Deserter Iain Gillespie Must “clear his name”

Connor Bertie

The University’s ex-senior management team were urged by MSP’s last night to attend Parliament and “clear their names”.

Tower Building

An online town hall meeting was hosted on Microsoft Teams earlier last night to discuss the ongoing University crisis. In attendance was MSP Michael Marra, MSP Maggie Chapman, Leader of Dundee City Council Mark Flynn, and CouncillorsFraser MacPherson and Siobhan Tolland.

As a consensus, the entire panel of politicians were in unanimous agreement:

no trust can be placed within the University’s senior management, and a radical change is needed going forward.

Prior the the meeting, 3 campus unions: UCU, UNISON and Unite have called for the collective resignation of the UEG, which includes Interim Principal Shane O’Neill. It is not known at this time if DUSA will follow suit.

However, Principal O’Neill announced within Parliament on Wednesday that the advertising for a £200k salary Transformation Director has been withdrawn, and that he will instead remain in his post as head of the university.

Questions were raised on the invitations sent to the ex-senior management team on Wednesday. Many spectators wondered how exactly Iain Gillespie and others could be pressured enough to attend Parliament in a public domain to answer for their mismanagement.

The short answer is that they do not legally need to show up and cannot be forced to do so. MSP Marra stated: “parliament cannot compel people to attend, this is separate to the independent investigation. Invitations have gone out today to the former UEG members including Iain Gillespie, Vice-Principal Wendy Alexander and Secretary & Chief Operating Officer Jim McGeorge.”

Marra concluded by stating that he did not know whether they would attend another Education Committee meeting, but “if they want to clear their name, then they should come”.  

In addition, all politicians present pledged to pressure the UEG to deliver their ‘revised’ recovery plan within the promised 2 weeks, as the previous and widely criticised plan was delivery months later than initially said.

The meeting was concluded by urging staff, students and the people of Dundee to pressure the UEG to answer for their mismanagement, to secure the future of your university.

MSP Michael Marra declared that the UEG’s “embarrassment” in Parliament on Wednesday was

“a representation of a culture that has to end.”