Dear Editor,
Against the backdrop of the legal advice on my dismissal from UG requested by the Office of the Ombudsman, it is important for the historical record to publish the sordid dimensions of this event. Prior to my contract termination by the Council of the University, there has never been a single instance where the council since the birth of the university in 1963 fired an academic without a request for such coming from the academic/administrative organs of the university.
For emphasis, let me repeat, except for my case the council (previously known as the Board of Governors) has not terminated any contract on its own, by itself, arising from its own deliberations. This is not how the university has functioned since 1963. Walter Rodney’s employment was rejected when it came in front of the council sent by the Appointments Committee. Lecturers are fired after the Appointments Committee so requests.
The Council of the University does not appoint or dismiss. They endorse such decision coming from the academic/administrative organs of the university. There isn’t a researcher, no matter how brilliant, who can find one situation where the council acting on its own dismissed an academic staff member. My contract termination remains the only example.
It needs to be said that so restricted is the power of the council to hire or fire that if the council wants an appointment or a dismissal, they will request it from the academic/administrative organs who then will have to do the paperwork and present their findings to the council. Let me repeat for emphasis, my contract was terminated by the council without even a scintilla of evidence presented to them by any section of the university.
It is vital to state here that at that meeting, only the PPP members who sat on the council voted for my dismissal. And they chose that route because to ask for an enumeration of my status would have stymied their intention because the academic section of the university would have had to make that pronouncement. My research and teaching profile was millions of miles ahead of others. This explains why they never requested an evaluation of my work. This is the watertight procedure for dismissing lecturer – the lecturer must be assessed.
Finally, the lawyers for the Ombudsman would have noticed that I was a legal member of the council at the time of my dismissal. Yet I was never invited to the meeting that deliberated on my dismissal.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
