Lecturers air grievances over ‘low morale’

Date Published: 15-Mar-2012

By Dara Bradley

Motivation and morale among teaching staff within the largest of the five schools in Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) is said to be “at an all time low”, according to documents seen by the Galway City Tribune.

At recent meetings within the Department of Management, in the School of Business at GMIT, which has been dogged by controversy and scandal, staff told how they are “disillusioned” and “de-motivated”.

The sense of grievance among lecturers in the School of Business, which is recorded in minutes of three staff meetings, two in February and one last Monday, persist at the Dublin Road college, more than one year after a student cheating scandal – which remains under investigation – hit the school.

It is understood all morning lectures were cancelled within the school on Monday to facilitate academic staff wishing to attend what’s described as an ‘unprecedented’ three-hour meeting which took place off-campus, in the Carlton Hotel.

GMIT Financial Controller, Jim Fennell, former acting head of the institute, chaired the meeting, where criticism of the management style within the School of Business was levelled by staff. A lack of consultation, as well as general discontent about ‘day-to-day’ academic issues, was also raised.

The minutes of two meetings held in February among Department of Management staff were on Monday’s agenda and were due to be discussed but Mr Fennell ruled them out of order.

Minutes of those February meetings, seen by the Galway City Tribune, show that the problem of discontent among staff is ever-present. The February 22 meeting noted, “Motivation and morale are currently at an all-time low in the school” and that the “level of trust and respect in the school is low”.

The minutes added: “Staff are disillusioned and de-motivated and note there is a need to develop an open culture and a positive .”

There has been unrest among staff within the School of Business stretching as far back as 2005; which was brought to the fore again over the past 18 months when revelations about cheating, plagiarism and low morale among staff, broke in this newspaper.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.