By Cameron Lucadou-Wells and Sarah Stephen
HOBART — On September 18 students claimed victory over Vice- Chancellor Don McNichol's plans to change the University of Tasmania's exam timetable.
Students learned only hours beforehand of a meeting to make a final decision on shortening the exam timetable from three weeks to two, and introducing night exams. In the space of half an hour, people swept through the campus advertising an impromptu protest, and 60 students filled the corridor outside McNichol's office demanding input into the meeting.
McNichol addressed the crowd, pleading that he was yet to be briefed on the issue. When students asked him which way he would vote, he said, "I don't vote, I decide!" He was told that students would be back in greater numbers the following day if his decision was unfavourable.
The university denied that student protest affected the decision not to institute the changes this year. However, students had previously been told that the decision was non-negotiable.
The student union president, Anthony Llewellyn, attempted to give the VC a document from the student union but was hissed down and chanted over by students angry at his previous actions on the issue.
A meeting earlier in the week had attracted 65 people outraged at the possibility of the decision being passed because Llewellyn had felt the issue too delicate to tell students about, let alone allow consultation. He had known about the proposed reduction in the exam period for six weeks before a leak to the media revealed the plan.
Undeterred by criticism of his undemocratic actions, Llewellyn chose to conceal knowledge of the VC's meeting. Negotiation with the university wasn't something you could upset with noisy demonstrations, according to Llewellyn. He reluctantly endorsed a student protest planned for the day after this important meeting, all the time knowing that the decision would have been finalised by then.
More than 1000 student signatures were gathered on a petition in one week, illustrating the level of outrage at the proposal and the VC's unwillingness to allow real student consultation.
The first real victory for students this year over a university eager to merge libraries and slash courses indicated what students can achieve, even when their elected representatives work against them, if they take collective, grassroots action.