HUNTER doctors who teach University of Newcastle medical students for free considered walking away from their roles en masse after the institution appointed Whitehaven chairman Mark Vaile as chancellor.
Conjoint Associate Professor Robert Eisenberg - who is also an ear, nose, throat, head and neck senior surgeon at John Hunter Hospital - said more than 50 doctors who volunteer their expertise at UON as conjoint teachers joined forces last week in response to Mr Vaile's appointment.
They prepared a letter for Chancellor Paul Jeans on June 21 to raise their concerns and the action they were considering taking to highlight their strong opposition to the appointment.
Mr Vaile resigned that afternoon, before they sent it.
"It was drastic," Associate Professor Eisenberg said.
"We'd never considered anything like that before and I hope we never have to again.
"I would hate to stop teaching and research, it would be terrible. Half the reason we go to work is not just to help patients now, but to help people in the future.
"We can all help so many more people by teaching others and by discovering things that can help more than just the person in front of you, that people around the world can use."
He said the doctors believed in UON and were committed to teaching students for free, as is the traditional model of teaching in medicine, but felt they had "no choice" but to consider leaving because "what UON was planning to do was incompatible with us teaching about health, because they were planning to do things that were basically directly contrary to the Hippocratic Oath".
Their letter said they were "shocked" by Mr Vaile's appointment and his role at Whitehaven was a "direct conflict of interest to the goals of the university and the medical urgency to reduce our emissions to protect our health".
"Without our commitment to the UON, the Faculty of Health and Medicine would be unlikely to be able to deliver its program," it said.
"As health care practitioners it will become incompatible for us to continue to deliver health education at the UON."
He said the doctors would have stopped teaching first year students next year.
"They would lose their medical degree and their international reputation," he said. "If you lose your medical degree, that's your prestige degree."
The doctors no longer plan to resign, but have mobilised to form the Society of Conjoints of the University of Newcastle.
He said they felt they had "won the battle and not the war".
They are calling for UON to show greater transparency in decision making and publicly recommit to sustainability goals.
"Our university was going against the international tide, which says we should be doing everything we can to properly transition from fossil fuels to renewables for our health as well as the health of the planet," he said.
"We want transparency over how they are choosing people for important roles that are not just symbolic and we want the university to reaffirm its intent to follow the international goals.
"We want tangible indication that the university intends to pay more than just lip service to transitioning.
"It needs to demonstrate that right at the very top the leadership is committed to that.
"We are looking for leadership from the university to lead us from the burnt out carcass of the industrial revolution to be the vanguard of the sustainable revolution.
"It is, after all, our treasured institution and a major employer for our region and hopefully the source of technology, training and leadership for the powerhouse that is our region going forward."
