Overview

• Vice-Chancellor Emma Johnston will decide whether to expel two students and suspend two others after an October 2024 sit-in at an academic’s office.
• The disciplinary committee found that protesters harassed staff, damaged property and placed stickers on university equipment and personal items.
• New regulations introduced in March ban indoor protests and bar non-affiliated individuals from entering campus grounds.
• Student groups have denounced the disciplinary process as opaque and authoritarian, and the Human Rights Law Centre, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for the rules to be rescinded.
• All four students plan to appeal any sanctions, with observers warning the outcome could set a precedent for handling political demonstrations at Australian universities.