By ‘George Orwell’
(Submitted anonymously by a member of staff)
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell’s discussion of doublethink in the political classic Nineteen Eighty Four seems to capture the realities of his namesake’s final interview with The Press & Journal. Indeed, had ‘our George’ broken out the LEGO movie theme ‘Everything is Awesome’ it would have been a surprise to no one given the ridiculously sunny picture he paints of the university as he bids adieu.
The reality of the reign of King George bears little resemblance to this romantic imagery, and his subjects – or at least those that survived his seven years – bear the scars of financial mismanagement, a disastrous lack of interest in fundraising and a dictatorial approach that brooked no dissent, up to and including his former Senior Vice-Principal.
When the prodigal son returned from Wales to his home city, the institution welcomed him with open arms. The chaos of the Diamond years meant any change was welcome, and initial signs were good, with the new principal indicating his readiness to consult, communicate and build consensus across the academic community. The university’s finances were on a reasonably solid footing: the senior management team was expanded, new vice-principals were recruited, and new capital projects were green lit. Even so, the university was not meeting its potential; there was no diversification of revenue streams, and a heavy focus was placed on recruiting international students.
When Brexit eventually took effect and the sh*t hit the fan, Principal Boyne doubled down on his strategy: international students or bust. For the university, it was very nearly the latter, as alarming drops in student numbers and revenues left a massive black hole in finances that sent senior management scrambling for solutions. Far from taking responsibility for diversifying revenue sources, Principal Boyne outsourced the dirty work of cutting departments to his number two, Senior Vice Principal Karl Leydecker. The ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine was a smart approach: it kept the principal’s hands clean while the SVP became public enemy number one. Not least because the choice of programmes to cut – modern languages, including the government-protected Gaelic language programme – saw a massive public backlash and, eventually, a climb down from management. But not before massive cuts to staff had been enacted, and huge reputational damage incurred.
Now head of the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), King George’s loyalties were split between his national and local roles. In leaked WhatsApp messages his true colours were shown as he called on colleagues to make sure those on strike felt ‘pain along the way’. His anger came to a head earlier this year at a public event discussing the negative results in the university’s staff survey. When challenged by a much more junior female colleague, the principal lashed out, his true character overflowing, as he belittled and ridiculed the questioner. After numerous university staff emailed their complaints, a public apology followed, but the damage had been done.
The university had been pushing a new internal wellbeing campaign at the time entitled ‘expect respect’, and encouraged colleagues to call out incidents which fell foul of these standards. It was notable that no single member of the senior management team (all present, all witnesses to the outburst) were willing to step in or call out the madness of King George.
This though was only the first public sign of the principal’s growing impatience with criticism. His behaviour in the university’s governing senate had become increasingly irritable, his disdain for organised groups of senators that challenged his authority was well known, his chairing of the meetings became rancorous and predictable. The upcoming ‘governance review’ will turn the senate into little more than a rubber-stamp for management policy – a further move away from the community engagement of the early days.
The turnover in senior management in the last three years has also been significant. We got a new VP for Research in 2023, a new VP for Education in 2024, our VP for Regional Engagement has been Acting SVP since April (and will soon be acting principal), our VP for Global Engagement is an ‘interim’, we got a new university secretary in November 2024, who promptly left in July this year, a new chief operating officer in April this year, a new chief financial officer in May 2022, and our director of people Debbie Dyker left suddenly in May this year.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to lose one senior colleague may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose eight appears more than carelessness – it’s a pattern. There are curiosities in each of the cases but with the retirement of the puppet-master brought forward by two months, we may never know any of the full stories.
And so the reign of King George comes to an end, and his handpicked successor Pious Pete is ready to take the reins. The acting SVP will act as Principal Pete for 18 months (and probably longer). Make no mistake though, this is a continuity appointment – the mistakes of the past are doomed to be repeated. The ‘lesson learned’ from the cruel and heartless assault on languages appears to be ‘more cruel, more heartless – and deeper’ this time out.
King George might be retiring happily. But for those who remain to pick up the pieces of his calamitous reign, happiness is a long way off.