Staff, Students and Supporters of UOW are invited to sign this Petition.
  
We are calling on UOW Management and the NSW State Parliament to pursue reforms to the University’s governing body -  University Council -  to democratise and improve representation, transparency and accountability. The UOW Act (2012) (the Act) grants University Council unprecedented autonomy to make financial, staffing and coursework decisions, and provides for little or no external accountability or transparency to staff, students or the wider community. This is partly due to the fact that elected staff and students account for only a small fraction of Council members, with elected Academic staff and non-Academic staff and students each holding a minimum of 1 position out of the maximum of 22 members.  The 2012 changes to the Act also make it possible for the single biggest group of UOW Council members to have no professional tertiary experience.  On being elected to Council positions, the elected members (Academic, non-Academic and students) are effectively prevented from communicating with those who elected them, because of Council Standing Orders and the overuse of ‘confidentiality of items’, which impede their ability to carry out their representative functions.  We call on UOW Management and the NSW State Parliament to reform and democratise University Council by:
 
1.     Deleting the UOW Act section 8b(6), which states that “The majority of   the total number of members must be external persons”. 
2.     Diversifying external membership of UOW Council beyond the current focus on business and finance.
3.     Amending the UOW Act to increase staff and student representation: Academic and non-Academic (or Professional staff) from a minimum of 1 in each category to a minimum of 3; and student representatives from a minimum of 2 to 4;
4.     Ending the excessive use of confidentiality, which effectively limits discussion, effective representation by members and public oversight over items before Council.
5.     Removing obstacles placed on all Council members when it comes to disclosing their vote on University Council decisions (Standing Order 6.4).
6.     Encouraging and facilitating elected Council members’ discussion of Council business with the bodies who elected them. 
7.     Providing adequate and detailed minutes of University Council non-confidential decisions to the UOW community, including those of the subcommittees: Nominations; Finance and Resources; Risk, Audit and Performance; Performance and Remuneration; and People and Culture, Finance and Infrastructure. 
8.     Providing Council meeting Agendas to the UOW community in advance of meetings.