NEWS
FASS staff vote against foreshadowed job cuts Nina Dillon Britton and Lara Sonnenschein report. At a meeting of more than 200 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) staff, staff voted by an overwhelming majority against potential job cuts. The motion passed at the meeting calls for the University’s executive management to make up shortfalls by “draw[ing] on and borrow[ing] against the University’s significant financial and physical assets” rather than cutting jobs. The vote follows news that the FASS Heads of Schools had been asked to “propose concrete schoolbased or broader suggestions” to cut 30% of full-time employment. A representative from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) claims that this may indicate Sydney University management are considering staff cuts of up to 30% across the University. A University-wide 30% cut would be equivalent to the loss of 3000 jobs, dwarfing cuts recently announced at UNSW, the University of Melbourne and UTS. “The University of Sydney management must come clean on its plans to cut jobs. Cuts of up to 30% would compromise the ability of the University to fulfil its obligations to provide high quality teaching, research and student support,” states Dr Damien Cahill, Assistant Secretary of the NSW NTEU. “Cuts would be devastating for anyone who loses their job in the middle of the biggest economic downturn in living memory.” The University has rejected that it is currently looking to implement such cuts. “As we’ve flagged with staff and unions over the last month, we are looking at how best to safeguard
Sydney from the ongoing financial impact of this pandemic in a range of different scenarios,” a University spokesperson told Honi Soit. “These are scenarios that may never eventuate. We think it’s too early to predict what will happen in 2021 and if we have to move to measures that will affect our staff we want to be more certain about the numbers. Whatever happens, staff will be consulted first and normal change processes will apply.” The University did not deny that a 30% cut was being considered. In a joint statement, SRC Education Officers Jazzlyn Breen and Jack Mansell have condemned potential cuts.“Unsurprisingly the University’s promises that it would not pursue job cuts were empty,” it states. “In announcing these job cuts indirectly and at the discretion of heads of school, Jagose has again shown utter contempt for staff and students.” Earlier this year, the FASS rolled back an attempt to cull 30% of courses to a “pause” on 8% of courses following opposition from staff and students. Moreover, the proposed FASS cuts come after the recent acknowledgement of systemic underpayment of staff by the University, which may mean the University is liable for millions in back pay. The Australian higher education sector is experiencing its biggest crisis in decades, due in large part to COVID-19 related revenue losses and a failure of the Federal Government to provide the JobKeeper subsidy to public universities.
Education and Social Work School to cut up to 30% of staff Chuyi Wang and Lara Sonnenschein report. In an email sent to all staff in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work (SSESW), Head of School Debra Hayes has announced that a faculty restructure is being planned which may cut up to 30% of all full-time equivalent employment. The decision seems to have been initiated by the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Annamarie Jagose, who has called upon Heads of School to “propose concrete school-based or broader suggestions” to facilitate the aforementioned cuts. One of the suggestions raised by Hayes is for all full-time staff to take one day’s unpaid leave per week, resulting in an overall reduction of employment hours by 20%. This would involve maintaining a full 15 hours of teaching per week, whilst reducing the number of paid research and service hours. The email also suggests alternative solutions are unavailable, citing “the qualifying nature of [a] large suite of degrees and the absence of departments in [the] School” as the reason why cuts are necessary. “If such cuts were to proceed, they would have devastating effects on the livelihoods of staff, and on the kind of teaching and research that the School can perform – thereby affecting many hundreds of students as well,” NTEU USyd Branch President Kurt Iveson said to Honi Soit. “From the NTEU’s perspective, such cuts are both unfair and unnecessary. We maintain that staff
and students should not pay for the pandemic. The university has other options to address pandemic-related revenue decline that do not cut jobs. Indeed, it has already put measures in place to address this year’s revenue decline, so imposing any further cuts on top of those measures is totally unjustified.” SRC Education Officer Jack Mansell told Honi: “This latest announcement is an indication of just how far management is willing to cut from staff and students before they even consider using their own thick piles of cash and property portfolios to pay for the crisis in their marketbased model for higher education.” “Unless we resolve to fight, they will continue to roll out attack after attack on our work and study conditions until there’s nothing left to cut from.” This proposal follows months of attacks on the arts and social sciences at both a campus and federal level. In May, the University proposed cuts to 30% of Arts courses, which was reduced to 8% for Semester 2 after protests by the NTEU and University staff and students. In June, fee hikes were announced by the Morrison government that could see the cost of social work degrees almost double. A nationwide student action to protest the aforementioned changes is taking place on August 28. The Sydney event will be held at Fisher Library at 1pm.
Enviro Collective demands USyd Senate divest Deaundre Espejo reports. During a meeting of the University Senate, the USyd Enviro Collective gathered on campus to protest the university’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. The stunt, which was live-streamed on their Facebook page, saw students dressed as university executives, kicking and destroying a ball painted as the earth. “The university is gambling away our future,” Enviro Collective member Paola Ayre said. In the meeting, the Senate was rumoured to be discussing the implementation of the University’s new sustainability strategy, which is set to launch in September. Honi understands that the first draft of the strategy has no specific targets or requirements for divestment. Co-Environment Officer Shani Patel drew attention to a freedom of
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information request by Fossil Free USYD last year, which found that the University spent $28 million on fossil fuel energy and a further $22.4 million on fossil fuel investments in 2018. “At a time when fires have burned through the planet’s most valuable carbon sinks and a heatwave has swept through the Arctic Circle, the University’s greenwashing has become unbearable,” she said, reading a statement written by Fossil Free USYD Convenor Alison Eslake. She also pointed out how USyd’s sustainability strategy is trailing behind other universities such as UNSW, which is set to divest from fossil fuels by 2025. “No number of green campus initiatives [at USyd] will erase the knowledge that this university is profiting from the continued success
of the fossil fuel industry.” In a media release, the Enviro Collective demanded that the University transition to 100% renewable energy immediately, divest from fossil fuels and weapons manufacturing by 2025, and redirect these funds towards renewable energy investments. They also called for the University to commit to an ethical investment portfolio and implement a more ambitious sustainability strategy — one which includes allocation of sufficient resources and rehiring of staff. The action was part of the Enviro Collective’s ongoing “Grow Back Greener” campaign, as well as a global push for a renewables-led economic recovery in response to COVID-19. This year, the fossil fuel industry experienced a plunge in prices and
consumption, meaning that these investments are no longer financially viable. At the same time, renewables have grown to become a cheaper, cleaner and viable technology. Enviro Collective member, Drew Beacom, condemned how governments and corporations are continuing to push a fossil-fuel led recovery plan in wake of the incoming recession. “We will not sacrifice our futures for the bottom lines of individuals and corporations whose contingency plans for the current climate crisis are to maximise extraction, maximise profits, and maximise destruction,” he said. “Enough is enough. Now is the time for a green recovery, now is the time to grow back greener.” Police and university security were present throughout the action but did not shut it down.
