Open Letter to the Principal's Office of the University of St Andrews
by Markus Pfeiffer
DearDear reader. Count them. I guess each of them has a six-figure salary. Professor Sally Mapstone, Professor Lorna Milne, Derek A Watson, Professor Brad MacKay, Professor Clare Peddie, Alastair Merrill, Professor Tom Brown, Professor Katie Stevenson, Professor Monique Mackenzie, Professor Frank Lorenz Müller, Professor Paul Hibbert, Professor Ineke De Moortel
I am an alumni and former employee of the University of St Andrews.
I am again contacting you to voice my great disappointment about your treatment of your staff, some of them my former colleagues.
Yesterday marked a day where Universities UK and USS slashed pensions for university employees by a big margin. This happened with at best dubious arguments.
I challenge you to credibly explain your motives and justification for this outrageous step to me.
It comes on top of other long-standing issues with workloads, casualisation, and unfair pay, and frankly disrespectful treatment, after a pandemic which the university only survived because your staff put in even more effort on top of the already existing over-work.
You are pontificating from your heights of six-figure salaries, heading a charity.
I find this obscene, and I find you should all be ashamed of yourselves.
In my opinion you are not doing a very good job: You do not pay your staff fairly, and do not treat them with the due respect.
Why are you awarded such disproportionate salaries?
I now work as a Software Engineer. I am very happy with my job. I am treated fairly. I am paid well. I can say that changing employer, and in particular leaving higher education, was the best career decision I have made.
- I encourage every student to not come close to academic work, and rather come work with me.
- I would like to encourage every employee of the University to consider quitting now and find more satisfying employment, and
- I will never donate to the University or contribute to any career-fair or other cargo-cult gestures.
Furiously,
Markus Pfeiffer