Ryan and Tipene to contest TEU presidency

Tertiary Update Volume 12, Number 2

The Tertiary Education Union has confirmed that there are two nominations for the position of inaugural president – te tumu whakarae: Tangi Tipene, the outgoing president of ASTE, and Dr Tom Ryan, an outgoing AUS council member.

Tangi Tipene has over 30 years experience in unions, including membership of the clerical union in the 1970s and TIASA in the 1980s. She began her tertiary-education work in the 1980s for a PTE, setting up the first computer school based on a marae. She is currently on leave from her role as lecturer teaching communications, office administration, and management at Waiāriki Institute of Technology while she completes her term as ASTE president, and is one of the few remaining elected union officials who was involved at the start of the TEU amalgamation process.

Ms Tipene states her goals as president would be threefold: manaakitanga, “it’s important that members in the union get to know one another”; whānaungatanga, “we need to do more than wait for the economic crisis to arrive, we need to plan to help people survive”; and kotahitanga, “we need to create a coherent organisation internally first so that we can have one voice externally”.

Dr Tom Ryan is a senior lecturer in anthropology and labour studies at the University of Waikato.  He has been a union leader since the 1970s when he held elected offices in Australian mining unions. More recently, Dr Ryan has been president of the Lecturers’ Association at the University of Auckland, a member of council and academic board at Waikato, and academic vice-president of AUS.

His goals as president of the TEU would include focusing on the core business of “protecting and improving the wage and salary levels of all members, ensuring TEU governs and manages itself effectively and prudently with appropriate involvement by its local branches, sector committees, national officers, and staff and engaging with wider union issues, “especially in respect to Māori and women”.

“My understanding of the tertiary-education sector has been shaped by 25 years as a university teacher, researcher, and administrator.” Dr Ryan is keen to familiarise himself with issues “specific to TEU members in polytechnics and wānanga”. He also wants to see TEU develop its own vision of a quality tertiary-education sector, including increased public funding, greater managerial accountability, and academic freedom.

National officers elected unopposed are Sandra Grey, senior lecturer in social policy/sociology at Victoria University as women’s vice-president; Ken Laraman, internal academic auditor at Otago Polytechnic as ITP general vice-president; and Barry Foster, human resource management lecturer at Massey University as university academic vice-president. Contested national officer and national committee and sector group positions will be balloted over the next month and nominations will be reopened for unfilled positions. All successful candidates will take office on 1 April.

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. Massey staff face possible redundancy as Maharey calls for job retention
2. Treasury calls for ITPs to pick up struggling students
3. Ako Aotearoa announces National Project funding
4. Women likely to face the brunt of recession
5. NZ students give international advice on neo-liberal agenda
6. Australian PTES left exposed by AIG collapse
7. Professor accused of genocide
8. Professors losing their grip
9. Zimbabwe $1.5 quadrillion ($NZ19) to mark exam scripts
10. NASA and Google launch school of futurology

TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. Back issues are available on the TEU website: www.teu.ac.nz. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: http://scr.im/stephenday