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The University of Winchester has unveiled its nearly £24,000 statue of Swedish local weather activist Greta Thunberg, angering employees who’ve confronted years of cutbacks.
The £23,760 ($32,700) bronze monument to {the teenager}, who was elevated to worldwide prominence by international leaders after she started skipping lessons at her publicly-funded college on Fridays to protest a perceived lack of motion on local weather change, was slammed as a “vanity project” by employees at the college.
The Winchester department of the University and College Union (UCU) mentioned that though it “supports the role that Thunberg has played globally… This money should have been better used by preventing redundancies and other cuts at the university” after years of austerity.
A life-sized statue of Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg is pictured after being unveiled on the campus of the University of Winchester in Winchester, Hampshire on March 31, 2021. – The £24,000 bronze statue which has been created to replicate the college’s values on “sustainability and social justice”, has been branded by Winchester University and College Union (UCU) as a “vanity project”. (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP by way of Getty Images)
WINCHESTER, ENGLAND – MARCH 31: General view of the Greta Thunberg statue on March 31, 2021 in Winchester, England. The college’s scholar union was essential of the cash spent on the statue, calling on the college to “match the statue cost by committing £23,760 in additional funding to student support services across campus.” (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
“The university’s distinctive approach to commissioning pieces of art is to do so in unminuted meetings and/or avoid any committee scrutiny,” the union added facetiously.
“Not the ideal approach when spending university money.”
The college management, for its half, defended its costly statue. “The university’s approach to art is to commission or purchase unusual and striking pieces which embody our distinctiveness and values,” pronounced Vice-Chancellor Joy Carter, insisting that “Greta is a young woman who, in spite of difficulties in her life, has become a world-leading environmental activist” and, “As the university for sustainability and social justice, we are proud to honour this inspirational woman in this way.”
WINCHESTER, ENGLAND – MARCH 31: General view of the Greta Thunberg statue on March 31, 2021 in Winchester, England. The college’s scholar union was essential of the cash spent on the statue, calling on the college to “match the statue cost by committing £23,760 in additional funding to student support services across campus.” (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
WINCHESTER, ENGLAND – MARCH 31: Students look at the Greta Thunberg statue on March 31, 2021 in Winchester, England. The college’s scholar union was essential of the cash spent on the statue, calling on the college to “match the statue cost by committing £23,760 in additional funding to student support services across campus.” (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
The controversial transfer comes at a time when historic statues and memorials to Britain’s monarchs, prime ministers, struggle heroes, and nice retailers and philosophers are being focused by Black Lives Matter-inspired vandals, activists, and politicians, with some destroyed, some eliminated, and a few “recontextualised” with plaques and knowledge boards denouncing the figures they depict.
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