Jimmy Barnes has joined the chorus of voices calling for the ANU not to go ahead with proposed changes to the School of Music. Photo: Jimmy Barnes, Facebook.
CONTENT WARNING: This article references suicide and mental health harms.
Aussie music icons Jimmy Barnes, Dave Faulkner from the Hoodoo Gurus and Genesis Owusu are among dozens of signatories calling for ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop to promise the university won’t dismantle the School of Music.
It comes as a Health and Safety Representative has sent all College of Social Sciences and Arts (CASS) staff a cease work order “due to psychosocial hazards and psychological injury resulting from Renew ANU”.
The School of Music, along with one-on-one music tuition and performance and composition majors, are on the chopping block in the CASS change management plan as part of the restructuring program.
Jimmy Barnes said the ANU School of Music had trained generations of world-class musicians, and this would be at risk under the proposed changes.
“I’ve seen how classical training and rock and roll can come together to create magic. But that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we invest in serious music education,” he said.
“If one of our leading universities walks away from its responsibility, it sends a clear message that we don’t value the next generation of musicians, and we can’t let this happen.
“Music isn’t just entertainment, it’s an ecosystem. It supports jobs in venues big and small, it drives tourism, and it builds communities. The ANU’s plans to dismantle the School of Music put all of that at risk. They need to do better.”
The letter was written by the newly formed School of Music Advocacy Roundtable and stated that future ANU music graduates would not be qualified to become professional musicians under the proposed changes.
It added that removal of one-on-one tuition and a shift away from professional standards would “dismantle” Canberra’s music pipeline, undermine national arts leadership, and “damage Australia’s cultural fabric”.
“For students and early-career musicians, the loss of one-on-one training and clear pathways to professional work is devastating,” the letter stated.
“Many will be forced to leave Canberra to pursue study elsewhere, with lasting consequences for their families, the local music community, and the audiences who value their work.”
School of Music students have threatened legal action if plans for their school aren’t stopped.
A ‘cease unsafe work’ email was sent to all CASS staff this morning at 8 am (17 September) due to a belief that the Renew ANU program had breached the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth).
An elected Health and Safety representative for the college has submitted a Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN) outlining a “reasonable belief” that ANU had contravened its primary duty to ensure the health and safety of staff.
“Under the WHS Act, the HSR can also direct that work cease (s 85) where they have a ‘reasonable concern that to carry out the work would expose the worker to a serious risk to the worker’s health or safety, emanating from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard’,” the email stated.
“Unfortunately, following extensive consultation with staff in CASS, the HSR has formed the view that such a serious risk is present.”
It informed the ANU on 11 September about the issues, but they apparently “remain unresolved”.
The issues outlined in the cease work order include fatigue, low job control, job insecurity, poor support, poor organisational change management and organisational justice, as well as aggression, bullying and harassment.
“Exposure to these hazards has resulted in serious and extreme mental health conditions,” it stated.
The PIN called on CASS dean Prof Bronwyn Parry to implement “urgent suicide prevention measures” and investigate allegations that staff were being “coerced and bullied into applying for voluntary redundancies”.
The announcement that former Vice-Chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell had resigned led many to hope Renew ANU would also be scrapped.
Interim Vice-Chancellor Professor Rebekah Brown has been meeting with deans and senior academics since the announcement and is expected to update the university community with a draft roadmap for the future at 10 am tomorrow (18 September).
In a letter to all-staff Prof Brown said she was committed to make “thoughtful progress” towards returning the ANU to the country’s number one university “with the best student and staff experience”.
“We won’t have all the answers you might need on Thursday, but what I commit to you is that we will keep you informed as to the direction as much as possible,” she wrote.
If you need mental health support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. If you’re in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000).
