Archive

Alcohol Reform Bill

Posted 4:37am Monday 28th February 2011 by Gregor Whyte

The Alcohol Reform Bill has entered the Select Committee phase, with over 650 written submissions to the Justice and Electoral Committee. The Bill is the legislative response to the Law Commission report, Alcohol in our Lives: Curbing the Harm. It seeks to significantly amend the law governing the Read more...

Tomorrow, when the (taxi) war began

Posted 3:06am Monday 18th October 2010 by

They are convenient, sometimes necessary, and always costly. We’re not talking about a fuck buddy, but the Dunedin taxi service. Whether you jump in them on the cold, cold nights, or when you don’t want to be seen with whoever you’ve pulled from the increasingly scummy Metro Bar, taking a taxi in Read more...

Students for Hire, for Free

Posted 2:59am Monday 18th October 2010 by Teuila Fuatai

The Otago Daily Times last week ran a heart-warming tale about 73-year-old Wakari resident Tony Brosnan getting some students around to do his housework. Brosnan, who had read about the Student Life Scarfie Card programme that will launch next year, decided that he couldn’t wait that Read more...

Referendum 15% successful

Posted 1:58am Monday 18th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

The results of the OUSA referendum were announced last Thursday, with only 2 of the 13 motions meeting the required quorum of 1049 votes. The 2011 Budget passed by a narrow margin, with 50.27 percent of students voting in favour of it. The Budget, which was the first motion on the website, Read more...

ODT buys political influence, very cheaply

Posted 1:48am Monday 18th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

The role the Otago Daily Times played in the recent local body elections is coming under scrutiny. Rumours were circulating wildly around town last week about the nature of a donation made by Allied Press owner Julian Smith to Dave Cull, who is part of the Greater Dunedin party. A Read more...

Meager eager to go

Posted 1:03am Monday 18th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

Finance and Services Officer James Meager has resigned from his position on the OUSA Executive. Meager’s resignation letter casts doubt on the way the Exec is run and OUSA President Harriet Geoghegan’s leadership style. Meager tendered his resignation in a rather lengthy letter addressed to Read more...

Alleged: OUSA President Incompetent Driver

Posted 12:36am Monday 18th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

Critic has received information from a University of Otago student that puts into question the driving skills of OUSA President Harriet Geoghegan. The student, who refuses to be named for fear of reprisals, tells Critic that he regularly observes Geoghegan “bungle the parking of that Read more...

Cull culls Chin

Posted 11:06pm Sunday 17th October 2010 by

David Cull decisively won the Dunedin Mayoral race, while student-friendly Aaron Hawkins narrowly missed out on a Council seat, in the recent local elections. Two-term mayor of Dunedin Peter Chin failed to get the support of the populace in the elections, and was soundly beaten by Dunedin Read more...

Former Critic Editor to stand for Parliament

Posted 10:55pm Sunday 17th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

Former Editor of Critic Holly Walker is to be the Green Party Candidate for Hutt South in the 2011 General election. Walker won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford in 2007, and since returning to New Zealand has worked as a Green Party Advisor in Parliament.    "I am thrilled to stand Read more...

Duke Sex List

Posted 10:52pm Sunday 17th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

Scandal has descended on the prestigious Duke University of North Carolina, in the USA, after a ‘sex thesis’ complied by a senior student of the University went viral on the internet.  The 43-page list, which included the names and photographs of 13 of student Karen Owen’s sexual Read more...

Otago Likely to Benefit from Funding Increase

Posted 10:39pm Sunday 17th October 2010 by Gregor Whyte

The University of Otago is likely to gain about $5.4 milllion and around 280 domestic Equivalent Full Time Student places, after the Government announced increased funding for university places, the Otago Daily Times reports. The fresh funding is intended to cover a ‘blip’ in the Read more...

Exec prepares for clusterfuck

Posted 1:35am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

On Thursday last week, a Student Forum was held to discuss the motions that will be put to an online referendum this week. Students will be asked to vote on 13 motions, including motions on NZUSA, the OUSA Budget and GST. The crowd at the Student Forum was comprised mostly of Exec members and Read more...

NZUSA Conference fun for everyone, except OUSA that is

Posted 1:33am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Gregor Whyte

The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) conference has ended with OUSA unable to secure enough votes to amend the notice period required to withdraw from the body. OUSA attended the last two days of the four-day conference, participating in only a single workshop before voting Read more...

Otago Scientists Honoured for Sock Research

Posted 1:30am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by

Apart from being incredibly fashionable, wearing socks over shoes to prevent blowing out on the icier parts of Dunedin terrain had been thought to be a practice with little justification. That was until a three-person team of researchers from the University embarked on a scientific endeavour to Read more...

Act’s ‘Babe’ Talks to Critic

Posted 1:27am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

Last week Act’s superstar MP Heather Roy, champion of the VSM bill, was in town, so Critic sent Julia Hollingsworth to grill her about students’ associations and VSM. Should the change to compulsory membership have come from the students?    I think that when you look at the Read more...

Sophie Elliot Foundation Launched

Posted 1:25am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

A charitable Foundation to honour the memory of murdered University of Otago student Sophie Elliot was launched last week at the Auckland University of Technology campus.  Lesley Elliot, Sophie’s mother, was the driving force behind the creation of the foundation, and is one of its Read more...

Otago Researcher Appointed Royal Fellow

Posted 1:08am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

University of Otago Professor Richie Poulton, who heads the internationally recognised Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, was last week elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The Chair of the Academy, Otago’s Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Science Read more...

Blood Donations This Week

Posted 1:06am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Anthony Riseley

New Zealand’s aging population and busier lifestyles may lead to a deficiency in blood supplies in the future, making current recruitment of younger donors particularly important. Leita Mackay of the New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) says people lead busier lives these days, and that there are Read more...

Proctology - 27

Posted 1:04am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Tailgunner Joe

Dunedin has a reputation for being damp and cold because university students are usually only here for the damp, cold part of the year; Dunedin’s shortish summers, falling between December and February, are actually quite pleasant. Every few years, however, they arrive pleasantly early, and so it Read more...

Bouncing off the Halls - 27

Posted 12:56am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by

Exams are closing in, and the impending tests have taken their inevitable toll on the first-years and their antics, making this week’s installment a little hard to produce. But never fear we’ve managed to dig up enough dish to make this another quality piece in the country’s Best Student Magazine. Read more...