“Could we be a little more creative and come up with another group name that doesn’t associate history & philosophy with UQ?”

Dear Emma,

Those who have made the complaint should be informed of a number of facts.

1. I am not a UQ Staff Member.
2. I am a member of the public.
3. I am a leader in several community organisations.
4. I am a UQ alumni member, one among many Ph.D. graduates who have never felt valued by the university (and we are talking over three decades; and I was very valued by the University of Melbourne).

There seems to be a strong anti-intellectual attitude here. The message I am getting is that there is something wrong for a UQ alumnus to produce what is “UQ Philosophy and History”. I was trained to do that at UQ, so why is that wrong?

I suspect that the real reason might be coming from within the institution. There is concern within university management that potential students and alumni might drift away from the institution, as more and more research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences are performed in community education, beyond the reach of the institution. I am being kind in attempting to build bridges. To date, I do not see the university in that kind of bridge-building exercise.

The university (and government) should realise that once it has cut off its critics, it has only reduced the size of its intellectual scoping.

Kind regards,
Neville.

This was the message sent to me from UQ:

Groups are a big part of the platform and are designed to strengthen our alumni community through authentic conversations. A place for group admins to organize and promote in person or online meet ups, events, share & seek news and/or ideas, knowledge sharing etc. These could be either location- based groups i.e. Singapore alumni network, Perth alumni network, or special interest groups i.e. book club, alumni in tech etc.

 

As expected, we monitor each new group established to ensure content and user behaviour abides by our social media community guidelines. Unfortunately, we’ve received several emails from members of your group, suggesting perhaps this isn’t the right fit for UQ ChangeMakers. Whilst they are supportive of your research and papers, they don’t feel this should be the primary focus of the group. They feel it’s a UQ staff member with their own agenda, which I know isn’t the case, but need to address regardless.

 

Whilst we don’t want to close down groups, with the possible risk of association with the UQ School of Historical and Philosophy, we need to on this occasion. Perhaps we could look at starting fresh? Could we be a little more creative and come up with another group name that doesn’t associate history & philosophy with UQ? [my emphasis; it is weird why that would not read strangely odd].