La Trobe University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar tonight announced that students will not be disadvantaged for missing classes to attend the global climate strike this Friday 20 September.
Students attending the strike must still comply with course requirements, including compulsory class attendance.
La Trobe University has asked teaching staff to make alternative arrangements, where possible, for in-class assessments that are currently scheduled for 20 September.
“It is up to you [students] whether or not you attend the climate strike; the University will simply make sure that you will not be disadvantaged if you do attend,” Dewar said in a statement.
La Trobe has put “the arrangements are in place because the climate strike is unique in two ways.”
“It is generating interest on a scale not commonly seen for this type of public event; and it is responding to an issue, climate change, that is explicitly named in the University’s Strategic Plan 2018-2022 as a global problem that La Trobe will help to address.”
“We know that climate change is an issue about which many students feel very strongly. La Trobe has played a leadership role by being the first Australian university to commit to divesting from fossil fuels, and aims to be the first Victorian university to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2029,” Dewar concluded.
The Melbourne protest commences from the Old Treasury Building. 20 Spring Street, Melbourne. RSVP
