Sydney Uni professors accuse management of retaliating against whistleblower

The University of Sydney professor’s association has accused university management of retaliating against its president after he blew the whistle on alleged malpractice

The University of Sydney professors’ association has condemned university management for suspending its president, Manuel Graeber, from his academic job. Photo: Bianca De Marchi

The University of Sydney professors’ association has condemned university management for suspending its president, Manuel Graeber, from his job, which it labelled “seeming retribution” for Professor Graeber’s whistleblowing about alleged wrongdoing.

Professor Graeber, a leading neuropathologist who is the university’s Barnet-Cropper chair of brain tumour research, was suspended in August and faces losing his job if an internal university review finds against him.

The council of the University of Sydney Association of Professors said in a statement it was alarmed by Professor Graeber’s suspension after he made public interest disclosures about alleged wrongdoing by university management in his capacity as USAP president.

“These and further circumstances compel the USAP council to speak in defence of Professor Graeber and to condemn his suspension, an act in seeming retribution by management for him fulfilling his USAP and fundamental academic responsibilities via his public interest disclosures,” the council said.

“There has clearly been a profound erosion of university staff’s trust and confidence in the current University of Sydney management.”

Professor Graeber said one of the university’s allegations against him was that he had installed surveillance cameras in his office without approval. In a letter to the committee reviewing his case, Professor Graeber said this was false. He said he had installed a security camera, with university approval, to protect highly valuable scientific material in his possession – slides of brain tissue used by Alois Alzheimer in the early 1900s to diagnose the first case of what became known as Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Graeber said another allegation against him was that he refused to teach courses as directed. He explained this was because he was asked to teach in areas where he did not have expertise. He said in his letter to the review committee that he “would be failing his duties as an academic and medical doctor if he would agree to teach medical students outside his field of expertise”.

Furthermore, despite having a research-only employment contract, he “repeatedly offered additional voluntary teaching within his field of expertise, but this was ignored by management”.

The Australian Association of University Professors said it fully supported USAP’s backing of Professor Graeber, saying he had “acted in the public interest and to fulfil his academic responsibilities”. Professor Graeber is vice-president of AAUP.

John Hearn, who was a deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney from 2004 to 2012, praised Professor Graeber and called for an independent investigation into the case.

“I have the highest regard for Manuel, his integrity, his academic leadership and his contribution as chair of USAP. He’s a champion of academic freedom and USAP’s role is to also call out abuse of policy and people,” Emeritus Professor Hearn said.

“This has fallen foul of the university administration, who appear to want to shut down Manuel and USAP. This is the tip of an iceberg and needs proper independent investigation.”

In a statement the University of Sydney said it could not comment on individual staff matters but “we don’t take disciplinary action lightly and all matters are carefully considered and managed in line with our policies and procedures”.

“Our expectations for our staff are outlined in our code of conduct. Our community is free to express their opinions … we strongly refute any suggestion we would take action against a staff member for simply doing that,” a university spokesperson said.