UNE is our public university.

UNE exists to provide high quality higher education in our region and around the country through distance ed. UNE is also the backbone of our town - the source of jobs, investment and our student and staff communities.

But UNE is in crisis.

The disgrace of the former Vice Chancellor, the impact of COVID 19 and poorly-considered opportunistic job cuts and the crisis of staff wellbeing identified by the union survery and SafeWork NSW have led to an untenable situation.

Meanwhile, senior management has been enriching themselves and consultants. The disgraced former VC was paid $690,000 in 2021, the year she oversaw more than 150 job losses at UNE. The next highest paid executive at UNE was paid $620,000 in 2021.

The quality of our jobs, our education, our UNE credentials and our public university itself are on the line.

We have an opportunity to change this - to have a real conversation about what our public university could look like if it was run in the public good.

In response to pressure from the Professoriat and the Union, the Interim Vice Chancellor has called a meeting of Convocation. Convocation is a body constituted of key parts of the UNE community, including all staff and alumni. We applaud this move and Professor Evan's willingness to move away from "behind-closed-doors" governance an create open a forum for a real conversation with staff and alumni about the state of UNE.

The National Tertiary Education Union and the UNE professoriate have a set of proposals for convocation. These include measures to:

* Ensure that the people who appointed Brigid Heywood take responsibility for the consequences of that decision and that they will not be responsible for appointing the next Vice Chancellor: including, the resignation of the Chancellor and instituting an an open and democratic process for the appointment of the the next VC

* Ensure that Convocation will continue to take place, to provide a direct means of communication between our university decision makers and the people whom those decisions most impact

* Reestablishing fair, balanced and collegial governance of our university at all levels

* The reconstitution of UNE council to increase the voice of the UNE community, including the appointment of additional staff and alumni representatives

Convocation is our opportunity to have a direct say about the way our university is run.

To hear more about the 'Save UNE' proposals and how you can support them, please join us at an open meeting for all UNE staff, alumni and interested community members on Thursday 1st December at 5:30pm - 7:00pm on Zoom.

To register for the meeting of convocation to be held on Friday 2nd December please click here.