A staff member at a Sydney university shared with police information that was gathered by a security employee who attended a small pro-Palestine student group meeting as part of the uni’s close surveillance of the student protest movement, internal emails show.
Western Sydney University (WSU) has emerged as a hot-spot for on-campus protests against Australian higher education’s links to Israel and arms manufacturers.
After two students were arrested by NSW Police at an October protest in the WSU chancellor’s building, the university sought to downplay the closeness of its relationship with the police force.
A video of WSU provost Kevin Dunn speaking to students after the protest shows him saying that the university did not inform NSW Police about the protest or request that police come to campus. “We did not request them,” he said.
While the university blocked access to documents regarding the October protest, citing the pending court cases against the students, a handful of internal WSU emails obtained by Crikey through the Government Information Public Access scheme show much greater coordination between WSU staff and police than the university let on.
Emails exchanged between WSU campus safety and security staff and NSW Police appear to relate to a meeting of student group WSU4Palestine on August 14.
Two days earlier, WSU security sent police details about the upcoming meeting. “Please note there will be a ‘public meeting’ at Parramatta South in relation to the war in Gaza,” the email began, before indicating that security were monitoring the group’s social media (“no new information on instagram”) and promising that security staff would “review further tomorrow” and be in touch.
A NSW Police staff member replied, thanking WSU security staff and requesting information about the staffing levels for the meeting. “Any updates you are able to give will be greatly appreciated,” they signed off.
The following day, a WSU staff member emailed police with more information about the meeting. A staff member would be present at the meeting, they wrote: “It will give a clear indication of the interest moving forward.”
The staff member adds that “we will not require police to attend campus”.
A WSU spokesperson confirmed this version of events to Crikey.
“We can confirm we had a uniformed security guard in the room which is standard practice for all non-core teaching, learning and research activities,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The spokesperson didn’t answer questions about what information the university gives to police and how it collects it.
Jordan from WSU4Palestine reiterated the group’s criticism of the university’s Israeli links.
“WSU has been working with police, sharing information about our protests demanding WSU cut ties with Israel. Our protests are completely legitimate. WSU should cut ties with the real criminals and stop criminalising students in an attempt to cover up their complicity,” they said in an Instagram message.
A NSW Police spokesperson declined to comment, saying the force does not comment on operational matters.
WSU student representative council president Laine Fox told Crikey the council is deeply concerned about university staff passing on information about student meetings on sensitive issues.
“This close relationship raises concerns among students, especially following the October protests, which resulted in several student arrests,” he said.
“Such actions risk undermining students’ trust and their right to engage in open, independent discussions without fear of surveillance or external interference.”
Fox, along with the council’s executive, met with recently appointed WSU vice-chancellor Professor George Williams and the university’s head of operations and security Bill Parasis to discuss the involvement of NSW Police in responding to student protests.
Fox said the council raised that police presence on campus “escalates tensions”.
“We were not informed or made aware of any prior discussions with police concerning student meetings on campus, particularly regarding WSU security monitoring or attending student meetings to gather information or intel about future actions,” he said.
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