Kia ora,

Tonight I sent the updated list of petition signatures to Education Minister Hon Chris Hipkins. In total there were 8,203 people who had signed opposing Victoria University of Wellington abandoning 121 years of history by ditching Victoria from their name.

You can read the letter I sent Minister Hipkins here: https://twitter.com/gwynncompton/status/1046320412311748608

Since feedback on the draft petition closed on 27 August that's over 2,000 more people opposing the change, over 1,400 of those have been just this week.

For a petition that's relied on nothing more than those who oppose the name change sharing it with their friends and whānau, that's an incredible result and I'm hugely thankful to each and every one of you.

If you haven't already, I'd strongly encourage you to also email Minister Hipkins at c.hipkins@ministers.govt.nz to reinforce your opposition. I'd also encourage you to CC your local MP on that email too. You can find their details here: https://www.parliament.nz

Minister Hipkins has indicated that he will take advice from his officials on Victoria University of Wellington's name change recommendation, but hasn't indicated a timeline around how long that will take and when he may make his decision. In any event, I'd encourage you to make contact with him sooner rather than later.

If there are big increases in the numbers of signatures on the petition, I'll email through updates to the Minister so that he's aware of the continuing and growing opposition to the name change.

Once again, thank you all so much for your support. It's been incredible over the past couple of months seeing such an amazing outpouring of not just support for Victoria as a name, but people sharing what a special place their time at Victoria holds in their lives. For many of us, we attend university at a time when we're still figuring out just who exactly we are and what our place in the world might be, and I've been privileged to see just a small hint of how Victoria has done that for so many of you.

If you'd like to contact me, you can find me on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/gwynncompton or email me at gwynn.compton@gmail.com

Ngā mihi,

Gwynn