Bureaucracy is the issue – not minuscule fees

Bev Whitehead accuses me of many sins in her ‘dismissive riposte’ to my moan about university bureaucracy (DW Letters 28 June). She says I mention ‘minuscule fees’ once too often. I only used the phrase once, and I began my article by saying that it was not a whinge about fees.

What about the point of my piece – that university admin might be discouraging people from lecturing? One tutor recently told me his invitation to an illustrator was declined on the grounds of ‘too much bureaucracy’.

Having recently given up an afternoon to judge the New Blood awards, and a second afternoon in the same week to take part in a student-organised panel discussion – neither of which I was paid for – I’m not sure what else I can do to prove my commitment to helping design students.

I don’t want ‘deference’, just less paper work.

I also can’t recall Alan Fletcher or Ken Garland ‘bitching, in print, about lecture fees’. But then, neither have I.

Adrian Shaughnessy, ShaughnessyWorks, Hampton TW12 1JT