Written by Katharina Graf
Genevieve Bell has stepped down as Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the ANU. With only 20 months in office, she has become the shortest-serving VC in ANU’s history. Her resignation followed months of staff and student protests directed at her and “Renew ANU”, which culminated in an ultimatum by five of six college deans demanding her resignation.
Throughout the last year, Bell has received much media attention. All of this started in October 2024 with her announcement of “Renew ANU”, a major cost-cutting and restructuring program aiming to reduce ANU’s spending by $250 million. From then on scandals about Bell, regardingher leadership style, her past career, and her shoes, have started accumulating.
Today, Bell’s name is widely known at the ANU and beyond. Yet, questions remain about the woman herself: Who is Genevieve Bell, how did her career trajectory lead her to the top job at ANU, and what led to the fall from her throne?
Born in Sydney, Bell spent much of her childhood in Indigenous communities in central Australia, where her mother, who worked as an anthropologist, conducted her fieldwork. Bell tells the story about her growing up among the locals, whilst not needing to attend school, and how this “did not stop her getting into Stanford”.
In an interview by Forté Foundation, years before she became VC at the ANU, Bell called herself a “storyteller” and claimed her “storytelling skill” would be very valuable for her career.
This career began at Intel, the American tech giant, where she spent 18 years studying how technology is used across cultures. Bell rose through the ranks to become an “Intel Fellow,” the company’s highest technical title.
Outside of Intel, Bell was also widely recognised for her job and her high position in the company, and, in 2014, she was named on Elle Magazine’s list of “influential women in technology”.
In March 2017, Bell returned to Australia, becoming a Distinguished Professor at the ANU College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics. Within months of joining ANU, Bell founded the 3A Institute (Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Institute), known today as the School of Cybernetics. In addition to her job at the ANU, Bell joined the board of the Commonwealth Bank as an independent non-executive director in 2019. She resigned from this position in 2023, when she was appointed as VC of the ANU.
When Bell started her job on January 1, 2024, staff and students welcomed her warmly. People put hope into the first female VC of the ANU. Though for Bell, assuming the Vice–Chancelory on January 1, 2024, marked the beginning of the downfall of what had been a shining career.
With the job, Bell inherited a financial mess. According to the ANU Annual Report 2023, the ANU had an operating deficit of $132 million at the end of 2023 alone. For 2024, the operating deficit was predicted to be even higher, amounting to $200 million.
Wanting to tackle this major deficit, the ANU leadership under Bell launched a major cost-cutting program, called “Renew ANU”, on October 3, 2024. The goal of bringing ANU’s budget to a sustainable level by 2026 was planned to be achieved through the reduction of staff salaries, the restructuring and cutting of ANU’s schools and colleges, as well as forced redundancies. The announcement of the program was followed by student and staff outrage, protests and petitions, as well as criticism of Bell herself.
Tensions rose when Bell asked ANU staff to not take an already scheduled 2.5 per cent pay raise. Pressure intensified when it was revealed that Bell had continued to receive payments from Intel alongside her $1.1 million ANU salary. By December, reports emerged about a “culture of fear” amongst ANU staff under Bell’s leadership.
Senior staff alleged Bell had threatened colleagues to prevent leaks about the budget cuts, warning she would “find you and hunt you down” if information reached the public.
In a vote of no confidence held by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) in March 2025, 95% voted against the ANU leadership under VC Bell and Chancellor Bishop. Bell responded to this vote in an interview with the ABC by dismissing the “tactics” of the NTEU, claiming that the campaign personally targeted her and the fact that she is a woman. In the same interview, Bell claimed she would easily outlast the terms of her predecessors, which never exceeded ten years.
Bell further attained negative media attention, though it was not necessarily connected with Renew ANU.
One example concerns an investigation of the ANU following allegations that two students made Nazi gestures during an online ANUSA meeting in May 2024. According to ABC, one student allegedly mimicked a Hitler moustache with their fingers while another made a Nazi salute. This January, after the investigation was conducted, the ANU denied that such anti-Semitic gestures were made. Bell, according to ABC, stated that “it was not in fact found that there had been a Nazi salute or a Hitler moustache.” Many were not happy with that statement and demanded further explanations. Federal Labor MP Josh Burns asked at an inquiry, what else would it have been: “Please help me understand how that was not a Nazi salute,” he said, according to The Guardian.
Another scandal arose concerning Bell’s shoes: while enforcing cuts to staff salaries, she was photographed wearing a pair of luxury Golden Goose sneakers. She has since claimed she would own “a lot of” shoes, but “considerably fewer than Imelda Marcos”.
The anger about Bell culminated in an ultimatum by five of six college deans demanding Bell’s resignation, as The Saturday Paper reported in early September. Shortly after, on September 11 2025, Bell stepped down from her position as VC of the ANU. In a statement sent to ANU students and staff, Bell said that “this was not an easy decision” and that she would returnto the ANU as a Distinguished Professor after having taken some time off.
Both students and staff have reacted positively to Bell’s resignation.
Observer spoke to Finnian Colwell, a member of Save Our Studies (S.O.S.) ANU.
He stated her resignation was a “long time coming” and that it is representative of months of protests and campaigning by students and staff. Yet, despite Bell being gone, criticisms about ANU leadership and the demands to stop Renew ANU remain.
Many factors contributed to Bell’s fall. The ongoing protests and demands show that Bell and her scandals form part of a much deeper problem. As Colwell states, “Bell can be seen as the product of a corporate university system which has prioritised profit over education for the last forty, fifty years”.
Nevertheless, Bell contributed much to the downfall of her career by creating a culture of mismanagement, crisis, and bullying.
Since her resignation, Bell has not been sighted. Only time will tell when Bell will return to the ANU to resume her position as Distinguished Professor. And if so, will she still be wearing those Golden Goose sneakers?
Graphics by Alex Matthews
Know something we don’t know? Email news@anuobserver.org or use our anonymous tip submission.
If you have an issue with this article, or a correction to make, you can contact us at news@anuobserver.org, submit a formal dispute, or angry react the Facebook post.
If you don’t have an issue with this article and want to hear more from us, we’re in the process of making a newsletter! Sign up here, and have the latest news delivered directly to you.
Want to get involved? You can write articles, photograph, livestream or do web support. We’re also looking for someone to yell “extra!” outside Davey Lodge at 1AM. Apply today!
ANU Observer 