I am writing this letter in English, because nearly half of NTNU's temporary staff does not speak or read Norwegian, and I wish you to be included in the election process. Even though you cannot run for elections, you should still have a voice in the ongoing debates.
A short background information for those of you who have not been able to read prof. Anders Todal Jenssens comments in today's edition of Universitetsavisa: Todal Jenssen claims that running for elections as a Board Member is of no value to temporary staff. In this reader's letter, I wish to discuss some of the claims of Todal Jenssen, and I will also demonstrate just why these claims are opinionated and show very little reflection.
Time: Check.
Claim 1: Most of the temporary staff are PhD-candidates and therefore don't have any time for Board member work.
Temporary staff at NTNU is a diverse and complex group of employees. Yes, most of them are PhD-candidates. But there are also a lot of postdocs, temporary researchers or assistant professors like me. All of us are on time-limited contracts, because this is what it means to be temporary staff. Many have held several temporary contracts over subsequent periods, working in different places in the organization. Claiming that we don't even have time for Board member work, Todal Jenssen completely ignores the fact that we will get compensation for that time. And just as my fellow candidate Marte Daae Qvale Holmemo stated, this is not even why we wish to become a Board member. It is because it is important to us to give temporary staff a voice, and because we wish to use the possibilities that are available to us to make an impact on the NTNU system. Todal Jenssens' statement just shows that he does not even consider us to be important enough to contribute with anything relevant.
Relevance: Check.
Claim 2: Being a Board member is academically irrelevant and of no value for a CV.
Being a Board member means to represent a group of employees and to work towards developing the university in a direction that takes care of the interests of this group. If I were only interested in "pimping" my CV, maybe I should not be running for elections. Personally, I wish to be a Board member for the temporary staff because I work as an educational advisor for NTNU staff across all faculties and departments, and I have seen the challenges temporary staff face in their daily work. I myself have experienced the ordeal of fighting and losing against bureaucratic rules. I wish to be a member of the Board so I can stand up for my fellow colleagues. In addition to that, I intend to take the knowledge and understanding that I will gain as a Board member back into my work as an educational advisor. I will be able to accommodate and deal with the needs of temporary staff in a much more efficient way when I know "how things work" at NTNU.
Representation: Check.
Claim 3: Temporary staff should rather be represented by "employee representatives".
This last statement is the most condescending and patronizing statement of Todal Jenssen. Ignoring the fact that he apparently does not see temporary staff as "employees", just why should we be represented by someone else outside our group? Because we can only be a Board member for one year? Well, there's the thing: While other Board members represent their staff group for four years, temporary staff have the advantage of being able to front their interests and current pressing needs four times during that period. What a luxury! And every year, a new Board member will join the Board with new energy, fresh eyes and great ideas! We are not competing against each other year after year, not even now during the voting period. We are complementing each other, working towards the same goals: making life better for temporary staff and taking care of their interests.
Vote! Please.
Finally, I call upon every single temporary employee, matter if PhD-candidate, assistant professor, postdoc or researcher: Vote! Vote and show people like Anders Todal Jenssen that you believe that one of us five candidates will add value to the NTNU Board during the next year!
