Students on October 13 against the University of Sydney鈥檚 (USyd) plans to move the Gender and Cultural Studies (GCS) Department into the School of Social and Political Sciences.
The cuts could mean GCS courses will be merged with other disciplines, such as sociology.
The speak-out, organised by the 聽(SUEAG) and , heard from several speakers including Ell Haber, one of the campaign鈥檚 organisers, Tom Williams from SUEAG, Rory Larkins from the Save USyd Arts campaign and Scarlett Franks, a GCS Graduate and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences staff member in social research.
Haber said the cuts would 鈥渓ead to further lost casual jobs [and] would just put power into upper management鈥檚 hands to supervise content that we should be in charge of.鈥 Larkins said the fight against these cuts was part of a broader fight against cuts across the university and against 鈥渁 corporate management whose sole concern is growing their surpluses [and] a federal government which hikes up fees and cuts our funding鈥.
Management released the proposed changes to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)聽in a on September 16. It came just days after Vice Chancellor Mark Scott the university had underpaid casual employees by $12.75 million between 2014 and 2020.
Several days before that, the university announced it 4000 casual workers, many of whom effectively teach full-time hours at the university, into permanent employees.
The cuts are being pushed despite the fact that FASS is projected to post a record this year. 鈥淭he university is not just scraping by; it is a lucrative business for those who run it,鈥 said Larkins.聽
A revised Draft Change Proposal for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is on October 20.
Meanwhile, the Sydney University Education Action Group has called a on October 27. The motion being proposed at the meeting includes supporting the National Tertiary Education Union鈥檚 log of claims against management and building a 鈥渕ass campaign against all university cuts鈥.