Sir, – Hardly a week goes by but there are letters from academics in third-level institutes whose addresses are given as those of their employing authorities. Have these correspondents no homes to go to or is it the case that they are letting us know that they work 24/7?
On a more serious note, the issue must be looked at in the context of the practice in the case of correspondents who work in the private sector.
I have yet to see a letter giving the address of a private-sector employer (with the exception, of course, of letters submitted on the instructions of the said employers).
I worked for a State agency and there is no way that I would have given my office address in a letter on any topic, much less on a topic within the ambit of my employing authority’s statutory functions. It would appear that private-sector employees generally operate under the same constraint as I did in the matter of “Letters to the Editor”.
In the light of the above, does it not behove the governing bodies of the State’s third-level institutes to put down a marker for their academic employees in the matter of the use of official addresses in letters pages, and the publication of personal views on topics within the ambit of their particular faculties? – Yours, etc,
TONY FORDE,
Skerries,
Co Dublin.