University of Wollongong students are hitting back against what they say have been a raft of cuts against staff and student conditions.
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The members of the Wollongong University Student Association (WUSA) are particularly disappointed at "the 150 staff jobs that have been cut and continuous attacks on student learning conditions and wellbeing".
The students have been "particularly hurt" by the cutting of the Campus Clinic earlier this year, in the "midst of the COVID-19 pandemic".
That's why last month about 30 students met on Zoom to discuss the staff cuts and organise a campaign against the cutting of the Campus Clinic, the GP service that had treated staff and students on the Wollongong campus for the past five years.
WUSA welfare officer Jamie Caulfield wasn't happy with UOW's interim replacement service - a referral service "to help students to access health information and appropriate care".
However, a UOW spokesperson said the university was making positive progress in arranging new health services [expected by later this month] for students following the closure of the campus clinic.
UOW Vice-Chancellor, Professor Patricia Davidson, has directed that interim service arrangements be put in place while options are explored for sustainable long-term solutions for campus health and medical services.
UOW had agreed to a request from Campus Clinic operators to extend their lease until late August.
In early July the operators' lead physician Dr Jennifer Bowler and her husband, Dr Cartan Costello, told the Mercury the education provider viewed its students as commodities.
Dr Costello said the university needed a shift in its outlook and approach to student healthcare.
At the time WUSA launched an online petition to save the clinic, demanding the university renew the lease and provide new facilities.
"Providing a referral service does not replace a GP, it simply allows the university to pretend it is providing a service when in reality it is shrugging off all responsibility for its students," WUSA welfare officer Jamie Caulfield said.
"Despite the announcement of this 'interim measure', UOW are refusing to commit to establishing a GP service on campus again.
"We have no promise or meaningful commitment, and a referral service is a bad interim, but as an interim with no foreseeable plan in even the vaguest sense is unacceptable."
A university spokesperson said preparations were being made to establish a health information line for students. The dedicated UOW number will provide access to information, advice and referrals to help students find appropriate care in their local area.
This is the result of education being structured around profiteering, where essential services become money-making businesses at the expense of students' wellbeing.
- WUSA education officer Dylon Tomasi
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"Options to facilitate access for students to bulk-billed consultations at nearby medical practices are also being explored.
"These initiatives are intended to be interim service provision arrangements until a sustainable long-term solution for campus health and medical services is determined.
"UOW is consulting with students, staff and the local medical community as it explores options."
WUSA education officer Dylon Tomasi felt UOW was "stalling".
"When students demand a new GP, the university gives us someone to refer us to a GP," he said.
"As yet the University has refused to commit to establishing a new General Practice on campus but we will keep fighting until they do..
"This is the result of education being structured around profiteering, where essential services become money-making businesses at the expense of students' wellbeing."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
