At the University Council meeting on January 30, the first meeting in Monash’s history in which there were no student or staff representatives, Council gave the initial go-ahead to hand over Monash’s Gippsland Campus to the University of Ballarat.
Framed as a “proposition”, the University of Ballarat is expected take control of the campus as part of a new “regionally-focussed university” as of January 1st 2014. From the Vice Chancellor Ed Byrne’s global email sent to all Monash staff on February 22 as well as the information provided by the University Administration (see monash. edu/gippsland-future), it is clear that both the Council (in the absence of student and staff reps) and the Uni Admin are very supportive of the idea.
To put things in context, University Council has been considering dumping the Gippsland campus for a number of years, however the proposal did not have the support of student and staff representatives, nor that of the previous Vice Chancellor Richard Larkins.
In his report to Council in 2006, after outlining the importance and benefits of Monash’s regional campus to the Gippsland community, Larkins said:
“Although life would be simpler for the rest of Monash University without Gippsland … we should be looking to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number rather than the least complicated life for the rest of Monash University.
It has been argued that having a regional campus is preventing Monash from excelling in research and from becoming one of the finest universities in the world. I believe that arguments along these lines are a diversion. Gippsland is a small operation in terms of budget and staff numbers and does not impact significantly in a negative sense on the research or teaching performance of the rest of the University. It does however contribute significantly to our values of fairness and engagement and has the potential to contribute much more to our research agenda through engagement with government and regional industries.
Trying to transfer the campus to another university or to downgrade its role from a full university to a university college or pathway program would be enormously unpopular with the local community and government and I believe, a betrayal of our commitment to the staff and students of the campus and to the local community.”
In contrast, the current Vice Chancellor Ed Byrne has failed to bring up any of the above concerns. Where Larkins suggests that removing the Gippsland campus would be a betrayal of what Monash is about, Byrne announced the proposed transfer as “extremely positive news”.
Indeed in his correspondence, Byrne suggested that the University of Ballarat is in a better position to support Gippsland than Monash. This is despite the fact that it is a much smaller university and has far fewer resources. Concerningly in the last few months University of Ballarat has been undertaking substantial course and jobs cuts due to funding shortages.
It seems that the announcement to effectively do away with a Monash campus, while huge and unprecedented, is only the beginning of what a Council without democratically elected student and staff representatives is likely to have in store for us as the year goes on.
If Monash is to follow other universities that have removed elected representatives from their councils, we can expect massive course and staff cuts across all campuses over the year to come. This would subsequently lead to courses becoming more streamlined or discontinued in the interests of maximising profit, often at the expense of ensuring good working conditions and job security for staff and in turn compromising a quality education for students.
In comparison, the University of Melbourne and Deakin University, both of which have reinstated democratically elected student and staff representatives to their respective councils, have not been involved in any campus closures, nor have they expressed intent to undertake any substantial course or job cuts.
Given the above, now more than ever we need to not only sustain but increase pressure on the Monash University Council to appoint democratically elected reps to Council rather than simply appointing student and staff members handpicked by Council itself. For campaign updates and on how you can help go to facebook.com/MonashUniWatch.
