Statue of ‘inspirational’ Greta Thunberg criticised as ‘vanity project’...
 

A controversial life-sized bronze sculpture of environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been unveiled by a university after being branded a “vanity project”.

The statue of the “inspirational” Swedish climate change protester has been created by the University of Winchester to reflect its values on “sustainability and social justice”.

But the Winchester University and College Union (UCU) posted a motion of censure on social media calling the sculpture a “vanity project” and stating the £24,000 cost should have been spent on preventing redundancies and cuts following a period of sustainability at the Hampshire university.

It added: “To be clear: our concerns are about the expenditure and transparency of decision making by the university, which have long been opaque, not the subject of the statue.”

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...full article...

as it should, irrelevant Greta who only thinks of herself

...haha, thank you...we were in sync, I was searching for an appropriate size one and found that as well...

...I have to say in general I’m not a fan of statues ...those are especially my thoughts in recent times when statues are being taken down, why continue in that same vein when they provide very little and give very little to either a local or wider community...the funding could be better placed in so many associated projects when it would make an actual difference...

£24,000

Very Expensive.

I suppose it’s not a statue of a racist gammon so there will be a lot of complaints

It's a nice statue, really good likeness

What statue isn't a vanity project? I don't think it's an issue, Universities need things like statues and art installations and various displays of interest and with Greta, I think, there's an argument of it not so much being a celebration of an individual as just a representation of a very specific period of time - climate change activism, the plight of future generations, etc.

Also it's £24k which in terms of a University decoration budget is small potatoes. A one-off £24k is not going to prevent redundancies. If you were telling me it was going to cost £240k I would definitely say the money would be better spent elsewhere.

...she does look a little bit as though she might be flipping the finger, though...:laugh:..

It's at a University, it's not public funds.

...I think that Niamh might approve the potato statue, an honour that hasn’t been bestowed yet for some reason...

Really, how far can £24k go to stop redundancies? That's not even one lecturer's salary.

Greta is pretty darn inspirational, and more people need to care about the environment, so if any current people 'deserve' a statue she's up there.

Yes I agree with that, Greta is just more the representation of a movement and an important one

A massive solid gold spud, worth over £200 million :flutter:

...:laugh:...there’s a whole series of those across Rhode Island...


https://www.chowdaheadz.com/blogs/ne...s-rhode-island


...if ever a vegetable deserved a statue or a series of statues...?...

...we had something similar in Norwich only it was elephants...you can’t make chips out of elephants...

:worship:

Not strictly true as they get cash per Home student from the government, this is why there is such a vast differential between Home and Overseas fees

I don't mind the statue, but maybe a little plaque would have done the trick, I don't this it's the 24K amount that is the issue here, but if they are making redundancies then its not really the best way to spend cash in these times, and where else could they make savings to save staff!

Ita a total vanity project and looks sh1t

imo

...I’m just reading that 3 year’s fees for a student at Winchester...(...that would be a U.K. student, it would be more for an international one...)..would be £27,750...so around the same cost as the statue...for me, to provide a paid scholarship for someone would be more something I would personally prefer...it could equally have been named after Greta/in her honour and still representative of the ethos of the University...

No wonder the Students are Outraged

Students are being charged up to 10K a year to enroll and they’re paying for crap statues like this? Pretty sure if you asked the students for money off their loan and to not have this statue they would accept... waste of cash

Nice idea - Greta Thunberg Scholarship, awarded to young people from working class backgrounds who want to make a difference...