Vested Interests

Tomorrow, there will be an election of Staff Member to the Institution Council (highest level of management board in the institution that I serve). According the codes of the institution, there should be three staff members, regardless of their ranks, elected to form the constituent of the Council. Since one of the members is about to finish his term, there are two eligible nominees seconded by three colleagues. One is the Associate Dean and another candidate is an instructor working in the language centre. As the election day is around the corner, the election campaign also started last week. However, it was also the beginning of a nightmare. Two candidates, out of their good hearts and intention, vowed how to protect the interests of "teaching staff" as if this group of staff were underprivileged in the academic community. To be exact, a tug of 'junk mails' war polluted our email accounts for more than four days. Every day, when I logged in my own account on the staff intranet, I could see the names of these candidates. In view of this intense situation, the ASAXXXXX, Staff Association of my institution, then joined the warfare and promised that they would fight for the academic track migration of TF and instructor ranks. In addition, they will fight for private offices for some 'teaching staffs'.

I bet you have enough of this. If you were me, I reckon you knew what I really needed was a harmonious working environment where politics could be reduced to its minimal and a collaborative spirit where everyone can work hand in hand to train our future teachers to serve the community.