Resolutions from the joint student-staff meeting at La Trobe on
On 25 July 2012 students and staff held a protest meeting against cuts to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The following resolutions of the La Trobe University Student Union, the Bendigo Student Union and the National Tertiary Education Union were carried unanimously.
LTSU-BSA Resolution
- Students vehemently oppose any cuts to our education. Why are we paying more and getting less than any students in contemporary times? La Trobe students demand no cuts to our education.
- Students are angry that the OCIS, supporting information and meetings have all been focused upon the budget, infrastructure and redundancies, and with a total disregard for a student perspective.
- Students are outraged by senior management’s lack of insight and understanding in the cultural implications of these cuts, and their inability to measure a Faculty’s contribution to the institution as a whole in anything other than monetary terms.
- Given that this restructure was announced in the middle of exams and the fact that consultations have taken place during mid-semester break when most students are away, we demand that the consultation period be extended to 31st August.
Failure to meet these demands will result in a continuation of an aggressive campaign against cuts to our education.
Moved: Anthony Hayes
Seconded: Helen Morrison
Passed Unanimously
Joint Resolution: NTEU-LSTU-BSA
- We rebuke the University management for its failure to provide complete and/or accurate information at the start of the FHuSS consultation process.
- We deplore the lack of a collegial process in developing the OCIS document.
- We are dismayed by the lack of vision in the OCIS. The OCIS is concerned primarily with shedding 45FTE staff and balancing the budget, and does not include any real plan for renewal, which will be devastating for the Faculty’s future.
- We call upon the university to give serious consideration to our commitment to 468 existing HDR students within the faculty who require adequate supervision, and to allow sufficient staffing resources for maintaining and building upon this HDR intake in coming years.
- We call on senior management to recognise the fundamental importance of the humanities and social sciences in cross-faculty teaching and research, which is vital for the university’s future.
Moved: NTEU La Trobe Branch Committee
Seconded: John Tebbutt
Passed Unanimously
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