Maureen Gallagher

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

YouTube video by Merriam-Webster LLM

Yall please go watch @merriam-webster.com’s new AI ad😅

youtu.be/RvQnl3O0D3c?...

ANU arts dean criticised as staff wait for tangible changes Some staff are 'waiting to see signs' that relationships can be repaired.

"I am still waiting to see any sign that the CASS Dean can repair relationships, demonstrate she has listened, or change course."

The last vestiges of Renew ANU are still with us. @nteunion.bsky.social wants to see CASS restructuring end & #ANU cultural change.

Feedback on ANU Governance Project Draft Report The ANU Governance Project Working Group are proud to present the Draft Project Report for community feedback and consultation. The Draft Project Report is available on our website or through THIS LINK. Using a process that has involved deep listening and a participatory and deliberative process across the ANU community, we have compiled a unique and valuable body of evidence that documents what’s wrong with governance at the ANU and charts a way forward to help rebuild trust and to deliver best practice governance. Over 600 ANU staff, students, and stakeholders have participated in this project, and in contributing constructively to the future of ANU. This includes 590 members of the community who participated in our survey, 75 who participated in one-hour small group discussions, and over 40 from across the university who participated in our project workshop. The ANU community told us there a critical need for change: Over 96% of survey respondents and all discussion group participants believe current ANU governance is not fit for purpose and should be reformed. Over 92% of survey respondents and all discussion group participants expressed dissatisfaction with current ANU governance. Over 93% of survey respondents said they were dissatisfied with current practices of transparency at the ANU. Over 93% of survey respondents said they were dissatisfied with accountability frameworks at the ANU. The ANU Community has proposed the following near-term steps forward for a reformed ANU: Council must direct Finance to produce and publish a current budget breakdown. Council must revise and publish selection criteria for Executive positions. Council meetings must immediately be made fully accessible to the community. Academic Board must regularly review and assess the financial decisions of senior executives and Council. Commence senior leadership listening tours with the ANU community. Additional recommendations forwarded by the community are summarised in the full report, including a proposal to co-design legislative reform of the ANU Act with the community. The Working Group invites the ANU community and stakeholders to offer feedback via this form on the draft report by midnight on Tuesday 7 October. This deadline has been extended in order to allow us more time to hear and incorporate community feedback ahead of the release of our final report on Monday 20 October.

ANU colleagues and students - please share this post if you can:

The ANU governance project has extended our deadline to comment on the Draft report to next week - 7 October.

Here's a link to a feedback form, which also contains the link to the draft report:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers First published on October 9, 2009, this classic by Colin Nissan is our most-read article of all time. We’re celebrating the 16th anniversary of th...

IT IS TIME.

ANU’s ‘catastrophic failures’ happened on Bishop’s watch: Sheldon If ANU is serious about rebuilding trust, it cannot do so while Julie Bishop is chancellor, says Tony Sheldon, the man behind the Senate report into university governance.

“Ultimately, the responsibility [for ANU] rests with the chancellor, Julie Bishop. She presided over this continued period of dysfunction, and it was under her watch that catastrophic failures occurred,”

Senator Anthony Sheldon

www.afr.com/politics/fed...

No more involuntary redundancies at ANU as anonymous donation aids university Anonymous donation helps save much-loved institution.

a huge day for the ANU and the @nteuact.bsky.social campaign to stop forced redundancies in the college of arts and social sciences and the college of science and medicine. This is genuinely an incredible result!

share.google/ORnkjimiuQiK...

BREAKING: #ANU has announced that there will be no forced redundancies. ✊
Union members fought tirelessly to save these jobs, and every university staff member facing job cuts can take heart from what we have achieved. Together, we have changed what is possible. nteu.au/join@nteunion.bsky.social

Don’t stop the music: Jimmy Barnes signs on to save ANU school A group of 35 musicians have called on the ANU to halt proposed changes to the School of Music saying it will rob musicians of future professional careers.

Even more support to save the ANU School of Music.
www.afr.com/work-and-car...

Bury the Renew ANU zombie. 🧟‍♂️

At this point the process has been so thoroughly discredited, and is causing so much psychological injury, that it should be abandoned.

While high-profile resignations get the headlines, more than 100 people still face the axe.

ANU leadership and governance are in crisis.

‘I've said many times in the past that I think that given the investigation is underway, it seems like any other workplace someone would step aside while those investigations happened.’ - @davidpocock.bsky.social

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Universities are not businesses and can’t be run like one When non-profit organisations are managed as if they were for-profit firms, problems emerge. Economists have long warned of this.

When non-profit organisations are managed as if they were for-profit firms, problems emerge.
www.afr.com/work-and-car...

The inimitable, David Pope!

#auspol #highered #universities

It's been such a difficult time for ANU staff and students and so the priority for the chancellor, acting vice-chancellor and council should be to regain the confidence of staff and students. The Renew ANU program has been poorly executed and has damaged the university's reputation, and responsibility for that cannot be placed on one individual. Federal Labor reps will be meeting directly with the chancellor to raise our concerns about Renew ANU with her directly.

Extraordinary statement from Senator Katy Gallagher. Katy is the Senator responsible for one of the two most significant Acts that governs the ANU, the PGPA Act.

This is the slide that stood out to me. The # of faculty is stable, with a shift to more continuing and fewer fixed term, which is good! The big growth is in professional staff (most in central divisions, not Colleges), but it's two Colleges, faculty and academic support staff shouldering the cuts.

Student, staff petition urges ANU council to remove Bishop Julie Bishop says she will remain as chancellor until 2026, but on Friday a petition signed by more than 2000 people called for her removal from the role.

The @nteunion.bsky.social petition gained over 2000 signatures in a little over 2 weeks.

We need an end to forced redundancies and damaging restructures, as well as recognition that governance and leadership issues go well beyond the former Vice-Chancellor at #ANU.

In the last two years, #ANU leadership has taken an approach of moving fast and breaking things. Unfortunately, too many of those things were people. It's time to stop the job cuts at ANU. @nteunion.bsky.social

www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-educa...

Bell's departure is overdue, but this crisis is not all her fault. Here's why It's a symptom arising at many of Australia's universities.

Unless the structures of university governance are fixed, we will see the same failures repeated but with different personnel.

Incisive op-ed from @jack-thrower.bsky.social

'Not an easy decision': ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell resigns Genevieve Bell has bowed to intense pressure and resigned from her position as Australian National University vice-chancellor.

"The announcement of the vice-chancellor's departure must also be accompanied by an announcement that all forced redundancies will now cease" - Dr Lachlan Clohesy, @nteunion.bsky.social ACT Division Secretary. #ANU

ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell resigns amid crisis of confidence in leadership Resignation follows tumultuous period marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture

The vice-chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU) has tendered her resignation after a tumultuous two years at the institution, marked by redundancies, proposed course closures, and allegations of a toxic work culture.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

OurANU statement on the resignation of Genevieve Bell Attributable to ourANU, 11 September 2025. ourANU welcomes the Vice Chancellor’s decision to prioritise the university’s best interests. ANU urgently needs new leadership that restores its focus on research, education, and the free dissemination of knowledge. The damage caused by the ‘Renew ANU’ restructure is real and ongoing. It has undermined disciplines, harmed individuals, and diminished the university’s reputation. It must stop. All involuntary redundancies should be cancelled. No amalgamations or disbanding of schools and centres of national significance should proceed. The university must pause, take stock, and begin to repair the harm. Renew ANU is not the work of one individual. It is the product of years of governance failure. There must be accountability for those decisions. The investigations into the ANU governance and leadership culture must continue. Only genuine accountability will allow ANU to reset and rebuild. Across the community and in parliament, there is agreement: ANU cannot move forward without clarity and honesty. Transparency and accountability are the only ways to restore trust. As Senator Katy Gallagher has said, ANU needs an “agreed set of facts.” That requires independent scrutiny of both the university’s finances and the governance arrangements that produced this crisis. Staff and students must be central to this work. We ask all remaining executives to ask themselves if they are the people right for the job of finding new ways to work with the ANU community. An independent review, conducted by a person or panel agreed with the NTEU, should explain how the university’s finances were allowed to deteriorate, assess the failures of governance that enabled it, and outline options for reform. The priority is not simply financial sustainability, but a structure of accountability and participation that prevents these failures from recurring.

It is time to build a governance structure that values stability, transparency, and accountability. The ANU cannot continue lurching between growth and cuts. We need to rebuild our national university in ways that allow education and the pursuit of knowledge to flourish once again. The university must work with staff, students, the Parliament, the Minister, and the Expert Council on University Governance to create reforms that embed participation, accountability, and sustainability at every level of decision-making. The message from staff and students is clear. Enough damage has been done. The time for secrecy and short-term fixes is over. The university must reset, rebuild trust, and commit to a future shaped by and for its community. Only then can the ANU live up to its purpose as a place of knowledge, discovery, and service to the nation.

“ANU urgently needs new direction and new leadership – one that restores its focus on research, education, and the free dissemination of knowledge.”

Our ANU’s statement on the VC’s resignation 👇

drive.google.com/file/d/1e3Lh...

Pocock questions Bishop’s ANU leadership as pressure builds for chancellor and vice chancellor to step down Independent senator claims there was ‘no faith’ in leadership of Genevieve Bell or Julie Bishop among university staff

Speaking to Guardian Australia, Pocock said he had spoken with a “huge number of people” at the ANU, including deans, and it had become “very clear” that there was “no faith” in Bell or Bishop’s leadership and council needed to play a “far more active role”.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

ANU academics call for chancellor elections to fix leadership crisis As leadership rumours spiral, ANU staff recommend a way forward.

"We think that the ANU community best knows how existing decisions have impacted them, and what principles and frameworks might be necessary to improve future governance outcomes," the Governance Project said.

www.canberratimes.com.au/story/906187...

I really just think everyone needs to read more books and then get maybe pizzas as prizes for reading those books.

Bell’s departure from ANU imminent, but no word on when The tenure of ANU boss Genevieve Bell is widely considered to be coming to an end, and soon. Just, how soon?

The irony is that it's after Renew ANU that #ANU needs renewal.

@nteunion.bsky.social wants an end to forced redundancies and longer-term governance reform.

Leadership change needs to happen - but then we need to ensure we're never in this situation ever again.

I’m calling again for the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor to all step aside while the evidence provided in the Senate inquiry is examined. Fair and due process cannot be achieved under these circumstances.

First we had the Hunger Games of spill & fill at #ANU.

Now we've got Game of Thrones.

Why ANU boss Genevieve Bell must go Replacing the Australian National University vice chancellor is a necessary first step to rebuilding the reputation of the ANU and restoring its legitimacy.

“Replacing the ANU vice chancellor is a necessary first step… But it is not a sufficient step…

If governance and policy direction doesn’t change, it won’t matter who sits in the vice chancellor’s chair – the outcomes for staff, students and the public will be the same.”

www.afr.com/work-and-car...

“We hope that the unprecedented media, political and public attention to the many cruelties, failures, illogicalities and injustices of “Renew ANU” can serve as an impetus for much-needed sector-wide change.”

CASS People’s Townhall Organisers

www.woroni.com.au/news/the-peo...