1/ So @Samanthamaiden gave me a long lecture today on how:
Privatisation of childcare on campus makes no difference
Universities should be excluded from jobkeeper
Universities staff should take their share of the pain- after all our VCs chose to rely on international students

Not that govts forced universities to seek alt funding routes to stay viable.
Basically implying we should all stop whinging that there is no sector bail out and job losses are imminent in the tens of thousands
I am frankly disappointed professional and personally

Universities have never been so important - you want a vaccine? Fund us
Things can’t stay the same, but we are seeing cuts that hit the most vulnerable (casuals) and will exclude women from science (eg childcare cuts, gender equity policies being slashed)

As public institutions that educate our citizenry, the government has an obligation to stem the massive job losses and brain drain out of the sector
This is a matter for all of society, not an elite few

Tertiary education is a silver bullet for social inequity.
Research and science is integral to the future of everyone - especially in the face of a pandemic and climate change
And we can’t just sell of assets - our assets are our teaching and research infrastrucrue

It’s our chem labs, our super computers, our lecture halls. All of which journalists like Sam had access to in order to get the degree that built their careers.
This type of ‘screw the ivory’ perspective misses the point and is frankly dangerous

Lacking nuance, and naively pandering to the neoliberal agenda.

Without public education, the whole country suffers.
And the girls agree

(I did tell @samanthamaiden to tweet those opinions and she said she had so I assume nothing here is information she hasn’t already made public)