Archive

Panic stations or business as usual?

Posted 10:56pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Calida Smylie

The burning question of the moment is how, and in what form, OUSA and the Otago Polytechnic Students' Association (OPSA) will be able to survive once VSM is in place. Research shows that voluntary students’ associations will likely struggle to gain members. A recent report commissioned Read more...

VSM a goer, student associations rush to embezzle money before it runs out

Posted 10:53pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Gregor Whyte

VSM looks virtually certain to be introduced after the Education Select Committee recommended the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill be passed into law with only minor changes. The Act Party Bill is almost guaranteed to become law after the National Government indicated it Read more...

Soz

Posted 9:55pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

A story in the Briefs section last week about Exec resignations was, well, completely wrong. Critic reported that Education Officer Stephanie Reader resigned from the OUSA Executive for reasons connected to a job in Auckland. That information was incorrect and we apologise for the error. Read more...

University of Otago Top Dog

Posted 9:54pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Gregor Whyte

The University of Otago recorded the highest surplus of any university in New Zealand last year, posting a healthy $31.1 million surplus when figures were released by the Tertiary Education Commission. The University of Auckland was second, posting an operating surplus of $28.5 million. Read more...

Postgraduate Representative Candidates Announced

Posted 9:52pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

The candidates for the General Executive Post-graduate Portfolio position have been announced. The two people standing for the position are Stacey Lauren Bloom and Stephanie Ruddock. The election takes place online from 9.00am 11 October 2010 until 4pm 14 October 2010.  Read more...

Revealed: grown up politicians no better than student politicians

Posted 9:50pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

The 2010 DCC Mayoral Candidates gathered in the University’s Main Common room last Tuesday, to speak to a small crowd of around 60 students.  Mayoral favourite Cull, who sat at 45.9 percent in the latest ODT poll, didn’t show, claiming he was stuck in traffic in Waikouaiti. Read more...

Rodent-Infested Shithole to Rent, Must Supply Own Rodents

Posted 9:49pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Teuila Fuatai

The winners of OUSA's Next Top Flat Competition were announced last week, with two flats receiving prizes for finishing first in their respective categories. The title of Best Flat went to 'The Picnic Table' on Albany Street, with the inhabitants taking home $150 worth of grocery vouchers. Read more...

Execrable - 26

Posted 9:48pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

Once again shit was super dull. Yeah, Critic’s a whiner, but this time, all the Execcies looked pretty over the whole shebang as well. It is almost painful for Critic to relive this, but OUSA undertook four mind-numbing phone interviews with NZUSA presidential hopefuls, so that they could Read more...

Bet you wished you’d studied harder now.

Posted 9:20pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Gregor Whyte

Thousands of tertiary students around New Zealand will unexpectedly have their access to student loans cut off after it was discovered that the legislation changes introduced this year will take into account 2009 academic results. The law changes, introduced in the 2010 Budget, mean that Read more...

Student Party Inexplicably Gate-crashed

Posted 9:17pm Monday 11th October 2010 by

Mayhem ensued in the early hours of last Sunday morning as part of George Street was shut down by police when a student party in the Robbie Burns complex was evacuated due to a fire alarm. The house party was spread across two flats in the upstairs Robbie Burns complex, and reportedly had Read more...

President Didn’t Inhale, Stoners Paranoid

Posted 9:16pm Monday 11th October 2010 by

The controversial 4.20 protest club is at odds with OUSA once again, this time over the accused censorship of one of its entries in the upcoming Otago University Student Film Competition, the Mothras. OtagoNorml, an associate group of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Read more...

For those of you who can’t get enough of voting

Posted 9:15pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

Voting closes on 9 October for local body elections, in which voters will elect their new Dunedin City Council, Otago Regional Council, and Southern District Health Board. Voting will be held by postal election (if you haven’t received your voting pack, you probably aren’t enrolled). Seven Read more...

Blues And Golds Winners Announced

Posted 9:13pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

The winners of the 2010 Otago University Blues and Golds Awards were announced at dual ceremonies last week. The Blues awards celebrate the best and brightest sporting achievers from the University of Otago, and are in their 102nd year. The keynote speaker was adventurer and writer Tim Read more...

Christchurch Campus Largely Operational

Posted 2:15am Monday 11th October 2010 by Calida Smylie

Students at the University of Otago's Christchurch campus returned to class fairly quickly, just over a week after the devastating earthquake on September 4th. The University's Christchurch School of Medicine building, built in 1973 and adjoined to Christchurch Hospital, sustained relatively Read more...

Art Attack

Posted 2:10am Monday 11th October 2010 by Teuila Fuatai

The University of Otago College of Education was subject to an "art attack" by group ArTarts last Monday. ArTarts were protesting against new funding allocations within the College of Education, which they claim will reduce art tuition to teachers by 25%. The "art attack" was carried out after Read more...

Proctology - 25

Posted 2:03am Monday 11th October 2010 by Tailgunner Joe

You may have noticed that a month has passed since the last Proctology. The reason for this is that the Proctor was on a road trip with his mates. They went to Christchurch and got up to no good, causing significant property damage and several injuries and necessitating a civil defence call-out. You Read more...

Execrable - 25

Posted 2:00am Monday 11th October 2010 by Julia Hollingsworth

It seemed at first as though the meeting would be crazily brief: quorum was only just met, and Ros needed to leave in seven minutes. Needless to say, Critic was stoked. An hour in, Ros was frantic, and Imogen subbed in for her. By this point Critic was a lot less stoked. Somebody asked whether Read more...

OUSA single-handedly eases Cantab plight

Posted 10:13pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Gregor Whyte

The OUSA rescue mission to the earthquake-stricken Canterbury region was a roaring success, OUSA told Critic, with OUSA saying that Christchurch residents had told OUSA how wonderful it was that OUSA had taken time out of their busy schedule to bring them some free baked beans and half a bottle of Read more...

Otago Student’s Ezine Wins Literary Award

Posted 10:08pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by Gregor Whyte

Fourth-year University of Otago student Marie Hodgkinson has won a major New Zealand literary award for her online publication Semaphore Magazine. Semaphore won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Production/Publication, and narrowly missed out on the award for Best Collected Work. The Sir Read more...

IT kids get some … jobs, that is

Posted 10:07pm Sunday 26th September 2010 by

Ever been speed dating and thought, “Man, I wish job interviews were this awesome?” Frankly, you probably haven’t, but The Distiller, Dunedin’s ICT Business Cluster, has taken the idea of speed dating and applied it to Dunedin’s ever-growing IT Sector. The idea, created by web entrepreneur Read more...