Reading the news today & came across this. To be CRYSTAL CLEAR, @ducu.bsky.social has REPEATEDLY raised workload problems to management and offered potential solutions for negotiation. In EVERY instance, management has refused to negotiate. “No” is not negotiation. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is why I limit my use of PPT, share research on lower learning outcomes when using computers to take notes, and resisted being forced to incorporate AI into my assessments. Technology impairs cognition; it doesn’t enhance learning. www.instagram.com/reel/DUZGHf0...

Oh my stars, have I won the cat distribution lottery, or what?! He is slow-blinking me here ❤️. This is 1 week in my home & 9 weeks since I saw him get hit by a car and saved him.

US, UK—it’s the same story. www.chronicle.com/article/high...

Flip Texas. Flip. Texas!!!! youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ...

Only 30% of my students showed up for class today. 35% have never shown up this term (Week 4). This is the first time since 2022 (when I first taught this module here) that I’ve not had 90-100% attendance at every session. Trying to wrap my head around what’s going on!

No, Melania, not sending money your way. Watching Becoming … again. I’ve think I’ll re-read her book, too.

Voted in our local ballot. Working conditions will never improve unless we fight for them. @ducu.bsky.social

The same can be said for @ducu.bsky.social !

“It’s also in the company’s best interest to allocate appropriate workload.” Why, yes. Yes, it is!

Oh good, it’s gone up 0.4C since I got to the office. Guess I’m full of hot air 🤷🏼‍♀️😂. GSAs say it’s calibrated hotter than it really is (when it was 25C in summer). So does this mean it’s actually colder? 🥶

Remember the other day when I was saluting my friend Greg Ketter, owner of Minneapolis’ DreamHaven Books? This is him the following day. Greg will never say this, so I will — now is a great time to buy books from DreamHaven. Support Americans who stand up vs. 🧊. dreamhavenbooks.com

Prescient, indeed. 💔

They stood over him and fired even more shots into his motionless body. #ICEOUT

I earned tenure at TAMU and I am shocked at what is going on there. Stand up; speak up.

All the freedoms you enjoy today are because someone before you fought for them. It’s your turn. Vote. @ducu.bsky.social youtube.com/shorts/7icZh...

Do it, y'all! No matter how things go over the next six months, we're stronger with a mandate!

We moved in to our £104m Waterside White Elephant building 16 months ago. The roof is already leaking.

Here is a gift link to the Times’ new analysis of the Good shooting. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...

Damn indeed...

And it begins! Post your ballots ASAP, #ducu members! Our workloads are rising & our jobs security isn’t. We deserve better from management than just “no” to our reasonable requests and suggestions. @ducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

My trusty teaching trolley has bit the dust after 20 years. I will need to find a suitable replacement by Monday’s class for my markers, card stock, visual imagery cards, activity materials, and so forth. Sigh. A good run for a hard-used item.

Video. Video. Video everything. Heres how! www.instagram.com/reel/DTRh_w_...

Never in danger. www.instagram.com/reel/DTPraD7...

Solidarity to @northumbriauni.bsky.social staff, told they must move to a pension scheme widely considered worse or face a pay freeze (against UK-wide bargaining). United as unions, they can beat it (& deter other employers from trying similar). Post those ballots, & join if you’re not a member!

Plato....PLATO....banned at #TAMU. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Cold. Blooded. Murder. www.instagram.com/reel/DTOcwx3...

Here's the latest finance news from @northumbriauni.bsky.social - staff are doing so great management want to freeze their pay unless they move to a different pension. Well done us! @ucu.org.uk @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social

My department has all but required our assessments to either incorporate or allow the use of #AI. Odd for an institution that’s all about #sustainability. There are unintended consequences, though. www.instagram.com/reel/DS3KRjM...

Also tracking wages in higher education…. 🤔 www.instagram.com/reel/DQ-ImyE...

No good deed goes unpunished. Here I am sat in A&E after I rescued a tiny black cat I saw knocked down by a van; she tried to run but couldn’t use her back legs. Terrified, she bit the $@&! out of my hand. Here’s hoping it will only be the 2 hour wait they anticipate.

So glad I brought an extra layering shirt and a small blanket with me to the office today!

Join your trade union. @ducu.bsky.social

Can you say Charlie Foxtrot day? Bus didn’t show; next one made me late for my appointment; had to wait 90 minutes to get seen; ran to catch bus after—got on the wrong one. Now walking 1.5mi home from the closest stop I could get—no busses stop between so walk it is. FML

This is what my employer is trying to do to us at Northumbria University.

If you could sign a petition supporting Northumbria University staff being forced out of their pensions by management, I'd really appreciate it.

Meanwhile, my department has set a policy that makes in-person assignments all but impossible.

Hope is here. Help us beat Reform in May. Donate today ⤵️

👉👉👉Hey! Please sign and share! Let's get to 500+ today! www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...

With a killer #GTVO campaign and a flurry of SO many last minute voters, BOOM! Our records show that we sailed past that 50% anti-union threshold locally at @ducu.bsky.social. #WeAreTheUniversity @ucu.org.uk

Friendly reminder to those calling students “consumers”: A consumer is a revenue stream to be exploited. (Professor Tony Watson, Nottingham University Business School)

Once again, EE2025 highlights how executives bring home excessive pay relative to those at the coal face in all sectors. (Oh, and don’t buy Starbucks. Find a local independent) ips-dc.org/report-execu...

Feels like a good time to remind people: pensions are deferred wages. Moving someone forcibly to a worse pension is wage theft. Always unjustifiable, but particularly appalling in the context of years and years of real-terms pay cuts. Why do they NEVER have any solution other than paying us less?

Poll for UK colleagues on a Research & Education track: what is your workload split? Durham University Business School just put out a new 30-60-10 split for Research-Teaching-Citizenship as baseline, changed from 50-43-7. Super curious, what’s normal for you? Institution? Department?

The University launched a new Academic Workload Framework to be fairer. My Faculty saw an opportunity to slash R&E track Research by 20%, cut Citizenship by 10% & raise Teaching time by 17%. But if we jump through enough of the right hoops, we might earn back 10% for R & C. VOTE! @ducu.bsky.social

And we know we're not alone as a branch in what we're facing. We need local action, but we also need national action. We've put together a list of reasons why a national mandate puts us all in a better bargaining position - please share widely. durhamucu.org.uk/26-reasons-y...

As we near the last safe day for ballot posting in the current national UCU ballot (get 'em in by Wed, preferably sooner), let's remember what we're fighting for. We'll start with the graphs we made last week. Decades of pay erosion has left many of us a full pay spine point below where we should be

Numbers for TU members to remember: 30-45-90 30: the number of days it takes an employer to get rid of 20-99 of us. 45: the number of days it takes an employer to boot 100+ of us. 90: roughly how long TU’s need to get a mandate. Do the math. VOTE! @ucu.org.uk @ducu.bsky.social