University sector hits new low as mob rule prevails

Former deputy prime minister Mark Vaile ticked all the important boxes to take on the role of chancellor of Newcastle University from July 1. He was selected by a committee of four on the 16-member university council. But the fact he has been forced to withdraw after a nasty, activist campaign shows a vocal section of the university community has allowed itself to fall victim to censorship and a narrow, blinkered ideology. Given such feebleness, it is worth asking the question: is the institution fit for purpose, capable of promoting open-minded inquiry and scholarship, independent thinking, and teaching rational economics and business skills, relevant to the university’s catchment? This fiasco raises doubts.

Mr Vaile, who served as deputy to John Howard from 2005 to 2007, has all the connections the university could want, including with the Morrison and Berejiklian governments. He lives relatively close to the institution, in Taree. And he understands Newcastle’s economic challenges as the world’s largest coal export port at a time of energy transition. It was Mr Vaile’s role as chairman of Whitehaven Coal that sent woke activists among university staff, students, anti-coal campaigners and some university donors into a cyber frenzy.

Association with coal and the nation’s export industry is not a crime. It was treated as one, however. The fact that Mr Vaile also chairs Palisade Investment Partners, which has $1bn invested in solar and wind power, did not cut through their narrow mindset.

A week after his appointment in early June, Mr Vaile wrote to the university community saying he was “excited” to help the university go carbon-neutral by 2025, pointing to Palisade’s investments in sustainable power.

The woke activists’ inability or refusal to take a more balanced view smacks of myopic, one-dimensional thinking unsuited to the broad outlook good universities need. Federal ALP member Joel Fitzgibbon, whose electorate of Hunter is close to the University of Newcastle, hit the nail on the head when he said the activists who pushed Mr Vaile out were guilty of a “new McCarthyism”. Mr Fitzgibbon is correct when he says the outcome is “a slippery slope’’. Is only one view of controversial issues such as energy policy to be tolerated in our most prestigious halls of learning? Where does that leave the right to free speech and the much-lauded and essential principle of academic freedom. As Regional Education Minister Andrew Gee said, a logical conclusion to the drama would see the University of Newcastle dismantle its mining engineering courses. But opposition energy spokesman Chris Bowen’s comment that the campaign that forced Mr Vaile out was a “symptom of the climate wars, which Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals want to keep going”, was beside the point.

One of Mr Vaile’s concerns in withdrawing, Higher Education editor Tim Dodd wrote on Wednesday, was the impact social media attacks were having on his other ventures. Mr Vaile withdrew just as the campaign against him was about to be stepped up a childish notch, with ­senior health academics and researchers, many of whom hold conjoint appointments in regional hospitals, planning to release a petition. Surely well-educated professionals should show greater independence of mind than following the mob?

Mr Vaile has a wealth of leadership skills and experience – 10 years in federal cabinet, links to the region’s industries, and a global perspective from his years as trade minister. Local taxpayers are entitled to be annoyed about how the issue has played out. The university has been a springboard for generations of students from mining and industrial families to spread their wings. But dramas such as this show how far academia has removed itself from the real world.