Moves are being made to remove the last academic director of the University Co-operative Bookshop after the sacking last week of the three most senior executives.
A special meeting of directors was called for today by director Ted Seng, a Sydney accountant. Mr Seng is one of a number of young directors with mainly accounting backgrounds who have been elected at the past two elections replacing directors with long academic, publishing and business backgrounds.
The co-op has 570,000 members and stores in nearly all tertiary institutions and serves some schools. It was founded 34 years ago to ensure adequate supplies of academic books at a reasonable price.
Mr Dunlevy, of the University of Canberra, has been on the board for nine years and is its longest-serving member. He was not at the special meeting that sacked the executives because the agenda item spoke of healing past differences that had built up to start the new year on an amicable footing and he had a family commitment at the time. He said he had been taken by surprise. He has praised the sacked executives, including the general manager Jack McLoone, as people of integrity and managerial talent.
It is understood a move will be made at today’s meeting to remove him citing conflict of interest because he had mentioned in his weekly column in üThe Canberra Times that certain books were obtainable at Dymocks. Dymocks is nominally in opposition to the co-op.
It is understood that copies of Mr Dunlevy’s column, üWriters’ World, which have appeared every Saturday in üThe Canberra Times for 25 years, have been kept at several co-op bookstores and that these have been looked through for instances of conflict of interest.
Staff at several co-op stores have expressed their anxiety about the sackings. Staff and members are concerned that at board and executive level the co-op is losing its academic and publishing skills. The board has nine directors with a third up for election every year. Staff sources say that very few of the 570,000 members vote at board elections. Defeated directors in the past two years include Professor David Fraser, former stock exchange executive Telford Conlan and newspaper publishing expert Fred Brenchley.
Moves are afoot to seek a special meeting of members to overturn the sackings. However, that would require agreement by 200 members and three directors. Mr Dunlevy, presumably, would be one of those directors.
All directors are under a board requirement to remain silent and to let public comment be made by the chairman, James Emerson. Mr Emerson says because legal action was possible by the sacked executives his legal advice had been to say nothing about it. However, he said it was business as normal and staff and members should have no fears about staff cuts.
The vice-chancellors of the Australian National University, Professor Laurie Nichol, and the University of Canberra, Professor Don Aitkin, have expressed their concern at the changes. They say they will be watching the co-op stores on their campuses to ensure the co-op fulfils its lease conditions to supply books on the academic reading lists.