Interim VC Simon Evans invites members of Convocation to meet and “enrich” communication between the UNE community and Council

why?: There’s a bunch to discuss, including long running disputes over academic and professional staff workloads. There is also disquiet on campus over Chancellor James Harris continuing commitment to former vice chancellor Brigid Heywood’s “Future Fit” strategy  for the university and unhappiness that Acting VC Simon Evans has backed it (CMM August 8, 15).

The university’s professoriate and the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union both have proposals for the meeting to discuss, which are expected to call for a halt to existing plans.

Professor Evans will chair the meeting, for which university management appears to be preparing with trepidation, stating anybody who persists with comments that are unlawful, defamatory, disparaging (for starters) “will be removed.” Plus, the chair can move to end the meeting if protocols are not followed.

when and who gets to go: Convocation includes graduates, past and present FT academics and other staff, “as the by-laws may prescribe”. Quorum is 100 and there’s a Zoom link. It’s on 9.30 Friday and members have to register

and who finds out what was agreed: it won’t be recorded, with minutes going to members who register