The relocation of UTAS’ College of Business and Economics from purpose built accommodation in the Centenary Building at Sandy Bay to rented accommodation in the Hobart CBD has led to plummeting enrolments, and low staff and student morale. There has been poor attendance at lectures, due – in part at least – to issues with parking in the CBD.
Following a close reading of UTAS Council Minutes, on 7 February 2024, I wrote to UTAS (by email) raising my concern that the relocation of COBE, and attendant expenditure, had not been appropriately authorised by the UTAS Council (a pointer to a lack of diligence on the Council’s part).
Having failed to obtain a satisfactory response, I wrote to the Chancellor, Alison Watkins AM, and other UTAS Council members, by email on 24 April 2024, raising the matter.
Chancellor Watkins responded by email on 8 May 2024 (copy of full email thread with UTAS, with Chancellor Watkins’ email second from top).
Chancellor Watkins’ email confirmed my view that relocation of COBE, and attendant expenditure, was not authorised by the UTAS Council.
However, rather than admit a mistake or find a more sensible excuse (and commit to a review), Chancellor Watkins stated a position that effectively abrogated responsibility from the UTAS Council to the Vice-Chancellor (VC), according the VC unbridled power and allowing him to pick and choose the matters he brings to the UTAS Council.
As UTAS and the Tasmanian Government have (wrongly) held that the UTAS Council is accountable only to itself, Chancellor Watkins’ position would make the VC accountable to no-one.
While I expect that Chancellor Watkins’ email was largely drafted by UTAS’ lawyers , I was genuinely surprised that Chancellor Watkins put her name to it, given her experience as a former Group Manager of Coca-Cola Amatil, as a Board member of the Reserve Bank and as a director of numerous companies.
Given the issues raised by Chancellor Watkins’ email, I responded at length in a letter (which I sent by email with copies to UTAS Council members) on 29 May 2024. My letter included a number of attachments and I also attached a recent article from the Australian Financial Review, entitled Failure to rein in uni bosses led to problems of ‘excess’. My letter is reproduced in full below.
UTAS has very deep governance and accountability issues that need to be fixed as soon as possible.
- A number of my blog posts deal with (mis) governance at UTAS, but I draw particular attention to UTAS – the Lords of Misrule – the University Council Membership Procedure. Several people, including me, have drawn attention to the capacity of the UTAS Council to self-perpetuate its attitudes. I would go further than this now. Noting the extent to which UTAS management controls the appointment process for UTAS Council members, including supposed ministerial appointments, it can be argued that the UTAS Council that appointed VC Black has, with the passing of time, been replaced by a UTAS Council appointed by VC Black.
- My letter to Chancellor Watkins contains extensive detail on the COBE issue, to which I added with my blog post UTAS is failing Tasmania of 9 June 2024.
Attachments/Referenced Instruments and Documents
For those looking for further detail, these are the the attachments to my letter:
These are the instruments/documents referred to in Chancellor Watkins’ email to me, some of which I refer to at length in my letter:
My letter to Chancellor Watkins
