The uni had just unceremoniously dumped its pharmacy degree and was about to announce a raft of job losses as part of a major restructure.

Buffeted by the winds of change in Canberra, the entire tertiary sector was positioning itself for a free market education revolution.

The changes in Wagga, which came just months after CSU’s commercial winery closed, sparked a fresh round of hand-wringing about the future of the facility.

Some claimed the uni was consigning the local campus to an unedifying death by a thousand cuts, slowly shifting courses and services to other campuses.

They were wrong.

Thursday’s announcement CSU would build an AgriSciences Research and Business Park at its Estella campus is the strongest sign in years of its commitment to the city.

That we desperately need to hold onto CSU here is a given.

The proliferation of government money in Wagga, mainly through CSU and the armed forces, is what sets our city apart from other fledgling Riverina cities like Griffith.

It supports jobs, businesses, house prices and services.

CSU Wagga alone accounts for a staggering 7.86 per cent of the entire city’s gross domestic product, more than 10 per cent of household income and 9 per cent of full-time equivalent jobs.

It is thus incumbent upon our civic leaders to fight like hell to retain existing uni facilities and attract new ones.

Even the staunchest defenders of public education must accept the age of economic rationalism will continue to force changes in the sector.

That doesn’t mean universities should run as a business or even be cost-recovery.

It does mean, however, they must tailor services to different markets.

The establishment of an agricultural research and business hub in Wagga does precisely that.

CSU and its predecessors have a rich history of ag research that stretches back more than a century.

Mercifully, that looks set to continue.