Jobs, Services Cut As Union Laws Bite

The Sunday Age

Sunday October 8, 2006

LIZ PORTER and BRYDIE FLYNN

University life is changing in the wake of the Federal Government's reforms to student unions. Liz Porter and Brydie Flynn report.

ALMOST 300 staff working for student services at Victorian universities have lost their jobs.

On some campuses, free or subsidised legal advice and dentistry have been pruned or dropped altogether. Student advocacy services have been slashed and the production of newspapers cut back.

More than three months after the abolition of compulsory student union membership, a clear picture is beginning to emerge. University life is changing.

"University is more and more like a drop-in centre, where you come for lectures and tutorials - and there is not much in the way of life on campus," said John Schwartz, a senior lecturer in Swinburne's media studies department.

A Sunday Age survey of campus cuts reveals a stark divide between the older and wealthier universities and relative newcomers such as Swinburne and RMIT.

RMIT student union president Dan Thomas said the university had been "gutted from the inside": 140 staff had been made redundant from catering, bookshops, information and equipment hire offices across the university's six campuses. By the end of this year, that figure would rise to 220, he said.

All six students rights officers, whose job is to represent and advise students who are in conflict with the university, were made redundant in July and three new officers employed on reduced hours. The union's budget has dropped from $9.6 million a year to $2.6 million.

The second-hand bookshop had already closed, the union shop is closing and front offices are being staffed by volunteers.

But some universities are being more careful about their "brand". Monash University Student Association president David Taft said Monash and Melbourne universities were promoting the "holistic university experience". They were therefore continuing to subsidise services.

"But at the non-Group of Eight (leading) universities, we are going to see a real truncation of university life - and a deterioration of university services," he said.

However, Mr Taft will announce tomorrow a restructure of union services, with between 10 and 20 redundancies in student services at Monash's Clayton campus.

The secretary of the Melbourne University Student Union, Alex White, said the union had had no staff redundancies and had hired three new staff.

At Swinburne University a skeleton union staff has just produced the first edition of "eswine", an online substitute for student newspaper Swine.

At Victoria University, 20 student services positions have been lost, and the number of student advocates has been cut from 10 to one.

At La Trobe University, the acting director of student services, Michael Torney, said the dental service had been closed.

"We are in the process of making 24 redundancies. And next year, what we did with $7 million, we will have to do with $4 million," he said.

Campus watch

? RMIT: 140 jobs lost, another 80 jobs expected to go by end of year, second-hand bookshop closed, union shop closing.

? Monash: Up to 25 jobs lost between Clayton and Gippsland campuses, funding cut at student newspaper.

? Swinburne: Up to 20 jobs lost, cuts to legal service, emergency loans, clubs and societies.

? Victoria: Up to 20 jobs lost.

? LaTrobe, Bundoora: Up to 24 jobs to be lost by end of year, dental service closed after 30 years.

© 2006 The Sunday Age

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