University of Wollongong Council to consider action on academic sacking
8 June 2001
At its meeting today, the University of Wollongong Council will consider a series of resolutions relating to the Vice-Chancellor's actions in summarily dismissing an academic staff member.
On 26th February, Vice-Chancellor Gerard Sutton sacked Associate-Professor Ted Steele for serious misconduct, after he publicly criticised assessment procedures in his department. The dismissal was without reference to the procedures for hearing allegations of serious misconduct as set out in Clause 61 of the University of Wollongong Enterprise Agreement (Academic Staff).
The National Tertiary Education Union, which represents academic and general staff at the University of Wollongong, is prosecuting the University for breach of its enterprise agreement. NTEU President Dr Carolyn Allport said that the breach put at risk the employment conditions of all staff.
`The serious misconduct procedures offer staff protection against arbitrary punitive action. As such, they are the best defence of intellectual freedom,' she said. `If the Vice-Chancellor thinks that he can bypass these provisions in the case of a staff member who expresses unpopular or contentious views, then there is no intellectual freedom at the University of Wollongong.'
Council will receive a report on an on-line petition (which will continue to run). Nearly 5000 people have signed the petition calling on the University to ensure that all staff members - including Dr Steele - receive due process.
Council will also be given an open letter endorsed by a number of well-known Australians protesting against the Vice-Chancellor's actions. They include ACTU President Sharan Burrow, composer Roger Woodward, novelists Jean Bedford and Peter Corris, and eminent scientists Professor Frank Fenner and Professor Ian Lowe, Liberty Victoria President Chris Maxwell and Paul James, President of the Association for the Public University.
`The signatories to the open letter represent a cross-section of Australian intellectual life, but they all have in common a commitment to civil liberties and intellectual freedom,' said Dr Allport. `I hope that the University of Wollongong Council - and its Vice-Chancellor - gives serious attention to their concerns.'