“Democracy Dies in Darkness” – The Washington Post
From the centre of the University of Tasmania’s Sandy Bay Campus (the Morris Miller Library) to the centre of Hobart (the Hobart GPO) is a 2.7 kilometre walk. Sandy Bay is part of the Hobart City area, and the Sandy Bay Campus could reasonably be regarded as a city university.
For reasons that will be explored on this site, UTAS has decided that it is going to relocate its southern campus to a scattered array of buildings in the Hobart CBD and redevelop the land gifted to it at Sandy Bay, by the people of Tasmania, as a new suburb.
UTAS provides three main arguments for its relocation: to ensure its financial viability (this includes issues such as building costs); to improve student access; and to reinvigorate the city.
Since March 2022, I have been exploring what, if any, substantive evidence there is to support these arguments, through a series of Right to Information applications to UTAS; State and Commonwealth Government agencies; and the Hobart City Council.
At the same time, I have sought to explore: the decision-making processes of the governing body of UTAS, the UTAS Council; and the UTAS Council’s relationship with the State Government and the Hobart City Council.
The particular questions I have explored are set out more fully on The UTAS Papers page.
I have, by now gathered much interesting material – through Right to Information and other means – and I am now constantly gathering more. This site is a continuing work in progress.
For background, and some of my thoughts and analysis, you can read my submission (29 August 2022) and my evidence of 2 March 2023 (pages 41-52) to the Legislative Council Select Committee Inquiry into the Provisions of the University of Tasmania Act 1992. My Blog provides more in-depth and up to date information.
For general information and updates on the fight to halt UTAS’ plan to relocate to the Hobart CBD and redevelop the Sandy Bay Campus as a new suburb, please visit the Save UTAS Campus website. You can also watch the highly informative Vote No (to Relocation) Rally, hosted by the Save UTAS Campus group on 2 October. There are also many excellent submissions on the Legislative Council Inquiry site.
Blog
Coming posts will include:
- Deloitte reports should sound death knell for UTAS relocation – Part 2 – an analysis of the ruinous financial implications of UTAS’ proposed relocation to the Hobart CBD.
- Advice on how to vote in the 23 March election to ensure your vote is a vote against UTAS’ CBD relocation.
- An analysis of the College of Business and Economics fiasco.
List updated 19 February 2024.
If you have lodged an RTI application with UTAS, and want to share your experience, please email me.
My Email
Contact me at: [email protected]
Content of this Site
While I am a member of the Save UTAS Campus supporters group, I am entirely responsible for this site. Any opinions I express on this site are my own unless otherwise stated.
This page was last updated on 19 February 2024.
Robert Hogan