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campusreview.com.au
Dr Alison Barnes. Photo: James Croucher/News Corp
Court called off
Union drops UOW litigation.
A
ustralia’s tertiary education union
has dropped legal action against
the University of Wollongong,
after the university’s council approved
the controversial Ramsay Centre Western
civilisation degree in June.
The NTEU, which commenced legal
action in the Supreme Court of NSW against
UOW and its vice-chancellor Professor Paul
Wellings for fast-tracking the Ramsay degree,
said the council’s decision to approve the
degree took “the utility out of litigation” and
“shielded” the vice-chancellor from scrutiny.
“It looks a lot like the university has taken
this action because they know we were right
and there was a real case to answer in court,”
NTEU president Dr Alison Barnes said.
“We initiated the court action against the
university because it didn’t follow its normal
procedures when it fast-tracked approval for
the new course.
“The university bypassed its normal
academic governance processes, which
play a vital role in quality control and are
fundamental to ensuring academic integrity
$31m termination
Alabama uni returns gift, denies abortion link.
T
he University of Alabama has denied that its decision to
return a gift of US$21.5 million ($31 million) had to do with
the donor’s pro-abortion views.
Hugh Culverhouse Jr pledged to donate $26.5 million over
four years and was $5 million short of that target when the
university announced recently that its board of trustees had
decided to return the gift and remove Culverhouse’s name from
its law school.
Prior to this, Culverhouse had urged students to boycott the
school over Alabama’s recently passed abortion ban.
“I expected that speaking out would have consequences, but
I never could have imagined the response from the University
of Alabama,” Culverhouse wrote in an opinion piece for
and quality, and the council has done that
again by making this decision.
“We condemn the council’s decision
because it disregards the overwhelming
majority views of its academic staff and the
broader university community.
“Just because the council’s decision is
legal doesn’t make it the right decision. The
council decision underscores the lengths to
which university managements have gone to
erode the centrality of academic governance
within universities.”
UOW has welcomed the union’s
decision. Wellings said fast track approval is
a “well-established process [that] has been
used regularly by successive UOW vice-
chancellors for more than two decades,
including for approving whole courses".
He added the union's decision “vindicates”
the university’s position.
“I welcome the NTEU’s decision not to
expend further valuable member funds
on this challenge," he said. "The university
can now continue to make rapid progress
establishing this new degree.”
Wellings said he is satisfied with the quality
of the degree and proud to be offering it in a
newly built Liberal Arts School. ■
The Washington Post. “It has been painful to witness administrators
at the university choose zealotry over the wellbeing of its own
students, but it’s another example of the damage this attack on
abortion rights will do to Alabama.”
However, via a statement, the University of Alabama said the
decision was “never about the issue of abortion” and was rather
“always about ending the continued outside interference by the
donor” in the School of Law’s operations.
To back this up, the university released a string of emails that
show a number of requests Culverhouse sent to the school’s
dean, including those surrounding staff appointments and student
admissions, and that his visits to the campus be mostly unrestricted.
In its statement, the university also said chancellor Finis St John’s
decision to return the gift came four days before Culverhouse’s
public comments about abortion.
The attached emails also appear to show Culverhouse asking
for the return of $10 million, but he previously clarified to NPR that
he intended to pay it back over the schedule, rather than have it sit
unused in the university’s coffers.
When asked earlier by NPR why he believed the decision to
return his gift was tied to his stance on abortion, Culverhouse
responded: “First, the timing. Second, the timing. Third, the timing.”
In the interview, Culverhouse said he always intended to be
involved in the school well beyond a name on a stone tablet, and
had made that clear in his speech announcing the gift,.
A university statement that details comments made by St John
to the board of trustees reads: “We will learn from this – and always
remember that we cannot and will not compromise the values of
academic integrity and independent administration at any price.” ■
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