Warqad la helay oo Uu qoraay Gudoomiye ku xigeenkii jamacada hargeisa ee is Casilay Prof. saciid oo ahaaa aqoonyahan Laga soo shaqaalaysiiyay Jamacada Jigjiga si uu wax uga badalo dhinaca academiga jamacada dalka, prof. saciid oo ahaan jiray wasiir kilinka shanaad iyo qooonyahan qoraayah oo runtii jamacada aanu hore u soo marin qof la aqoon ah xataa gudoomiyaha jooga ku dhahoo, haba ka warqad sareeyee, wuxuu arkay sida wax u socdaan in ka yar 2 bilood gudahoodna wuxuu gaadhay goankii runtiii fajacisada ku noqday jamacada iyo dadka daneeyaa iyo gudida saree jamacadaba, waxaanu u soo qoray warqadan, bal eega prof. saciid waxuu ku saleeyay ka tegidiisa jamacada Hargeisa, iyo dub ugu laabashadiisa jamacad Jigjiga. akhris wanaagsan. Date: 24/05/2013 To: The Chairman of the Board of trustee UoH, Hargeisa Subject: Justification of My resignation I am very much thankful and grateful to the board of the university and university community for giving me an opportunity to serve the students and community of the republic of Somaliland in the position of academic and student affairs vice president. I have been delighted and pleased by your decision for providing this opportunity. Officially, I have joined the duties on April 6, 2013 and I have begun my job, observed devotedly and tried to understand the current practices of the various managerial activities during my stay. Then I felt the need of certain structural changes and adjustments for the betterment of university and students community. For which I have proposed to restructure the academic wing of the university through BPR, launching HDP Program, academic staff development/ on job training, development of different policy/implementation, establishing school of graduate studies, establishing Examination board, Curriculum strategy and Development and preparing the university five year strategic plan and in result of my observation and understanding, I made a presentation and presented to the academic community of the university and the board by articulating my vision, mission and future plan towards the progress of UoH on April 15, 2013. I was appreciated by the board and UoH community, got tremendous encouragement and support from the board to move along with my tentative plan. Owing to some pending tasks in Jigjiga, health issues of my family and other problems during this transition period, I took permission from president then went to Jigjiga on April 27, 2013. I stayed there and settled all my issues related to family and others. I prepared everything to move along with entire family to Hargeisa. During my stay in Jigjiga I was working on developing the proposal on establishing school of graduate studies SGS, higher diploma program for teachers education HDP, contacting different experts and professionals from Jigjiga and other Ethiopian university to make collaboration for future cooperation for postgraduate programs and research activities. Later, with new energy, hope and expectations I returned to Hargeisa and rejoined my duties on May 19, 2013. I found some serious constraints and problems in maintaining and advancing the standards of education at UoH. So I would like to put everything in front of you, basically I classify these problems into two, internal and external. Generally external treats are more intensive and determinant factors to any organization, but in our case internal factors are more serious. Administration is the main pillar of any organization, thus any organization cannot be successful or perform well without proper administration and management. These days, in modern time, we need the leadership rather mangers. Leadership influences its workforce, emphasize on collective teamwork, enhance trust, and guide them properly, initiating processes for group decision making, and increase transparency in realizing the goals and objectives of the organization. But, it is hard to say that there is neither management practice nor leadership practice in the University of Hargeisa. The apex body, i.e. board of university’s role is to setting the target and facilitating the resources. But day to day duties, activities and processes have to be carried by president, vice presidents, dean and head of the departments in other terms the academic council and senate of the university. The president does not believe in senate and it is not important for him and it is dysfunctional. The senate is the apex body of the university which has to approve and authenticate all the decisions made by the university such as students’ degrees, promotion and termination of the staff, approval of all official documents etc. This indicates that president does not have any experience in administering and managing the higher education institutions. I did not experience any formal meetings in line with the structure of the university. If top management is active and leads appropriately then the middle and lower levels of management will work accordingly, but in contrary the top management is misleading them in UoH. The absence of proper function of formal structure will not take us to reach the destiny. The university Charter Article 18(1) clearly states that the appointment of the academic vice president should be given and signed by the board, but I have received contract of my employment signed by president only, which is against the university charter. This is clear evident of non implementation of the university charter. Without proper legislation and implementation of the charter, it is very difficult to work with Dr. Gass. When I joined the university president has introduced me some staffs informally, there was no formal meeting with deans and directors. He did not handover me any official documents and I was going to office without any proper office and official work. First time I stayed in the campus without any proper recognition because there was no official meeting and appropriate communication channel, even official stamp of vice president was with former vice president. All the furniture and equipment of vice president office was taken away by former vice president. No one asks about movement of material and controls the staff. How it could happen without formal permission of concerned authorities? In any university there would be formal meetings of university top management members, frequent consultations are required between president and academic vice president, there would be lot of transactions, activities that to be carried out collectively by president and vice presidents, but I have failed to see such environment where this process takes place. Despite this practice personally I have requested President to have formal or informal meetings regarding the work and responsibilities, he never ever given me such opportunity. Always he is in motion so it is difficult to me to find him and discuss the issues. Everything he communicates through his secretary, in an organization like higher education institutions, there will be many confidential matters which even cannot be disclosed to deans, but everything is disclosed to secretary, so I got confusion who is my boss, president or secretary? Whenever secretary communicates to me, even she does not use polite and professional language, in such situations I felt myself embarrassing. After joining, really I was confused on my role, importance and existence in the university. So I have experienced the suffocating situation. I made an attempt by writing in black and white to the president to explain the necessity of having formal meeting with deans and directors to plan and carryout future programs, but president office did not react on it and the letter kept with him without considering the importance of it and made any attempt. I worked for 17 days as visitor and roaming here and there on the campus without any purpose. There is no system that functions in academic way, everyone does in their own way, but they do not do in the way that the university wants. This is one of the weaknesses of the administration. University charter is very clear and tells about clear boundaries between various hierarchical relations, responsibilities and duties of administrative staff, functioning system, accountability etc., but none of these have been practiced. I have observed that always there is one-man show which is not at all suitable to administering the educational organizations in this modern world. The President does not empower the subordinates; give opportunity to them to develop the leadership, involving them in making better decisions, using their potentials in prospering the university and rendering improved and quality services to the students’ community in particular and community in general. Most of the decisions are made by secretary of president, so I did not see any difference between secretary and president and got confusion who is delegated president and who is acting president. The president did not consult me to set the modalities and criteria for selection of deans and tried to recruit them in my absence (which is against university charter), Regarding the selection of deans I have consulted and we agreed to postpone the dean selection exam until I returned the university, but secretary of president office rejected our agreement and she conducted the exam, the same exam she conducted for two different days. Is it ethical to conduct the same exam on different days to the different people? The university charter clearly states that the ASAVP is the returning officer for recruit and select the deans and academic staff. Here also president and his secretary violated the university charter. So in this situation is it possible to continue to work with the people who always disrespect the legislation of the university. In this regard secretary of president’s office sent me an email, from the content of it I could understand that she gives commands and instructions to all even vice presidents are not excluded, for your kind information the copy is enclosed. Is it professional way of managing the higher education institute? Recently, last week on May 21st I met the President and asked him to give me 10 minutes time to discuss certain academic related issues, he gave me one minute, within a minute what should I discuss. Further I requested and urged him to have a meeting, he says that we discuss in the office in presence of secretary. I do not have any problem to discuss in president’s office in absence of secretary. But I was desperate and puzzled myself by his words. So I understand that there is no any confidential matter that to be discussed with the president. Even if he discusses everything he discloses to his secretary and goes to everywhere, this raises a question that who is legitimate. On 22nd morning at 7:40 am he came to my room in guest house, knocked my door, looked at his wrist watch and returned without talking to me. From this situation I understood that he was pointing at time, I was ready to go to office, but you see my office you understand clearly, few plastic chairs and a table there is nothing official setup. Instead of looking at his wrist watch if he had told me something I would have told him my reason for working in guest house. Then I felt very sorry, did he treat me as a child who need to be directed always. From my observation I came to understand that, strengths of university are the strong university board, potential students and some motivated and potential staff. Weaknesses are administration style or practices, weak leadership, ignoring the potentials of staff, individual decision making process, no formal management system, poor communication, etc., for example Mr. President and his secretary are usually busy from 8 am to 12 pm in editing the warning letters to be served to the staff on certain complaints of issues. In modern management theory memos and punishment do not serve the purpose, it is highly needed to practice developmental and clinical supervision which are part of instructional leadership, through which we identify the deficiencies of teachers and guide them for their improvement or overcoming from certain instructional problems. There are many opportunities to the university; vertical development is one of them. Expansion is quite possible and support from community, are the other opportunities. At same time we have treats, internal treat is weak administration, no system functions the way it has to function, non- implementation of university charter, president’s work style etc., In addition to above cited issues, I have been observing a group which is trying to resist the change, change is inevitable and continuous. If we do not make our strategies to cope with the changes that are may be environmental, technical, structural etc., we will not progress. Even I heard that there are some people from the top management of the university who are continuously misleading the president with some western interests for their personal benefits. A person in top management who does not identify and recognize such activities and understand the western interests of such people, how can he protect and progress the UoH. This indicates that the president is very weak in anticipating the future risks and how does he make preventive measures? There are many instances to put here, but I wrote the essence of my observation and experiences. Superficially everything looks beautiful and probably the same thing is reports by president. But the situation in the university is very critical and about to crumple. In these circumstances, I do not have any other alternatives rather to leave the university. It is difficult to travel in a bus which its destination is not known. To speak openly and frankly, I did not join the university just for sake of salary, it is not an issue, and even I refused the opportunity that I got in Mercy Corps. I am interested in higher education institute, gained substantial experience in various organizations held in various managerial positions including as a general director for research and community, dean of the college, Member of university strategic plan designing committee, member of national quality assurance controlling team, member of national curriculum harmonization team, chairman of university fund raising team, member of the BPR core team of the University and linking the university and donors in fetching the funds and running the research projects and so on. It is not exaggerated to say that I have proved myself in promoting the business opportunities of the organizations where I had worked. In addition to this, always I think in innovative way which will be the big asset to any organization when I work. The main reason is to join UoH is to serve the students community and the society of Somaliland I moved to Hargeisa, and my motto will drive always to be part of Somaliland. At this juncture some may say that he is from Ethiopia and he could not cope up with local context. Though I was brought in Ethiopia, I am a Somalilander, so I have complete inclination towards Somaliland and I render my services to the people of Somaliland. My worry is only to make proper system in UoH, in turn it will help in ensuring the quality which assured through our motto, vision and mission. Here I have put all my observations, experiences and feeling clearly in front of you. If I put all these in a nut shell, only problem is the president who never respects any system and legislation. Because of him, in the UoH, no legislation (charter) is enforced, no communication in any form is practiced, no structure is honored, no function of formal system, no academic and professional way of dealing the issues, individual and autocratic practices and so on. I did not come to my decision just based on few reasons, but I found it is very difficult and embarrassing environment to work with the president and move forward even an inch is very thorny. The president neither listens nor interacts with subordinates, this is highly individual and autocratic in nature, so I do not want prove myself be a failed person. As a result of all cumulated justifiable reasons I came to a decision to resign and I have sent to you my resignation letter. Yet I would like to recommend the following: UoH administration system must be revisited and initiate the alternate system which will help tremendously in progressing the university and ensures the quality of education. By implementing the University Charter effectively everything will be controlled and respected. Need to defining clear authority, responsibility, roles to avoid the confusion among academic and non academic staff etc. There should be appropriate coordination, check and balance, controlling and accountability to initiate the right practices and improve the environment Chain of command must be the way of communication which will avoid the confusion among the managers at various levels in the hierarchical structure of the university. It is very important to create organizational culture to cultivate positive norms, values and collective philosophy in the interest of students, university and community. There should be regular functioning of academic council and Senate of the university in order to authenticate the university related business processes and outputs. It is the time to the board to save the university from the verge of danger of collapsing else the things will be out of the control. Without your intervention it is highly difficult to realize the aims and goals of UoH and it is difficult to transform the situation into professional and academic way. Therefore, it is very important to alter the environment to be conducive which will invite and attract anyone to work within. One can explore all of his/her potentials, if there is cooperation, provision for organizational freedom for innovation, and creation of encouraging environment. Finally I wish all the best and bright future for UoH With best Regards Sied M. Jibril
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 22:28:15 +0000
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