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Karl Schembri
An irate Junior College Principal sent an inflamed e-mail to the University’s communications office for leaving out his institution from its annual report just published, asking acidly whether the communications office was aware that his college was “not a fictitious castle in Fantasialand”.
Principal Godfrey Muscat was incensed by the university’s omission of the college he heads in Msida, which is the largest University of Malta institution since it was legally amalgamated with the Tal-Qroqq campus in 1996.
“Once again, we regret and strongly object to the fact that the Junior College has not only been deliberately or inadvertently omitted from the list (of university institutions) … but also from all statistical data in the report,” Muscat wrote in his e-mail message to Principal Communications Officer Patricia Camilleri. “Does the Communications Office not consider the Junior College as part of and belonging to the University? Is the Communications Office aware that the University Junior College is a massive building in Msida and not a fictitious castle in Fantasialand?”
In the e-mail message which he also copied to Rector Roger Ellul Micallef and Pro-Rector Charles Farrugia, Muscat complained that this was not the first time that “similar omissions have been registered and attention duly drawn”.
Muscat sent the e-mail last Tuesday upon receiving a copy of the University of Malta Annual Report 2003, but he also forwarded it to all college staff explaining that he was reacting because he felt duty-bound to draw the university’s attention about this omission.
Reminding the communications office that the college has a student population of 3,200 and a total staff complement of over 200 members, Muscat complained that his institution “deserves at least a mention, if anything, as a token of respect towards all the people who commute daily to the building and offer their sterling services to this 10-year old institution”.
He ended his message with an unfinished note: “To err is human, ……….…”
Clearly taken aback by Muscat’s onslaught, the university’s Principal Communications Officer, Patricia Camilleri, said the principal’s complaint came “quite out of the blue”.
“He never complained before, definitely not in such a vociferous manner,” Camilleri said. “We never had this request since the Junior College was set up 10 years ago. I have no problems including information about the Junior College and in fact I will be discussing it with the rector.”
Patricia Ellul Micallef – a colleague in Camilleri’s office who also happens to be the wife of the rector and the communications officer responsible for the annual report – says she included all the information forthcoming from the university’s institutions.
“I would have no problems including Junior College information,” Ellul Micallef said, pointing to university publications featuring the Msida college. “In fact, college information is also included in the annual university calendar.”
Muscat said: “This has already happened before. I sent that email to show my staff that I don’t just sit down and stay put. We have a problem because certain people at University want to severe all ties with Junior College.”
Indeed, relations between the Tal-Qroqq campus and the Msida college have been strained over the last couple of years as certain university professors demand a higher status to their colleagues – virtually equal by law – at the college.
“We actually enjoy an excellent relationship with the majority of lecturers at Tal-Qroqq, but there is a snobbish minority that is putting continuous pressure to get us sidelined,” Muscat said. “If they had the power they would just wipe us out, but the Junior College remains a university institution because every appointment here is sanctioned by the University Council.”
Represented by the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (UMASA) – which excludes Junior College academics from membership – these academics insist on having the Academic Work Resources Fund to themselves, with college lecturers falling under a different agreement and conditions of work.
“I’m not saying this is the Communications Office’s view but ultimately they printed that publication, so they are responsible for it. If they tell me they forgot about us I won’t buy it. They included even the most insignificant institutes with some four students enrolled, how could they forget a college with more than 3,000 students and over 200 lecturers just like that?”
According to a document entitled ‘Conditions of Work of University Academic Staff Assigned Duties Mainly at the Junior College,’ signed in June 1996 by the former University Rector Peter Serracino Inglott, “academic staff with duties mainly at the Junior College have the same status and basic conditions of work as well and analogous duties as all the other University academic staff”.
Acknowledging the college’s importance and reiterating her willingness to include it in future publications, Camilleri said: “Perhaps, with over 3,000 students and researchers, the Junior College should also consider publishing its own annual report.”
karl@newsworksltd.com
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