First of all - thank you all so much for your support. I've been really humbled and overwhelmed by the response and reading people's reasons for signing really highlights why Vic is an important part of our lives.
In between work and having a young family I've been doing what I can go keep the momentum going. I've been interviewed by Newstalk ZB, spoke with Jim Mora on RNZ's The Panel ( https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018656383/changing-vic-uni-s-name ), was interviewed by Katarina Williams of the Dominion Post for one of her articles ( https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/105916566/name-change-could-generate-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-victoria-university-claims ) and today had an op-ed published on the Dominion Post's website that lays out my perspective on why I don't think the case has been made for change ( https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/106001441/opinion-if-it-aint-broke-victoria-university-dont-fix-it ).
There's still a week to go in Vic's second round of feedback on the proposal, and if you've signed this petition but haven't made a submission yet via email to the university I'd strongly encourage you to do so. Full details are available here: https://www.victoria.ac.nz/about/victorias-story/name-simplification I'd also encourage you that when you email them with your submission you also send it to Hon Chris Hipkins, the Minister of Education at c.hipkins@ministers.govt.nz
The Minister of Education is ultimately the one who will decide whether to approve the university's request to change their name, and he can only do that if the university's council can show there is "demonstrable support from relevant and affected parties". Each submission to both the university and the Minister helps make the case that this proposal to change the university's name doesn't have the support required to be approved.
Vic has also announced (late on a Friday once again I'd also add, so it looks like they've put them together in a hurry in response to the negative feedback they're getting) that next week they'll have three public meetings about the name change. You can find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1658601277601931/
My plan over the next week is to do what I can to keep promoting the petition, and then on the final day of submissions I'll download the full list of signatures and send it to both the university and the Minister along with my own submission opposing the name change.
What would be great is if over the next week you could keep sharing the petition and encouraging people to sign. It's really important that we get as many signatures as possible to send a loud and clear message that this name change is not supported. On the Panel I said it'd be great if I reached 6,000 signatures, it'd be even better if we could hit 10,000 before the deadline of Monday 13 August!
Thank you all once again for your support and messages of encouragement, and I'll keep you posted on what's happening.
- Gwynn