect students.
“An early test of how well this management prioritises students will be what level of funding they give your student union.
“I look forward to a constructive negotiation with the university, as well as other stakeholders if necessary.”
More is to be revealed soon, as another Recovery Plan to maintain the university’s future is to be drafted for August.
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