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

As someone who saw my pension erode significantly when I switched from TPS to USS, this cause is close to my heart - please sign: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...

Just a friendly reminder: History shows us that, more often than not, employers place profit before people. Workers need to fight for fair treatment. Industrial action is our most effective tool, but anti-union laws mean we have to win a mandate to use that tool. VOTE! #WeAreTheUniversity

It would help if I didn’t have a typo in the hashtag! #WeAreTheUniversity

I got in trouble again for my trade union work. This time for paper flyers on my door. Checked H&S guidelines: it’s okay to post flyers as long as they’re laminated. Okay, I’ll fix that. Laminator & sleeves were on sale! #WeAreTheUniversit

If a man said what Megyn Kelly said, you would assume he was a trafficker. This young lady is wise beyond her years, but she is still a “child”and she would like a word…

Just in case, for some bizarre reason, you’re still giving this company your money, maybe be this will convince you to stop?

Hey, @durham.ac.uk #DUBS colleagues, let’s show @aomconnect.bsky.social that UK Business School staff are different! @ucu.org.uk is balloting right now for the #WeAreTheUniversity campaign. Join us! @ducu.bsky.social (Psst, @unitetheunion.bsky.social & @unison.org.uk are balloting at DU, too! 😉)

Always a tough day for me. RIP Jo. Thank you for your service.

I don’t expect UG students to have necessarily *read* Shakespeare, MW Shelley, Chaucer, (any) Brontë, or Orwell and the like. But I kinda expected them to have *heard* of them….

Hold. The. Freaking. Line.

First the employer took staff desks from them. Now they’re taking their pensions. Join your trade union, people. @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/northum...

This needs saying again & again: UK unis are knowingly accepting 1000s of students without the necessary English skills to fully engage with their courses they'll be studying on. And *that's not those students' fault*. Why wouldn't they assume these institutions know how to teach them effectively?

I knew @northumbriauni.bsky.social had taken away staff desks in NBS this summer, making them essentially hotdesk. Now the employer has informed staff that they are gutting their pensions, too. If there was EVER a time to join @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social, NOW is the time!

bingo

Three months ago

Yes, it’s after midnight. Yes, I have to leave for work in 7 hours. Yes, I’m watching NYC mayoral election coverage.

Ditch Spotify with its unethical behavior and positions. Here are some alternatives. Qobuz is looking good! www.instagram.com/reel/DNYx94M...

Welcome to the Blue Cheese Bathroom 🤮 www.instagram.com/reel/DQfVpjj...

Learned a new cultural distinction tonight. In the US, porch light on = trick or treating. Light was on, no one was stopping. My lovely neighbor came by with one of her pumpkins & said no pumpkin = no trick or treaters. Apparently you need decorations here in the UK. Who knew?

Working out of a #DUBS bookable office in Mill Hill Lane again today since my assigned office is occupied today. I don’t think I can express how much more functional this building is than the #Waterside White Elephant that cost the university £108m (>200% of building cost). @ducu.bsky.social

🤯 Another step in the “How to cede your standing in the world” manual. 🤦🏼‍♀️

This is one of our biggest arguments: that OpenAI is vampirizing universities for the cachet and legitimacy that affiliation with higher education affords

Posted! @ucu.org.uk @ducu.bsky.social

As @ucu.org.uk members begin posting their ballots back, it’s a good time to remind folks of Frederick Douglass’s 1857 speech in which he said that power cedes nothing without demand.

You might say this will, among other problems, look weirdly lopsided, but I think the obvious implication is he's totally planning to do the West Wing next.

I would just like to point out that this solo bookable office at the old #DUBS at Mill Hill Lane is about twice the size of the staff offices that are shared by 2-3 at the new #Waterside building!

Terrifying….

✔️Completed required training that says to always lock door if leaving university computer unattended. 👌🏻Number of private lockable offices available in my £108m university building