Following from the University of Sydney Association of Professors (USAP) media release circulated via AAUP on 14/10/2024, an article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) on the 15/10/2024 ‘Governing body backs Sydney Uni boss amid calls for resignation’. This was followed by a separate SMH editorial on 16th of October, ’Small minds are opposed to reform at Sydney Uni’.
Notably, the editorial made a number of unjustified and damning statements against the USAP as a group, as well as against our President personally, Professor Manuel Graeber. These adverse statements were made without examination or consideration of USAP’s substantial concerns, or of the evidence that USAP has amassed to substantiate our position.
Publication of the opinions expressed in the SMH editorial without balanced consideration of USAP’s concerns, seems out of keeping with expected journalistic standards, and I prepared the below letter responding to the SMH editorial on behalf of the USAP. My letter was submitted to the SMH Letters page for publication on 17/10/2024, but has not yet appeared in press. It is doubtful that it ever will.
The letter submitted to the SMH is copied below for your consideration.
Letter Submitted to the Sydney Morning Herald 17/10/2024:
The SMH editorial ‘Small minds are opposed to reform at Sydney Uni’, makes unjustified assumptions. Council members of the University of Sydney Association of Professors (USAP) are assumed to: have narrow and unaccomplished professional experience; be academic snobs; be engaged in ‘payback’; and to have ‘small minds’. The USAP President Professor Manuel Graeber is also assumed to be guilty of academic misconduct. These assumptions are made without examining evidence demonstrating Professor Graeber’s probity, or USAP’s case. We see management’s charges against Professor Graeber as trumped-up, similar to charges against other academics who dare to speak truth to management’s power. Vice Chancellor Scott has apparently ignored irrefutable evidence of serious improbity and staff abuse by members of his management team, hence our call for new management. The editorial wrongly concludes that USAP objects to needed reforms. That is not the case. We seek profound reform of poor management that undermines the University’s societal role. After all, who else but the USAP professoriate, should defend the public interest against a management imposed culture of fear and intimidation? SMH should not join the Vice Chancellor’s office in ignoring legitimate fact-based concerns, or in spreading management propaganda. The public deserves better.
Professor Hans Zoellner
On behalf of the Council of the University of Sydney Association of Professors