About Me
For the last ten years, ANU has been my home. I’ve spent six of those years working in College leadership, which has given me an inside look at how our university is run. I’m running for Council because I saw how close we came to losing our University and I want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. I believe that the way to do this is to make your voice heard. I’ll fight for transparency, fairness, and accountability in every decision that affects our community. As part of my campaign, I am collecting your ideas about what the Council should do. If I am elected, I will aim to make them happen. Otherwise, I will summarise them for the other elected member. Make your voice heard!
Platform
Our Council’s current corporate structure was a recent political decision to silence the community’s voice by making elected members a minority. We must lobby parliament to reverse it.
We need an experienced administrator with a strong academic background, who is focused on growth, not cost-cutting, and who understands and respects the university community. Council must oversee this process to make sure that the candidate has a clear plan and is unwaveringly dedicated to the success of all of ANU.
I believe that the Council should be more engaged with the ANU community. Recent events have shown that the voice has been powerful. Community-led projects I have been involved with, such as the ANU Governance Project, the Open Letter by the Professoriate to the ANU Leadership and the NTEU petition have made a difference. But we still need a path forward. I will establish a link between the community and the Council to make sure that ANU proceeds on a track that reflects our collective values and priorities. Share your thoughts!
For serious allegations against leadership, I will move that Council ask the Minister to commission a public, independent review. More broadly, I will use this public pressure to make the case for a sector-wide,legislated integrity commission with the real teeth to enforce its findings.
All Council meetings and papers should be livestreamed and public, with secrecy being the rare, publicly justified exception, as is often the practice in the USA. Transparency is a duty to the university students, staff and the Australian taxpayer.
Executive must be capped at a defined multiple of a professor’s salary to end corporate excesses at the expense of university staff and programs.
Governance and Leadership Experience
Oversee international education partnerships and research collaborations. Develop strategies to bring more international students to ANU.
Helped guide the growth of the new university. Doubled the number of faculty members, established new graduate programs, and set up fundamental university governance system.
Represented graduate students in the faculty meetings. Participated in faculty hiring committees. Ph.D. students were granted a vote, which was often the first one cast and decisive
Questions and Answers
A major problem with the Council is that it operates parallel to the interests of the community it serves. I will try to reach out to as many members of our community as possible, to understand their concerns and ideas. During my campaign, I will run a feedback form for items the community wants to implement. As a Council member I will also set up regular office hours, so that anyone can come and discuss their issues with me directly.
I grew up in the Soviet Uniton, and lived my formative years in the United States. I don’t recognise these places anymore, as they fell under the control of autocratic regimes. I don’t want this to happen at my new home, ANU. I want to make sure that our university is run in a transparent and accountable manner, with input from all members of our community.
I am an NTEU member and support its values. However, I am running as an independent candidate because I believe that at this key junction we need someone with experience, with a long history at ANU and also with a track record in university governance. It is also important for me to work with both unionists and non-unionists alike. However, I urge you to rank James Blackwell as your second choice.