Have Your Say

Newcastle Herald readers have their say: Why Vaile threats don't carry much weight

By Letters to the Editor
Updated June 11 2021 - 11:30am, first published 4:30am
Professor Jennifer Martin. Picture: Marina Neil
Professor Jennifer Martin. Picture: Marina Neil

THE resignation of Professor Jennifer Martin from the University of Newcastle council has been reported as a brave act. There has even been reported student support for her action, ("Students show their support for professor", Herald, 9/6), apparently, though the number of supporters was not disclosed. The University Student Association, the source of this "support", has been known to be a very left-leaning activist group for over 50 years. But perhaps this resignation by the good professor was not that brave. The outrage of Mark Vaile, chairman of a coal company, being appointed as the next chancellor of the university gave Ms Martin no option but to resign. Really? The chancellor is an almost honorary position with no direct management of day-to-day operation of the institution. That is carried out by the vice chancellor and executive. It shouldn't matter what legitimate business association the chancellor had. That would be none of Ms Martin's business. The resignation may have sounded like she was leaving her job, but she wasn't. Ms Martin would still receive her full professorial salary. I would think that it would be more responsible for Professor Martin to promote the wellbeing of her students rather than her own very public anti-coal activism.

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