Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/992522
17 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JUNE 2018 WITNESS Admissions, and Student Af- fairs. We were given duties that we did not have any training for—even sent overseas to re- cruit students. We also assist- ed in expansive hiring efforts. John assured us that AUM was expanding its size the follow- ing year and needed more staff. One notable comment John passed along during this pro- cess was that Hani Salah and the Board only wanted employ- ees who were "whitewashed" (a euphemism meaning that they only wanted white peo- ple hired). This was confirmed when John warned us that if we ever told anyone this, he would deny it and claim we were lying – but it is true. In the meantime, it was ap- parent that, despite AUM's wealthy and "elite" Board (John described hobnobbing with the likes of the Prince of Luxem- bourg), the institution could not manage its finances prop- erly. Even though students paid 100 Euros each for Stu- dent Activities fees, it some- how never made it to the Stu- dent Affairs budget. In terms of safety, the building itself had many dangerous issues – eve- rything from broken windows in the classroom to cables jut- ting out of the floor, to massive flooding during rain, to horri- ble smells in the upstairs class- room (that both students and lecturers complained of caus- ing illness). In terms of teaching, our classes were small; some only had one student, several had only four, and the largest ten. The curriculum handed to us from DePaul University was absurd—the schedule of week- ly assignments didn't even coincide with AUM's weekly calendar, and it was impos- sible to implement. It seemed clear that AUM's ineptitude branched out into all aspects of this university. Before the end of the semes- ter (by 20 Dec.), many of us ap- proached John again to make sure that our positions were safe for the following semes- ter. We were again assured they were, and we were given time-consuming tasks to com- plete over the holidays, includ- ing the organisation of spring's student orientation. Little did we know that in the meantime, by 14 Dec., Sadeen put out sev- eral ads on LinkedIn and else- where in search for new staff to replace us. Blissfully unaware, most of us went abroad for Christmas (or Chanukah) and winter break, certain that we had a position to return to. I, myself, spent over $1,000 to visit my family. However, on 3 Jan., we all re- ceived an email stating that, in seven days, our employment would be terminated. Words cannot describe the shock and despair I felt in receiving such correspondence, a misery infi- nitely compounded by the fact that it was John who had signed our letter. When I asked John to explain why my job was be- ing terminated, all he could say was that he couldn't talk about it for "legal reasons." When I reminded him of his prom- ise to resign if lecturers were fired (and the consequences of making such a promise), he acknowledged his betrayal, meekly stating only that other people had asked him to stay. Adding salt to our wounds was the timing of their action. By not informing us of our im- pending lack of employment until 3 January, we missed the deadline to apply for most uni- versity teaching positions back home, not just for the spring semester, but also for the 2018- 2019 academic year. (It was be- yond ironic that I denied the offer of another attractive job in Malta because I was con- tent to stay with AUM – and that job's application deadline was 29 December) The fact that they started to replace us on 14 December, and withheld that information until 3 Janu- ary, caused untold harm to our careers and is unconscionable. When I returned to Malta, a profound sense of loss – not to mention anger and betrayal – filled me. I had used my salary to pay my debt down, and had barely anything left from it. Be- ing stuck in a foreign country with no viable employment opportunities on the horizon, made me sink into a depres- sion I had never experienced before. As hard as it was to pack up our lives, families, and posses- sions to move to this Mediter- ranean island, it was 1,000X harder to leave it all behind. After spending months (and thousands of dollars) settling in our new homes, we now had to lose that money all over again – either in shipping our possessions back over the Atlantic ocean, or by losing them all together. The toll on our families – of being pro- foundly uprooted twice in less than six months – is beyond description. The fact that they replaced us with people found within two weeks, people who were known plagiarists and who had lied about their aca- demic credentials, was just a slap in the face. Never have I, personally, felt so disposable. Lost in all this, of course, is the toll this has taken on our former students. As one of our newly hired replacements wrote on Glassdoor, "The tiny amount of students here were traumatised by what hap- pened." Our poor students re- turned to school in January to find that their support network had been ripped out from un- der them. The highly-qualified teachers that they had grown to trust and love were supplanted by strangers, some of whom were two-bit replacements. Not only was their education hurt by AUM's self-inflicted wounds, so too were their lives. AUM had a choice, as did John Ryder (a self-proclaimed Humanist philosopher who purports to lecture on John Locke and the ethics of educa- tion). Their actions show not only profound ineptitude, but also irrational cruelty. AUM gained nothing by treat- ing us in such a manner. If they were having legitimate financial issues, they could have offered to renegotiate our contracts. It is now clear to us what many in the Maltese public have been saying for years. This institution is a sham. In fact, when one of our number wrote to NEASC, the Ameri- can accrediting agency, to in- form them of what AUM did, we were told that AUM never even submitted their paper- work for accreditation! From the beginning, Sadeen has been playing a game with the Mal- tese government and public. Laughably, they have recently extended their fraudulent be- haviour to the internet, buying up "likes" from Indonesia for their Facebook posts. We also believe that they lied to us with their promise of high salaries and long-term employ- ment in order to gain accredi- tation from NCFHE (Malta's National Council for Further and Higher Education) and NEASC (America's New Eng- land Association of Schools and Colleges). We believe that they used us to lie to them with their claims of creating a bona fide educational institution. We feel that they had every in- tention of firing us before the end of the probationary period. Hani Salah and his cronies have abused the probationary period set forth by Maltese la- bour law, a stipulation inten- tionally designed as a trial time for employees to prove them- selves, not as a carte blanche to fire everybody at will, while broadcasting pretences of le- gitimacy. With these illegal, irrespon- sible, and abusive actions, the American University of Malta did not merely shoot them- selves in the foot, they shot themselves in the heart. We believe they lied to us with their promise of high salaries and long-term employment in order to gain accreditation from NCFHE