More jobs to go at the ANU as Pocock turns the heat up on its leaders

It said that 93 jobs would go in its shake-up of administration, with 20 jobs created. Of the jobs to go, 44 were already empty and another 22 were filled by someone who had agreed to go.

That would take the total number of jobs gone or set to go to around 400 on the ANU's calculation of the impact of its Renew ANU program.

The National Tertiary Education Union disputed that. It calculated that 1097 jobs have gone or slated to go since April last year, shortly after Genevieve Bell took over as vice-chancellor.

The latest announcement to staff came as David Pocock asked the Senate to seek key financial documents from the university.

Senator Pocock told the Senate that he will move that it should ask the university for "all documents, email/internal correspondence, internal memoranda, meeting minutes, and other records of interaction" for a range of subjects, particularly financial matters.

He was after the detail - the who said what to whom material. "It's the lack of transparency, " he said.

"We need to know more about how they've decided to propose these changes. This is our national university and they should be setting the standard."

An ANU spokesperson said the university has learned of Senator Pocock's motion via the media.

"We are facing an incredibly challenging period, where we are having to make difficult choices as to how we continue to deliver our national mission within our financial means," the spokesperson said.

"We will carefully consider the proposed motions and respond accordingly."

Senator Pocock was echoing scepticism among ANU academics who oppose the current changes. They argue that the financial difficulties have been overstated in order to drive through radical change in the way the ANU operates.

They question why the ANU's stated $142 million deficit of day-to-day costs over income hasn't been audited while - they say - the ANU's stated surplus of around $90 million has been.

The ANU argues that the $90 million "profit" can't be used to run the place on a day-to-day basis because much of the money comes from investments which are tied to particular uses, or as income from insurance for, for example, hail damage.

The leadership of the ANU has been pushing through its proposals section by section.

The latest involve people who keep the place running, according to academics who oppose the changes. One likened the administration to the university's nervous system.

Some will have to compete against colleagues for a diminished number of jobs.

"Sixty-nine people are competing for 42 jobs. There is no satisfaction in 'succeeding' in this process at the expense of dear colleagues you work alongside. This process undermines collegiality, teamwork, cooperation, trust, and pits staff against one another," National Tertiary Education Union official Lachlan Clohesy said.

"We've noticed a sharp increase in health impacts on staff, especially mental health impacts."

In June, the ANU published proposals for Information Technology Services and Planning and Service Performance; in July for the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), the College of Science and Medicine, and for the Research and Innovation Portfolio.

It's not only the jobs to go which have annoyed academics but what they say is the manner of the cuts, and the uncertainty about on whom the axe will fall. Opponents said that no rationale for why the axe fell in one place but not another had been given.

Feminist academics accused the ANU leadership of undermining progress towards fairness for women with their radical shake-up in gender studies staffing.

Melinda Cooper, an ANU professor specialising in gender studies, likened the cuts to those of Elon Musk and Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency in the United States, which hads itself been likened to a chainsaw slashing the public service.

The ANU school of music and the Australian National Dictionary Centre were both being abolished as stand-alone institutions.

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The ANU has said that closing the last two units does not mean that the teaching there would stop. Similarly, it said that gender studies would continue under the reorganized ANU.

"We will continue to support performance and flagship ensembles like the ANU Orchestra and the ANU Jazz Orchestra, and, with a more flexible curriculum, enable even more students to get involved," Bronwyn Parry, dean of the ANU's College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), said about the School of Music changes.

"Some loss of positions is, very regrettably, necessary to reach financial sustainability but these have been distributed as equitably as possible across all units, such that most will experience the loss of only one or two positions each."