USYD seeks Crown Solicitor advice over student election

The University of Sydney has sought advice from the Crown Solicitor on whether the conduct of its Student Representative Council election breached the Crimes Act, and has ordered an independent review of funding arrangements for student representative groups.

All election signs bearing the phrase “Globalise the Intifada” have been removed from campus, Chancellor David Thodey said on Friday, following a briefing to the university’s Senate by vice-chancellor Mark Scott.

Thodey said Scott had told the Senate he was profoundly disappointed that the safety and wellbeing of the community, especially Jewish students, were not adequately considered by some candidates in the election, and then by the independent election organisers in endorsing ticket names.

Complaints about the week’s events are being investigated, Thodey said, with disciplinary action to follow if breaches of policies or codes of conduct are found. The university has also sought advice from the NSW Electoral Commissioner on requirements to ensure safe and fair student elections.

The review of affiliation and funding arrangements for student representative groups will be expedited, he said, to ensure legal, regulatory and psychosocial safety measures are being met.

“The University remains committed to a culture where free speech can flourish while ensuring all members of our community are safe and welcome,” Thodey said. “Disregard for the safety and wellbeing of others breaches our staff and student codes of conduct. Threatening and intimidating behaviour has no place at the university.”

Voting closed on Thursday. Student newspaper Honi Soit reported that a student referendum calling on the university to cut ties with Israeli universities passed with 92 per cent of formal votes cast, with 3554 of 4137 students who voted backing it, on a turnout of about 9 per cent of the student body.

The result is not binding on the university. When a student general meeting passed a similar motion in 2024, the university said the meeting had been run independently of it and did not represent its institutional position or the majority of its student body.

Honi Soit reported that Grace Street of the Grassroots faction is expected to be provisionally elected SRC president for a second term, having taken 41 per cent of the primary vote. Election staff had not called the result at the time of publication. Street told the paper students were “fed up with our university’s complicity in apartheid and genocide”.

The university had come under sustained pressure this week over its handling of the ticket that contested the elections under the name “Globalise the Intifada”. Scott said earlier in the week that he found the phrase incendiary and hurtful, and that he believed the SRC had “exploited the existing arrangements for student elections on campus”.

The Globalise the Intifada ticket itself polled 2.8 per cent in Honi Soit’s exit polling, which captured 1252 voters across the three days of the election. It ranked second-last of the nine options, behind Left and Palestine Action on 25.5 per cent, Grassroots and Free on 22.3 per cent, Impact on 13.3 per cent and PENTA on 12.9 per cent.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Australasian Union of Jewish Students, Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism and Jewish chaplaincy group JUNI called for the immediate removal of all remaining material, a prohibition on the phrase in campus campaign material, an investigation into who authorised and displayed it, and consideration of whether the ticket or its candidates should be disqualified.

University of Sydney Jewish chaplain Rabbi Eli Feldman said students and staff had been frightened and deeply distressed, with some avoiding campus.

“Jewish students and staff should not have to walk past a call to spread violence against Jews simply to attend class,” he said.

NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, who along with Premier Chris Minns raised concerns with Scott directly, said the phrase was an incitement to hatred and violence against the Jewish community.