The words “deal or no deal” come to mind in regard to the current dispute between controversial academic Drew Fraser and the Macquarie University admin.

No, I’m not picturing Di Yerbury as a game show host with Fraser as her contestant. Nor am I envisaging that there will be any winners to emerge from this scenario.

The headline of “Fraser sacked”, first appeared on channel Seven’s Today Tonight program on Monday night. Factoring in standard tabloid media beat-up, it did appear that the University had indeed given the professor his marching orders. At the time, Fraser claimed that the communication he received from the university amounted to a “sacking of a type.”

Of course it emerged the following day that Macquarie had not sacked Fraser, but had made an offer to buy out the remaining twelve months of his enterprise agreement or to “bring his retirement forward.” Choose your preferred HR-speak on that one.

In this morning’s Australian, Fraser claims that his meeting with Macquarie officials “left him in no doubt” that he would be sacked by the university if he rejected their offer.

He also claimed that admin told him that his views were a threat to the university’s income from foreign students.

Club Mac Vice-Chancellor Di Yerbury denies having said anything of the sort to the professor.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean the sack. We would need to examine what he is doing and take the appropriate action.”

Yerbury denied Professor Fraser had been told his comments would deter Asian students. “What he was told is that those comments make students of different backgrounds on this campus very uncomfortable. Clearly he is seeking channels for his views to be circulated. However, we do not want his views to be identified with the views of the university.”

This is understandable.

When Fraser wrote his initial letter to the Parramatta Sun concerning African refugees and their alleged penchant for crime, he signed off using his employer’s name. Naturally, having a University in your sign-off is going to give a great deal more weight and authority to what you have to say.

Macquarie is naturally very concerned by this as would any employer be. Fraser subsequently claimed that he speaks only for himself and not for the university. Fair enough, the man is entitled to his opinion as a private citizen but it begs the question of why he used the name of Macquarie University in the first place? If he was making public comment on race and immigration, two very sensitive issues, why implicate the university and then claim to be operating as a private citizen?

On the issue of free speech, whilst we at FDB understand the university’s desire to protect its reputation and to take a stand against racism (after-all, taking a stand against racism is what FDB is all about), we are a tad concerned their actions in this regard may be very counterproductive to the Australian anti-racist cause as a whole.

His potential “martyrdom” is the sort of thing that could be manipulated by some as a springboard to even greater publicity. Fraser himself appears to regularly talk-up the possibility of his employment being terminated. Using terms such as “sacking of a type” and then openly soothsaying his own doom after meeting with Macquarie officials yesterday despite Yerbury’s claim that he was not threatened with the termination of his employment.

The fash love a martyr.