ACADEMIC RELATED ANNUAL MEETING, 
10 March 2010
Motions adopted

Motion 1: Equality Issues (Academic Related Committee)*
The academic related membership of UCU recognises that our members are facing increasing equality concerns and that UCU does not yet have well defined, up-to-date, and comprehensive data on the scale and scope of the issues being faced, nor how branches are responding to these challenges.
Staff face direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation and harassment for many reasons involving "protected characteristics", the new term for the equality strands. We are concerned that staff with hidden and/or mental disabilities or those resulting from stress (especially as workloads increase and from other equality issues) are especially under-represented in our understanding of the problems faced and we would like to see better equality mechanisms for addressing these groups 
Therefore, this meeting instructs UCU to carry out a survey in conjunction with the Academic Related Staff Committee to collect and analyse data on the equality issues faced by Academic Related Staff, and the successful outcomes that have been obtained by UCU intervention, from as many branches as possible, and to produce a digital repository of the best practices in the sector, to be made available to all UCU branches.
*Note: Motions 1 and 8 were carried together with amendment to motion 1 to make them identical 

Motion 8: Untitled (University Birmingham)
The academic-related membership of UCU recognises that our members are facing increasing equality concerns and that UCU does not yet have well-defined, up-to-date, and comprehensive data on the scale and scope of the issues being faced, nor how branches are responding to these challenges.
Staff face direct and indirect discrimination, victimization and harassment for many reasons involving “protected characteristics”, the new term for the equality strands.  We are concerned that staff with hidden and/or mental disabilities or those resulting from stress (especially as workloads increase) are especially under-represented in our understanding of the problems faced and would like to see this group better included.

Therefore, this meeting instructs UCU to carry out a survey in conjunction with the ARSC to collect and analyse data on the equality issues faced by AR staff, and the successful outcomes that have been obtained by UCU intervention, from as many branches as possible, and to produce a digital repository of the best practices in the sector, to be made available to all UCU branches.
Motion 2: Privacy Implications of Outsourcing of IT Information and Support: more reasons to resist outsourcing (Academic Related Committee)
UCU recognises that the HE sector is under increasing pressure to outsource various service and support functions (language teaching, library services, email, IT support, etc).  Help is needed to understand the scope of the dangers of outsourcing of certain things, especially IT systems, including data and email.  
Cloud computing, storing your data, outsourced, around the world, accessible from anywhere, and free webmail, are sources of concern.  Privacy and control is lost, these systems are more likely to be the target of attacks, and the legal position of the privacy of the data is not clear; already the US has ruled law enforcement does not need a warrant to read an individual’s email, they need only tell the ISP.  
By keeping our data and email in house, we keep the jobs, the support, the control and the legal privacy rights.
This meeting instructs UCU to produce guidance and campaigning, in conjunction with the ARSC, on protecting our electronic privacy, including provision of:
Advice & resources on the regulations surrounding the protection of data privacy, comparing those rights between in-house and outsourced. 
Sample data & email privacy policies for branches to use to negotiate with their managements to provide clear, transparent, fair treatment of all staff
And to link the need to keep IT services in-house for job protection, support quality and data privacy, and to further develop campaigning tools to resist outsourcing to include the issues of privacy.
Motion 3: Professional Development (Academic Related Committee)
This meeting recognises the funding difficulties faced across the sector and the pressure on budget holders to cut costs across institutions.  However, continued support for professional development and training opportunities for existing Academic Related staff will allow institutions to maximise past investment and deliver the services required to meet staff and student needs.
This meeting instructs the AR Committee to continue campaigning on the professional status of AR staff and to make continued professional development one of the committee priorities for the coming year.

Motion 4: Stop deprofessionalisation of services which support learning, teaching and research (Academic Related Committee)
We call upon UCU to campaign against deprofessionalisation of the services, for example in University or College libraries and Computing Services, which give essential support to learning, teaching and research.
While the growing scale of electronic services has widened access to resources, it is generally unrecognised that it has also increased, rather than decreased, the need for professional advice and training for users.
We ask UCU to collect evidence highlighting the detrimental effect of deprofessionalisation on both staff and students, including its negative impact on the quality of library collections.
Motion 5: Workloads (Academic Related Committee)
The increased use of recruitment freezes, where vacant posts are not filled, has inevitably resulted in significant increases in workload for many Academic Related staff.  While the intention of cost savings is understandable the resulting workloads cannot be permitted to lead to longer working hours with resultant rise in stress levels and a deleterious impact on work life balance.
This meeting commends the work already undertaken by UCU and calls on the Academic Related Committee to work with HEC and local associations/branches to develop further strategies to support members affected.
Motion 6: Employment Issues (University of Leeds)
This meeting notes the attack on future funding of universities mounted by Peter Mandleson and David Lammy, and the knee-jerk reaction of many Vice Chancellors to meet this challenge by cutting jobs.  Increasingly work is being heaped upon academic-related staff, a situation which can only get worse in the guise of ‘cost-cutting’.  Academic-related staff are the backbone of the support structure in universities, and they are already at breaking point.  Job losses, whether through voluntary or compulsory means, where there is no replacement of staff, simply increases the workload and the stress on the remaining workforce.  Academic-related staff make a huge contribution to the student experience.
We call upon the Academic Related Committee to vigorously oppose this attack on higher education funding, and to fight all attempts by Vice Chancellors to make cuts by axing any jobs in the sector.

Motion 7: Untitled (University of Leeds)
This meeting notes Leeds University UCU’s excellent strike ballot result against compulsory redundancies.  Academic-related staff have been frequently undermined by management at Leeds and elsewhere.   Examples are: 1) almost all the ‘red circled’ staff during framework implementation were Academic Related 2)  the University is engaging in restructuring exercises where Academic Related staff are categorised as support staff 3) One aim within the cuts proposals at Leeds University is to centralise the management and accountability of L&T support  i.e. breaking down the academic teams established in departments.  IT staff in AR roles are facing similar restructuring.
Leeds UCU has a strong tradition of uniting to fight management attacks, exemplified by the successes over red-circling.  As well as our pivotal role within academic teams in the University, Academic-related staff have played an integral role in the organisation and campaigning within UCU.  This meeting highlights the importance of unity between academic and academic-related staff in our forthcoming battles.
Motion 9: Retention of term “academic-related” (University of Liverpool)
This meeting notes that in many pre-92 institutions academic-related staff have the same disciplinary, grievance and promotion procedures as academic staff and share the same protection in Statutes against dismissal as academic staff.
This meeting believes that any change to the description of these staff as "academic-related" would be damaging, particularly where the term "academic-related" is used in Statutes or locally negotiated procedures and agreements.
Motion 10: Promotion and professional development for academic related staff (University of Aberdeen)
The annual meeting in 2009 noted significant concerns from branches over promotion and professional development for academic-related staff since the introduction of Framework. 
This meeting calls upon the Academic-Related Staff Committee and the HEC to continue investigations into and to report on the effect of the single pay spine on academic-related members’ progression and development; to propose and promote models of best practice for employers, and to evaluate the application and effectiveness of role profiles for academic-related posts that are currently in use in HE institutions.