The Whitley community is combating their recently announced closure on a number of different grounds. Most interestingly, the Whitley board announced that they would sell part of the Whitley campus, but announced this prior to consulting the organisation who actually own the land that Whitley is on – The Baptist Union Victoria (BUV).
The announced closure is essentially a condemnation by Whitley’s board of the ‘college culture’. They have stated they prefer to focus their resources on the theological school as it is more closely aligned with their vision for educating young adults. There’s been a push over the last few years to reduce the amount of drinking and partying occurring at Whitley, but this is a drastic move to eliminate this culture. However, the general consensus of the student body is that a university education is valuable and that college life is an intrinsically worthy thing.
