Dear supporters of the petition to save University of Western Australia Press,

Firstly, THANK YOU. We have passed 6,000 signatures (currently at 6262) which is a wonderful effort from all concerned. Thank you also for taking the time to record your detailed reasons for signing, these are of immeasurable value in making the case to save the press.

Later today Terri-Ann White will present a printout of all the signatures so far, plus everyone's reasons for signing - a document that runs to 62 pages - to UWA Vice Chancellor Dawn Freshwater.

The petition is still very much 'live' but Terri-Ann wanted to take some decisive action today which is why we have harvested what we have so far. Please do continue to share and tell your contacts about the petition and encourage them to sign.

The University's motivations are hard to divine - media statements have referred to wanting to move to an all-academic, all-digital, open access publishing model, but as many of you have pointed out there is no reason why UWAP cannot also continue to publish its hard copy fiction, poetry, and literary non-fiction titles in parallel with its academic publishing. Which leads many to draw the conclusion that it is actually about cost-cutting. While the financial pressures on UWA and other universities are real, I think we would all argue that the tiny UWAP budget, which achieves so much for Australian literature - and incidentally for UWA's 'brand' -  is not an appropriate place for the axe to fall. 

Thank you again for your support, and listen in to Radio National's Book Show this morning for a news item about the move to close UWAP.