Archive

International students aware that Dunedin is not Christchurch

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Gus Gawn

The University of Otago International office has noticed a drop in international students enrolling or arriving on exchange in the past year. However speculation (mainly by the Otago Daily Times) that the drop was caused by the Christchurch earthquakes appears unfounded. International Pro Read more...

“What would you do?” no longer a hypothetical question

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Claudia Herron

The University of Otago has announced an operating surplus of $26 million last year, the highest recorded surplus since the figure peaked in 2007 at $26.35 million. The surplus was $9.22 million above what was initially budgeted; however, the likelihood of maintaining future operating Read more...

Thousands of Invisible activists invisibly paint the night

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Sasha Borissenko

Invisible Children’s much-anticipated “Cover the Night” event “took place” on April 20. Despite this, the citizens of Dunedin were surprised to wake up on April 21 to find that global injustice and international human rights abuses continued around the world. Online documentary KONY 2012 Read more...

249 lose their place in the world

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Imogen Whyte

249 students were suspended from the University of Otago last year for failing to pass an adquate number of papers, compared to 84 suspensions in 2010. This increase comes as the as the University shifts its focus to producing “quality” students, Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne told the Otago Read more...

Craccum to remain shit

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Charlotte Greenfield

Craccum editor Thomas Dykes is here to stay after a vote to remove from his position at the Auckland students’ magazine failed on Thursday April 26. The vote was held at an Auckland University Students’ Association (AUSA) Special General Meeting (SGM) to consider a motion of no confidence Read more...

Logan and Jono Rowe to Victory

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Claudia Herron

Last week’s University Council Election saw Logan Edgar and Jono Rowe retain their seats. From the voter turnout of 5,296, Edgar received 1,957 votes. Rowe came a close second with 1,756 votes. The Council’s Constitution requires the two members to be current or former students of Otago, and Read more...

Sowing the Seeds of the Money Trees

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Callum Fredric

At the Audacious business competition launch on Tuesday, everyone agreed – Dunedin needs more businesses if we want to keep young, talented graduates from flying off to brighter prospects in Wellington, Auckland, or overseas. The University of Otago is aware of the problem, and has thrown its weight Read more...

Time to Shoot the Easter Trading Bunny

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Callum Fredric

The Easter Trading Bunny has myxomatosis. He’s stumbling around, bleeding profusely, spreading chaos year after year. It’s time to put him out of his misery. Parliament has attempted to shoot him 14 times in the last 20 years, but they’ve been using a water pistol. A conscience vote is never going Read more...

The defamatory guide to NZ’s political youth wings

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Callum Fredric

To put a more positive spin on this article, think of it as a guide to help you decide which political youth wing you would be best suited to. Here’s a description of the stereotypical member of each of the youth branches of NZ’s political parties: Young NatsHoping to get hooked up with some Read more...

Unigames Happened, Otago Won Fair-Play Award. Yay!!

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Gus Gawn

Over the Easter break a team of Otago athletes picked competition over chocolate and sport over spicy hot cross buns when they represented Otago University at the New Zealand Unigames in Wellington. Otago has won the Unigames shield an impressive 35 times. This year the marketing gurus dubbed the Read more...

Students Exploit Environment for Personal Gain

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Staff Reporter

Students for Environmental Action (SEA) celebrated the inaugural autumn harvest from the campus community garden with a festival last Wednesday May 18, with a barbeque, some live music, and a bit of gentle gardening. SEA, which has been active at Otago since the 1960s, worked with OUSA and Read more...

Med students hate sausage, raise money by tutoring instead

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Gus Gawn

Med student Chrystal Diong is putting her ample spare time to good use by organising a student-tutoring programme that raises funds for World Vision. The scheme, simply entitled Tutoring for World Vision, allows second- and third-year med students with excellent grades to donate their time Read more...

MASSIVE FRAUD! UNIVERSITIES LIE!

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Callum Fredric

Playas gon’ play. The Tertiary Education Union has accused New Zealand’s universities of using dodgy (but legal) tactics to push themselves up the national rankings table. The Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) is a complicated system for allocating funding to universities based on the Read more...

Battle of the Bollards

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Charlotte Greenfield

A kerfuffle took place last week in the election campaign for the student seats on the University Council, with confusion over whether candidates were, or were not allowed to use the bollards around campus for publicity purposes. After student council candidate Margi MacMurdo-Reading Read more...

One Week of Volunteering

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Bella Macdonald

The Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) is filling up their bag-o-karma with the introduction of the OUSA Volunteer Week. The programme, which ran from April 16 to April 22, was organised by OUSA alongside a separate volunteering scheme, scarfiecard. It gave students the Read more...

OUSA finally clicks, World War One happened

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Imogen Whyte

The University of Otago and OUSA will hold its first ANZAC remembrance ceremony this Wednesday April 25, to mark the contribution of University students and others who have fought for New Zealand. The ceremony will begin at the Memorial Walk outside the Clocktower at 1.30pm and end at the Read more...

Nine-year courtship ends in tears and late night drunken txt messages

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Charlotte Greenfield

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has recently ruled against the University of Otago following a complaint over the University’s failure to confirm Dr Jane Millichamp as a lecturer, after nearly ten years on a fixed-term employment agreement. Dr Millichamp began working as a lecturer Read more...

OUSA sells Unipol shares for cash monies

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Charlotte Greenfield

OUSA no longer has a stake in Unipol, after selling the last of its shares to the University last week. OUSA will be paid $296,000 for its shares, and receive a settlement return of $370,000 from a loan dating back to the 1980s, putting the total amount that OUSA will receive at $666k. When Critic Read more...

Three students arrested over gnome raid

Posted 5:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 by Claudia Herron

Three Otago University students were arrested in Oamaru on April 12 after executing a garden gnome raid in broad daylight. A member of the public witnessed the thefts and alerted the Oamaru Police, who later stopped a car, to find the students in possession of the seven new gnome friends. The Read more...

Scarfie Wins South Island Surfing Champs

Posted 3:53pm Sunday 15th April 2012 by Gus Gawn

If you ask a surfer where the best waves in Dunedin are, don’t expect a friendly response. For a group of people that are laid back to the point of being horizontal they become notoriously cagey if they think their doggedly kept ‘secret spot’ may be revealed. Surfers generally can be divided into Read more...