How is it that one of our most beloved institutions, the Australian National University, is so poorly run?

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How is it that we discover, a minute into the new vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell's tenure that hundreds of staff would need to be sacked? Courses cancelled. Research abandoned.

Let me tell you how.

The governing body of the ANU is a complete shitshow. But this national treasure is not alone.

The governance of universities in this country needs a colonoscopy, resection and reconstruction.

The good news is that thhendrie minister Jason Clare could step in at ANU because that university is the only one firmly in the federal remit within its own specific legislation, the ANU Act.

Bell resigned on Thursday, days into white-hot anticipation about when she would finally relent.

Between the onset of the anticipation and the announcement were hours and hours and days and days of negotiation of how much she would get to leave. What would be the deal?

The speculation about whether Julie Bishop would go too hasn't yet subsided - despite the former foreign minister's firm announcement at an all-staff town hall that she wasn't going anywhere.

She's hanging on for dear life. She must find it hard to go from institution to institution, knowing she isn't wanted.

But as multiple people tell me across the university, it's not really about Bishop or Bell.

There are just........

© Canberra Times