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Well, I for one am inspired that students and staff are speaking to each other. It would surely be very odd if a university ever decided that was a bad thing.
I'm inspired that students and staff care about diversity, the arts and humanities, learning, teaching, research and public engagement, and it would surely be very odd if a university ever decided those things didn't matter.
I'm thrilled and proud to work at a university that does such transformative work on all of those fronts, and it would surely be very odd to feel any other way about it.
The arts and humanities are comparatively cheap courses to run, and often subsidise other parts of university teaching. Such departments bring in large amounts of research funding and Research Excellence success. It would surely be very odd to suggest otherwise.
The arts and humanities are front and centre in the drive to widen access, undo privilege and forge new social possibilities. They successfully put people into jobs, and are multi-vocational (not non-vocational). If these things matter, it would surely be odd not to support them.
At a time of rampant misinformation and misinterpretation, casual coups, misleading nationalism, the re-entrenchment of phobias and hatred of all kinds, we need the critical and creative thinking that the arts and humanities provide.
Universities ought to drive exactly this kind of work, and it would surely be odd if they decided these things don't matter.
And to dovetail back to the start, staff talking to students, and students talking to students seems like a very good thing to me, and at the heart of how a university works, and it would surely be very very extremely odd if a university didn't like that idea.
Looking across the whole sector, I do wonder if universities understand what they are doing to their ability to recruit students and staff in the future. Actions this year are going to have effects for years to come.
