Petition for Frank Richter

[Stefan Müller]

Dear HPSGians,

I am writing to you because of a petition that was started by Tübingen 
students:

https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/festanstellung-fuer-pd-dr-frank-richter

They ask the university administration to renew the contract of Frank 
Richter, which is about to end soon. He worked in Tübingen for a long 
time and the university refuses to renew his contract.

A little bit of background: There are laws in Germany whose purpose it 
is to protect employees. After a certain period of continued renewals of 
their contracts it is sort of obvious that the employer needs them. 
Hence, according to the law, the contract should not be renewed for a 
limited period of time, but should be turned into a permanent one. The 
consequence of these laws for university employees is the contrary, 
however. They are permanently banned from being employed at universities 
(exception: external grants for a limited period of time). The reason 
for this absurdity is that German universities are notoriously 
underfinanced. Older researchers are more expensive than younger ones 
and German universities are running on 80% of their staff: When somebody 
leaves, a position is regularly blocked for one semester in order to 
safe money. Of course this calculation does not work out when the 
positions are permanent positions. So universities fire those that would 
be best for them.

In short: if you want to support Frank, please sign the petition.

Best wishes

        Stefan