Hi everyone,

At the time of writing, this petition has been signed by 1032 people! Numbers are telling and it is very clear how important Ahmad and his shop are to us all as a community. Thank you for signing and commenting, sharing your reasons, and showing Ahmad and everyone who reads what a positive impact he and his shop made and continue to make.

Now this word is important: “impact”. Most of us would be aware that La Trobe’s new marketing campaign has made this very word its centrepiece, “the impact is real” we read everywhere. How is the decision of closing down Ahmad’s shop aligned with this new motto? The impact will indeed be real – for Ahmad and his family who will lose their income and their family business; and for us all, who will be losing a shop we want to keep, and a shop owner who serves everyone with kindness and who genuinely cares for his customers.

The update: the only movement so far has been that of moving Ahmad’s closing day to the 21 December 2022. Ahmad has also not heard from Marc Grant, the Portfolio Leasing Manager, LTU Infrastructure & Operation, who reassured me he would seek to make arrangements for Ahmad to keep his shop open and have an income until the re-opening of his mini Convenience Store. Marc is also no longer answering my calls. So, this update is regrettably not great despite the huge amount of people who signed this petition.

Next steps:

• Share this petition however you can: more signatures will help.
• If you are a La Trobe student, staff member, alumni – write an email to the Vice-Chancellor: j.dewar@latrobe.edu.au and tell him why Ahmad’s shop should stay on campus. Two words here as guidelines: polite and direct.
• Ahmad’s shop is still open. Pop into his mini Convenience Store and let him know you signed the petition and that you care. The extension Ahmad got happened because of this petition!