Union calls on ANU Vice-Chancellor to go after second job revealed

The tertiary education union is calling for ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell to resign over her management decisions and after revelations she had a second job while leading the university.

If she does not go of her own accord, the union says the ANU Council should sack her.

A report in the Australian Financial Review said Professor Bell kept a paid role at technology giant Intel after joining the Australian National University (ANU) in 2017, including over the past 10 months since she became vice chancellor on a $1.1 million salary.

Professor Bell, who is pushing to cut $250 million from ANU’s recurrent spending by early 2026 and who recently failed in a bid to get staff to forego a 2.5 per cent pay rise, only finished at Intel on 15 November.

In a gesture to staff as she urged them to forego a December pay rise, Professor Bell announced in October she would take a 10 per cent pay cut. More than 600 jobs are at risk from the cost-cutting program.

The AFR report also quoted S&P Global credit analyst Anthony Walker, who queried whether the ANU faced a financial crisis given its rich asset base and AA+ credit rating.

An ANU spokesperson said Professor Bell’s role at Intel was no secret and she continued to have the full support of the ANU Council.

“The source of media reporting on this is the university’s own website,” the spokesperson said.

“The arrangement was disclosed through our conflict processes in the normal way and was known by the council.

“It is common across universities for academics to work with external parties in their fields of expertise.”

The spokesperson said the ANU was obligated to use taxpayers’ money responsibly and selling assets to run deficits would be very poor practice.

“One of the key reasons we’ve been able to retain a strong credit rating is because ratings agencies can see we are committed to getting our budget back in order,” the spokesperson said.

But the National Tertiary Education Union said Professor Bell needed to go before she did any more damage to the ANU.

The union said it would conduct a vote of no confidence in Professor Bell in February if she stayed on.

NTEU ACT Division secretary Dr Lachlan Clohesy said Professor Bell’s position was untenable after announcing damaging job cuts, the 88 per cent staff vote against her pay proposal, allegations about a culture of fear and intimidation and deans encouraged to resign, and now the second job with Intel while Vice-Chancellor.

“This farce has gone on long enough,” he said. “The ANU Council needs to act to stem the bleeding and mitigate the damage the Vice-Chancellor is doing to this great university.

“If the ANU Council failed to deal with this situation, it would be a clear abrogation of their responsibility to the university community.”

NTEU ANU Branch president Millan Pintos-Lopez said the Vice-Chancellor had alienated staff through all levels of the workforce.

“Our members have no confidence that she is the right person to lead ANU during these challenging times.”

Eleven ANU senior executives sent an email to all staff last Friday in support of Professor Bell and the college deans.