Uni bungle puts academic’s family at risk
Academic and activist Stephen Hagan has been forced to uproot his young family to a secret location – after a University bungled privacy procedures, placing their safety at risk. Mr Hagan is known by many as the man behind efforts to change the name of the infamous Nigger Brown stand at a football field in the Bible-belt provincial city of Toowoomba. He has also tried to convince the manufacturers of Coon cheese to re-brand their product – in recognition of the racial offence carried by the name. A lecturer with the Kumbari Higher Education Centre at the University of Southern Queensland, Mr Hagan says his strong stance has lost him friends in both the indigenous and non-indigenous communities. He identifies the Darling Downs towns of Highfields, Crows Nest, Oakey and Dalby as hotbeds for the kind of right-wing sentiment that threatens his family’s safety.