Talk:Alan Gilbert (Australian academic)

Tabley House estate
The deleted section on the sale of the Tabley estate has been moved to the article Tabley House where it belongs. Its not dramatic news about Gilbert, the big picture is that it is part of an estates plan, the principles of which were announced as part of Project Unity before he took office, that unwanted estate would be sold off to fund development.Billlion 08:05, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

The Manchester University is now in so much debt and morale is so low amongst staff. Alan Gilbert is seen as mainly responsible for this. The University capacity to improve is only likely to be possible on Gilbert's departure. Sadly, his recent offer to the Council to resign was not accepted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Broughjan (talk • contribs) 23:35, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Can you quote a source for his offer to resign? I have not heard that anywhere. Also this comment sounds just like a point of view. Remember this is teh talk page to discus how we can improve the article. Unless you can back up claims like "low moral" Billlion 19:14, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

In surplus
The source for the announcement that the university is in surplus can be accessed at which is accessible on campus. It includes
 * I was pleased to be able to give the Board an unambiguous assurance that The University of Manchester is in a secure financial position. We expect to be reporting a small surplus for financial year 2006-07, our financial reserves are strong and our cash position sound.

Billlion 19:20, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * It may be accessible on campus, but it is not available to the WP community at large. Therefore the statement remains unverifiable.--Jotel 19:26, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Well there are plenty of verifiable sources that are not on line, and that you would have to go to a library to get. In this case you could get it by going to Manchester library. But of course I will look for a more accessable source to reference. There was a meeting of the Board of Governors on October 10th, and previous minutes are publically available on line, so I expect that will be available soon, or a press release.Billlion 21:13, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Resignation offer rumours
Trust me he did offer to resign but was not accepted as it was deemed too embarrasing for the university, he may be trying to introduce some kind of business practice here but he has piut it in the hands of academics who haven't the faintest idea what needs to be done in the real world and as a result they have destroyed a great place to work and now the university is leeking god staff and being left with the duds including the president —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.194.55.39 (talk) 13:32, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * We cannot "Trust you", even if we did know who you were, your testimony would not meet WP:V verifiability. A serious offer to resign to the Academic Board or Senate would appear in the minutes which are available on line. I do not even know of a verifiable source that it was even rumoured that he offered to resign. Any knowledge I might have of the situation myself, or rumour that I have heard, is pretty much irrelevant from the point of view of wikipedia.Billlion 13:55, 8 November 2007 (UTC).

It is foolish in the extreme to suggest that such an offer to resign and discussion of it would be reported in the minutes of the Governing Body. Undoubtedly this would be treated as "reserved business" and as such not be in the publicly available minutes. AndyCox 20.40, 15 December 2007 (UTC).

It is now indicative of the serious organisational decline of the University that the financial accounts for 2007 are still not available on the website (as at 29/12/2007) and that minutes of the Governing Body since May 2007 are not available either. Such clear failings speak volumes of the damage wrought to a once great institution. AndyCox 12.10, 29 December 2007 (UTC).
 * Just a reminder What Wikipedia is not. In particular not a forum for discussion on the lines of if "VUM was once great", or if UoM is now. Which in any case could only be a POV. Unless there is some verifiable WP:V evidence about Gilbert's term of office or offer to resign it has no place here. Personally I find such speculation interesting too and would be happy to read about such rumours on a discussion board. But here we are trying to write an encylopedia. On the other hand if you know something definite about the accounts or Gilbert offering to resign and you think there is a news story there, Wikinews might be the place. You are allowed to do original reporting there, in contrast to the prohibition on WP:OR original research here. Billlion (talk) 17:25, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Claim about resignation
I reverted another edit thats aid he was resigning. I could only find this story  on a student website, that basically just says that he will not carry on after his contract finishes in 2011, and quoting a University spokesperson who confirmed that's   how long is  contract is,
 * "These rumours are entirely untrue. Gilbert's contract does not expire until 2011 and it is far too early to say what will happen then."

So there is really nothing important to say on the topic at the moment. All that can be said is that "it is said there are rumours". -- Billlion (talk) 20:07, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I just reverted another claim that his retirement was announced today. It might have been but there was no source, and nothing on the web site. And no message has been sent to UoM staff. Billlion (talk) 22:00, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
 * And I have just reverted it back. Statement distributed to staff today.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.64.31.252 (talk) 15:36, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Events after death
The "outpourings of grief" statement has no place in Wikipedia, without proper references. Similarly, the alleged statements made by Nancy Rothwell about the likelehood of being appointed AG's successor are no more than tittle-tattle.Gordoncph (talk) 09:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)