Uni Melbourne had a terrible political time last year – things are improving on Emma Johnston’s watch.
The university is selling the residence it provided for former vice chancellor Duncan Maskell.
“Cumnock,” a “resplendent Victorian Italianate mansion”, was bought just before Professor Maskell started, for $7.1m. But that was before university renovations and it is now on the market with a $7.9m-$8.69m price guide.
A couple of blocks away from the university, it was convenient for staff with comparisons of the odious kind to make. In 2020 there were protests at the gates over one of the university’s underpayment problems on Professor Maskell’s watch.
It is now being sold as superfluous to requirements, perhaps because new Vice-Chancellor Emma Johnston does not need eleven principal rooms, nine original fireplaces, two staircases and a wine cellar. There is also a turreted viewing tower, so convenient for keeping an eye on approaching protestors.
FC asked the university if it was putting up Professor Johnston up elsewhere and received a response that ignored the question, but wherever the new VC is living, not being in Cumnock is very wise.
VC salary packages were a hot issue before the election and will be again if Senator Jacquie Lambie’s bill to cap salaries continues in the new Parliament. The best possible answer to a question about Cumnock at a Senate Committee Hearing would be for Uni Melbourne witnesses to answer it is sold.
There is a second smart change on Professor Johnson’s watch, as she moves to make impossible political free for-alls at the university’s expense. There were times last year when it appeared as if university management had lost control of the Parkville campus during protests against Israel. Professor Maskell responded in party with a statement that protestors who were not Uni Melbourne staff or students were trespassing and could be referred to the police.
That was then, now is different. Just after she took over, Professor Johnston issued a Vice-Chancellor’s Rule, which set out specifics on where protests can occur and is “intended to balance the rights of all members of the university community.” And to make plain she means it, the Rule specifies sanctions for “failure to comply” including ending enrolment for students and serious misconduct charges for staff. As a way of shutting-up culture warring conservatives who argue VCs are in thrall to the wide world of woke, this is hard to beat.
When Professor Johnston started work at Uni Melbourne in February there was no pomp and circumstance, she just started work. Wise, very wise.
