Following distribution of a staff newsletter at the AUT, life-jackets were immediately issued to panic-strickened staff members, all fearful of drowning, such was the degree of wetness they were engulfed in.
Apparently the AUT, God only knows why, created a nonsense position two years back of Director of Diversity and appointed a Professor Edwina Pio to the post. Below is her contribution which has caused so much consternation.
On Monday the Director of Diversity Professor Edwina Pio curated the Weaving Stories event for staff based around the sharing of personal stories. Our diversity days have become an important way of recognising and celebrating the rich variety of our life experiences and identities at AUT. One visually striking aspect of the day was the knitted squares that people contributed that are still covering the handrails on the stairs and balustrades of the Sir Paul Reeves Building. They represent the importance of weaving together the many diverse strands that make up the story of AUT and strengthen our community and our achievements. As the whakatauki goes, Ma Pango, Ma Whero, ka oti te mahi – with the black thread and the red thread the goal is achieved.
Imagine if wetness became an Olympic event. Edwina’s effort would see her a shoo-in for the gold medal, indeed so much so she would be recorded in our sporting annals as an all-time great.
Meanwhile I’m informed some AUT academics in the real subjects are planning to demand embarrassment money for their association, along the lines paid to the Truth newspaper journoes in the late 1970s. They certainly deserve it.
This kindergarten rubbish is yet another example of how the former respected reputation of higher education has descended into a farcical laughing stock.
8 Comments
‘Knitted squares on handrails’… sounds like a health hazard to me.
Agreed, Sir Bob.
The tragedy is that those who hold and adhere to these type of views are more or less indistinguishable from
those of us who know that we live in a cause and effect world,where ideas have consequences.
I feel soggier having read about it. This shit is partly why my Phd wife stopped working in NZ universities.
Knitting, I believe, was invented in Egypt before any Maori set foot in New Zealand.
The sadest part is the poor students who get taught this rubbish.
Might be time to name and shame the clown who created this position.
Just proves the point polytechnic establishments should never have been granted University Status and why Universities are succumbing to this bloody Guff is beyond me and I cant say I’m currently proud of my Alma Mater
Some unsuspecting parent thinks their child is getting a tertiary education at AUT and pays the fees for little Johnny or Cindy to get totally drenched in this drivel. Little Cindy goes off gets a job and wonders why nobody listens to her snowflake ideas so goes back to Uni gets another degree in the study of raindrops in the Peruvian desert and ends up lecturing at AUT and so the cycle continues. Garbage in garbage out, garbage in garbage out……………..
I find wool easier to knit than flax!
Those poxy colonialists make everything easier! The bastards.