Getting there…

Despite having to take time out today to attend an Emergency Meeting of IFUT (about matters which may or may not be public soon), my marking duties are about halfway done and roughly on schedule. For one module, I have 60% of the assessment scores for 32 students and, for the other, about 40% of the assessment for 23 students. I make that about 51.6 of the total. The last piece of the puzzle won’t arrive on my desk until Wednesday morning, by which time I hope to have completed 100% of the 32, leaving just 60% of the 23, amounting to about 16.7% of the total, to be done in the second half of next week. I hope this clarifies the situation.

Meanwhile the weather has taken a turn for the worse, no doubt because of the imminent Bank Holiday weekend in the UK. Monday 26th is a holiday there. In Ireland, the next holiday is on Monday June 2nd, Lá Saoire i mí an Mheithimh See if you can pronounce that! Next Friday (30th May) is the day of the season finale of the National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, which is Mahler’s 9th Symphony. I hope I’ll be finished marking in time for that so I can relax over the holiday weekend after what will have been a very hectic week and take some time off the following week to do a bit of travelling to attend to some personal matters.

Next week will start off, however, with the PhD viva of one of my students. I won’t be attending the actual examination, of course, but will be there for the subsequent formalities. It’s a distraction from grading, but a nice one.

#education #ExaminationMarking #IFUT

Industrial Action at BIMM Dublin

I heard today that after a strike ballot, members of the Irish Federation of University Teachers at the BIMM Institute in Dublin (Francis Street, Dublin 8) will be taking industrial action from Monday 10th February in response to proposed redundancies. The proposed dates are:

  • Monday, 10th February                  From 0830 to 1600
  • Tuesday, 11th February                 From 0830 to 1600
  • Saturday, 15th February (Open Day)  Time to be confirmed
  • Wednesday, 19th February              From 0830 to 1600
  • Thursday, 20th February                From 0830 to 1600

I understand the students at BIMM are organizing demonstrations in support of staff threatened with redundancy. As an IFUT member I wish to take the opportunity provided by this blog express solidarity with those taking part in industrial action and hope for a negotiated resolution to the dispute. I am not based in Dublin, so I can’t attend the picket lines in person to show support on weekdays, but I am planning to attend on Saturday 15th February. I will also be wearing my IFUT badge…

#BIMM #BIMMInstitute #IFUT #IndustrialAction #StrikeAction

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