Macquarie U cuts to continue

VC Dowton got points for fronting a staff meeting on the proposed staff cuts this week – but not enough to convince people of his case for cuts  

The VC has warned a looming deficit requires savings and he plans to break-up the Faculty of Human Sciences, among other moves.

After weeks of staff disquiet, Professor Dowton took questions from sceptical but courteous staff (and less-so students) on why the uni is in deficit and what is to be done. Campus-observers say he stuck to his script on the case for cuts (CMM November 6), which has not and is not, convincing sceptical staff (CMM November 11).

What happens next: While Professor Dowton heard the message from staff he is not for turning and the process for closing Human Sciences and reallocating its academic departments is set to start next week.

This may not be as bad as it sounds, for now. Word is HR is cooperatively on the case to redeploy admin staff from Human Sciences and minimise redundancies. But this might not be so in the new year, where more staff-reducing restructures are feared.


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