BY MARGARET PERROT
WOLLONGONG — The sacking of Dr Ted Steele from Wollongong University has attracted a great deal of media attention in the past month. Much less well known is the university's treatment of 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly journalist and anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Jim Green.
In 1997 the university's Science and Technology Studies (STS) department forwarded Green's name to the vice-chancellor, Gerard Sutton, for consideration for an honorary fellowship. Appointments such as these facilitate collaboration between the recipient and other staff and students on a fairly informal basis; as such, they are rarely controversial, nor are they competitive.
Sutton rejected the application because of Green's alleged "inappropriate and unauthorised use of the university's name". Green used the university letterhead on a handful of covering letters in 1997, to which were attached summaries of his PhD thesis concerning the proposed replacement of the nuclear research reactor in the Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights.
The covering letters made it clear that the research was Green's, and did not state or imply that the university had a formal position on the matter, yet he was accused of expressing his views "in a way that would indicate that they reflect the University of Wollongong's formal position".
"Academics at Wollongong Uni have differing views on this matter", says Green. "My use of the letterhead was either a complete non-issue, or a trivial breach of protocol. Such protocols are poorly defined, as the university's director of personnel and finances has acknowledged, and they are poorly understood by teaching staff and postgraduate students."
Another of Green's "crimes" was to use the university as a postal address, rather than his home address, because of repeated examples of thuggish behaviour by supporters of the plan for a new reactor at Lucas Heights. Green was also held responsible for being associated with the university on a leaflet which he had no role in producing and has never even seen!
"Sutton never gave me a chance to defend myself against these ridiculous allegations", Green told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly. "And he ignored requests to meet with me and the then head of the STS department to resolve the matter."
In a letter dated December 1, 1998, Sutton "accepted" Green's explanations for the above-mentioned incidents. But the application for an honorary fellowship was again rejected, this time on the grounds that Green's academic standing was "not yet sufficient to warrant the granting of honorary academic status". However, people with comparable academic records have been granted honorary fellowships, and Sutton has repeatedly ignored requests to explain this apparent inconsistency.
In the December 1998 letter, Sutton refers to Green's "profile with respect of nuclear disarmament and the debate over the future of the nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights".
It seems reasonable to ask whether Sutton's actions may have been influenced by the close links between Wollongong University and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), operator of the Lucas Heights reactor. The links are pervasive — an article in the March 2, 1999 Illawarra Mercury quoted an ANSTO officer describing the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor plant as "almost an extension of the Wollongong University campus".
The links include financial contributions. For example, ANSTO contributed $100,000 towards the university's mass spectrometer, according to the article. And the links go right to the top: the chief executive of ANSTO is an emeritus professor from Wollongong University. According to the Illawarra Mercury, Sutton used to work at the Lucas Heights nuclear plant. However, a long-serving ANSTO scientist disputes this, and Sutton himself has ignored requests to clarify the point.
Did Sutton work at Lucas Heights and if so has this influenced his decisions? Has he been influenced by the extensive links between Wollongong University and ANSTO? Shouldn't the application to grant Green an honorary fellowship be assessed independently of Sutton in light of these concerns? Sutton refuses to answer these questions.
Green says the university's treatment of him is hypocritical: "The university has a media unit which promotes the research and accomplishments of its staff and postgraduate students. But it seems that critics of the ANSTO or other corporate partners and sponsors of the university are treated very differently. If I was to take the university's bizarre edicts literally, I would have to say I completed a PhD thesis, and have been working on a contract basis as a lecturer and tutor, at a university which I am not at liberty to name!"