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We, the undersigned, oppose job cuts at the University of Sydney heading into 2025 and call for an end to the hiring restrictions that were announced today.

Vice Chancellor Mark Scott wrote to staff on Tuesday 13 August advising that the University Executive was considering “how we would deal with the impacts of the financial shortfalls” caused by a reduction in international student numbers from January 2025. He also flagged that the executive would be “monitoring continuing and fixed term recruitment and contract extensions in their area” and “reconsidering the scope of our activities in 2025.”

In practice, this means job cuts, hiring freezes and restructures. 

There is no excuse for any of this. The University made a $351 million dollar surplus last year, $298 million in 2022 and over a $1 billion in profit in 2021. In a recent Town Hall, VC Mark Scott assured staff the University had set aside sufficient funds to support future building projects. 

Instead of bloated executive salaries and splashing cash on buildings and marketing, this money should be used to provide staff with job security and help long term casualised and fixed-term staff transition to secure jobs. There must be no cuts to First Nations jobs and instead, hiring should ensure employment targets are met. Additional hiring is urgently needed to address chronic understaffing and to bring workloads under control. These are essential measures to improve staff wellbeing and to ensure that students receive a quality education and the support they need.

Staff are already overworked, underpaid and struggling with a cost of living crisis. Now the livelihoods of the people who ensure the University functions every day are being threatened. Job cuts affect everyone. The workload doesn’t just disappear when positions are cut. Instead, remaining staff are burdened with additional work without any additional pay. The only winner is the University’s bottom line.

We call on management to abandon any plans for cutting courses or jobs, remove the hiring restrictions and allow vacant positions to be backfilled.

Signed,

Total signatures: 167 (includes private signatures)

University of Sydney Staff

Alma Torlakovic HDR Admin Centre, NTEU Branch Committee USYD

Lucy Nicolls Casual academic, Philosophy, NTEU Branch Committee USYD

> "Casualised and fixed-term staff deserve a future, not to be discarded by the University after years of service."

Vinil Kumar Student Centre

Jennifer Huch-Hooglivet Central Operations Services, NTEU Branch Committee USYD

Chris Newtown Senior Administrative Officer, HDRAC

Dr. Natalie Maystorovich Lecturer in Discipline of Sociology and Criminology

> "Because we are already overworked at the moment and can’t afford to lose staff."

Lawrence Farrar Process engineer

Laura Pham Faculty Services, Student Administration Services

Declan Moore Student Centre

Ekaterina Heath Art History academic

Nicole Longhurst HDR Admin Centre

Kathryn Elliott DVCE

Jeremy Heathcote First Nations Engagement Lead (FMH), NSW Division Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander representative, NSW Representative National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Policy Committee

Nicole MacDougall Senior Administrative Officer, HDRAC

Tanaka Nhongo Sessional academic

> "They were horribly wrong on the impact of Covid, student numbers didn’t move, but many exited the sector for good impoverishing students and depriving staff of great colleagues."

James Humberstone Senior Lecturer in music education

A staff member in Student Administrative Services

> "Because staff deserve transparency and job security, especially in such a renown institution that can afford to support their staff "

Nicole Wedgwood Senior Lecturer, FMH

Joanna Malyon Portfolio Manager - HDRAC

Jason Todd NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, NTEU Branch Committee USYD

Jahmina Liewald Admin in Student Administration Services

James Technical officer

Lobna Yassinea Lecturer

Hyo Jung Yoon Student Centre

Naivnd Jayasooriah Technical Officer, TSS, COS

> "We have absorbed additional spaces under our management, more researchers to support and also growing student class numbers and classes"

Bart Ahluwalia Research Support Officer (RSO)

> "What about the massive bank balance USYD has? Maybe the top echelon of staff should reduce their pay or take on some of the admin burden others are expected to soak up?"

Caitlin Barlow Faculty Services, Student Administration Services

Benjamin Lasker FASS Curriculum and Quality Officer

> "The COVID-19 hiring freeze had a disastrous impact on staff workloads and mental health which (predictably) resulted in many talented professional and academic staff leaving the sector and a blow out in response times to students who need support. This hiring freeze represents another such threat to both staff and students at the University."

Robert Austin Henry Associate, History

> "Outside the neocon framework of the military-industrial-academic complex there's no justification for cuts, and every reason for public universities to be publicly resourced to contribute to global peace."

Daej Arab Education Designer

Avia Davey Student Centre

Andrew Russell Student Affairs and Engagement Officer (FASS)

> "Any staff member can attest to the fact that this University overuses fixed-term and casual roles in critical day to day functioning of the University - in a rather predatory manner, I might add. It is quite apparent from the VC's fear-mongering email that these jobs will now be at risk, and other staff will be expected to pick-up additional work without compensation. Shame."

Harriet Angel Faculty Services, Student Administration Services

Sarah Buckingham Student Centre

Alex Gawronski Lecturer. SCA. FASS

Katherine Smith Faculty Services/Special Considerations - Student Administrative Assistant

Daniel Curtis ICT Service Centre

Rebecca Malek FASS, Student Affairs and Engagement

Surya Urs Student Experience and Engagement Officer, FASS

Annie Student Centre

Sijia Li ECC Vet Nurse in UVTHS

> "Staff shortage, burnout working culture"

Jet Hunt Caseworker, SUPRA

Peyvand Firouzeh Art History

Amy Career Development Officer, Careers Centre

El-abed Haidar Casual Tutor

Yunjie Zhou Faculty Services, Student Administration Services

Megan Faculty Services, Student Administration Services

Toby Fitch Lecturer, English and Writing

Lungguh Bangga Casual Academic / Linguistics

Alex Luke Teacher and Teaching and Learning Coordinator

> "The University of Sydney has enough funds to comfortably support both casual and continuing staff in the face of international student caps"

Evan Jones Honorary Associate / Political Economy

Greta Werner Post Doctoral Researcher

Rachel Aitken Equity Diversity Inclusion Project Officer - Business School

James Stephens Careers Centre

Beth Yahp Senior Lecturer, English and Writing

Jennifer Chapman Careers Centre

Mandy Henningham Academic/Sociology and Criminology

Isabelle Hesse Senior Lecturer, English and Writing

Juliet Bennett Postdoctoral researcher

> "Students, academics and the university as a whole will thrive and have greater social impact with job security and the culture that it entails."

Alison Suttie Dean's Unit - Business School

Aleksandr Wansbrough Dr/Casual lecturer/ SCA

Frances M. Clarke Associate Professor

Leanne Giobran Project Coordinator

Amanda Niland Dr/ Senior Lecturer/SSESW

> "There is already a staff shortage in academic and professional staff teams, leading to significant workload stress and affecting teaching and learning quality. Please respect the staff that make this university run, and give them the resources to do the job they love, for the benefit of students"

Harrison Vesey Media & PR Adviser

Steven Allen Cytometry Engineer / Sydney Cytometry

Lynn Monrouxe Professor of Healthcare Professions Education Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health

Leah Arthur Senior Administrative Officer, HDRAC

Luke Mansillo Sessional academic

Adnil Ramos Casual Tutor

Lynette Riley Professor, Chair Aboriginal Education & Indigenous Studies, SSESW

> "We are working over our workload now. We need more staff urgently, no get rid of staff."

Miriam Student Counselling Service

Shannon Hurst DVCE

Matthew Philip Egan Senior Lecturer, Business School

Nick Croggon Power Institute, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Melanie Morrison Director Sydney Peace Foundation

Fernando Viera External Lecturer

> "To tell Vice Chancellor Mark Scott, et. al. that what they are trying to do is WRONG."

Rebecca Clements Dr / Postdoctoral Researcher / School of Architecture, Design and Planning

Anne Honey Associate Professor, School of Health Sciences

Danielle Lumanta Technical Assistant, Media and Communications

Morgan Hogg Casual Acedemic and DMU Loan Store, SACE and SCA

Mikhaila Jurkiewicz SACE Digital Media Unit

Jalpan Pardesi IT Support Technician

Joseph Driver Senior Administrative Officer, HDRAC

Peter Meare Audio visual technician

Noemi Luna Student Centre Assistant

University of Sydney Students

Deaglan Godwin SRC Vice President

> "Any reduction in profits should come out of the huge salaries of senior management, not by sacking the staff who make the university run!"

Annabel Pettit SRC Refugee Rights Officer

Lucas Pierce SRC Refugee Rights Officer

> "I believe all staff at the university should be entitled to job security! "

Tom Williams SRC Environment Officer

Maddie Clark  SRC Environment Officer

Julius Wittfoth SRC Welfare Officer

> "Management should cut their salaries before they cut staff jobs "

Jasmine Al-Rawi SRC Welfare Officer

Simon Upitis SRC Social Justice Officer

Lauren Finlayson SRC Social Justice Officer

> "Staff deserve secure jobs, higher wages and better conditions!"

Keira Fairley

Yoshi Leung

Hannah Kim

Shiv

Aspen

Kelly Leong

Sue

Klementine Burrell-Sander PhD candidate, Faculty of Science

Staff at other universities

Liam Ward Lecturer in Media & Communication, RMIT University

Robin Laycock Senior Lecturer, School of Health & Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University

Sinead Wilson PhD candidate & casual academic, ANU

Ash Chen Research Assistant UNSW

Lorenzo Logi Sessional academic, Macquarie University

Community Supporters

Cherish Kuehlmann UNSW SRC Education Officer

Thomas Soo USYD Alumnus

Jaynaya Student at Swinburne University

A supportive Alumni

> "As an alumni I am very disappointed to see the aggressive cuts to staffing levels and the impact this has on student learning. A university's focus should be on students and the staff who educate them."

Viviana Canibilo Ramírez Independent researcher (QTU, retired)

> "Union militancy from all staff is necessary to overcome this kind of attack."

Mackenzie Baran UTS student

Melissa Sukkarieh

Rex Urquhart University of Newcastle Student

> "Staff and students deserve security and protection from aggressive corporate management!"