Machiavellian musical chairs at Florence University

A letter from Donatello Magaldi, Florence

Dear Editor,

I enclose another example of Italian university policy. Obviously, I have had no reply from the Universities' Ministry (MIUR).

Dear Colleague,

I write to you following almost 20 years of research and teaching at the Dept of Earth and Plant Nutrition Sciences (formerly known as the Institute of Mineralogy and Geology) at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, University of Florence. In 1984-1986 I won a post as full professor of Applied Pedology in Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of L’Aquila, which was subsequently changed to Applied Geology. I thus gave up my post as associate professor of Geopedology at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences at the University of Florence.

In February 1992, at the proposal of the former holder of the chair, Prof. F. Mancini,  the Faculty Board at Florence, notwithstanding the abstentions and contrary votes of the members of the Dept of Soil Science, decided to advertise for the vacant post of Applied Geology rather than transfer me back, thus deluding my expectations and assuming a position contrary to that which is customary with almost all Faculty Colleagues who have won posts at other Universities.

I then decided to enter the above-mentioned competition which eventually concluded favourably for me after a long and difficult journey (it took from 1992 to 2001 to reach its conclusion, during which time it was annulled three times by the National Universities’ Council, the Lazio Regional Administrative Tribunal and the Council of State).

On October 18 2001, the Ministry for Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), in fact, definitively approved the acts of the judging Commission, from which it follows that the winners of the competition for the three chairs of Applied Geology (at Florence, Urbino and Palermo) are the professors: P. Focardi, D. Magaldi and A. Prestininzi, although the judging Commission also arbitrarily introduced retroactive application to 1997 in the appointments of Focardi and Prestininzi, appointments that were made by the Ministry notwithstanding both the Regional Administrative Tribunal’s annulment and the recourse which is currently before the Council of State.

It has long been common knowledge that in the awarding of full professorships there come into play preferences and aspirations that have nothing to do with the interests of research and teaching.

The person who left the chair, an old university windbag, intelligent but scientifically insignificant, always maintained that it was his prerogative to pass on his chair to a person of his liking for reasons of common clientelistic and professional interests. It is otherwise difficult to explain the reason why he at first completely supported the outcome of the Competition – which was won by a mediocre geomorphologist who was quite extraneous to the research programmes in Applied Geology and had regularly been failed in this subject both in this and other Competitions – and then subsequently supported a modest geotechnician from the Faculty of MNF Sciences at Florence, who was also completely extraneous to the scientific and teaching courses not only in the Department but also within the context of the whole Faculty.

Notwithstanding the fact that three administrative organs – the National Universities’ Council, the Regional Administrative Tribunal and the Council of State – ordered not only the renewal of the Competition procedure but also the annulment of all acts deriving therefrom, the Universities in question proceeded in 1997 to instate the original winners, ignoring the legal injunction sent by my lawyers and justifying their action on the basis of a questionable statement by the Ministry, which states textually: "[T]he areas affected by the above-mentioned court decisions do not, in accordance with established practice and jurisprudence, involve the Administration’s obligation to annul individual decrees for the appointment of competition winners prior to knowing the outcome of the renewal of the procedure."

In this spirit, Prof. A. Aureli was duly placed on retirement in Palermo and Prof. Prestininzi was transferred from Urbino to a preferable chair in Rome, while Prof. Focardi was transferred from Florence’s Faculty of Sciences to its Faculty of Agriculture – and all of this in order to elude the administrative court judges and the rights and expectations of the undersigned. 

Subsequently to October 18 2001 and within the terms prescribed by law, I sent the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture (Prof. M. Falciai) and the Rector of the University of Florence (Prof. A. Marinelli) my request to join the Faculty. On receiving no reply, I sent an injunction to both the Rector and the Ministry, requesting that they comply with the outcome of the last competition and the Council of State’s decision, illegitimately interpreted by the Ministry for Universities, which has not received a reply to date. On February 28, I was sent a short letter signed by the Head of the Office for the Legal Administration of Teaching Personnel at the University of Florence, which declared that the Faculty of Agriculture had confirmed (but at what Meeting?) the decisions taken in ’97 with the acceptance of P. Focardi.

It is clear from the foregoing that the Administration wishes to leave the 1997 situation as it is, in thereby favouring 3 candidates at my expense and definitively recognising 4 winners for the 3 places that were originally available (Aureli having retired as Extraordinary professor and the other 3 having filled the 3 vacant posts). But, in failing to instate the undersigned, the Faculty of Agriculture too has also revealed its unwillingness to have recourse to a comparative evaluation, which is obligatory when there are 2 or more requests for the same chair, for fear of finding itself forced to instate myself and get rid of P. Focardi.

In fact, according to a provision made by the University of Florence’s Academic Senate on 10/3/1999, instatement or transfer must take place on the basis of a judgement of the Candidates in conformity with the following criteria:

• scientific relevance of publications; 

• temporal continuity of scientific production;

• teaching carried out; 

• congruence of scientific and teaching activities with Faculty needs. 

Well, the undersigned is distinctly superior on all 4 points and has ample proof of this, having for over 20 years carried out scientific activity at the above-mentioned Faculty at both national and international levels, such international activity being currently in course at the European Soil Bureau, and moreover boasts 10 years more than Focardi as a full professor.

On the basis of the foregoing, the undersigned informs you  that he has taken measures for recourse at the Regional Administrative Tribunal in Lazio and Procurator of the Republic’s Office in Florence but, considering the time length involved, the undersigned also invites This Organ to pronounce itself on the issue and intervene at the Faculty and at the Competent Office of the Universities’ Ministry (MIUR).

Finally, I consider it shameful and unworthy of a European Country that in order to obtain justice one always has to raise action in Courts and that even then, after much time and expense, the State Administration often places itself above the decisions taken by Judges.

Donatello Magaldi

P.S. I would like to hope that you, in that you are elected by us simple electors, will have the courtesy to reply to this letter. Even European Commission President Prodi, notwithstanding the high position he holds, found the time to reply to me and have me contacted by telephone at home in the course of just one week on a matter relating to my activity within the European Community.

Note: Both letters, originally in Italian, were published by JUST Response on September 9 2002.

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