SYDNEY UNIVERSITY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18242, 28 November 1924, Page 15

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY.

ELECTING THE SENATE. (raou oua ot?k cobrxspondsn-t.) SYDNEY, November 19. Before the Act of 1912 the graduates of the University of Sydney had but an ineffective voice in the government of our chief seat of learning. Fellows were appointed for life, and elections were held only to fill individual ivacancies as they occurred—and it was a case of waiting for dead men's shoes, for University (Senators, as it was said, seldom died and never resigned. The Act of 1912, however, clothed convocation with extensive powers, providing for quinquennial elections at wJiich that body should choose by election ten Senators. The Act still further "democratised" the University by the establishment of a large number of free annual exhibitions.. These elections, However, have not revealed any desire for marked innovation in University government, although it Was believed that the Senate, felt to be the stronghold' of Toryism, would haive a hard fight under the new Act to defend the citadel against the assaults of the young University insurgents with their "modern" ideas. The elections, and this was manifest at the latest Senate election a day or two ago, have show.a that the "advanced" elements in the University have been able to make little or r,.» impression on the more conservative body of opinion there. Of the ten Senators elected at the latest elections, all were re-elected except one, and none of them can by any stretch of imagination be described as (violent radicals. The Chancellor (Sir "Win. Cullen) again headed the poll, with Professor Mungo McCallum as runner-up. The AttorneyGeneral (Mr Bavin) was not only not elected, but he was at the very bottom of the poll. This is not, however, difficult to', understand. In the Public Service there are many University graduates. who had the right to vote", and not a few of .them have been antagonised by Mr Bavin's attitude towards the principle of arbitration, in its application to the Public Service. The graduates apparently saw their chance to get even with Mr Bavin, and they seized it with both hands. '