SUNDAY TIMES [Perth, WA] 
28 March 1993

UWA PROBLEMS 'IGNORED


A University of WA academic claims the campus has ignored
warnings from a special committee which found serious
problems in its archaeology department. 

The accusation is made in a letter given to all top
academic administrators. 

Associate professor Neville Bruce, who chaired an official
inquiry into the archaeology department, claimed UWA failed
to fully adopt recommendations made by a 1991 archaeology
review committee. 

The committee said allegations of students being subject of
public ridicule and inequitable behavior were reported and
it called on the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Fay Gale, to
investigate and act on the claims. 

"I should first record that as a member of the committee I
found the experience deeply disturbing," Professor Bruce
said. 

"I heard many serious allegations of inequitable dealings
between staff and between staff and students." 

After the review, the head of archaeology, Professor Sandra
Bowdler, faced a second inquiry by law Professor Stan Hotop
and deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Doug Clyde. 

Professor Gale has consistently refused to release their
findings.

But Professor Bowdler was handed a please-explain letter
and UWA got advice from a Melbourne lawyer. 

This was followed by the abolition of Professor Bowdler's
department. 

She and some staff were moved to the anthropology
department.  The Centre for Prehistory, which conducted
sacred site surveys, was also scrapped. 

Earlier, another academic, Dr David Rhindos [sic] and his
students walked out on Professor Bowdler's department and
based themselves in the geography department. 

Professor Bruce said he had voiced grave misgivings about
the merging of the departments on the ground that "it would
be unlikely to solve the inequitable treatment between the
original department members and students."

"I now believe that my misgivings were correct," he said.

"I have received a number of requests for advice and help
from disaffected students."