The University of New England has officially welcomed its new Chancellor, Dr Sarah Pearson, but her installation ceremony and this week’s graduation ceremonies have been overshadowed by claims of ongoing student mistreatment at Robb College.
Dr Pearson was installed by The Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales, at an event attended by staff, students, indigenous leaders and dignitaries on the lawns of Booloominbah yesterday. It is the start of three days of celebrations, with UNE’s new Autumn (rather than winter) graduations scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Dr Pearson, who once taught Physics at UNE, has an impressive and diverse background in Australia and internationally in research, innovation and entrepreneurship, investment, economic development and industrial strategy. She said was humbled to be appointed UNE’s 10th Chancellor.
“It’s a privilege to be walking alongside those who are changing the world through learning, teaching, research and powerful partnerships. People who care deeply about our communities, our regions, and the future of Australia,” she said.
“I believe that through our new vision and strategic plan, UNE is crucial to regional development, our future economies and way of life, global diplomacy, and – importantly to me – to ensuring that everyone gets a chance to contribute in our rapidly changing world.”
“I think of UNE as the university of the universal opportunity. Across my work, I am constantly reminded of how giving people a go pays dividends, especially when they are from different backgrounds, with different world views.”
UNE Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Moran, said Dr Pearson was picking up the role of Chancellor at an important time for the University.
“She has been an academic, so she understands the work that continues to underpin the University’s success. Since leaving academia, Dr Pearson has invested her energy and enthusiasm across a variety of corporate and philanthropy roles. Her breadth of experience will be invaluable to UNE as we work over coming years to establish ourselves as the world’s best regional university.”
“Dr Pearson is also deeply committed to contributing to the future prosperity of our regional areas. I look forward to working with the new Chancellor as our University explores how to reinterpret its past success for a challenging but opportunity-rich future.”
However the celebrations were somewhat clouded with another student wellbeing scandal engulfing one of the Colleges.
Following an event alleged to be ‘hazing’ in O-Week, a number of third year students and residential leaders were summarily evicted from Robb College, and have not been allowed to return to their accommodation since. What exactly happened, no one will say.
“They haven’t said anything to us at college, we’ve just heard rumours,” one student said, part of a chorus of frustrated and concerned residents who do not know nor understand why they have been subjected to such a tumultuous start to the year.
The only solid information about the events is in a petition on Change.org alleging the University is mishandling the matter.
The petition alleges the University has taken “punitive and drastic action” that targeted female students – only one of the 13 ejected students was male – and has damaged the reputation of the college and UNE more broadly in their actions.
“The exclusions were immediately enacted without providing any explanation of the allegations made against them, and without any opportunity to respond to them.”
“The University of New England appears in no hurry to conclude their “investigation”, it continues to this day. Their actions of re-advertising the leadership positions, appointing new leaders and the possible reassignment of their accommodation would suggest the University has already made its mind up,” the petition claims.
“These actions, along with a callous indifference to the psychosocial welfare of the students affected by this process – both the excluded accused and the current residents of Robb and other University Colleges – raises many serious questions around procedural fairness, institutional harm caused and the University’s Duty of Care to its students.”
The ongoing ‘investigation’ and lack of information to the Robb College community, or the University more broadly, has been brought into sharp focus with the recent parent’s weekend at the College, and this week’s graduation ceremonies, bringing parents and alumni to town. Parents of those who had been evicted decided to still come to town and meet at a local pub for an alternate dinner, enabling them to support their children and discuss the matter together.
Neither the University nor students subjected to the eviction would comment on the actual events that caused the mass eviction, other than to confirm investigations are ongoing, three months later.
“As a public institution, UNE has legislative obligations around the safety and welfare of students and management of allegations of misconduct,” the University’s spokesperson said.
“To ensure the safety and wellbeing of students, offers of support were made available and are ongoing.”
One student who was unable to find somewhere else to stay was sleeping in their car in the college car park, and was allegedly given no support by the University other than being told to go to Armidale’s small and stretched youth refuge, which has only four beds to cater for most of the Northern Tablelands.
“As the matter is under investigation the University won’t make further comment at this time.”
The UNE Media team specifically and repeatedly refused to confirm or deny that the University has not made any formal communication to students or residents of Robb College specifically, as is claimed by residents.
Robb College did not respond to any questions by deadline, including specific questions about their communication with their residents, and whether the affected students have had their accommodation fees refunded.
UNE has an unfortunate history of not managing welfare issues well, with a 2017 report into sexual assault on Australia’s university campuses finding UNE had the highest rate of sexual assault in the country. Following the national report, then VC Annabelle Duncan commissioned an independent report by the Human Rights Commission into safety in the UNE residential colleges, which identified poor communication by the University, and a lack of understanding of what constituted hazing among students, among the many issues contributing to the poor safety record. UNE has engaged in a number of reforms to take the matter of hazing and sexual assault more seriously since those reports, and it is unclear to what extent the poor communication issues are contributing to the latest incident.
More recently, SafeWork NSW issued compulsory directives to the institution to improve psychosocial safety for staff following an investigation.
The students behind the petition, who remain in Robb College, are calling for more than just a reversal of the allegedly poor and hasty decision, but want systemic change to prevent it from happening again. This includes calling for a complete review of the Residential College Code of Conduct and Student Behavioural Misconduct Policy, and for UNE to commission an independent review of its student disciplinary processes and emergency exclusion procedures.
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