ANU’s Schmidt speaks up for academic freedom, at ANU

Comments from a student who is critical of the government’s asylum seeker policy were dropped from ANU marketing collateral (Emily Baker in the Canberra Times had the story. Which led VC Brian Schmidt to intervene.

ANU prides itself on the principle of academic freedom and I am always proud to see our students standing up for issues they feel strongly about. I am disappointed this happened and everybody has learned from it,” the VC tweeted from his official account last night. To which the ANU College of Law twitter account added. “We made a poor call not publishing a student’s comments in a marketing booklet. We’ve learned from it. We encourage students to speak out on issues they feel are important.”

It could be said a little more loudly than via Twitter, but at least it is said.

Remind you of anything? It reminds CMM of an incident at Murdoch U where a manager chipped an academic for tweeting a photo of students supporting asylum seekers in 2016 because it was political. Acting VC Andrew Taggart backed the students, being photographed wth them and their protesting placard (CMM March 4 2016).

Good that Schmidt and Taggart acted, bit of a worry they had to.


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