Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

Committee". The Committee reported to the Association that its work was severely
hindered by the lack of financial information which it had requested from the Bursar
repeatedly since October l988. No six-monthly operating statements had been
produced, and the Committee was not able to monitor the budget. It went into
further detail and concluded that after this length of time it would be extremely
difficult to take the necessary remedial action to bring expenditure into line with the
previously agreed budget.
The Bursar responded that his position was undermined by a hard core of Fellows on
the Working Party and the Committee . There was an oppressive element of
concentration on the past rather than on current problems. The College was close to
the brink of collapse because of the numbers of staff employed. He felt he was in a
situation of over management with too many chiefs asking for too much information
from too few indians. No consideration had been given to the size of the College and
its growth [it was one of his responsibiulities to advise on such matters]. Other
Colleges had a higher complement of management staff than St Edmund's. There
had been criticism of the Kitchen account, but he claimed that half the Cambridge
Colleges showed a deficit on their Kitchen accounts; St Edmund's was in a reasonable
position in the league table. He tried to explain why he had not produced minutes
and agenda by set dates. There were conflicting prioriities. He had argued for a
computer, but this had not been taken up by the Committee. The College had a new
Bursar every three years and he believed that if he were replaced it would be by
someone on a higher slary scale who would be told imm ediately to recruit more
staff. He believed that no positive suggestions were being made to help him, but that
criticism was being heaped upon criticism. Nevertheless he hoped to get it on the
right lines soon!
The Treasurer, as Chairman of the Committee, replied to this statement. In the past
when the College had 70 students and Visiting Scholars, two Fellows who both had
fulltime posts in the University had managed to return a surplus on the Kitchen
account each year. It was misleading to claim that the College had a new Bursar
every three years. Paid Bursars had been half time, also acting as Treasurer and
combining the work with academic work. The present Bursar was the first to fill a
full-time post. The fact that there were only two part time secretaries in the College
Office reflected on the Bursar's management; there was a budget for two full time
and one half time secretary. The F & G P Committee had only asked the Bursar to
provide information that already existed; at most it would take only half a day's
work to extract the information required from the accounting books.
The Auditors had said that one of the secretaries was capable of running the accounts
and the College did not need an Accountant. They also said there was no need to
install a computer system, since the scale of operation was not large enough; the
present computer could produce what was needed; it was nonsense to talk of
spending £40,000 on a computer for the accounts. [The Bursar replied that his
suggestion for a computer would cost about £16,000]
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