STAND WITH TESS

Our community has been shaken by a number of major news:

- the faculty of Art & Design is about to be absorbed into one mega faculty, along with the fellow former faculties Social Sciences and Built Environment.

- 493 fixed term jobs will be cut across UNSW. It is understood by us here at SWT that fixed term employees do not get any severance pay. When it comes to ending employment of FTE’s, UNSW doesn’t treat them as staff but as contractors, and therefore does not consider them as eligible for severance pay - regardless of how many years or how many rolling contracts they have been employed under.

- Countless casual workers, whose existence wasn’t even addressed, also expect that they will find themselves out of work.

As we grapple with these major changes, we couldn’t help but notice a prominent name amongst the victims of these restructurings: Ross Harley will no longer be the dean of UNSW AD.

This is the picture being painted: Ross Harley wrongfully fired beloved staff member Tess Allas. An International campaign ensued to demand that she be kept on due to her outstanding contribution to the institution. The university stonewalled the campaign and eventually told us off the record ‘yes we know this was a bad call, she is clearly very important to a lot of people, but management has to stick together and cannot be seen caving to students campaigns or it will loose its authority, so no matter the consequences this decision is going ahead’. Six months later, Ross Harley gets quietly fired amidst COVID restructuring. In our eyes, this decision is clearly management’s non-response to what happened.

We see the irony in this decision - Ross firing Tess and losing his own job over it - but our statement is not here to gloat. What we would like to comment instead is: is this the best institutions can do when they f**k up? We asked for explicit accountability, for reparations, for an apology; all actions oriented towards repairing relationships and safekeeping communities. The institution gave none of this.
Instead, they gave us Ross’ head.

The issue with a system that treats unemployment as punishment, and workers (all workers) as disposable, is that this is the only form of accountability that is ever on offer. Punishment but never reform.

Whatever petty solace we might find in seeing that some of the people who have exploited this toxic institutional system are now finding themselves at the other end of it, it doesn’t change the fact that the goal has to be to create a better, safer system for all, where actual accountability is possible.

We know this is the institution’s language of apologies: the managerial way of condemning his behaviour is to quietly fire him without ever explicitly discussing it. But this isn’t what our campaign asked nor good enough. This is still an expression of the same systemic issues of lack of accountability, lack of communication, lack of care that got us here in the first place. The institution needs deeper reforming, because while a single bad apple might be gone now, the system very much stays broken and unable to offer reparations. It seems like all it knows is how to occasionally shift the direction in which it distributes harm.

(with all this being said, we are only human, so lol BYE BYE ROSS, you racist weasel. Good luck getting a going)

Professor Merlin Crossley was spotted on campus at an exhibition opening in AD Space last Tuesday night. Ruth Saveka approached him and introduced herself as an Indigenous student who is a member of the ‘Stand with Tess’ campaign wanting answers as to why our requests are being ignored. Tess also introduced herself asking him why the decision to not offer her new contracts was so "private and confidential" that not even she knows why she is being let go? Professor Crossley refused to answer the questions, claiming he wasn’t the right person to ask and after he was repeatedly asked the same question, he said the person to ask was the Dean. We informed him that Ross Harley had been MIA since 25th of September but Professor Crossley defended Ross and said, “Oh that’s not true” to which we all responded with “yes it is!”. We kept pushing for answers to why Tess Allas is being let go and finally Professor Crossley replied with “What would be the right answer?” (ARE YOU JOKING???)...Obviously our response in unison was “THE TRUTH”. Ironically, Professor Crossley went on to ensure Ruth that the university has an Indigenous strategy that is in place so that the students would not “suffer” and Ruth told him that in fact, she is “suffering” at the end of her time here at UNSW and left in distress. Later in the evening Tess thanked Professor Crossley for his time and acknowledged that it could not have been easy for him to be confronted with these questions but reminded him that the students as well as staff and industry are tired of being stonewalled by management and will seize any opportunity available to them. She also suggested to him that he visit Ruth who was in her studio in F Block and make amends with her for the obvious distress he caused. He was hesitant at first stating that he did not know where ‘F Block’ was. Peter Sharp, who was standing with Tess at that moment, offered to take Professor Crossley to the studio. Tess thanked them and left. Professor Crossley never did visit Ruth and as such this neglect and cavalier attitude to the university’s duty of care has caused Ruth even more suffering. Honours student, Rumpa Paweenpongpat was filming this public conversation but Professor Crossley asked that she stop filming and she complied with this request.

Professor Merlin Crossley was spotted on campus at an exhibition opening last Tuesday night. Ruth Saveka approached him and introduced herself as an Indigenous student who is a member of the ‘Stand with Tess’ campaign wanting answers as to why our requests are being ignored. Tess also introduced herself asking him why the decision to not offer her new contracts was so "private and confidential" that not even she knows why she is being let go? Professor Crossley refused to answer the questions, claiming he wasn’t the right person to ask and after he was repeatedly asked the same question, he said the person to ask was the Dean. We informed him that Ross Harley had been MIA since 25th of September but Crossley defended Ross and said, “Oh that’s not true” to which we all responded with “yes it is!”. We kept pushing for answers to why Tess Allas is being let go and finally Crossley replied with “What would be the right answer?” (RU JOKING?!) Obviously our response in unison was “THE TRUTH”. Ironically, Professor Crossley went on to ensure Ruth that the university has an Indigenous strategy that is in place so that the students would not “suffer” and Ruth told him that in fact, she is “suffering” at the end of her time here at UNSW and left in distress. Later, Tess thanked Professor Crossley for his time and acknowledged that it could not have been easy for him to be confronted with these questions but reminded him that the students as well as staff and industry are tired of being stonewalled by management and will seize any opportunity available to them. She also suggested to him that he visit Ruth who was in her studio in F Block and make amends with her for the obvious distress he caused. He stated that he did not know where ‘F Block’ was. LOL. Peter Sharp, offered to take him to Ruth but Merlin did not visit Ruth and as such this neglect and cavalier attitude to the university’s duty of care has caused Ruth even more suffering. A student was filming this PUBLIC conversation when Merlin diverted the attention after being pushed for answer to say that filming him is unfair and illegal (not true) But since he asked SO NICELY whilst skulling his wine...we complied

A really dog move by management: shutting the lift on F block for about 5 hours around midday just to remove stickers claiming that it is for security reasons while some other stickers had been around since 2017(third pic). THIS LACK OF JUDGEMENT OF CARE AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACCESSIBILITY SHOWS HOW MUCH UNSW MANAGEMENT IS WILLING TO GO THROUGH TO SILENCE THE VOICES OF A STUDENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST INSTITUTIONAL RACISM. S👏H👏A👏M 👏E 👏U👏N👏S👏W👏!!!!!!!!!!! (Last pic shows a very aesthetically pleasing photo of us putting up the sticker on the ceiling and we will keep pasting!)

A really dog move by @artdesignunsw management: shutting the lift on F block for about 5 hours around midday just to remove #standwithTESS stickers claiming that it is for security reasons while some other stickers had been around since 2017(third pic). THIS LACK OF JUDGEMENT OF CARE AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACCESSIBILITY SHOWS HOW MUCH UNSW MANAGEMENT IS WILLING TO GO THROUGH TO SILENCE THE VOICES OF A STUDENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST INSTITUTIONAL RACISM. S👏H👏A👏M 👏E 👏U👏N👏S👏W👏!!!!!!!!!!! (Last pic shows a very aesthetically pleasing photo of us putting up the sticker on the ceiling and we will keep pasting!) @artdesignunsw @unsw @unswgalleries @nava_visualarts @sydneyunculturednetwork @nteunsw @nas_au @mca_australia @artgalleryofnsw @nationalgalleryaus @qagoma @ngvmelbourne @agsa.adelaide @lindaburneymp @albomp @billybraggofficial @sca_sydney @nas_au @uncolonial_history

Calling all artists and curators: Stand with Tess, BOYCOTT UNSW. At the campus rally on Tuesday, 5th November, Tony Albert called for all Indigenous artists and all allies to boycott UNSW Galleries until Tess Allas is re-employed under a long term contract. Our voices are being ignored and silenced and we need your help, as established and influential artists and curators, to be heard. We ask you to join this boycott to fight against institutionalised racism and colonialism. Please email [email protected] if you would like your name added to the boycott list!

Calling all artists and curators: Stand with Tess, BOYCOTT UNSW. At the campus rally on Tuesday, 5th November, Tony Albert @tonyalbert called for all Indigenous artists and all allies to boycott UNSW Galleries until Tess Allas is re-employed under a long term contract. Our voices are being ignored and silenced and we need your help, as established and influential artists and curators, to be heard. We ask you to join this boycott to fight against institutionalised racism and colonialism. Please email [email protected] if you would like your name added to the boycott list! @artdesignunsw @unsw @unswgalleries @nava_visualarts @sydneyunculturednetwork @nteunsw @nas_au @mca_australia @artgalleryofnsw @nationalgalleryaus @qagoma @ngvmelbourne @agsa.adelaide @lindaburneymp @albomp @billybraggofficial @sca_sydney @nas_au @uncolonial_history

11/11/16 TBT That time when Tess Allas won an award for doing something awesome (again)

Repost: Winner! just won a NSW Imagine Award! Thanks to all the artists, co-curator and staff

Last night at the alumni reunion we were locked out of UNSW Galleries. Management made a last minute call to move the event from the courtyard to the gallery foyer (see last pic for evidence) and hired security to keep us out. We managed to work our way in and even attempted to address the crowd before management cut the power to the microphone. The alumni we spoke to we all interested to hear more about our campaign and were keen to buy our tshirts! Lol what an eventful night!!