Protests

The recommendations in the Hodgkinson External Review Report for the University of Sydney Senate, commissioned after protests mid-year, are as follows. The University has resolved to accept the recommendationsin principle. 

• The prohibition on encampments as a form of protest on any University campus should be maintained as part of the current review of the Campus Access Policy. 
• The prohibition against any form of protest within a building on the University campus, and the impeding of access to and exit from any building by protest, be maintained following the review of the Campus Access Policy. 
• The University prohibit any student from addressing those present in a lecture, seminar or tutorial prior to the commencement of the lecture, seminar or tutorial on any subject matter. A breach of the prohibition may be considered misconduct. 
• The University should hold Organisations responsible if posters identifying them or an event which they are involved in are put up on campus in breach of the Advertising on Campus Policy. 
• That the University develop a range of sanctions including the withholding of funding to an Organisation which can be imposed on an Organisation found to be in breach of University policy. 
• Where an Organisation is repeatedly acting in breach of University policy, consideration should be given to precluding its office and position holders (or some of them) from being eligible to hold an office in that or any other Organisation receiving University funding. 
• The University should continue to support its review of its complaints procedures with a view to a complete overhaul and simplifying every aspect of it. The review of its complaints procedures should consider establishing a single central office to receive and process all complaints. 
• The University should strengthen existing mechanisms for alternative dispute resolution processes, such as mediation, as part of its review of the complaints procedures. Complainants should be advised, where appropriate, that alternative dispute resolution is an option available to them. 
• The University should publish a regular report to the Senate containing the number of complaints received, the nature of the complaints, the number of complaints resolved since the last report and the timeframe for the resolution of outstanding complaints. The information contained in the report should be presented in such a way that it does not identify the individuals mentioned in the complaints. 
• The University should publish a public report that identifies the range of penalties imposed in matters where a breach of University policy has been substantiated. 
• The University should amend its policies and procedures to make clear that each person utilising a word or phrase is responsible at the time the word or phrase is used to identify to the audience the context in which it is used. (New Civility Rule) 
• A failure to conduct a lecture, seminar, tutorial or a meeting which takes place within any of the University’s facilities in accordance with the New Civility Rule should be recognised as misconduct and treated accordingly. 
• The University’s policies be amended to make clear that Organisations are responsible for conducting all meetings held by them using University facilities in compliance with the Civility Principles. Where an Organisation breaches this requirement, it will be liable to sanction for breach of the University’s policy. 
• The University policies should be amended to require Organisations, when conducting a meeting using University facilities, to comply with the University’s Civility Principles. 
• In order to hold an office or position within an Organisation the persons holding that office or in that position must have completed the Engaging with Civility module. 
• Where an Organisation permits a person to hold an office or act in a position, and that person has not completed the Engaging with Civility module, both the Organisation and individual should be held accountable. Where a person holds an office or occupies a position without completing the Engaging with Civility module, the person's breach of the policy would amount to misconduct. 
• An Organisation should be held responsible for a breach of the policy where it permits a person who has not completed the Engaging with Civility module to hold an office or occupy a position and subject to sanction which could include the withdrawal of their funding in whole or in part. 
• The policy review presently being undertaken and the Policy Working Group should be supported with a view to achieving a review of all of the University’s policies and the simplification of them. 
• The University should approach both the NSW Police and the Federal Police with a view to entering into with them formal protocols which set out how they can assist the University if the need arises. 
• That attaching banners to the footbridges be prohibited.