Protesters asked to leave campus for chalking slogans against Massey University’s proposed cuts

Protesters against job losses at Massey University were allegedly “escorted” from its Palmerston North campus this week after writing messages in chalk against the proposal.

A spokesperson for Students Against Cuts said the group attended the university’s open day on Wednesday and the chalking was part of their campaign against a proposal that would see about 245 jobs gone.

He said two students and one staff member were “escorted” off the site and trespassed.

A post on the group’s Facebook page showed pictures of the slogans on concrete walls, which included ‘save our papers’ and ‘save our uni’.

The spokesperson said Massey was refusing to say exactly how many jobs would be lost or what papers would be affected.

“Massey is using open day to attract new students to a university in which staff and programmes are being culled with little thought to educational quality.

“The lack of consultation or information from university management is the reason we have to chalk in the first place.”

He said instead of removing students “trying to raise awareness”, Massey needed to recognise no amount of new students could make up for decades of “divestment”.

“The future of current and prospective students are at stake.”

A video of the incident seen by Stuff shows a security guard telling students involved they were “no longer welcome on campus” and what they had done was “vandalism”.

The security guard is then asked for a “written” trespass order, but he says he “will not” provide one.

“One staff member was also trespassed and escorted off campus, despite not chalking.

“Both the students and staff member are unsure whether attending lectures will result in being hauled off campus.”

But a Massey University spokesperson said three people were asked to leave campus because they were “graffitiing” buildings, but no trespass was issued.

The trio were escorted to the security office before leaving campus, they said.

A voluntary process was under way in parts of the university, and it provided an opportunity for staff to leave the university with “an enhancement” of up to a year’s salary”.

”There has been interest from some staff in the VEC invitation, however the process of receiving, reviewing and responding to confidential expressions of interest is still under way, and as such we’re unable to share numbers.

“We are regularly communicating with staff throughout this process, through a range of channels, including the formal committee processes as required by our governance regulations, College-level forums and university-wide webinars, forums and written updates. “

Last month Students Against Cuts and the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) implored the university to reconsider the proposed restructures, which included asking 245 staff to enter expressions of interest for voluntary redundancy in a bid to improve its financial position.

Massey recorded an $8.8 million deficit in 2022 and recently announced a year-to-date operating deficit of $14.2m.

In a display of solidarity, the groups would be holding another forum at the campus on Wednesday.

TEU organiser Ben Schmidt recently told Stuff staff were devastated when Massey announced in July it would move forward with plans to slash jobs.

The affected positions were across all campuses in the Library and College of Health, and the College of Sciences was “hit hardest with 90 to 100 jobs on the line”, he said.

“It is unbelievably short-sighted of the vice-chancellor to keep slashing jobs across the university when the Government has allocated a significant amount of new money intended to stop the cuts, along with an upcoming review of tertiary funding.”