VC’s update: acknowledgements

Hi everyone,

Friday 1 August was an important day for our community with the acknowledgement of the work that has been done, and work that still needs to be done, to address sexual violence on our campus and beyond. Every account of sexual and gendered violence is too many and we continue to work every day to ensure our campus is safe and respectful for our staff, students, visitors and alumni.

We are continuing to take steps in the prevention and response of gender-based violence. These have been documented in our annual public reports of Sexual Misconduct Disclosures and Reports, which can be found at Respect@ANU | Australian National University. These annual reports, which have been published since 2022, reflect our efforts to ensure we remain accountable, open and in dialogue with our community on these serious issues. 

On Friday, our students marched from Kambri to Chancelry and what struck me was how respectful the protest was – students using their voices to raise awareness and call for accountability from the University to ensure we continue to keep making progress to make our campus safe and respectful for all, but doing so in a way that allows conversation and respect. Our students have campaigned to make change, and they have partnered with the University to ensure what we are doing is having impact and driving real change and I acknowledge their passion, courage and dedication. We have much to learn from our students in how to engage respectfully on important matters, and I thank Will Burfoot, ANU Women’s* Department,  and our broader student cohort for their partnership and trust here. 

Thinking about the last few months, ‘trust’ has been a topic of much debate and focus. For me, every person in our community owns a piece of the puzzle and how we each create and maintain a strong community bond as we continue to navigate an incredibly difficult set of challenges to address our underlying finances, whilst ensuring we can deliver on our national mission. The steps we are collectively undertaking to stabilise our finances, operations, services and structures are setting ANU up for better future, where we can continue to deliver transformative research and education, unpinned by a culture built on respect, accountability and shared values.  In practical terms, how we each show up, treat one another and have productive conversations will help us work together to ensure ANU continues to be an extraordinary place. 

I’ll be continuing conversations about the next ANU blueprint, ‘ANU to 100’ which will help chart our course for who we are, where we imagine ourselves next and how we get there. I want to thank staff who have already been a part of the ‘facing the future conversations’ and continue to demonstrate that this place means a great deal to all of us, and the University’s future – as a great national resource – is in our hands.

Good thoughts to wherever this finds you and hoping that you don't succumb to the nasty flu as I have this week. 
G