Karori sale leaves challenge
Unsurprisingly, Victoria University has decided to sell its Karori campus, locus of teacher training in Wellington for 45 years. It’s not a surprise because the university already moved its trainee teachers to its Kelburn campus earlier this year. Several years ago, it began the process of acquiring ownership of the site, which it has been involved with since 2005.
Victoria says Karori never really worked for it, because its distance from the rest of the university made staff and students feel ‘‘isolated and disconnected’’, with ‘‘teaching and research collaborations difficult’’. This argument has some merit: suburban Karori is a fair way from the university’s mostly city-facing facilities.
Yet there are significant downsides to the sale, too, some of which are going to need mitigation.
Most importantly, the campus has become, in the organic and unplanned way these things do, a great community asset for Karori. With its tennis courts and cricket nets, gym, marae, dance studio and 400-seater hall, it is a well-used hub for local activities.
Somehow, much of this has to be preserved or replaced. One of the better suggestions has been for a new secondary school to take over the site: Karori is the country’s largest suburb, but its teenagers mostly trek across town to school.
The Education Ministry says there is not sufficient projected demand for a new school, but whether it has looked at this in terms of what makes sense for the whole city – from traffic to quality of life – is doubtful.
The current premise sounds as though it is simply: is there new demand in Karori for another school? A better one might be: do the locations of Wellington’s schools make sense and is the Karori campus a rare opportunity to improve the mix?
Wellington politicians should push for a closer review of that option, which would have the added benefit of securing the community institutions. Failing that, Wellington City Council ought to buy or take over some of the facilities. Most Wellington suburbs have decent sports facilities and local halls – it would be wrong for Karori to have them stripped away just because of a decades-old quirk of ownership.
Finally, even though Victoria makes a reasonable case on the surface for dropping the campus, the episode raises questions too. A Government policy change in 2009 has opened the door to far more of these sorts of sales by tertiary institutions. What else does Victoria – and other universities around the country – have set for the chopping block? Is the university improving its offering elsewhere, or merely raising cash in a time of tight public funding?
Finally, even though it is not strictly responsible for providing for local communities, Victoria might have been more mindful of this one. Karori residents have known for years that the sale was in the works, but have felt left in the dark by the university.
Victoria is one of the city’s largest developers and employers and it seems to know it. Its recent success in dumping the heritage status of a block of historic flats near its Kelburn campus also seemed like an overly aggressive use of the council rezoning process.
Yes, the Government wants universities to be models of efficiency. But they ought to be good neighbours too.
Take a close look at the school option.