Tasmanian students rally

BY SHUA GARFIELD

HOBART -- Thirty students, many from the threatened physics department, rallied at the University of Tasmania on May 17 in support of a recently launched log of claims which calls on university management to end its attempts to cut courses.

Nikki Ulasowski, an activist in the Education Action Collective and a member of Resistance, told the protesters that if the planned cuts to the physics department go ahead, the discipline could be lost from the university altogether, and that the maths and chemistry departments could follow. The music conservatorium and the arts school face similar prospects, she said.

Students were urged to send messages opposing the planned cuts to members of the university council in advance of a council meeting on May 19. Activists distributed copies of the log of claims and a petition which calls on the university to cease efforts to introduce individual contracts for university workers.

The university administration is yet to respond to the students' demands. It locked its doors to the protesters on May 17, fearing a repetition of the two-hour May 11 occupation of the vice-chancellor's lobby.

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