Time to move on, Guilford
Arecent tweet doing the rounds asked people to share the issue that would be the ‘‘hill they’d choose to die on’’. I was reminded of that tweet when I saw Vice-Chancellor Grant Guildford’s reaction to Education Minister Chris Hipkins’ decision to decline Victoria University of Wellington’s namechange application.
Instead of gracefully accepting the decision and respecting the overwhelming opposition to the name change, Professor Guilford seemed to be picking his hill to die on as he mused about a possible legal challenge or marketing the institution as ‘‘University of Wellington’’ without changing the legal name.
While everyone else was talking about moving on, Guildford was throwing his toys out of his cot. For the university to pursue either course of action highlights just how flimsy its entire case for change has been all along.
Trying to force the minister to revisit the decision by uncovering some obscure legal technicality in a judicial review shows that Guilford has failed to understand why Hipkins made the decision he did.
At the core was that the university had not sufficiently engaged with stakeholders and had not properly considered the massive opposition to the name change. As such, its recommendation for a name change wasn’t consistent with the demands of accountability or the national interest.
To then try to bypass that by indulging in a judicial review suggests that Guilford still wants to ignore opposition, turn a blind eye to the serious faults raised in the process, and push through his name change at all costs.
Guilford has failed to understand why Hipkins made the decision he did.
The second, and rather questionable, option he’s talked up – to market the university as the University of Wellington without changing its legal name – would create significant confusion as well as be a slap in the face to the more than 10,000 people who signed the petition opposing the name change.
During the public meetings on the issue, I recall Guilford talking about how, if the name change was approved, there would be a need for people to come together and heal after this divisive process. With the greatest respect to the vice-chancellor, those words and sentiment are just as relevant to the name change being rejected. Perhaps it’s time he took his own advice?
About $370,000 has already been sunk into this folly. That money could have been invested in more research and teachers, improved facilities on campus, or funded crucial support such as mental health services for students. Any of these would have had more impact on international student numbers than a name change, as well as delivering more meaningful benefits to the university community and Wellington more broadly.
These spiralling expenses, which I understand don’t include the time staff have spent working on the name-change project, also illustrates how badly underestimated the cost of this exercise has been.
It’s worth noting that, unlike the university’s big spending on marketing to try to promote the name change, opposition has been a grassroots effort. I haven’t spent a single cent working on this, instead relying on people signing and sharing the petition with their friends and family.
When the education minister has clearly said no and roundly criticised the entire process of the name change, and an overwhelming majority of your university community has loudly said no, it’s time for the vice-chancellor to accept defeat and to stop wasting any more time and money on this.
Read the room, Grant. It’s over.