Our ANU

@ouranu.bsky.social

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Staff campaigning against cuts and poor governance at the Australian National University.

OurANU statement on the resignation of Genevieve Bell Attributable to ourANU, 11 September 2025. ourANU welcomes the Vice Chancellor’s decision to prioritise the university’s best interests. ANU urgently needs new leadership that restores its focus on research, education, and the free dissemination of knowledge. The damage caused by the ‘Renew ANU’ restructure is real and ongoing. It has undermined disciplines, harmed individuals, and diminished the university’s reputation. It must stop. All involuntary redundancies should be cancelled. No amalgamations or disbanding of schools and centres of national significance should proceed. The university must pause, take stock, and begin to repair the harm. Renew ANU is not the work of one individual. It is the product of years of governance failure. There must be accountability for those decisions. The investigations into the ANU governance and leadership culture must continue. Only genuine accountability will allow ANU to reset and rebuild. Across the community and in parliament, there is agreement: ANU cannot move forward without clarity and honesty. Transparency and accountability are the only ways to restore trust. As Senator Katy Gallagher has said, ANU needs an “agreed set of facts.” That requires independent scrutiny of both the university’s finances and the governance arrangements that produced this crisis. Staff and students must be central to this work. We ask all remaining executives to ask themselves if they are the people right for the job of finding new ways to work with the ANU community. An independent review, conducted by a person or panel agreed with the NTEU, should explain how the university’s finances were allowed to deteriorate, assess the failures of governance that enabled it, and outline options for reform. The priority is not simply financial sustainability, but a structure of accountability and participation that prevents these failures from recurring.
Schedule for senate hearing tomorrow. It includes past and present staff elected ANU Council members (Dr Liz Allen, Dr Francis Markham and Mr Millan Pintos-Lopez) at 11.45am. Members of ANU exec are scheduled for 1.30pm. Pdf version of text available here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/UniversityGovernance48/Public_Hearings
Poster with main heading: "Help Reform ANU Governance" and a caption saying "join us today" At the bottom is a "who & how" section that says: "Are you staff, student, alumni, or a member of the public who cares about our national university? If so, and you'd like to participate, then: 1. Complete the survey via the QR code [link in main body of this post] 2. Attend one of our kitchen table conversations by emailing us at: ANUGOVERNANCE@GMAIL.COM 3. Read our briefing paper (link in the survey) to see more options on how to be involved!"
A cartoon showing 3 scenes. Scene 1: person on bicycle carrying a rod, saying "I' about to sack a bunch of people better distract them". Scene 2: person puts rod through spokes of wheel, saying "Do interview with Canberra Times talking about shoes". Scene 3: person has fallen off bike and is holding leg in pain, saying "Why are they talking about my shoes!"
An org chart in ANU branding titled "new College structure from 1 Jan 2026". At the top of the chart is "Chat GPT", below are various acronyms evoking recent ANU CMPs, e.g.: "College for Reputational Implosion and Nous Group Enrichment" or "CRINGE" and "School for Wellness Improvement by Learning Less" or "SWILL"
Poster with image of a loudspeaker. Text reads: “CASS People’s Town Hall. 1-2pm, 15 July 2025. Lecture Theatre 3, Level 5, School of Music. Protest the proposed cuts to CASS and stand in solidarity with our community.”
Image of David Pocock at a townhall event at the ANU. He is standing in front of a slide outlining problems and concerns related to university governance.