Kia ora,

While the news today that Victoria University of Wellington's University Council has voted 9 - 2 in favour of proceeding with the name change is hugely disappointing, the fight to keep Victoria in our university's name is by no means over, even if the university is busy running social media ads as if that's the case.

What happens now is that the proposal to remove Victoria from the university's name goes to Education Minister Chris Hipkins.

In the criteria the Minister set for considering a name change he required that the university had a good case for change, that they had consulted with all relevant and affected parties, and that there was demonstrable support for a change. It's clear from the submissions received that there are fundamental flaws with the business case for change, and there have been serious issues raised about not only the quality of consultation but whether it was conducted in good faith at all by the Vice Chancellor, and with 75 per cent of submissions opposing change (and that's not counting the thousands of signatures here because of how the University fudged the numbers), there is clearly not demonstrable support.

So where to from here? It's important that we now make it clear to Education Minister Chris Hipkins that the case for change doesn't stack up, that the consultation wasn't good enough, and that there is overwhelming opposition to this proceeding any further.

The university itself is spooked by this, having obtained legal advice that they can ride roughshod over the objections of thousands of people who opposed change. That's a phenomenally bad situation for the university to be in having to resort to a damn the torpedoes approach and I'll be making that abundantly clearly what I write to the Minister to update him on how many people oppose this change.

What can you do to help? You've already done a lot by signing this petition, but I'd ask you to make one final effort. Share this petition, encourage your friends and family to sign it. Most importantly of all, I urge you to write to Education Minister Chris Hipkins at c.hipkins@ministers.govt.nz and share your opposition to change.

Together we have to send a loud and clear message that he should stick with Vic!

Ngā mihi,

Gwynn