VCA students defend their education

BY JESS MELVIN

MELBOURNE — On July 21, more than 100 students from the Victorian College of the Arts — 10% of the student population — disrupted a senior-staff meeting to place demands on VCA director Andrea Hull.

The college arts school has a $30,000 budget deficit, which students claim stems from Hull's mismanagement and her attempts to privatise the college to compensate for insufficient government funding.

Amid other budget-cuts, teaching staff have been sacked over the mid-year break and access hours to studio and technical facilities have been reduced.

The list of students' demands included that staff places and studio hours be replaced and that details of the college's budget be released. The students gave a deadline of July 23.

In response, students were told that the budget could not be released, as it had not yet been approved and that no final budget existed.

On July 24, approximately 50 students occupied the VCA reception area for an hour, refusing to leave until VCA's director, deputy director and head of the arts school come out to meet with them. This demand was granted, giving students another opportunity to raise their demands.

On July 25, student representatives held a meeting with the head of the arts school. Students were told that all staff laid off during the mid-semester break would be re-instated. This has not yet happened.

VCA Student Union president Jacqueline Grenfell told Green Left Weekly that, if granted, the staff reinstatement was a major victory. She added, however, that students are still very concerned about VCA management's priorities and the long-term ability of the college to sustain itself.

She also told GLW that further actions were being planned, including participation in the upcoming actions against the federal government's attacks on higher education on August 27.

From Green Left Weekly, July 30, 2003.

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From GLW issue 547