00:00Well, Ros, this has been a tumultuous time for the University.
00:06It's a fairly quiet day here on campus, but it's a day that this University will certainly
00:11remember for a long time.
00:12We have, in the last half an hour or so, received confirmation that the Vice-Chancellor Genevieve
00:19Bell has resigned.
00:20That is in the form of an email that has been sent out to all staff and students here at
00:26the University from the Chancellor Julie Bishop.
00:29She says that Genevieve Bell will be resigning as the Vice-Chancellor.
00:35We have heard also from the Vice-Chancellor in that email.
00:38She says that this was not an easy decision to make.
00:41She says that she wants to see the ANU thrive into the future, but she says that she doesn't
00:46want to stand in the way of that, and that is why she has resigned.
00:50We know that there has been absolutely sustained pressure from staff and students on the leadership
00:55of Genevieve Bell for a number of months now.
00:58With her handling of the Renew ANU project, which has seen a number of redundancies, staff
01:05cuts, restructures to courses and colleges here at the University, that is in the University's
01:12pursuit to save $250 million by the end of the year.
01:16Certainly, there has been a lot of pressure on Genevieve Bell as a result of that.
01:21Also, there has been a lot of pressure on Genevieve Bell about governance concerns here at the
01:25University and how students and staff concerns haven't been listened to.
01:31We know that Genevieve Bell has been the Vice-Chancellor here at the ANU since January 2024.
01:36Her contract still had a number of years to go, but certainly now we know that she will be
01:41taking a period of study leave.
01:43She will return to the University, we have learnt in the last half an hour or so, she will
01:48return to the University in the School of Cybernetics.
01:52That is her sort of pet project here at the University, but certainly her time as the Vice-Chancellor
01:59has come to an end.
02:00So what has been the reaction there on campus, Monty?
02:02Well, Ros, as I said, it has been a fairly quiet day here on campus.
02:09We have been speaking to a number of people as they have sort of been walking up and down
02:13the concourse here.
02:16We know that this has been, you know, students and staff have been putting pressure on the
02:19Vice-Chancellor for some time now.
02:22We did speak to one professor a little short time ago, here is what they had to say.
02:28I think it's really important to show that when staff speak up, as one voice together,
02:33that we can make a difference, because these cuts just weren't right.
02:37This isn't one person that got us here and it's not going to be the loss of one person
02:41that gets us back.
02:42So we have to really all work together.
02:44And I think questioning some of the practices that have happened around external consultants,
02:49about the kind of people that we have on our University Council, and we're having
02:53really important discussions that we just haven't had before as academics.
02:57And I think this is a really good thing, a positive development.
03:01And that was, of course, one professor's view, but we have been speaking to a number
03:07of other people as well.
03:08We spoke to some students.
03:09They say that this is not going to be the catch-all for the University.
03:13They say that there is more work to do to bring back trust in the leadership here of the
03:18University.
03:19We now know that the current Provost, Rebecca Brown, will be the Interim Vice-Chancellor.
03:24We're also expecting to hear from the Chancellor, Julie Bishop, later this afternoon.
03:30Both Rebecca Brown and Julie Bishop will be also holding a staff town hall for staff to
03:36ask them questions in the next hour or so.
03:38So it will be certainly interesting to see what they have to say this afternoon.
03:40you
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