Open Letter to Aalto's Janitor
After 4 months, I got no direct reply from Anna Valtonen, the Dean of Aalto's School of Arts, Design and Architecture, for my open letter (and email) to her, in requesting for clarification upon her new position. As a result, I got excluded from Aalto Art's Newsletter without notification.
Anna Valtonen eventually replied to it in her newsletter (which I received forwarded from a friend):
"(...) I have been nominated Vice President for Art and Creative Practices. Many of you have congratulated me (thank you!) and some have also wondered what this changes in my day-to-day practice. The practical answer is: not much. ☺ All these tasks have been in my job description since I started, just as they were in my processor Helena’s. The Dean of ARTS has always also been in charge of artistic activities on an Aalto level. The challenge has mostly been that although this work has always been done, it hasn’t been very easy to communicate when it really hasn’t had a proper name. So now the idea is to make all our processes transparent, visible and comprehendible to everyone in this university, and to include as many as possible in developing the artistic practices and activities across disciplines.(...)" (Anna Valtonen, 28th October 2015)
It still does not address many other points including the fundamental one of salary. A relevant topic as I stated in the open letter, as so many colleagues are being fired and special important when Anna writes so persistently about transparency.
I am in no personal fight here. I do speak out regardless of the person addressed for the sake of clarification and most importantly for the respect of the community which works hard under the same institution of Aalto.
I hope you too, fellow colleague of Aalto, stand up and ask for answers no matter if it aims the President or the Janitor. If there is no answer or this one is unclear, it will gradually undermine the trust and the cooperative work which this, and any other respectable institution relies upon.
Pedro Aibéo