Hey, you, you’ve got thirty seconds. Sign this petition. It’s not pointless, we did this sort of thing when marine science was under the axe, and it worked. Do it, because it’s only open until Wednesday. Do it, because if Otago is willing to cannibalise its own founding discipline, it’s willing to eat yours, too.
Below is a plea from Chelle - she was features editor here at Critic a while ago. Now she studies volcanoes. This is the department of dinosaurs, meteors, climate change, earthquakes, Antarctica, mining, geothermal energy: all the cool stuff, all of which is vital for our changing world. They say enrollments are down, but that’s not entirely true. Globally, enrollments of petroleum industry geologists are down. But plenty of people want to study the consequences of that industry’s behaviour, and somebody needs to clean up the mess. Don’t let our Geology Department be undermined. Heck, I’ll shout you some pints if you help out.
Kia ora,
No doubt you will by now be aware that the University is proposing to cut staff in the Geology Department by around 30%. This is an absolute nightmare scenario, regardless of how many reassurances we are given about these changes not affecting our education or the quality of the Otago Geology degree.
In the Geology Department, we care deeply about our people, our whānau. The level of contact between staff and students is unlike no other. We camp with them in the field in all conditions, we hike glaciers with them, we helicopter into inaccessible terrain with them, we tent in Antarctica with them, we camp out in the Arizona desert with them. On Friday afternoons we chat over beers at Emerson’s or Eureka, an urban echo of the shared beer at the end of a long day in the field. Our staff know us well, and us them. We house-sit for them, we look after their dogs, we rally around each other in times of grief. They support us, they care about us, and they are genuinely excited about our research, whether they are our supervisor/lecturer or not. We are a family.
Our treasured staff have increasingly borne the additional strain of a number of staff vacancies in recent years, and it has been devastating to watch their workloads and stress levels rise. Despite this, they have continued to enthusiastically nurture our education and research, and these proposed cuts effectively kick them when they are already down.
New Zealand’s unique geological situation means that maintaining our world-class geology department is vital, and staffing cuts to this department will unequivocally kneecap the Otago geology education in many ways - not to mention the risk of losing overseas interest. Geology already attracts so many of the Clocktower’s prized international students.
I am begging everyone to support us in our mission to have these proposed cuts overturned. One way you can help right now is to sign our petition ASAP, BY WEDNESDAY 16 AUGUST, at https://chng.it/M89NzP6KjX, or follow the QR code. There is also a template for an email of support that you can send to Richard Barker, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Sciences, which would aid us immensely.
Please help us keep the magic alive.
Chelle Fitzgerald
PhD Student (Volcanology)
Geology Department