The university created a comments board ahead of management meeting with staff on all three campuses next week

“I am also keen to hear from you ahead of the staff sessions, about the things that are important to you right now,” Vice Chancellor Rufus Black announced.

However the board was down by the weekend, “as we have clear themes to address at our staff sessions,”  Comms Director Kate Huntington advised.

Quite clear themes – the anonymous board included scathing criticism of the university on staffing and structural issues. The most popular comment was that negotiations for a new staff agreement are “stalled”. And the considerable commentary in the “what is working” section focused on team efforts independent of management.

There was also criticism of the university’s building programme, “as a university we are more concerned with building a property portfolio and ‘flashy’ new buildings and this approaching is moving us away from the purpose of a university – to provide training and to conduct research, a “long-term academic” stated.

But what did not dominate was hostility to the relocation of much of the university in Hobart from Sandy Bay to the city – suggesting that this debate will be won or lost by Professor Black off campus.

Standby for the scheduled Legislative Council inquiry into the university’s operations.