Students Occupy Admin Building to Demand No Course or Staff Cuts

Protestors occupy the F23 Building.

Ellie Stephenson reports.

Around 20 students have occupied the F23 administration building to demand senior management reverse course and staff cuts, particularly the planned cuts to the School of Medical Sciences. 

In a statement from the students, they committed not to leave the building until: “the proposed cuts to the revised change proposal to the School of Medical Sciences are fully reversed and the University commits to no cuts to staff and courses”. 

Students chanted “Our education is under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!” and directed cries of “Shame on you” at Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence.

The School of Medical Science is proposing significant cuts to courses to departments including pathology and physiology. The students argued that the cuts were being justified “by the smokescreen of COVID-19 revenue loss.” They referred to recent revelations that the University is still in surplus and actually gained revenue compared to last year. In fact, USyd’s revenue in 2020 will be only $98 million less than its initial forecast and its total revenue has been announced as $1.756 billion. 

The students described the cuts as “disgraceful” and noted that “the staff feedback in response to these management decisions have been overwhelmingly negative”.

Last week, the School of Medical Science Revised Change Proposal saw small wins for the student protest movement, with cuts to pharmacology stopped and 18% of jobs saved. This comes after protracted student and staff protests in recent months, which have opposed austerity measures from USyd management. Students have directed particular criticism at the cuts to medical science given the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Another rally against the cuts is planned for Tuesday 3 November.