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Māori students and staff at the University of Waikato protested yesterday against a decision to remove the faculty status from Māori and Indigenous Studies and make it a part of arts and humanities.
Associate Professor Te Kāhautu Maxwell says the detailed proposal only emerged in the past few weeks and was rushed through without consultation with iwi or the Kingitanga.
He says while the change to divisions is pitched as being about efficiency, cost-cutting and bringing Waikato in line with the way other universities operate, it threatens the unique elements of the faculty that makes it a magnet for Māori students.
"We’re just resisting assimilation and the whitestreaming of our faculty of Maori that was set up by great leaders like the late Sir Robert Mahuta, Sir Archie Taiaroa, those visionaries who decided the university should take the tari Māori out the school of humanities in 1996 and stand alone," Mr Maxwell says.
The school only became a fully fledged faculty a year ago, and he says there has been a marked improvement in attitude and student numbers.
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