Much Better Sundays

Last Friday, submissions closed on Victoria University’s proposal for the restructuring of the College of Education. It’s the day after that Vic’s Women’s Rights Officer discovers that, you know, aside from screwing over Education, this restructuring is also going to effectively get rid of Gender and Woman’s Studies.

Sneakily, of course. The proposal involves:

• requiring a minimum of 16 students for 300 and honours level papers (because that’s such a realistic number for any honours course)
• having GWS lecturers teach courses in Education (you know, that subject they’re not trained in)
• moving GWS lectures up to the Karori campus (bye bye, interest papers)

Not that it makes much sense to have Gender and Women’s Studies aligned with Education in the first place. Why not the social sciences? God knows some of those anthropology lecturers could do with being exposed to gender studies.

I’ve never taken any GWS papers. I’m not even doing a BA. A department with only two full and one part-time staff member seems ridiculously tiny to me – and the fact they’re supervising 12 PhD students between them is quite impressive. This theme of Vic trying to cut humanities papers is no threat to me.

But what is university for, if not the study of the humanities? Universities weren’t invented to teach commerce. I believe having people studying gender is vital – we do not live in a postfeminist world, and gender matters. It would be quite depressing if the only Women’s Studies department left was in Hamilton.

And even more depressing if the Victoria University bureaucracy manages to disappear a thriving subject, without listening to what the students or the staff have to say.

There’s a protest being organised when the Academic Board meets next Thursday – 9am in the Hunter carpark, people! If you’re on Facebook, the GWS support group is here, and Georgina’s posted a good summary of the situation here.

I’m putting on a gig, you should come if you want to.

If you are blind and cannot read that, it says that Peneloping will be playing with Seth Frightening (from Seth & Merle, check our interview) and William Jackman on the 25th of May at 2pm at SpaceThing Gallery, which resides at 171 Adelaide Road, Newtown.

Also did you know that Polka Dot Dot Dot will be touring here in July?!! This makes me so excited I can almost forget about the dozens of essays I have yet to do. That’s excited.