07.11.2022
On Friday 28 October, 115 days after the Head and Deputy Head of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies (MCCS), Des Freedman and Gholam Khiabany, were suspended for emailing students about the possible impact of ongoing industrial action on their graduation, an independent investigation carried out by a leading barrister concluded that “there is no case to answer”. Both colleagues have been fully reinstated in their roles with immediate effect.
Despite the massive relief that this news brings to the Goldsmiths community, it nevertheless remains an outrage that the Warden and senior management team have engaged in such a vindictive process. It is shameful that Goldsmiths can treat two highly respected members of staff in this way and then think that they can avoid scrutiny by keeping the investigation report confidential.
Goldsmiths’ Disciplinary Policy clearly states that suspension of staff is justified when “there is evidence that the allegation itself may constitute gross misconduct”. The emphatic verdict that there was “no case to answer” raises serious concerns about the existence of the evidence of gross misconduct which prompted the Warden to sanction the suspension of Des and Gholam in the first place. As Professor Barbie Zelizer, a leading media scholar, put it in her letter to the Warden: “To punish them [Des and Gholam] for what appears to be no more than two scholars doing the administrative job they were tasked with doing has many names in repressive regimes. It has no place in academe, British or otherwise.”
We have witnessed an attack on some fundamental principles of democratic governance including:
· An attack on academic freedom that undermines the right of staff to communicate without facing sanction.
· The requirement to act “openly, honestly, accountably and with integrity”.
· To protect freedom of speech.
· To ensure that there is “fit and proper” management of the institution.
There is an additional dimension concerning trade union victimisation. Both Des and Gholam are long-standing activists in the branch: Des is a past President and Gholam a past Secretary of Goldsmiths UCU. We believe that a central objective of the suspension of Des and Gholam was to send a message, following the targeting of union activists in Tranche 1 of the Recovery Programme, that union activism is somehow incompatible with the professional roles of staff within the College.
This four-month suspension and investigation on completely spurious charges has had an immensely damaging effect on the running and reputation of the College. The wellbeing of staff and students, both in MCCS and across Goldsmiths as a whole, has been seriously undermined during what was already one of the most difficult times for all of us thanks to the disastrous effects of the ongoing restructure.
We demand that Goldsmiths:
- Issues a full apology to affected staff and students.
- Explains in detail how the suspension and investigation were sanctioned by management.
- Discloses the full costs (legal, administrative and academic) of the suspension and subsequent investigation.
- Publishes the report of the investigation.
- Sets up an independent review/committee of enquiry that examines a) the College’s failings in relation to student communication; and b) how the allegations against Des and Gholam were allowed to proceed.