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<TITLE>[sademocraticrights] Fw: Andrew Bolt article used to discipline staff member</TITLE>
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<DIV>I thought members would be interested in this </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Chris<BR></DIV>
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<P><FONT size=2>----- Original Message -----<BR>From: "Robert Austin"
<robert.austin@rmit.edu.au><BR>To:
<rwaustin64@hotmail.com><BR>Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 4:19
PM<BR>Subject: Andrew Bolt article used to discipline staff
member<BR><BR><BR>PLEASE CIRCULATE!!<BR><BR>Andrew Bolt article used to
discipline staff member, whose employment was<BR>threatened for rescheduling
classes in support of anti-VSU National Day of<BR>Action:<BR><BR>Dear
colleagues,<BR><BR>Last week, a staff member in International and Community
Studies (with which<BR>Social Science and Planning is about to merge*.) had
his employment<BR>threatened by the Head of School for rescheduling classes on
the day of the<BR>August 10th National Union of Students National Day of
Action to allow<BR>students to attend an action in support of their student
union.<BR><BR>This staff member is on probation, and despite receiving a
probation report<BR>that indicated that his research was "excellent and goes
beyond reasonable<BR>expectation", and that the Head of School commended him
on his teaching and<BR>engagement with students and other universities, his
employment was<BR>threatened due to his behaviour in rescheduling the classes.
An article in<BR>which right-wing polemicist Andrew Bolt named the staff
member, Robert<BR>Austin and RMIT NTEU branch president Jeanette Pierce, was
produced in the<BR>probation meeting as evidence of the lack of collegiality
of the<BR>probationary staff member.<BR><BR>Pasted below is the text of the
email sent to NTEU members encouraging them<BR>to cancel classes or not
penalise students for attending the August 10th<BR>NDA. Robert Austin did not
cancel, but instead re-scheduled the classes. The<BR>aforementioned article
attacking Robert and Jeanette came exactly a week<BR>after an article
attacking RMIT academic Dr Robin Goodman, in which RMIT<BR>staff Professors
Tom Nairn and Mary Kalantzis are also derided. Both<BR>articles are attached
below.<BR><BR>It should concern every staff member in RMIT, every union
member, and every<BR>supporter of the important functions and representation
provided by student<BR>unions that this kind of material can be used to
effectively discipline a<BR>staff member - that facilitating student
self-activity by rescheduling<BR>classes to maximise participation in this
rally is considered part of an<BR>attitude problem that needs to be rectified
on pain of termination of<BR>employment.<BR><BR>Please email your support for
Robert to RMIT NTEU branch president, Jeanette<BR>Pierce,
(Jeanette.Pierce@rmit.edu.au) Student Union president Sridaran<BR>Vijayakumar
and myself, Liz Thompson, and please email the Vice Chancellor,<BR>Margaret
Gardner, at vc@rmit.edu.au, in?sisting that she act to defend<BR>Robert's
employment from politically-motivated attacks from either in or<BR>outside the
university.<BR><BR>Please email me directly if you wish to offer your support
or assistance.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR><BR>Liz Thompson
<x02779@ems.rmit.edu.au><BR><BR>Spanish 1
student<BR>__________________________________________<BR><BR>"Dear
members,<BR><BR>August 10th National Day of Action against Voluntary Student
Unionism:<BR><BR>On August 10th, TAFE and university students around the
country will be<BR>taking action against Voluntary Student Unionism,
legislation that will<BR>silence student unions and take away the organised
political voice of the<BR>student body. This legislation also threatens the
jobs of thousands of union<BR>members, including those in the NTEU. The NTEU
and the National Union of<BR>Students are asking staff to cancel classes for
the afternoon or not<BR>penalise students for non-attendance on that day, and
also to come along to<BR>the rally in the city starting at 2pm at the State
Library. This follows on<BR>from our EBA reportback and update starting from
12pm, where we will discuss<BR>the August 10th day of action, our EBA and
upcoming events such as Open Day<BR>and the next student day of action on
August 25th.<BR><BR>Members are encouraged to attend the NUS national day of
action starting at<BR>the State Library at 2pm. Students will be meeting in
Bowen Street from<BR>1pm."<BR><BR>Closed doors and
minds<BR><BR>17aug05<BR><BR> SPEAKING of university group-think, I must
apologise to RMIT University<BR>students.<BR><BR> Outraged by my column
last week, many social sciences students have written<BR>to say I have them
all wrong.<BR><BR>Their e-mails typically went like this: "How dare you say we
all think alike<BR>on global warming. Anyway, it's all true and only you
fascists won't<BR>believe. Signed collectively: Jared, Jenny and
James."<BR><BR>Well, something like that, honest. Read some of them for
yourself on my<BR>forum.<BR><BR>So I must say sorry.<BR><BR>I should have made
even clearer that I don't blame you, dear students, for<BR>parroting the
popular line. It's the teachers, as I thought I'd explained.<BR><BR>Oddly
enough, I now have another example of how some RMIT staff seem to me<BR>to
confuse teaching with political preaching.<BR><BR>Last week, the head of the
university's branch of the National Tertiary<BR>Education Union, Jeanette
Pierce, sent an email urging staff to ask students<BR>to protest the Howard
Government's plan to scrap compulsory union fees for<BR>students.<BR><BR>They
should "speak to students in (their) classes about the proposed<BR>legislation
and its affects (sic)", she instructed. What, are lectures now<BR>recruitment
sessions for union activists?<BR><BR>At least one lecturer went even
further.<BR><BR>Robert Austin, head of the Spanish courses, asked students in
emails to join<BR>last Wednesday's protests, adding none would be penalised
for not turning up<BR>to their regular classes on that day.<BR><BR>In fact,
those who did turn up were the ones who seemed penalised.<BR><BR>They found
the doors shut and their teacher banned from teaching. They'd<BR>wasted their
time.<BR><BR>The lessons they missed will be rescheduled for those who have
free time to<BR>spare, but a line has been crossed.<BR><BR>It's bad enough
that lecturers preach their politics at students who come to<BR>learn
something else.<BR><BR>But to dragoon them into rallies by shutting the doors
to their classrooms<BR>seems to me on the bullying side of persuasion. Can't
students choose to<BR>reject such rallies, and the politics of them, and keep
studying instead?<BR><BR>Or are the staff of RMIT now so heavily politicised
that none are left to<BR>say such preaching is heavy-handed?<BR><BR>To dare
say so publicly, I mean. After all, academic group-think has its<BR>victims
among the staff as well.<BR><BR>bolta@heraldsun.com.au<BR><BR>Gospel, but no
truth<BR><BR>Andrew Bolt<BR><BR>10aug05<BR><BR>AN email to students at RMIT
University last week shows again that too many<BR>teachers have become
preachers instead.<BR><BR>The result? The students get the cancerous notion
that having the right<BR>opinions counts for more than having the right
facts.<BR><BR>The email was sent to an RMIT student list from the work
computer of Dr<BR>Robin Goodman, postgraduate course co-ordinator of the
university's<BR>environment and planning program.<BR><BR>"Climate change
rally, Melbourne -- notify all networks!" it enthused.<BR><BR>"At 3:30 pm on
Friday 19 August, we will be gathering on Parliament steps to<BR>protest the
expansion of Hazelwood, Australia's most polluting power station<BR>(located
in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria) and to call for more support
of<BR>renewable energy, and a greater effort at energy
efficiency.<BR><BR>"We'll hold windmills (template attached) and sunflowers as
symbols of<BR>renewable energy."<BR><BR>And, Goodman's email went on, these
sunflower-carrying protesters would then<BR>brightly "walk through the city
streets . . . talking to the people we meet<BR>about Hazelwood, climate change
and renewable energy".<BR><BR>In fact, "some of us will go to the City Loop
train stations and tram stops<BR>through the city, thanking and encouraging
people for taking public<BR>transport, and spreading the word about Hazelwood
further".<BR><BR>They're on my tram? Back off, scary flower people!<BR><BR>Is
there something about this green strategy that reminds you of the
Hare<BR>Krishna movement, or some other be-saved cult?<BR><BR>Of course,
Goodman is entitled in her free time to pursue her pet causes,<BR>like any
good citizen.<BR><BR>Plenty of her RMIT colleagues do just that already,
winning the university a<BR>right-on reputation among the lip-curl Left. Prof
Mary Kalantzis, for<BR>instance, also head of the Australian Council of Deans
of Education, gave a<BR>famous lecture in which she said "in its fundamental
shape" Australia's past<BR>"is not dissimilar to Nazi Germany's".<BR><BR>Tom
Nairn, associate director of RMIT's Globalism Institute, wrote in
the<BR>London Review of Books of the "suicidal depression" he'd found at
the<BR>re-election "by zombies" of the "zombie chieftain John Howard", given
"the<BR>scoundrel character of the Liberal regime".<BR><BR>But Goodman is not
quite so free to preach like this when she uses academic<BR>resources and her
academic position to appeal to students taking her social<BR>science
courses.<BR><BR>After all, she is urging those students to demonstrate on one
side of a<BR>highly contentious issue -- and the side that does not have many
facts in<BR>its support. In doing so, she risks seeming to want them to show
they not<BR>only back her "facts", but her opinions. That's not teaching, but
preaching.<BR><BR>GOODMAN is asking students to protest the Bracks
Government's plan to let<BR>Victoria's biggest power station start digging up
a fresh supply of coal so<BR>it doesn't have to close in just four years,
taking 20 per cent of our<BR>base-load electricity with it.<BR><BR>Losing
Hazelwood would just hurt us hard, especially now that we're already<BR>short
of electricity.<BR><BR>But apparently the issue is simple for Goodman. The
coal-fired Hazelwood<BR>pumps out carbon dioxide, which green groups swear is
heating the world to<BR>hell. To save the Earth, they say, such plants must
close.<BR><BR>So much of this is debatable, as I wrote last week. Not all
scientists are<BR>sure man-made gasses are heating up the world, and those who
are can't agree<BR>how hot we'll get and how much we're to blame -- or even
whether warming<BR>would be so bad.<BR><BR>But this much is clear: Hazelwood
heats up the world about as much as<BR>piddling into Bass Strait melts
icebergs. You'd shut Hazelwood only if you<BR>cared more about green values
and gestures than science and results.<BR><BR>But, where experts are wise to
doubt, Goodman's students seem encouraged to<BR>be sure. Never mind the facts,
children, demonstrate your opinion.<BR><BR>Perhaps I am wrong about this,
given some students speak highly of Goodman.<BR>Indeed, I'm sure she allows
students to make up their own minds on the given<BR>facts, and wouldn't dream
of giving them better marks for demonstrating -- <BR>even if that may
seem to some her unintended message.<BR><BR>But when I emailed her for an
explanation of such sort, I received no reply.<BR>Correction: I got an email
from one of her colleagues, Associate Professor<BR>Trevor Budge, which read
simply: "Ask him if he is aware of any rally's<BR>[sic] disputing and
protesting against climate change because you also want<BR>to send your
students along to them." Ho ho.<BR><BR>But this just supports what RMIT's
course descriptions suggest: Goodman's<BR>green part of the university, at
least, is more for believers of the gospel,<BR>than seekers of the
truth.<BR><BR>RMIT tells students that its Bachelor of Social Science
(Environment) course<BR>is ideal for "people who are anxious about problems
like global warming,<BR>loss of biodiversity and pollution (and want to) be
part of the solution".<BR><BR>Of course, the students won't actually study the
science and learn there's<BR>perhaps little to worry about, after all. In
fact, few seem even to want to.<BR><BR>As RMIT concedes: "The course) is
chosen by many who wish to study<BR>environmental issues but not environmental
science beyond a basic level of<BR>understanding necessary for conversing with
scientists."<BR><BR>And basic is right. The Year 12 cut-off for such courses
-- not only at<BR>RMIT -- is woefully low, attracting drifters,
salvation-seekers and, yes,<BR>activists already sure of the
truth.<BR><BR>Says RMIT: "The majority of the intake has, however, been
non-school<BR>leavers. Some, but not all, of these individuals were previously
involved in<BR>the environmental movement. Several started but did not
complete other<BR>university courses because their hearts were not in
them.<BR><BR>"They chose RMIT Environment because they wanted to be on the
pathway to<BR>doing something meaningful with their lives, making a
difference, etc."<BR><BR>That difference, by the way, almost always involves
them telling someone<BR>else -- usually the government -- what to do, rather
than doing it<BR>themselves.<BR><BR>Yes, this seems a school for activists --
for those who want to push their<BR>opinions, using your money, rather than be
pushed themselves by the facts.<BR><BR>HOW sadly widespread is this
phenomenon, infecting so much of teaching<BR>today.<BR><BR>Just this year, the
head of the NSW English Teachers Association even blamed<BR>fellow teachers
for not preaching well enough to make former students vote<BR>for Labor
instead of the lying Howard Government.<BR><BR>"What does it mean for us and
our ability to create a questioning, critical,<BR>ethical citizenry that that
kind of deception is rewarded?" Wayne Sawyer<BR>stormed.<BR><BR>But do Sawyer
and his kind really want what they say? Better ask instead<BR>what it means
that so many teachers seem not to want students willing to<BR>think for
themselves -- and armed with the facts to do
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