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The interim vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne (UoM) says pro-Palestine sit-ins on campus led to the institution “quite sharply” changing its protest policies and that further restrictions could arise.
Prof Glyn Davis appeared before the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion on Wednesday, which is examining the lived experiences of Jewish students and academics, including the response of universities.
Davis was asked whether he agreed that a pro-Palestine encampment established in ۲۰۲۴, which called for the UoM to cut ties with Israel and weapons companies, created “fear and unsafety” among staff and students.
He said he did, and there were “regular discussions” about the camp with Victoria police, who maintained unless a law was broken they would not intervene.
“The encampment on the South Lawn, it was judged, did not override any of those concerns and therefore the university would not seek action against the encampment,” he said. “That came at the end of a profound policy discussion.”
Davis said the university’s aim “at every point” was to end the protests without violence. “We had all seen what happened in the United States and in other places where these things had gone terribly wrong,” he said. “Nobody wants a confrontation.”
Davis confirmed misconduct including “heckling and harassment” occurred during the encampment but the incidents were “not claimed to be antisemitic” and didn’t breach the UoM’s racism policy.
He said the situation escalated after a sit-in at the UoM’s Arts West building in May ۲۰۲۴ and the occupation of Jewish physics professor Steven Prawer’s office months later in October.
On Tuesday, the commissioner heard from Prawer, who said the university needed to show it didn’t “tolerate misbehaviour” after the expulsion of two students who were part of an occupation of his office was overturned. Prawer also said the identity of his protesters should be revealed for his “protection”.
Davis said the atmosphere on campus “changed dramatically” after the incidents and the university’s response to protests also altered “quite sharply”. UoM has prohibited outsiders from protesting on campus, banned camping onsite and protesting indoors. Students or staff who breach the new rules risk disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion.
Last year, the state’s deputy information commissioner found the UoM breached Victoria’s Privacy and Data Protection Act when it used its wifi network to surveil students and staff holding the sit-in. Davis said the university had revisited its wifi policies and was now providing clear warning when it was being used and for what purpose.
Davis flagged further reforms to the UoM’s rules on postering could be on the way, following a request from Prawer to identify organisations or individuals who authored posters, after offensive material was distributed around campus and in his office.
Davis said it “beggared belief” an academic could be treated how Prawer was, and whether to require author identification on posters was a “dilemma” that hadn’t been settled.
“There’s an assumption that we will make a series of policy changes in the light of this royal commission and the other things that are under way,” he said.
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“If you’re not prepared to put your name to a statement, I don’t think academic or freedom of speech applies.”
But he disagreed that the identity of the ۲۰ protesters who occupied Prawer’s office should be revealed, lest it “make a stain on the rest of their lives”.
Davis appeared alongside the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales vice-chancellors on Wednesday.
The higher education sector has been in the spotlight since ۲۰۲۴, first with a parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities which recommended universities adopt a definition of antisemitism that “closely aligns” with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition.
After the Bondi beach terror attack last year, the federal government also established an antisemitism education taskforce and backed the special envoy Jillian Segal’s plan to combat antisemitism, which included specific actions for the university sector. Key to the plan was a report card grading universities on their response to antisemitism and how well they deal with protests.
The National Tertiary Education Union’s UoM branch president, David Gonzalez, said Jewish students and staff had an “absolute right to be safe” which should not be “negotiable”.
“But neither should academic freedom,” he said on Wednesday. “Antisemitism is real and must be taken seriously. It is precisely because it is serious that the term must not be stretched into a political weapon used to silence criticism of a state or its military conduct.
“The answer to harassment is to address harassment. The answer to discrimination is to address discrimination. It is not to give university management sweeping new powers to police political thought.”
