Terms of Reference for Academic Support Persons
The Australian Association of University Professors (AAUP) endorses the role of a support person in meetings with management representatives as part of its commitment to protect academic freedom, promote fairness, and empower individuals within the university and scholarly community.
For the purposes of this document “staff” is taken to be an academic member or academic associate of an organisation. An AAUP “support person” is an AAUP member or affiliate agreeing to act on behalf of AAUP to provide conditional support to academics as outlined in this policy document. Under special consideration in the absence of other support, AAUP may consider supporting non-academic staff where it is appropriate to do so.
This policy authorises members of AAUP to act on its behalf as neutral support for academics during situations such as:
Redundancies
Workplace bullying
Discrimination by human resources or university administrators
Other sensitive meetings or processes that may adversely affect academics
Role of a Support Person
The primary functions of a support person include:
- Observing and Witnessing: To quietly observe sensitive meetings and provide moral support, ensuring no bullying occurs.
- Accurate Record-Keeping: To provide an independent and accurate summary of meetings, safeguarding against misrepresentations by the organisation.
Additionally, a support person may undertake:
Data Collection: Analyse recurring patterns of bullying across institutions to uncover systemic HR issues. This role requires careful legal consideration to maintain confidentiality and comply with organisational policies.
Principles for Support Persons
To ensure fairness, transparency, and consistency, the AAUP outlines the following principles:
- Representation: The support person acts as an AAUP representative entitled to organisational support and protection.
- Neutrality: The support person maintains neutrality, refraining from commenting on disputes unless explicitly requested.
- Wellbeing Focus: The primary role is to ensure the academic staff members’ well-being and document proceedings accurately.
- Limited Intervention: The support person does not interfere in meetings unless pre-authorised by the academic staff member to address serious grievances or distress. In such cases, they may halt the meeting.
- Confidentiality: Meeting records remain confidential unless required by law or authorised by the employee for use in their defence.
- Data Usage: Notes or records must not be used for organisational purposes without authorisation. However, systemic issues involving multiple institutions may warrant policy revision to address broader cultural problems.
- Recognition of the role: For purposes of encouraging a wider culture of support, the AAUP and/or other parties may formally recognise the role of the support person as an honourable one with, for example, an AAUP Public Service Distinction Award. There may be a special category support persons as Fellows of Integrity, for example.
- The support person should ideally be from a different institution or organisation to that of the person requiring support.
Summary
The AAUP supports the formal representation of academic staff in sensitive matters. By formalising the role of support persons, the AAUP aims to:
Recognise sizeable and potentially far-reaching power imbalances that can see streamlined polices and advice develop across institutions and organisations that contrast to the currently typical isolation of affected individual staff.
Mitigate against these power imbalances.
Ensure procedural fairness in accordance with the law which may or may not align with institutional interpretations and policies.
Provide moral and practical support to academic staff facing bullying, discrimination, harassment, intimidation and erosion of confidence.
Provide a cultural acceptance of support roles amongst its members and encourage wider standing up for colleagues, principles, and a code of conduct a form of which may be aligned with the recently developed University of Sydney Association of Professors (USAP) “Manifesto”.
This AAUP Policy on support for academic staff represents a critical initiative towards restoring equity and integrity within Australian academia and to make this recognisable to the wider community.
The AAUP reserves the right to amend this policy at any time.
The Council of the Australian Association of University Professors
6 January 2025