Arts program cuts information

Dear University of Canterbury,

I would like to request some information under the Official
Information Act about the proposed cuts to the Cultural Studies,
American Studies, and Theatre and Film Studies programs.

I would like to request:

1) a copy of the proposal as sent to staff members, which I
understand is marked not "freely available" to students.

2) any emails, reports, communications, papers, cost evaluations,
or other documents that set out the background for the cuts. To
clarify, can this please include drafts.

3) I would like to request any correspondence that the University
has either received or sent to/from external agencies over these
cuts: for example correspondence with the government or government
agencies, or correspondence with the TEU. I am interested here not
only in communication from the University administrative side, but
also from University staff. To clarify, I am not interested in
correspondence sent or received to general members of the public or
students.

4) Whether any other programs were considered for cancellation, and
if so, what those programs were.

Although not required by the act I understand it is often helpful
to spell out for what purpose I am requesting information for. My
purposes are multiple. My first reason is that I am annoyed that a
proposal document about program cuts that will effect many students
is marked as not "freely available," so that students can't get a
full opinion of what is going on. Secondly, I am attempting to gain
a greater understanding of the background to these cuts, and the
reasons and justifications for them. I have heard different things
from different people - such as this is part of the plan for the
University to specialize into the hard sciences and engineering,
and I want to know the truth.

Feel free to contact me if you want me to clarify my request.

Yours faithfully,

Joshua Grainger