By Nexus Magazine – additional reporting done by Nexus Interns Tomas Richly and Hailey Reece
Mid-Trimester restructures at the Waikato School of Design have led to tears, panic and at least ten students scrambling to find 100-hour internships in the last three weeks of the Trimester.
According to a University spokesperson the University began a restructuring process in January with the intention of strengthening “the future of design at Waikato, expand opportunities for collaboration and industry engagement, and ensure students graduate with the skills needed to succeed in a rapidly evolving sector.”
It was confirmed in April that the School of Design will be in the Faculty of Design within Te Kura Toi School of Arts, including Design, Media, Planning and Geography, led by Professor Ricardo Sosa. This change means that Design at the University will become a transdisciplinary space that connects expertise across existing subject areas with an outward-facing discipline to tackle complex problems in the community and local industry.
” As part of the process, eight new academic positions were established. Three staff members were not successfully redeployed into the new structure and were provided with notice in accordance with their employment agreements.”
“The University can confirm those staff members remain employed through to the end of trimester, unless an alternative mutually agreed arrangement is reached.”
Nexus understands that at least two of those staff members. Dr Tomás García Ferrari, and Senior Lecturer Mr Keith Soo have been informed they no longer have a role and were removed from teaching assignments with immediate effect.
The University Spokesperson also asserted that the goal was to “…minimise disruption to our students and maintain continuity of teaching and learning. Interim teaching support has been arranged where required, and recruitment is continuing for positions that remain vacant”
However, the staff changes come shortly after a long-time Senior Design Lecturer moved roles within the University, and a second one is on an academic sabbatical. Both instances are understood to be coincidental and not related to the employment process. It further asks the question, with teaching resources in the department already stretched why not delay announcing material impact in anyone’s employment status till the Trimester break? And with eight positions available in the restructure why were staff members unable to be re-deployed into roles that the University is now advertising for?
While a number of papers have been significantly impacted, perhaps none more so than Design 350, which is a core internship paper for undergraduates that usually requires a full trimester with an industry placement usually taking place a week prior to the beginning of A Trimester. Our experience at Nexus has been that every intern the WSU and Nexus took on had made contact by the end of the second week at the latest. Our understanding is that the delay had nothing to do with the restructure process but rather the change of facilitator.
When asked about how 350 was impacted, a University spokesperson stated that they “… understand all students enrolled in DSIGN350 currently have internships.” While that may be the case now Nexus can confirm that a significant number of interns still hadn’t received placement prior to the change in staff. Nexus can confirm that in week nine of the Trimester, a number of industry partners – including Nexus Publisher of Record the Waikato Students’ Union – were approached by Work-Integrated Learning Liaison Dr Sandy Muller and Head of the School of Design Professor Ricardo Sosa to accommodate more students who hadn’t yet been placed.
Nexus was later informed that some of these students were offered work around the University as part of their internship, including helping at last week’s open day to further make up hours.
The University also highlighted that the students impacted could talk to the department head regarding any issues, seek out third party support via the WSU Student Support service, and held a town hall-style meeting a few days after it was announced to address any concerns.
Unsurprisingly, Nexus has been contacted by a number of these students. Some of who have engaged the WSU Student Support, and others who attended the town hall and it is fair to say that they disagree with the University’s assessment that they were trying to minimise disruption to and maintain continuity of teaching and learning. Students were all willing to talk but most asked that they remain anonymous to avoid prejudicial treatment.
“The town hall meeting felt like a good idea until we actually went there, most of the meeting was students asking questions and either getting no answers or vague answers from the staff, further questioning to the Head of Design Department answered more questions but most of the meeting was focused on the future of Design school rather than the actual actions being currently taken to aid students” said another design student.
Adding “In the town hall meeting there was talk about the papers not being micromanaged, this was used as a justification to why there was no major action taken to support the students from DSIGN350 without an assigned internship, besides what happened students agree that in this case this was not a problem of micro or macro management but simply “lacking damage control capabilities and most of the actions taken were reactive rather than proactive”
“Some students asked if they could request a refund for the papers affected a request that was immediately shut down by the staff. When students pushed for a partial refund instead that would cover half of the trimester that was affected by the faculty changes, the Vice-Chancellor insisted there was “no disruption aside from the previous week”, promptly shutting the idea down and moving to the next question without further elaboration” added a third
Students suggested they were feeling the impact of supporting lecturers without knowing the full story.
“We choose to support the now fired lecturers, the combined stress between classes getting put on hold, grades not being released and secrecy/miscommunication caused disorganisation and chaos between students, especially to those unsure about the future of their degrees”
Students also reported seeing the impact first-hand on May 6th when they observed one of the lecturers announcing he probably wouldn’t be teaching them next week before crying and leaving the class to regather himself.
A second-year student suggested that their deadlines had changed based on the contract status of the lecturer.
“We have been working on our final project which the submission was meant to be on the final week of trimester A, but due to the change in staff, the lecturer announced that the deadline will be pushed forward three weeks earlier due to his employment contract finishing late June/early July, causing massive stress around students”
Class reps also felt they were put in an awkward position being compelled to defend either side one suggested they felt as if they were “getting pushed to do damage control, adding stress and responsibilities that they never signed up for.”
Nexus sought out Waikato Students’ Union President Seamus Lohrey, who isn’t part of any individual student support, and he told us that the outcomes for students had been disappointing.
“The University can hire and fire whoever it wants, and they can do so for whatever reason they choose, but our concern is when they do that and how it impacts students.
“This time it seems like they could have handled it all better, and that students have been unfairly impacted. It is disappointing, and I hope they consider the timing next time”
“The University acknowledges that organisational change can be challenging for both staff and students. Timing considerations were carefully weighed throughout the consultation process, including balancing staff consultation requirements with the need to provide clarity around future programme planning,” said the Spokesperson for the University.
“We remain committed to delivering high-quality design education and supporting students through this transition.”
While time will ultimately tell on the success of transforming the design school. What does seem very clear is that a restructure that was meant to add staff to an evolving programme ended up in three separate instances where lecturers will not be part of the new vision for the school.
While nobody can be sure whether that is right or wrong, it is naive to suggest that this was well timed, well-handled and done in a way to mitigate the impact on students. Our discussions alone show that students were struggling prior to the changes being made, but when it was determined that changes were necessary, those same students were subject to changing academic timelines, expectations of managing a 100-hour internship, and the emotional toll of feeling that they had to take a side. Nexus is learning as we go to print that lecturers and T.A’s taking over the classes are also receiving unfair scrutiny from a small number of students for having “taken someone’s job” which our reporting shows couldn’t be further from the truth
Nexus understands that compassionate consideration will be considered for impacted students. Any student wanting to explore this option should speak to their teachers and/or to Professor Sosa as soon as possible. And Nexus is joining the calls for the University to consider blanket compassionate consideration and potentially some fee reduction for all the impacted students.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: The Waikato Students’ Union, as the publisher of record, has received seven interns from Design 350 currently working in Nexus. The WSU also provides student support. However, the Nexus reporting on this subject remains independent of these two functions.
