‘Lecture-bashing’ ban among new rules for Sydney University students

University of Sydney academics have been banned from allowing students to make non-course-related announcements at the start of a lecture, under new rules the institution says balance campus safety and academic freedom.

It comes after the university spent $441,789 on an external review to combat antisemitism in the 18 months following Hamas’ October 7 attacks and complaints from Jewish students that they did not feel safe at the institution.

Students will be allowed to make non-course-related announcements only at the end of a lecture.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Vice Chancellor Mark Scott said the move was one of five new revised policies that articulated what was and what was not acceptable, designed so everyone “feels safe to be themselves no matter their religion, gender, sexuality, race or ability”.

“In a world of increased conflict and polarisation, that can be challenging. But over the past year, we’ve done some significant work across the university to ensure our campus is a place where everyone can thrive,” he said in an email on Monday afternoon.

“These policies balance our commitments to campus safety with those to academic freedom and freedom of speech and set clear standards for what is and isn’t acceptable.”

For decades, students at the University of Sydney have engaged in the practice of “lecture-bashing”, whereby lecturers permit students to make political statements about non-course-related material. Announcements are permitted at the end of a lecture.

Sydney University student representative council president Angus Fisher said lecture bashing was an integral part of campus life.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Student representative council president Angus Fisher said the new rules were a disappointing step because they impinged on the university’s long history of political debate.

“In a context where external alt-right anti-abortion representatives come to campus weekly to harass students, it is unclear to me how a ban on lecture announcements results in anything less than stifling free speech and debate,” he said.

“Universities should be a place of fair debate and free expression; lecture announcements have been key to that. They are an integral part of campus life, for example in democratic student elections.

“There is no case I can point to where students or anyone else have given a lecture announcement without the consent of the lecturer first. Banning such an essential tool in student organising is an indictment on the university.”

The updated policies include new rules for email and electronic messaging, the flying and displaying of flags and a policy on a public comment and social media.

There are also new rules that state temporary posters may be displayed on designated noticeboards, and must include the name of the person who authorised them.

“We may charge the relevant individual, group, club, sponsor or approver of promotional or display materials for the reasonable cost of removing prohibited materials and repairing any consequent damage,” the new policy states.

University of Sydney National Tertiary Education Union branch president Dr Peter Chen, who objected to the lecture-bashing ban, also said new rules about posters were unreasonable.

“The risk of personal liability has a significant chilling effect on people who are simply fulfilling a role they’re elected to do by their constituents like the student union,” he said.

University of Sydney adjunct associate professor Andy Smidt said the change to the lecture-bashing rule was a small step in the right direction.

“For students, they pay to go there to learn. In lectures, other people come into the room. Those people who come in do unpleasant things like saying, ‘I am taking a photo of people who support this for social media. If you don’t support it, put a piece of paper in front of your face’. It is intimidating.”

Earlier this month, students held a meeting to discuss the university’s adoption of a definition of antisemitism, which ended with the audience turning their backs on a Jewish speaker while another student effectively called for Israel to cease to exist.

Additionally, it adopted the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism, along with more than 30 other institutions, which states criticism of Israel is not in itself antisemitic but it said criticism could be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions and when it calls for the elimination of the state of Israel.

Staff held a meeting last week objecting to the definition, which aims to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus, saying it unreasonably constricts criticism of Israel.

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