There are a few things going but we can expect to hear more later, however things end up. I suspect that RCS will be safe but I am not sure about support services. I have been told by a number of people that the reason that they didn't sign was that they felt that ICT needed some reform and shake up. Best, david On 18/06/2020 16:24, Clements, Dave L wrote:
A couple of days ago it was mentioned in an astro staff meeting that there had been an emergency Council meeting about the opposition to the ICT restructuring.
Such emergency meetings don’t happen often. Someone said that they only happen when someone senior is being fired.
If the rumours are correct, there may be hope of something changing.
Dave
On 18 Jun 2020, at 16:15, Bantges, Richard J <r.bantges@imperial.ac.uk> wrote:
Hi David,
I am continuing to receive lots of emails from various ICT members of staff that are clearly stressed and distressed by the planned ICT restructuring. I suspect you and others on this email list are too. I just wanted to know whether you'd received any feedback from Michele regarding the points raised during our meeting on Monday 8th, and summarised in the document you forwarded to us (thanks for doing that)?
Apparently there are only around 1200 signatures to the open letter here https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=B3WJK4zudUWDC0-CZ8PTB1Oo...
If this is a clear indication of the level of concern around the College, then it may be that Physics might consider the risk to be greater than other Departments, or that the implications of the changes suggested in the white paper are not fully recognised by other departments. Either way, I am concerned that it will soon be too late to at least delay the implementation of any changes before a thorough consultation and open discussion can be carried out. If the rumours of College needing to cut costs fast ahead of the start of the new academic year are true, I fear the current plan may result in many of us no longer having options for support from ICT after the 1st August - yikes, in around 6 weeks from now!
Hope all is going well otherwise.
Best wishes and sorry to add to your email inbox (again!), Rich
-----Original Message----- From: David Colling [mailto:d.colling@imperial.ac.uk] Sent: 11 June 2020 13:12 To: Bantges, Richard J <r.bantges@imperial.ac.uk> Cc: physics-departmental-computing <physics-departmental-computing@imperial.ac.uk>; Clements, Dave L <d.clements@imperial.ac.uk>; Cohen, Lesley <l.cohen@imperial.ac.uk> Subject: Public version Re: FW: ICT Redundancies
Hi All,
I meant to send this yesterday but to say that I have been busy ...
Attached is a version that I think that everybody will be happy being public and distributed as widely as is useful. Specifically, it removes a name of somebody who might be adversely effected if publicly associated with comments in the appendix. So please only distribute this version outside of the Department.
Best, david
On 09/06/2020 14:35, David Colling wrote:
Hi Rich,
You have started something that I was going to email about anyway - just I have had meetings for most of the day so far.
I have advised people that I view the main body of the document as public but not the appendix until I have explicit agreement from the people whose emails I included there. So these people are:
- Robert Kingham - Jarvist Moore Frost (who might to ask permission from the people whose comments he included) - Dave Clements - Err.. you Rich and Robert Kingham again.
So if these people reply saying that hey are happy for their comments to be public then the whole document is. However, even without this the main body is as this is a summary of a departmental meeting and these should be open by their very nature.
Best, david
On 09/06/2020 11:55, Bantges, Richard J wrote:
Hi David & Physics Dept. Computing Reps,
I just wanted to check that there aren't any objections to sharing the contents of the summary from yesterday's meeting with other Departments?
Please let me know if there are, otherwise I will forward David's summary to Suhail at the end of today, to give him an overview of the concerns from some of us in the Physics Department.
I think Robert's earlier comment about our "cost" of reacting to proposed restructuring of ICT is incredibly insightful!
Best wishes,
Rich
*From:*Islam, Suhail A *Sent:* 09 June 2020 11:47 *To:* Bantges, Richard J <r.bantges@imperial.ac.uk>; Wiltshire, Jeff N <jeff.wiltshire@imperial.ac.uk> *Subject:* re: ICT Redundancies
Dear Richard/Jeff
I am the Rep for the Dept of Life Sciences and look after the
computer systems for a number of research groups here. In
addition, I am involved in IT teaching for UG & PG students.
Therefore, very dependent on ICT and HPC support. The worst
aspect of these proposed changes is to see our ICT colleagues
jobs on the line.
I have seen the Open Letter (which I will sign) and your comments.
As with yourselves I am extremely concerned with the proposed
changes and in particular the (unbelievable) timing. *May I please*
*trouble you to CC me in any general communications/meetings, *
*especially those requiring support*.
At the moment I am trying to understand the practical implications
of these changes and talking with various people. Any further information
would be invaluable.
Regards
Suhail
---------------------------------- Dr Suhail A Islam Centre for Integrative Systems Biology and Bioinformatics Department of Life Sciences Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London London SW7 2AZ email: suhail.islam@imperial.ac.uk www: www.sbg.bio.ic.ac.uk Tel: +44-(0)20-7594-5333 Fax: +44-(0)20-7594-5789 ----------------------------------