The bureaucratized university plays havoc with bright, creative minds. In July of 2006, Diana Winstanley, a 45-year-old professor in the School of Human Resource Management at Kingston University, hanged herself. As at many other universities, a significant number of faculty have been on leave in recent years for occupational stress.American-born Howard Fredrics, a senior lecturer in music at Kingston until his formal dismissal in 2006, has published a well-documented multi-media website on the conflict that led to his ouster and his efforts since then for redress, and on similar conflicts involving other faculty at Kingston. The website is also useful for its critique of British employment law, in particular the easily abused "some other substantial reason" for an employee's dismissal. Of particular interest in Fredrics's own case is the ganging up of eleven colleagues and their filing a collective grievance against him, apparently with the administration's encouragement, following his own formal complaint of administrative ill-treatment.
The mire of legal twists and turns since then is deep, involving charges of witness intimidation, anti-Semitism, and much else.
From: http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~kwesthue/mobnews06.htm#KIN
Howard needs our support and our solidarity. He is facing difficulties that show bias against him by the legal system. His health is suffering, his career more than likely ruined, and the financial cost has been huge.
Please write emails of complaint and support for Howard to Kingston University Press Office: press@kingston.ac.uk
Howard's supportive local MP is Vincent Cable:
Constituency Office:
2a Lion Road, Twickenham TW1 4JQ, England
Phone: 020 8892 0215, 020 8892 0218
Vincent Cable should be encouraged to take the matter further.
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Do nothing and watch from the sidelines as an academic career and life is ruined, or do something however small, for if we all do it then it may have some impact. Please act today.
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