Several senior professors at Victoria University have slammed the decision by the Chancellor, Justice Frank Vincent, to threaten Dr James Doughney with a law suit.
As an elected representative of the academic staff on the Victoria University Council, Dr Doughney has been outspoken in his opposition to the decision by Victoria University Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Harman to sack up to 270 staff.
Read the entire letter here.
The Age reports:
A COALITION of Victoria University professors has criticised the university’s chancellor over a threat to sue a senior academic for defamation, saying it undermines academics’ ability to speak their minds.
In a letter published in today’s Age, the professors “decry” chancellor Justice Frank Vincent’s legal threat against academic James Doughney — a member of the university’s governing council — for attacking university leaders over their plans to scrap hundreds of jobs.
The six professors, including the former dean of arts, Rob Pascoe, also accused the university of trying to silence Dr Doughney and demanded the legal threat be immediately withdrawn.
“It is a sad day for freedom of speech when a person of Justice Vincent’s standing attempts to gag an elected staff representative on the university council for frankly and fearlessly speaking his mind,” they wrote.
“A university is not about conformity and mediocrity, about turning Victoria University into the kind of place where staff are too afraid to speak their minds.”
