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Open letter

UTS is institutionally biased

Open Letter to UTS

To Professor Andrew Parfitt, Vice-Chancellor, and the Chancellor and members of the Council of the University of Technology Sydney

We write as the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS), joined by the students, alumni, staff and community members who have signed below, about how UTS treated its Jewish students.

In March 2025, AUJS organised an Open Table Discussion at UTS on the impact of the 7 October attacks. We applied to ActivateUTS 17 business days ahead, when one day was required, and ActivateUTS approved our event in writing. A protest against our event went ahead without authorisation. Five months later, UTS published an Action Plan which told the whole university community that clubs "like AUJS" must not "avoid the processes of ActivateUTS". The protesters were not named. We were, and nobody asked us for our side.

The National Student Ombudsman found AUJS followed the rules, that the review UTS relied on was built on a false account supplied by ActivateUTS, and that UTS published that account, failing to identify the bias within it.

It found ActivateUTS's conduct could not be explained outside some form of bias against AUJS.

It also found UTS failed to follow its own complaints policy after the protest of 26 March 2025, where Jewish students were singled out, and that some students who complained never received a reply.

ActivateUTS was biased against our students. UTS needs to explain publicly how ActivateUTS was able to operate with such bias while approving events on UTS's behalf, and why UTS's oversight of a body it owns and funds failed to detect it.

In responding to the Ombudsman’s findings, UTS said it “has a strong track record of acting against antisemitism and all forms of racism”. A track record is built on action and sustained commitment, and Jewish students at UTS have yet to see either. The Ombudsman’s report describes a university that targeted its Jewish students and left their complaints unanswered.

We call on UTS to acknowledge publicly that AUJS was treated with bias, and that UTS repeated ActivateUTS's account of our students without testing it. UTS must explain how it intends to prevent this bias from impacting on Jewish students in the future.

UTS has a basic duty of care to all its students. While UTS continues to ignore the role it plays in the safety and wellbeing of its Jewish students, those students can never truly belong to UTS.

Lead signatories

  • Jeremy SussPresident, AUJS
  • Dean BermanPresident, AUJS UTS

66 people have signed · goal 100

Add your name

We keep your name and email with this campaign, match them to an existing AUJS record if there is one, and never publish them.

Signatories 66

  1. Reyhane Babaahmadi — University of Technology Sydney
  2. Agustin Palais — Health, University of Technology Sydney
  3. Yoni Brill — Law, University of Technology Sydney
  4. Levi Deitz — Law, University of Technology Sydney
  5. Liat Granot
  6. Yonatan Franklin — Business, University of Technology Sydney
  7. Ma’ayan Granot — Law, University of Technology Sydney
  8. Joel Allen — University of Technology Sydney
  9. Dean Berman — Business & Science, University of Technology Sydney
  10. Rachel Holt — Student, Health, University of Technology Sydney
  11. Tobey Holland — Student, Law / Business, University of Technology Sydney
  12. Rafi Franklin — Business, University of Technology Sydney
  13. Ari — Student, Business, ICMS
  14. Aron Danziger — Alum, Science, University of Technology Sydney
  15. Josephine Holland — Arts and social sciences, University of Sydney
  16. Aleksei Kelava — Law, University of Technology Sydney
  17. Sophie Palmer — University of Technology Sydney
  18. Michael Suss — Doctor
  19. Rachel Palmer
  20. Ely Adani — Student, Business, University of Technology Sydney
  21. Benjamin Ezzes
  22. David Loven — Monash University
  23. Benjamin — University of Technology Sydney
  24. Abby Feldman — University of Melbourne
  25. Limor Weingarten
  26. Nehama Davis — Treasurer of Monash Jewish Students Association 2027, Law, Monash University
  27. Shiloh Holtzman — FETI, University of Technology Sydney
  28. Joel Raitman
  29. Na’ama Crawford — Student, IT, University of Technology Sydney
  30. Sara Lupton
  31. Sandra McDonald — Alumni, Science, University of Wollongong
  32. Sam Gostin — Stusnet, Business, Deakin University
  33. Dinah Tenne — Health, Deakin University
  34. Nathan Ben-David — University of Melbourne
  35. Katie Palmer
  36. + 31 anonymous signatories