The University of Sydney has rescinded the University of Sydney’s (Campus Access) Rule 2009, replacing it with the Campus Access Policy 2024.
The new policy requires students to notify the University of any protest activity or “demonstration,” and mandates several “activities that require approval.” The University provided an email address which must be notified 72 hours in advance of a demonstration taking place.
The reach of the policy extends to “any user of University lands,” inclusive of staff, affiliates, students, and visitors.
The policy places new restrictions on demonstrations, such as requiring that “demonstrations must be held in open spaces.” It also contains several “activities that require prior approval,” including the use of megaphones or amplifiers, projecting words or images onto buildings, and attaching banners to university buildings.
Camping has been named an “unacceptable activity” in the policy, as well as demonstrations held without notice.
Breaches of policy allow the University to dissolve protests, remove property used in demonstrations, and direct students and staff to leave certain parts of campus.
If a protestor refuses to abide by an order to leave campus, or returns to campus after an order has been issued, the policy gives University security the power to detain them “and deliver them to NSW Police as soon as possible.”
Industrial action by staff, such as the strikes last year, is not impacted by the new policy.
SRC President Harrison Brennan has described this policy as “an outrageous offensive on freedom of speech and the right to protest at our university.”
The University is deriving its authority to remove property and issue leave orders from legislation that governs private lands and “inclosed spaces.” Similar legislation was used to declare the lawns around the Quadrangle an inclosed space in the week the Gaza Solidarity Encampment was shut down.
Brennan also said that Vice Chancellor Mark Scott “has launched a vicious attack on students, staff and democracy” through the “suite of draconian provisions […] all too familiar to the NSW anti-protest laws introduced in 2022”. The 2022 protest laws were hastily instated following building climate protests which threatened fines of up to $22,000 and up to 2 years in prison for breaches of the laws.
Moving forward Brennan concludes that “this policy will not JUST affect student activists, but clubs and societies and the NTEU. Students, staff, and the community must unite to fight this authoritarian policy.”
In an email to the university community, Vice Chancellor Mark Scott announced the policy in the context of the end of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment saying “its presence challenged us in many ways.”
In his email, Scott attests the policy creates a balance between free speech and the safety of the university community:
“At its core, this policy upholds our commitment to free speech – while recognising we need to be able to manage our environment for the safety and security of all,” the email says.
Students for Palestine released a statement condemning the policy as a clear “retaliation to the two-month long Gaza Solidarity Encampment set up by pro-Palestine student activists calling for Sydney University to cut ties with weapons companies and institutional links with Israel.”
“Staff and students have a long and proud tradition of protest and activism on campus. Sydney University students were some of the key activists who led the freedom rides for Indigenous rights in 1965, campaigned against South African apartheid, and fought against the Vietnam War,” the statement says.
Students for Palestine has released an open letter to management which students can sign.
Preparations are continuing for the Student General Meeting on August 7 in support of Palestine with no sign that activism on campus next semester is ending despite increasing management pressure.
