Indigenous university students are being offered special assessment leeway to help deal with emotional stress linked to debate around the upcoming Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum. Affected staff members are also being offered support.
Melbourne University Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), Professor Barry Judd, sent an email to all staff on Monday to remind them “of the strain this long campaign has placed on our Indigenous colleagues and students”.
The email said the “increasingly polarised and vitriolic campaign has caused enormous dismay and distress to our University Indigenous community’ and this has led to Indigenous staff being offered ‘special leave provisions’ for the rest of the year”.
The impact of raging debate
With an increase in requests for expert commentary on the Voice referendum – both from within and outside the university – there has been an increased “burden on our Indigenous staff this year”, the email stated. Professor Judd also urged managers to acknowledge this extra workload.
Indigenous students at Melbourne University are invited to apply for ‘special consideration provisions’ for their assessment, whether related to exams or assignments. Post-graduate researchers are also able to request special consideration.
“I ask all staff responsible for approving these requests to respond in a timely manner, led by considerations of health and well-being”, Professor Judd wrote.
A Melbourne University spokesperson said the measures offered to both Indigenous staff and students acknowledged the burden they are feeling “at this difficult and stressful time”.
La Trobe University is taking a similar stance and allowing Indigenous staff to take leave on Monday 16 October – the first working day following Saturday’s referendum. Alternatively, they are invited to take a leave day on a different date.
A spokesperson at the university described the measures as part of the tertiary institution’s “existing policies and procedures” that been in place since the announcement of the referendum date in August.
In addition to the special consideration available to Indigenous students, the spokesperson said La Trobe has established “support services, such as counselling and supportive meet-up spaces” across all of its campuses, to enable students to share post-referendum “experiences and feelings”.
A third Melbourne university, Victoria University, has also confirmed it is offering special consideration to First Nations students’, as well as special cultural leave for First Nations staff members during 2023. The university said the considerations reinforced the university’s “commitment to student well-being”.
With more than four million pre-polling votes already cast across the nation, whether Indigenous Australians will be recognised in the constitution and be represented by an advisory Voice body to parliament is yet to be seen.
