The University of Queensland has discontinued plans to dismantle the student area and take over as an enterprise hub. This may indicate that the university is withdrawing excessive campus construction. Dr. Lee Dafield..

At Australian universities, something strange is happening when a student, staff, and citizen campaign can anticipate one of the megabuilding plans, which could have happened at the University of Queensland ()UQ) Last few months.

Two years ago, the neoliberal regime Invest Big Saint Lucia CampusIncorporates two “hubs” that make up the famous Art Deco sandstone façade. The university spread, acquired neighboring suburbs, built a bridge over the Brisbane River, and participated in gentrification of the university’s long-standing dormitory zone. Waist end..

Just like in America

The project is blasphemy Among some American colleges, it became a real estate company-student families (who can afford it), even sold their “dormitories” as luxury apartments.

The plan severely undermined the standards of learning and scholarship. The student’s “customer” notified the course work in an “experience survey” and confirmed that the program was rewritten or deleted due to a violation such as “overreading”. Expensive and intentional scholars are being phased out and replaced by precariously hired casual tutors, responding to students’ demands for “carefulness,” or coaching for evaluation.

Australian universities under threat of creeping commercialization

Government and university heads want to run Australian universities as a for-profit company rather than a place of learning.

Ivory Towers

Was it happening here? UQ had a casual share that would be thrown away in any crisis- As seen On all Australian campuses where COVID-19 has developed.

It is also the “marketing” of future “products” for future students, “online learning” and “learning centers” (more bean bags and Wi-Fi points, and a unique curriculum). did. Basically, “you can study what you want, how you want it, where you want it, and when you want it.”

In the American precedent, the ingenuity on the market means inadequate standards, simplified, limited ratings, and high failure rates imposed by managers. The shortage of quality graduates may be compensated for by draining the most applied, talented and ambitious young professionals from poor countries, at least for some time.

The magnificent architecture foreseen by UQ Master plan Issued in 2019 by the then Deputy Prime Minister’s administration Peter HøjA longtime South Australian scholar from Denmark who studied viticulture at the University of Adelaide. Returned there As Deputy Prime Minister in February last year.

It was a booming time for Australian university manager Pucci-turning them into businesses and accelerating change through a compliant university Senate, with little and no opposition.

Step on the snake

However, what happened unexpectedly was the dismantling of the so-called Students’ Union district in Saint Lucia, which is one of the characteristics of the UQ project. Saint Lucia is traditionally run by an elected union council and is a hub for social, political and cultural student activities. ..

It had a dramatic space including Shonel Theater and Cinema Building, Union Building, Convention Center, Dining Room.Built around an outdoor forum related to college students Rally From the time of the Vietnam War, and then when it became a refuge from the authoritarian state government that banned protests. “Alternative” radio station 4ZZZ There, a fledgling feminist, LGBTI +, and the indigenous rights movement found a safe home there.

In the master plan, most of them are quickly demolished and replaced with building “hubs” that have been passed on for various purposes. It is run by a manager who is not managed by the student. There is an exhibition center that showscase the entrepreneurial spirit of universities and students, and services to industry and research centers for “education” that the university administration has never invaded the area for that purpose. Not surprisingly, you can expect a mall with franchise stores and some fashionable stores, but definitely no more forums.

Battle at the University of Queensland: Begins to look like a conflict of the past

Recent protests at the University of Queensland have regained it at a time when it was a major center of radical action.

Everything caused vigilance between students and staff and among past students, The person who made the move Try to stop it.

Movement-A campaign to save the UQ Union Complex, given the title of improvisation (SUQUC)-Through radical forums in the late 1960s through college, Facebook, some sympathetic media, campus tours, delegation dispatch, and mailing to alumni urging them to stop donating to Ripley’s in the field. Attracted a large number of supporters.

This was a legacy

group Insisted This is a “heritage” and we were asked to look at plans to recognize the role it played in mainstream Queensland life.

SUQUC achieved hearing at Queensland Heritage Council, Rejected because of changes or changes to the buildings within the Union Complex. It turned around a statement to the council by university officials that the principal was on a “nostalgic journey.”

SUQUC has generated controversy from architects and others who are qualified to protect the quality of their surroundings. Since the late 1950s, with the conservative value of the Governor and the then Deputy Prime Minister, he has published a document on the construction of the project, declaring it a student-run zone to exercise freedom of thought.

It was agreed everywhere that the two parties could still talk, after which other urgent concerns began to stalk the country.

Høj was taken over by a new Vice-President, Professor, at the end of his term Deborah Terry, Another senior manager in the higher education sector with a background in psychology.

The new job came unfairly, just as the pandemic arrived, when the federal government decided not to provide additional assistance to the university, and now at a lucrative fee from international students. To interrupt.. Great days have come to an end, along with a surplus for expansion and expansion, like UQ’s master plan.

Proposed university changes undermine the value of education

A major change in Australian universities, the seemingly urgent move of COVID-19, looks like politics and marketing, but is not considered Australia’s future plans.

Dramatic turnaround?

In June of this year turn aroundIf you do this, it will be a dramatic change aimed at building for the future while taking advantage of the best of the past.

On June 18, the Deputy Prime Minister and two senior executives were astonished to meet with three representatives of the community-based SUQUC. Declaration..

University management promises to respect the history of the student area and returns to what is called the “first principle” for redeveloping it. They have already resumed research on scoping and design, and discussions will be held on that work.

The Shonel Theater and some adjacent facilities remain. Make sure you have a reference to the forum and that the design and rework acknowledges its history. With facilities and space for the UQ Union, the entire zone is effectively run by the Students’ Union, not the university management.

Why does this change?

The· Announcement I’m from SUQUC, not UQ management, so I still have to ask. Is the university broken enough? Brobdingnag plans? Perhaps we are seeing a new dawn of more college management and evidence of sensitivity to the interests of the people of Queensland, the host community of the college.

Convenors and main inspirations for the SUQUC campaign, Dr. Jeff LikertUniversity librarians who talk about the memory of the government’s invasion of the campus in the 1980s say the actions of new university executives may take place at face value.

Dr. Likert at the SUQUC media release on July 2nd Said:

Media editor Dr. Lee Dafield Former ABC foreign journalist, political journalist and scholar.

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