THERE was a noticeable breaking of ranks in UL last week over opposition to the Government's proposed legislation on universities. A letter appeared in The Irish Times on Tuesday, February 20th, from Eamonn McQuade, Castleconnell, Co Limerick, distancing himself from the position of "people who feel they represent UL" and who remain opposed to the changes in the structure of the college which will result from the new legislation.

According to McQuade, those involved are "coloured by a limiting prejudice" against legislation which could have the effect of "including UL in the mainstream of Irish university life and (building) the UL of the future".

A majority of full time staff, supported by the students' union, signed a petition earlier this year, expressing their unhappiness with the proposed changes on the grounds that they would give the president greater powers than he currently enjoys and could undermine the representative structure of the governing body.

Its opponents claim that the proposed legislation would allow the president of the university inordinate power over the composition of governing bodies, reducing them to the level of "talking shops".

According to Joe Wallace, a lecturer in industrial relations in UL and a member of the governing body, there was considerable negative feeling in the college about the letter. He said there was no need for McQuade to dissociate himself from a petition which he did not sign and when those who did sign did not claim to speak for the university. He pointed out that the governing body of UL, which does speak for the university, had also come out against the proposed legislation.

Dr Eamonn McQuade is Dean of Engineering in UL. For the time he was tipped as one of those who would probably contest the presidency of the university when the present long time incumbent Dr Ed Walsh decides to retire. Walsh has been indicating quietly that he will step down in 1999, the 10th anniversary of the granting of university status to the former National Institute of Higher Education, Limerick.

Speaking to E&L, McQuade said he had written the letter in response to what he felt was the "premature" action of taking up a petition against the legislation. He said that those with reservations should have expressed them clearly and offered alternatives.

He contested the negative view of the powers which the new legislation would give the president of the college. "The president has to have appropriate power to direct and guide the college forward as a university institution," he said.

McQuade is a former chairman of the campus's Plassey Management and Technology Centre, which collapsed last year. At the time, McQuade publicly criticised the university for its collapse. He told E&L that the new legislation had the potential to allow that kind of situation to be treated "in a more constructive way" in future. Opponents of the legislation claim that interventions of this kind could be made more difficult and that the level of accountability in the university could be reduced.