Senate attempted to sack Higgins!

Professor Chris Higgins announced his retirement just days after the university’s senate attempted to remove him as their chairman.

“Ooh it’s just little old me again!”

The committee felt that he had too much power and that the way the Senate was run needed reorganising. It resulted with his resignation last week.

If the change had gone through then the senate would have the ability to elect its own chair by a democratic vote, rather than the Vice-Chancellor become chair by default.

One second year said “This is all very embarrassing. Surely Higgins’ should have yachted off by now?”

An anonymous senate member commented that they were “interested in a change of direction and focus.”

Not long now…

If the results were to remove Higgins, he would have had to step down this week. The vote showed that Higgins only just managed to keep his seat by an extremely narrow margin.

One first year student said “it’s obvious that this is why he retired. Robert Gillespie is clearly protecting Higgins by saying he told him about his wish to retire before his 60th birthday.”

The Durham Senate also saw controversy when, in 2012, the registrar, Carolyn Fowler, stepped down after apparently accepting a divisive £125,000 gift from British American Tobacco.

A Durham spokesperson has commented that they have nothing more to say than beyond the statements made following Higgins’ resignation last week.