USyd Administration Collaborated with Police to Suppress Student Protests

Oscar Chaffey reports.

A series of emails from May between members of the University administration and NSW police have emerged today showing the University soliciting and supporting police efforts to quash student protests against staff job and course cuts. Vice Chancellor Michael Spence had previously stated in September this year that he was “shocked” by the police presence at student rallies on the 28th of August and 16th of September. In an email to student organisers in September, he appeared to show sympathy yet maintained that the police were independently enforcing the public health order limiting outdoor gatherings with a common purpose to less than 20 people. 

The emails were obtained by Adam Adelpour under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 and published to the public Facebook group “Staff & Students Say NO CUTS”. Adelpour, an activist and USyd alumni has been formally charged for his involvement in recent demonstrations. The emails appear to show the University’s Protective Services Manager, Cheryl Wharton, actively pursuing police involvement after a rally on the 21st of May. Wharton shared the University’s CCTV footage of protesters outside Fisher Library and in the Quadrangle and enquired whether the rally constituted a breach of social distancing regulations. Emails sent under the GIPA Act have been redacted under clauses 3(a) and (b) but appear to show unredacted images of students' faces. Further emails show Wharton coordinating information with the police to suppress a further protest, on May 29th, organised by students in the Education Action Group and members of staff. In total, the emails directly contradict the public statements of the Vice Chancellor and amount to a proactive effort on the behalf of the University to invite police onto campus.

One of the emails released by Staff and Students Say NO CUTS.

Over the last several months, the Education Action Group, along with other student activist groups around Australia have organised demonstrations to protest staff and course cuts justified by the loss of international student revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is despite internal projections of a 47 million increase in 2020 revenue compared to 2019 and the substantial assets upon which the University could borrow against. 

Further, the demonstrations oppose new federal legislation that will double course costs for many degrees in the humanities. Yesterday, Centre Alliance Senator Sterling Griff announced that he would support the Government's higher education legislation, with a range of caveats, and allow its passage through the Senate as early as this week. The University has publicly opposed the bill; indeed, on September 10th the Vice Chancellor made a submission to the Senate’s Education and Employment Legislation Committee inveighing against the Bill. Nevertheless, the University administration appears to have collaborated with the police to suppress demonstrations against the Bill on campus.

One such rally, on the 23rd of September, was held in a decentralised fashion in groups of less than 20. Student demonstrators were supported by a “teachout” organised by staff members of the NTEU that was protected by the University’s special exemption to the public health order for teaching. The demonstration, which eventually centralised and obstructed parts of traffic on City Road, was broken up and moved on by riot police and police horses. At the rally, 21 students were issued with $1000 fines amid a significant escalation of the police response to student protests on campus.