A MATTER OF COMMUNITY CREDIBILITY

With the memory of someone telling me that Prof Rufus Black was a good guy, or some assertion of the sort ringing in my ears, I was left to wonder as I read this missive below ... what's going on here? This contribution to the morning's reading arrived unsolicited in my INbox presumably because it was assumed that as I was a UTASalumni and that I too might be distressed at the brand being despoiled. 

The other thing that sprang almost immediately to mind was ‘the definition’ of a ‘university’ – quite probably Medieval possibly Renaissance even – that I found quite a while ago, being, ”a community of scholars and teachers”. Well it does not appear to apply to UTAS – or for that matter to all that many ’universities’ anywhere on the planet in the 21st C. with the knowledge economy etc. etc. ?? 

I pass this missive on for no other reason that it’s the sort of thing that comes my way from time to time to bemuse me.  They tend to colour my OPINIONforming  for whatever reason. While I’m not personally being impacted in any direct way I do worry about the ethics and morals on display for an institution that Launcestonians have handed ‘large lumps of public assets to' – and one that has Prof Black coming back asking for more and more it seems. 

I do not know just why I’m thinking it, or when it might happen, but the UTAS CREDIBILITYbubble looks like it might just pop sometime soonish – it wouldn't be a surprise except perhaps for a loyal bunch of UTAS believer and its sycophants at Town Hall perhaps. 

I’m not sure either if Prof Black is pushing STEM as overtly as Prof Rathjen was but it does seem to be clear to see that by whoever – for all who will look – the plot may well have been lost along the way. Such an outcome is ever likely to be the case when ‘management’ losses sight of ‘purpose’ [governance’s raison d’etre ... to define & determine purpose] – when, it seems, '2nd order aspirations' take over from 'purpose' … sometimes overtaken by them even. But there we go!  If there is no stated purpose there is nothing to measure outcomes against – a bureaucratic comfort zone and cause for rent seeker's bliss. 

Anyway, I’m sure that you’ll be able to see and read the signals, – albeit nuanced as they are – and you might even despair a little along with me as/if you start to divine ‘the knock-ons’ – locally, regionally, nationally, globally. 

So what do I take from the missive? Firstly, universities are not automatically trustworthy or even primarily concerned with being a "university" – a community of scholars and teachers. Rather, on the evidence, its seems that increasingly their 'purpose' boils down to simply existing and delivering salaries and superannuation packages. So long as that can be maintained, that is the measure of success, their (KPI). 

Consequently, it does not appear that they are anymore, by necessity, purposeful. It is more than disappointing that Launceston's 'elected reps' are so gullible and out of touch and so easily sold a 'bum deal'.  It appears that UTAS does not discriminate when the institution sets out 'turn a buck' – students, ratepayers, whoever, all legitimate targets.

I could go on but there's no need really. Either UTAS cleans its act up and gets real or it should go to that place where institutions that lack credibility go – deserved oblivion along with all those who willingly and complicitly bought the bogus deals plus any the other handy deception on offer.

Here again two of my favourite quotes springs to mind ... David Morrison's ... “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept” and Thomas Paine's where he says  “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” 

THE POST I RECEIVED ...  “Good Evening All ….. FYI, Here is a post about more UTAS shenanigans from a Facebook post from Hobart a few hours ago by a student. He asks people to sign the Student Union Change.org petition The link to the Change-org petition is at the bottom here. For anyone who is on Facebook and wants to share it, the post is on Speak Up Launceston Facebook page. As Mike Powell wrote in the Tasmanian Times a while ago, it is time for an Inquiry into UTAS. ................... "The University of Tasmania (UTAS) has recently sent an e-mail to roughly 2000 students - 1100 of which are in Hobart with me - summarising a policy change that stands to make any number of those students homeless. The University has decided that preference is now given to first year students for a lease at any UTAS-managed accommodation. The e-mail further states that this decision was made by UTAS as a way to alleviate pressure placed on the Hobart housing market by the university. It should be immediately clear that this is either problematic, an untruth, or both. ................... As of right now, there are 227 results for rental properties in the Greater Hobart Region listed on realestate.com.au. Assuming the unlikely scenario that all of these are affordable for students and have four bedrooms, there would still not be enough places for each of these 1100 students who face a very real risk of homelessness to live and study. And yet UTAS insists that the policy change was necessary to alleviate stress on the housing market, even when this is demonstrably untrue. ................... This too, ignores the fact that housing affordability is already is a significant issue in Hobart. Flooding the market will surely worsen this issue too, as will UTAS continuing to increase the price of all of the UTAS-managed accommodation further than necessary to account for inflation. ................... It is my personal opinion that through this statement, UTAS has made it insufferably clear that their core interest is not in the upskilling and development of Tasmania. It is in lining the coffers of their stakeholders, and very little more. By kicking over a thousand students statewide to the curb in favour of cramming more first-year students into the system, it is obvious that money is the only motivating factor at play. ................... Note too, that UTAS has chosen to announce this decision just prior to Christmas, a time when many students impacted by this change - both domestic and international - will not be present to respond as they are spending time with their families. This represents a disgusting lack of transparency by the University; we must let them know that the decision itself is unacceptable, as is the way in which they communicated it. ................... The Tasmania University Union has started a petition for the overturn of this decision; I've linked it at the bottom of this post. I urge you to sign it, please. I also urge you to contact the Vice Chancellor of UTAS directly if you can see the injustice in the decision: Vice.Chancellor@utas.edu.au. I will also move to contact my local MPs, as to involve them in a decision that will impact people across all of Tasmania, and would love if you could do the same. ................... Please like and share this post for visibility" ... https://www.change.org/p/university-of-tasmania-end-the-uncertainty-of-utas-student-living-arrangements-for-2019-1f566371-541c-4450-8a69-080416500c77 ................... And here is the link to the Tasmanian Times article by Dr Mike Powell: https://tasmaniantimes.com/2018/06/an-independent-inquiry-into-utas/”