KEY POINTS:
An outspoken academic sacked for sending an intemperate email to a foreign student will appeal against an Employment Relations Authority decision not to order his reinstatement.
The authority yesterday ordered Auckland University to pay senior political and international relations lecturer Paul Buchanan $66,000 in lost wages and damages for his wrongful dismissal last July.
Dr Buchanan was sent packing from his $102,000-a-year position on the grounds of serious misconduct after he lambasted a United Arab Emirates student for her weak academic performance and lack of aptitude for graduate study.
The student - whose name is suppressed - had requested an extension for an essay, following the death of her father in Dubai.
The emails between the two were later widely distributed, though Dr Buchanan apologised soon after for his "temper tantrum".
But the authority stopped short of ordering the university to rehire Dr Buchanan.
Authority member Vicki Campbell ruled Dr Buchanan's communication style was "bullying" and said that while the academic believed his style was positive, "he lacks any insight into the effect he has on students and colleagues alike".
"It is simply not practicable for the university to employ Dr Buchanan in a role where he is unsupervised and unmonitored and has failed to demonstrate a fundamental awareness of how his own actions and conduct impact on those he works with and teaches."
Association of University Staff deputy secretary Marty Braithwaite said Dr Buchanan's reinstatement was a "primary remedy" and an appeal was planned.
Dr Buchanan - internationally recognised for his expertise in areas including terrorism and US foreign policy - was employed by the university in July 1997 as senior lecturer in Latin American and environmental politics.
His post was unique in the New Zealand university system, Mr Braithwaite said, so the decision not to have him rehired meant Dr Buchanan was "virtually unemployable in an academic position in New Zealand".
"It is important that he get that position back."
Auckland vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon said the university - while disagreeing with "some aspects of the authority's determination" - believed the upholding of the decision to sack him was "an appropriate outcome". The university had yet to decide whether to appeal against the $66,000 award and whether to replace Dr Buchanan.
Dr Buchanan was yesterday unavailable for comment, but friend and former student Scott Mansell said the lecturer was pleased his actions had been partly vindicated, but disappointed not to get his job back.
The lecturer's sudden disappearance from the university left many post-graduate students without a course controller in the middle of an academic year, Mr Mansell said.
"I think most people felt that the dismissal was over the top.
"Most people I've spoken to - even through work - think it sounds on the surface ridiculous and I think this decision shows it was ridiculous."
Dr Buchanan is in Singapore.
DR BUCHANAN'S $66,000 EMAIL
"I say this reluctantly but not so subtly: you are not suitable for a graduate degree. It does not matter if your father died or if you have a medical certificate. You are close to failing in any event, so these sort of excuses - culturally driven and preying on some sort of Western liberal guilt - are simply lame."
