Campaign grows to save Lilydale

Union and community action is building in Melbourne’s east as students and businesses fight to save the Swinburne campus. Thousands of protesters in Melbourne have marched on the office of local state Liberal MP Christine Fyffe where they presented a letter asking her to fight for higher education in Lilydale, especially to stop the closure of the Swinburne University of Technology campus. This action has followed the statement made by Swinburne vice-chancellor Professor Linda Kristjanson that the university would be close the campus, which is in the outer-east region of Melbourne. Cuts in TAFE funding, a reduction in the number of viable TAFE courses as well as a decline in demands for higher education at Lilydale are said to be to blame for the closure that will take effect from next July. The Victorian division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), Colin Long, said the community is outraged at the decision, following the $35 million state government cut to Swinburne’s TAFE operations. “Swinburne Lilydale is the only university in the outer east. It provides thousands of students the opportunity to access tertiary education – an opportunity which will be lost if the closure goes ahead,” Long said. Local businesses and families rely on Swinburne to provide access to training and education. Long said a lot of students will miss out on the opportunity to attain the skills needed to meet the demands of the economy. A Swinburne NTEU industrial officer, and member of the Save Our Swinburne campaign committee, Josh Cullinan, said the local support has been immense. “You go into the local butcher, there’s a petition out, if you go down to the local community centre there are petitions out. The council is entirely on our side.” The university said they plan to relocate the entire Lilydale faculty to the Hawthorn campus. But Cullinan said the move will be disruptive to students who already have limited transport options, and to the students belonging to the indigenous centre. He said Lilydale has the only indigenous centre for the university. “They have been working a great deal to get more indigenous students in … and they have been doing great work, all of that will be shut and cut, and that’s not good enough.” “Lots of elements have simply not been investigated and no one has thought about the thousands of cars that are going to arrive at Hawthorn,” Cullinan said. He said issues to do with amenities, library access, and a lack of classrooms and offices haven’t considered. “If we try and book a room for a meeting or anything like that it’s impossible.” Cullinan hopes that placing pressure on the university with petitions and rallies will make an impact on the decision to shut the campus. “The university is making a decision on the run and hopefully the rally will impact their decision.” The union’s collective agreement, which the university is a party to, prevent them from making decisions like this without consulting first, he said. “They have to consult over those changes, and they’re still to consult over it.” Since the announcement, the Save Our Swinburne Campaign Committee has been in talks with the chief financial officer and vice-president of the student and corporate service to try to resolve the committee’s dispute over the university’s failure to consult. “They need to provide all the information and consult … they haven’t provided the information at all, they have basically given us dribs and drabs of media releases,” Cullinan said. If the university fails to give the committee all the information on the closure then they will take the matter to Fair Work Australia or to court, he said.