{"id":802473,"date":"2026-07-15T20:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802473\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T20:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:04:19","slug":"university-of-melbourne-sharply-changed-protest-policies-after-pro-palestine-sit-ins-commission-hears-royal-commission-on-antisemitism-and-social-cohesion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802473\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Melbourne \u2018sharply\u2019 changed protest policies after pro-Palestine sit-ins, commission hears | Royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The interim vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne (UoM) says pro-Palestine sit-ins on campus<\/a> led to the institution \u201cquite sharply\u201d changing its protest policies and that further restrictions could arise.<\/p>\n

Prof Glyn Davis appeared before the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion on Wednesday, which is examining the lived experiences of Jewish students and academics, including the response of universities.<\/p>\n

Davis was asked whether he agreed that a pro-Palestine encampment established in 2024, which called for the UoM to cut ties with Israel and weapons companies, created \u201cfear and unsafety\u201d among staff and students.<\/p>\n

He said he did, and there were \u201cregular discussions\u201d about the camp with Victoria police, who maintained unless a law was broken they would not intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe encampment on the South Lawn, it was judged, did not override any of those concerns and therefore the university would not seek action against the encampment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Davis confirmed misconduct including \u201checkling and harassment\u201d occurred during the encampment but the incidents were \u201cnot claimed to be antisemitic\u201d and didn\u2019t breach the UoM\u2019s racism policy.<\/p>\n

He said the situation escalated after a sit-in at the UoM\u2019s Arts West building<\/a> in May 2024 and the occupation of Jewish physics professor Steven Prawer\u2019s office<\/a> months later in October.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the commissioner heard from Prawer, who said the university needed to show it didn\u2019t \u201ctolerate misbehaviour\u201d<\/a> after the expulsion of two students<\/a> who were part of an occupation of his office was overturned. Prawer also said the identity of his protesters should be revealed for his \u201cprotection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Davis said the atmosphere on campus \u201cchanged dramatically\u201d after the incidents and the university\u2019s response to protests also altered \u201cquite sharply\u201d. UoM has prohibited outsiders from protesting on campus, banned camping onsite and protesting indoors.<\/p>\n

Last year, the state\u2019s deputy information commissioner found the UoM breached Victoria\u2019s Privacy and Data Protection Act<\/a> when it used its wifi network to surveil students and staff holding the sit-in. Davis said the university had revisited its wifi policies and was now providing clear warning when it was being used and for what purpose.<\/p>\n

Davis flagged further reforms to the UoM\u2019s rules on postering could be on the way, following a request from Prawer to identify organisations or individuals who authored posters, after offensive material was distributed around campus and in his office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an assumption that we will make a series of policy changes in the light of this royal commission and the other things that are under way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not prepared to put your name to a statement, I don\u2019t think academic or freedom of speech applies.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But he disagreed that the identity of the 20 protesters who occupied Prawer\u2019s office should be revealed, lest it \u201cmake a stain on the rest of their lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Davis appeared alongside the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales vice-chancellors on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Prof Mark Scott, the University of Sydney\u2019s vice-chancellor, said forcibly disbanding the campus\u2019s pro-Palestine encampment could have led to it \u201cblowing up\u201d.<\/p>\n

The encampment, established in mid-2024, was the first and longest-running in the nation. Scott said their priority was \u201ca peaceful resolution\u201d but it was a \u201creal failure\u201d not to consult further with Jewish groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still felt the risk of the encampment blowing up by forcibly ending it,\u201d he said. \u201cPolice in riot gear taking students away could have seen an encampment 10 times the size the day after.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I can see that our Jewish students and staff paid a price for that \u2026 And I\u2019m sorry we didn\u2019t keep them more closely engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

The university has introduced a string of protest crackdowns<\/a> since its encampment was disbanded, including requiring organisers to notify management for demonstrations, banning encampments and indoor protests and requiring authorisation details on posters.<\/p>\n

Scott said there was a \u201cstrong reaction\u201d to the changes but there had been a \u201csignificant reduction\u201d in student complaints since they were enforced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing this through a lens of safely managing our environment,\u201d he said. \u201cThe protest and demonstration culture at the university is alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy feeling \u2026 is to be able to look not just at an individual\u2019s freedom of speech, but how you create a culture that enables the freedom of speech of many \u2013 to hear the other voice, to listen as well as speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

The higher education sector has been in the spotlight since 2024, first with a parliamentary inquiry<\/a> into antisemitism at Australian universities which recommended universities adopt a definition of antisemitism that \u201cclosely aligns\u201d with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the Bondi beach terror attack<\/a> last year, the federal government also established an antisemitism education taskforce and backed the special envoy Jillian Segal\u2019s plan to combat antisemitism<\/a>, which included specific actions for the university sector. Key to the plan was a report card grading universities on their response to antisemitism and how well they deal with protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The National Tertiary Education Union\u2019s UoM branch president, David Gonzalez, said Jewish students and staff had an \u201cabsolute right to be safe\u201d which should not be \u201cnegotiable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut neither should academic freedom,\u201d he said on Wednesday. \u201cAntisemitism is real and must be taken seriously. It is precisely because it is serious that the term must not be stretched into a political weapon used to silence criticism of a state or its military conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The interim vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne (UoM) says pro-Palestine sit-ins on campus led to the institution…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-802473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}