“[It] has since been voluntarily removed,” a La Trobe university spokesperson said in a statement. The university did not respond to a request for a copy of the meeting minutes.
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The motion aired at the meeting accused university management of a coup against eight students who claim they were “undemocratically excluded” from attending because they refused to sign a volunteer agreement.
Those students claim the agreement is a gag order.
The students say that at the first council meeting in October eight councillors who campaigned against the body were “excluded without notice”, while six candidates who lost elections were invited to attend in their place.
“This management-engineered replacement of elected representatives is a blatant coup and exposes the council’s false claim to democracy,” the motion read.
The students who supported the motion argue they successfully passed it with eight votes.
However, those who voted for the motion were sacked from the council, according to Dupe.
“Management punished every student who voted for the motion by sacking us from the council, and telling students we ‘resigned’, which is a lie,” he said. He is listed as “resigned” on the student council website.
Dupe said most of those who sat on the council wanted it dissolved.
“The council no longer represents students. It’s now just a PR department of the university.”
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He said the body was set up to punish the student union for pro-Palestine campaigning, and university management wanted a student organisation to “rubber-stamp their cuts to courses and staff”.
“To defend student democracy, we had no choice but to dissolve the council.”
Another councillor, Tully McEwan, who is also listed as “resigned” on the council website, said the dissolution was a win for student democracy and free speech.
“Half the council were excluded from the first meeting because we refused to sign a gag order from the university. Our decision to dissolve the council shows management that we won’t be silenced so easily.”
Students on campus demanded the council be dissolved, she said.
However, the university said in a statement that those students who refused to sign the volunteer agreement did not accept their places on the council, and were not considered active. They were invited to a December meeting.
La Trobe said the council would continue with its work and was not dissolved.
“A small group of previously elected students have falsely claimed that the council has been dissolved. This is not true,” a La Trobe spokesperson said. There were no motions or decisions made at the meeting earlier this month that were “properly put forward”, the spokesperson said.
The meeting was to discuss composition of the council and there was no formal agenda.
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“It was not a business meeting and therefore did not have a formal agenda and was not intended to consider motions or undertake deliberations,” the spokesperson said.
The university denied claims it was stifling free speech, or trying to replace the student union with an administration-sanctioned alternative.
“The university has not silenced free speech, but has ensured fairness, safety and respect for students actively participating in the student council,” it said.
It said it did not exclude or pre-vet candidates, but former student organisation office holders and those with “bad academic standing” are barred from the council.
“Some members of the Student Council chose not to sign the volunteer agreement and others resigned,” the university said.
The spokesperson said the university had no plans to replace the existing union, and that the council was established to expand opportunities for student engagement in academic governance, strategy development and major projects.
La Trobe Student Union public affairs officer Maeve Russack said the union opposed the existence of the council because it was an “undemocratic attempt to stifle the political activity of the union”.
Russack said the university wanted to dismiss the democratic will of the student body.
“It’s far easier for the university to say it was not properly put forward than to comply with the content of the motion and explain themselves,” she said.
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She said the councillors were limited to actions the university permitted.
“They’ve [the university] made it clear that it will disregard and remove the elected councillors if they don’t play ball.”
The clash follows controversy surrounding the Bendigo Writers Festival in August this year. Dozens of participants withdrew from the event after La Trobe tried to impose a code of conduct banning criticism of Israel and the war in Gaza for university-sponsored sessions at the festival.
