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Comments from Imperial College

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When a letter is marked as 'anonymous' it means that the sender has asked for his/her name to be withheld. We shall not post letters that are sent unsigned.

IC people scared?
IC's petition to Senate


From Anonymous, Imperial College

.".. Imperial College, where people are either not inclined or permitted to have an active public voice against the merger (as we are still dealing with the fall-out from the past three)"
"Keep up the good work, going to sound out opinion here about doing the same"

"No information is being shared at the moment, other than the official line (and we've also been advised to ignore the info from the Unions and UCL as being scaremongering, with no basis in reality), particularly any that may form ammunition for the dissenters"



Petition to their senate from staff at Imperial College

The following email has been received for Imperial College

There is much debate at Imperial over the merger. The following quickly prepared petition was presented to Senate last Wednesday, having been signed by approximately 10% of faculty after two days of circulation. A motion proposed at Senate calling for a referendum was ruled out of order by the Chair, the Rector.

In the open meeting in October, the Rector was asked, given broad support of the academics was required for a successful merger, whether there would be a referendum of faculty on the issue. He replied that there would be no referendum, that Senate was the correct forum for the views of the academics to be represented, and that if Senate voted the merger down, it would be "a nonsense" to proceed; the academics should contact members of Senate to express their views. The Rector added that there must be broad support of the academics for a successful merger.

The petition

Previous additions of the Medical Schools to Imperial were handled by a postal ballot in the predecessor to this Senate. This proposed merger is both qualitatively and quantitatively of considerably greater magnitude, necessarily entailing, inter alia, the end of Imperial as a separate identity. Oxford and Cambridge, the institutions to which we might be compared, both have governing democratic assemblies of all academics, the Congregation and Regent House respectively, and both would hold a vote to establish broad support for an issue of this magnitude.

Only six of your membership is directly elected out of a total of fifty five. The Senate is established to be representative more of the organisation of Imperial than the academics. A vote of Senate would not claim, we think, to be representative of the academic body as a whole, and perhaps very often for good reasons of expediency. Expediency in this particular matter should not be an issue.

As the Rector says, the decision to proceed with the merger should be based on facts. We agree with the Rector that one fact is that broad support of the academics is necessary for a successful merger. Another fact that could be obtained through a referendum is whether this broad support exists.

Without a referendum one of two situations will occur: the merger will proceed without broad support; or a minority opposing merger will consider their views ignored and will have no basis for reluctantly accepting a majority decision. One of these situations is certain, and neither is desirable.

If Senate calls for a referendum on merger, both of these situations can be avoided. The merger, after due consideration of the facts of the case by the academics, will either proceed with broad support or be rejected with, in both cases, a clear end to the uncertainty.

We urge you all to support any motion for a referendum of academic and academic-related staff as the only way to properly determine a necessary condition for a successful merger.

Igor Aleksander, Gabor Chair in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Martin J. Allday, Professor of Virology and Cell Biology

Jane Apperley, Reader in Haematology >

Keith Barnham, Professor of Physics

Paul Barton, Reader in Molecular Biology

Julian J. Bommer, Reader in Seismology

Frank Booy, Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences

Nigel J Brand, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology

D R Brough, Senior Lecturer in Computing

Martin R. Bridson, Professor of Mathematics

Dave Briggs, Professor of Environment and Health Sciences

Krysia Broda, Senior Lecturer in Computing*

Richard Brown, Lecturer in Aerodynamics

Nicholas R Buenfeld, Professor of Concrete Structures

Adrian P. Butler, Senior Lecturer in Public Health

David Caplin, Professor in Physics

Michael Carabine, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering

Peter Cawley, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Richard J. Chandler, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering

Maria Charalambides, Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Nish Chaturvedi, Professor of Clinical Epidemiolgy

Kim Christensen, Senior Lecturer in Physics

Keith Clark, Professor of Computing

J M C Clarke, Reader in Stochastic Systems

Tom Clarke, Lecturer in Electrical Engineering

Lesley Cohen, Senior Lecturer in Physics

Robert Crane, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Richard Craster, Reader in Mathematics

Jim Cunningham, Reader in Computer Science

Michael Damzen, Reader in Physics

Brian Davies, Professor of Medical Robotics

D J Dickinson, Reader in Wood Science

Denis Doorly, Reader in Aeronautics

Michele Dougherty, Reader in Space Physics

Sophia Drossopoulou, Reader in Computing

Ulrik Egede, Lecturer in Physics

John Elgin, Professor of Applied Mathematics

Mark C. Field, Reader in Molecular Cell Biology

Matthew Foulkes, Reader in Physics

Andrew Forrest, Lecturer Mechanical Engineering

Amparo Galindo, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering

Ugo Galvanetto, Lecturer in Advanced Structures

J D Gibbon, Professor in Mathematics

John Gibbons, Lecturer in Mathematics

Duncan Gillies, Reader in Computer Graphics and Vision

John Goldman, Professor of Haematology

David Gosman, Professor of Computational Fluid Dynamics

Mino Green, Professor of the Science of Electrical Devices

Chris Guy, Senior Lecturer in Physics

Pablo Etchegoin, Senior Lecturer in Physics

Joanna D. Haigh, Professor of Atmospheric Physics

Walter Hayman, Professor of Mathematics

David Herbert, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics

Roger Hibberd, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Roger E. Hobbs, Professor of Structural Engineering

A.D. Hughes, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology

Gary Hunt, Lecturer in Civil Engineering

Lorenzo Iannucci, Senior Lecturer in Airframe structures

R.I. Issa, Reader in Thermofluid Mechanics

Alojz Ivankovic, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

George Jackson, Professor in Chemical Physics

Roy Jacobs, Reader in Mathematical Physics

Mike Joffe, Reader in Epidemiology and Public Health

Eileen Joyce, Professor of Neuropsychiatry

Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen, Professor of Mathematical Physics

W. P. Jones, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

C. Juhasz, Reader in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Kanagasabai Ramachandra, Lecturer in Structures

R.Kandiyoti, Professor of Chemical Engineering

Lester Kershenbaum. Professor of Chemical Engineering*

Frank Kriwaczek, Lecturer in Computing

J. Simon Kroll, Professor of Paediatrics and Molecular Infectious Diseases

A. Kronenburg, Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Mike Laffan, Senior Lecturer in Haematology

David Lane, Professor of Molecular Haematology

Chris Lawrence, Professor of Fluid Mechanics

Keith Leaver, Lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Michael A Leschziner, Professor of Computational Aerodynamics

Chris Lee, Lecturer in Physics

Derek Lee, Lecturer in Physics

Mike Lee, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Patrick Leevers, Reader in Polymer Engineering

Martin Liebeck, Professor, Dept of Mathematics

Mark Little, Senior lecturer in Statistics

Andrew Livingston, Professor in Chemical Engineering

Robert Lucas, Lecturer in Neuroscience

Paul Luckham, Professor of Particle Technology

Stefano Luzzatto, Lecturer in Applied Mathematics

Sandro Macchietto, Professor of Chemical Engineering

Jonathan P.Marangos, Professor of Laser Physics

A.J Marquis, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Clare Marshall, Lecturer in Statistics

Ian Mathews, Reader in Aeronautics

D Q Mayne, Professor of Control Engineering

Peter McBrien, Lecturerin Computing

Martin McCall, Reader in Physics

Jonathan Mestel, Reader in Applied Mathematics

Jonathan Morrison, Reader in Experimental Fluid Mechanics

Stephen Muggleton, Professor of Computing

Patrick Naylor, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Jenny Nelson, Lecturer in Physics

John B Newman, Reader in Concrete Structures

Peter Nixon, Reader in Biological Sciences

Bikash Pal, Lecturer in Electrical Engineering

Milija Pavlovic, Professor of Structural Engineering and Mechanics

Christos Papavassiliou, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Joaquim Peiro, Senior Lecturer in Aeronautics

John Pendry, Professor in Physics

Tom Pike, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Martin Plenio, Senior Lecturer in Physics

David M. Potts, Professor of Analytical Soil Mechanics

Oliver Pretzel, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics

Keith R Pullen, Senior Lecturer in Energy Systems

Alan Purohit, Senior Lecturer in Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine

Sebastian Reich, Professor of Mathematics

Sylvia Richardson, Professor of Biostatistics

Duncan Rogers, Reader in Respiratory Pharmacology

Mary Ryan, Lecturer in Materials

Fariba Sadri, Senior Lecturer in Computing

Mortaza Sahibzada, Lecturer in Materials

Sarada K. Sarma, Reader in Engineering Seismology

Richard Sayles, Reader in Mechanical Engineering

Michael Schachter, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics*

John Shrimpton, Lecturer in Mechanical  Engineering

Murray Shanahan, Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering

Spencer J. Sherwin, Senior Lecturer in Aeronautics

Claire Shovlin, Senior Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine

Anne Staton-Bevan, Senior Lecturer Materials

Geoff Stephenson, Director of Mathematics Advice Centre

Nicholas J. Severs, Professor of Cell Biology

Peter Sugden, Professor of Cellular Biochemistry

Trevor Stuart, Professor of Mathematics

Thierry Soldati, Lecturer in Molecular Cell Biology

Pietro D Spanu, Lecturer in Biological Sciences

Costas Sutis, Professor of Aeronautics

Terry Tetley, Reader in Lung Cell Biology

Simon Thom, Reader Clinical Pharmacology

Michael J. Thompson, Professor in Physics

Francesca Toni, Lecturer in Computing

Ralf Toumi, Reader in Physics

Neil Tsang, Lecturer in Civil Engineering

Edward G.D. Tuddenham, Professor of Haematology

Yvonne Unruh, Lecturer in Physics

Christos Vassilicos, Reader in Fluid Mechanics

Richard Vinter, Professor in Control Theory

Robert Vollum, Lecturer in Civil Engineering

M A Wadee, Lecturer in Structural Mechanics

Simon Walker, Reader in Computational Mechanics.

James Warner, Senior Lecturer/Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry

Barry Weightman, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Gordon Williams, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Jim Williamson, Professor of Materials

Keith Woodgate, Lecturer in Aeronautics

George Weiss, Reader in Control Theory

Boguslaw Zegarlinski, Professor of Mathematics

Xiaodong Zhang, Lecturer in Structural Biology

 

*Member of Senate