Archive

The Capping Show Lives to See Another Audience

Posted 7:19pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Sophia Carter Peters

Against all odds, The Capping Show has returned for its 126th year, yeeting the bar for student sketch comedy into the stratosphere. This year’s show, Flatatouille, followed a rat named Remy who just wanted to be one of the lads, and a flat’s toil against an evil landlord, culminating Read more...

OUSA Gives Club of the Year to the Club that Stole Winnie P Signs

Posted 7:15pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Fox Meyer

The same club that got in trouble for stealing NZ First election hoardings has won Club of the Year at the Blues and Golds Awards for 2020. Otago University Snow Sports Club took home the teensy-tiny trophy and promptly started drinking from it. “OUSSC held several fun, safe, and Read more...

Wet Ass Phreshers

Posted 5:00pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Fox Meyer

Last week, a mate and I were peacefully eating curry at Taj Mahal. Two hours later we were drinking alongside a gaggle of well-suited, piss-drunk first years, taking shelter from the midnight rain under a Leith Street bridge. Critic returned to the bridge to find out how this culture started, and Read more...

Māori Voices and Leadership Devalued and Disempowered, Says Pretty Much Every Student Union in New Zealand

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 27th September 2020 by Jamie Mactaggart

Te Mana Ākonga, the national Māori students association, is calling for a review of the tertiary sector following recent accusations of “systemic and structural racism, discrimination, marganalisation and institutional gaslighting” at the Universities of Waikato and Read more...

Critic Breaks Down the OUSA President Debates

Posted 2:57pm Sunday 27th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

The OUSA presidential campaigns kicked off with a night-time forum at Starters last Tuesday, followed by a daytime debate the next day. The two candidates, Sammy Bergen and Michaela Waite-Harvey, are similar in their political views but they insist that they both offer different things to students. Read more...

Otago University Postgrad Association Responds to Potential Abbey College Closure

Posted 2:54pm Sunday 27th September 2020 by Annabelle Vaughan

The Otago University Postgraduate Students Association (OPA) have responded to the proposal to turn Abbey College from a postgraduate to an undergraduate hall with an open letter to staff and University officials. Students have been asked to leave by 15 November. The open letter, which was Read more...

Jack Manning Nominated University Management for Life Membership

Posted 9:54pm Thursday 24th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Jack Manning nominated two senior University employees for life membership of OUSA. In his statement nominating Stephen Willis and David Thomson for life membership, Jack acknowledged that he was “somewhat bucking the trend of not nominating current University staff”. Both nominees Read more...

Baby Politicians Try to Be Cool and Relatable For Your OUSA Vote

Posted 9:53pm Thursday 24th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

The debate for the 20-hour OUSA positions took place in the Main Common Room last Wednesday at 12pm. The sound of microphone feedback was in the air, and the candidates debated in front of a backdrop of 1980s MTV videos. Hosts Kayli Taylor from Radio One and Caroline Moratti from that annoying Read more...

Court Case Argues Med Admissions Were Unlawful and Discriminatory

Posted 5:53pm Wednesday 23rd September 2020 by Erin Gourley

A court case against the University of Otago claims that the Uni unlawfully admitted students who did not meet the minimum requirements to enter med school. According to the statement of claim, these students were admitted to medicine through the Mirror on Society (MoS) preferential entry pathway Read more...

No Rivals for Four OUSA Candidates

Posted 5:19pm Sunday 20th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Four candidates for the 2021 OUSA Exec will face no competition at their upcoming election. Josh Meikle is the only person running for Finance and Strategy Officer, Maya Polaschek is the only person running for Welfare and Equity Representative, Sophie Barham is the only person running for Postgrad Read more...

Telehealth Could Become Standard at Student Health

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 20th September 2020 by Naomii Seah

At Alert Level 2, Student Health has been operating under a modified system, relying on “telehealth,” or phone-call appointments to supplement in-person ones. The telehealth appointments last the same length of time as an in-person appointment, and cost the same. To receive an Read more...

Starters 1, Landlords 0

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 20th September 2020 by Sophia Carter Peters

Starters Bar has been granted later opening hours by the DCC, and will now be able to serve alcohol until 3am. Following the controversy surrounding the President of the Otago Property Investors’ Associations (OPIA) outspoken call to arms in the ODT, the new hours are a victory for Starters Read more...

Luke Schneider No Longer Lecturing at UC

Posted 5:10pm Sunday 20th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Luke Schneider, the Senior Lecturer who made controversial posts about beneficiaries and Covid-19 on Quora, is no longer lecturing at the University of Canterbury. It appears that he is still working for the University as a researcher. The change comes after Schneider’s controversial posts Read more...

“Kai Ora” Gate: Med School Dean Misspells Kia Ora

Posted 5:06pm Sunday 20th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

The Dean of the Medical School misspelt the words kia ora while sending out an email about the legal challenge to the Mirror on Society Policy. Med students have dubbed the incident “kai ora-gate”. The Dean, Professor Rathan Subramaniam, “apologises unreservedly for the Read more...

Otago Students Became Nerds in Lockdown

Posted 5:03pm Sunday 20th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Turns out that students didn’t even need the Covid-19 grade bump to pass their papers. The pass rate in Semester One this year, even before the grade bump, was just 0.1% lower than the Sem One in 2019 - from 84.4% to 84.3%. The grade bump increased all Semester One final grades by 5 Read more...

Decriminalisation and Decolonisation

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 20th September 2020 by Naomii Seah

“What’s up with that taniwha Judith Collins being chill with the current discriminating laws when she herself has admitted to trying weed? Oh wait, racism, that’s right.” Judith Collins joins Helen Clark, Phil Goff and many other New Zealanders in carrying on New Read more...

Student Group Forces Ravensdown to Care About the Environment

Posted 5:07pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Ravensdown, the giant fertiliser factory on the Dunedin waterfront, applied to stop reporting on their emissions and then dropped the application after a student group said “nah we’d like you to keep telling us about the levels of chemicals that could create acid Read more...

50% of Sexual Misconduct Investigations at Otago Not Upheld

Posted 5:03pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

There have been just six formal investigations under the University’s new Sexual Misconduct Policy, which took effect in May 2019. Only two of those investigations found that sexual misconduct was proven, according to an Official Information Act request provided to Critic. The policy Read more...

Opinion: I’m Exhausted, Please Extend Semester and Mid-Semester Breaks

Posted 5:00pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Caroline Moratti

Having only a week for a mid-semester break feels like some kind of cruel, sick joke. A week? What is this, a mid-semester break for ants? A week barely gives you enough time to catch up on coursework, let alone give you any time to take some time off and, you know, have a break. Even worse, Read more...

An Explanation of North v South

Posted 4:58pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Oscar Paul

On Saturday 5 September, at 7.10pm, amidst a new lockdown plan, political campaigns, uni assignments and figuring out what to send to your new Tinder match, life decided to give New Zealand a bit of a stress reliever. While every other country has gone and gotten Covid-19, NZ is blessed with a great Read more...

Exec Asks Pointless Question About Moana Pool

Posted 4:49pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

The OUSA Executive are asking students whether there should be a student discount at Moana Pool - but the discount already exists. The question will go to students as question six in the OUSA Referendum this week, from 15 to 17 September. OUSA Finance and Strategy Officer Josh Meikle pointed out Read more...

Local Student Discovers Cave

Posted 4:48pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Jack Gilmore

On a recent Anthropology field trip, a Dunedin student named Barney Connoly found a rock shelter (crepuscular) that is believed to have been used by both gold miners and local iwi. The cave was found up a “steep-ish” cliff about 15 kilometres away from Cromwell in a hilly part of Read more...

Jack Manning Drops Everything to Give Winston Peters a Tour

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Erin Gourley

OUSA President Jack Manning skipped a meeting for Pūtea Tautoko, the University’s student hardship fund, to give Winston Peters a tour of campus. He has apologised for the “clear misplacement of priorities” in making that decision. “I apologise to any student who Read more...

Jack Brazil Posters May Be Illegal

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Sinead Gill

The Electoral Commission are investigating whether posters of the Dunedin Green Party candidate’s face are an illegal election advertisement, after several complaints. Other Dunedin electorate candidates have called these posters “a slap in the face” and “reprehensibly Read more...

Student Events Cancelled by Covid

Posted 4:34pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Kaiya Cherrington

The announcement of Alert Level 2 throughout August and September has disrupted popular student events. These occasions are usually marked on the calendar and widely looked forward to, but they haven’t been able to occur with numbers limited to 100 people. Event organisers have struggled to Read more...

Students Less Likely to Vote if Exam Remains on Election Day

Posted 4:32pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Sinead Gill

Students who have an exam on election day said they were less likely to vote than if their exam was on another day. On 17 October, the day of the New Zealand General Election, Otago Uni has scheduled 37 exams, affecting a total of 1530 students. The exam timetable was released a week after the Read more...

Castle Street’s “Most Notorious” Flat Evicted with $34,000 Tab

Posted 4:30pm Sunday 13th September 2020 by Fox Meyer

A group of students were evicted from their Castle Street flat and are now being pursued for an impressive $34,000 in the Tenancy Tribunal. Critic spoke to Tom, one of the tenants, to find out how he managed to get evicted. Diagon Alley, the flat he and his mates rented earlier this year, Read more...

41 UniFlats Dropped for 2021

Posted 10:32pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Fox Meyer

The University will be “relinquishing” the leases to 41 UniFlats at the end of the year, due to the (extremely likely) decrease in international student numbers for 2021. “As the number of international students is predicted to drop next year because of the pandemic, UniFlats Read more...

Starters Criticised By Landlord They Thought They Could Trust

Posted 10:31pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Fox Meyer

Despite her promise to “ensure a safer environment for students” under the Sophia Charter, the President of the Otago Property Investors’ Association (OPIA) spoke out against an extension to Starters Bar’s hours in the ODT. She said that as she did not comment as OPIA, Read more...

OUSA Club Steals Political Signage and Receives Death Threats

Posted 10:30pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Fox Meyer

An OUSA-affiliated club is in conversations with the Proctor this week after removing roadside political hoardings while driving an OUSA-marked van. A Lawrentian man called the police on the club, and they stopped the van outside Roxburgh to recover the signs from the students. The students in Read more...

OUSA Sexual Misconduct Policy in Final Stages

Posted 10:28pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Naomii Seah

OUSA has finally developed their sexual misconduct policy, following allegations of sexual abuse within OUSA in 2009, and again in OUSA affiliated clubs in 2019 and 2020. The policy, which began development in 2019, is now in its final stages. It aims to achieve “a process to ensure Read more...

Cook’s Beer Back from the Dead

Posted 10:27pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Fox Meyer

Scurvy has long been lurking in the shadows of society; a ghost hanging over the heads of malnourished 2nd years. In 2016, the sailing disease was reported to be making a comeback, and in 2017 1 NEWS revealed that one in 10 New Zealanders over 50 were at risk of scurvy. Think about how many days Read more...

CRONCH CRONCH CRONCH Goes The Link

Posted 10:26pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Sinead Gill

Otago Uni and Frucor Suntory have collaborated to gift students with a reverse vending machine in the Link. The reverse vending machine recycles cans and plastic bottles in exchange for a voucher discounting a Frucor (who produce energy drinks and RTD coffee) product on campus. Both the Uni and Read more...

One Brave Student Asks Two Questions in OUSA’s Referendum

Posted 10:25pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Just one student submitted questions for OUSA’s referendum this semester. That one student submitted two questions to OUSA, questions 5 and 6, and the questions are about swimming and podcasting, respectively. Georgia Mischefski-Gray, OUSA’s Administrative Vice President, said that Read more...

Opinion: Give Me Coffee in the Late Afternoon

Posted 10:24pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Caroline Moratti

Coffee should be available past 3pm. Hell, it should be available at any time of night but I’m not sure y’all are ready to hear that yet. If you want to get out of your grungy flat and meet a friend, you get a coffee. Want a study break? You get a coffee. You want somewhere nice and Read more...

Tiki Taane Says Nope to Say Nope To Dope

Posted 10:23pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Alex Leckie-Zaharic

Tiki Taane called out Say Nope to Dope NZ, an anti-cannabis legalisation Facebook campaign, when they made a post implying he was against cannabis last week. The post on the Say Nope To Dope Facebook page, which has since been taken down, linked to a 2016 NZ Herald article and claimed that Read more...

Lecturer Deactivates Controversial Quora Account

Posted 10:21pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Luke Schneider, the University of Canterbury Chemical Engineering lecturer who posted controversial comments on Quora, has deactivated his account. Critic first reported on the story when one of Schneider’s students said that his comments displayed “a lack of empathy” and that Read more...

37 Exams on Election Day

Posted 10:19pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Sinead Gill

Otago Uni will not move the 37 exams they have penned down for 17 October, the day of the New Zealand General Election. Out of the 1530 students affected, 18 have exams in both the morning and afternoon of election day. The exam timetable was released on 26 August, nine days after the Government Read more...

Chinese Law Paper Not Online Due to “Sensitive Issues”

Posted 10:18pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Erin Gourley

A law paper at Otago is being taught in-person under Level 2 due to discussion of “a number of sensitive issues” related to China. LAWS485, Chinese Law, is taught by Dr Anna High in the Faculty of Law. Humanities Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tony Ballantyne, confirmed that Read more...

No New CCTV Cameras In “Immediate” Future

Posted 10:16pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Erin Gourley

The University has “no immediate plan” to introduce new CCTV cameras around the campus area. Currently the CCTV roll-out plan is at phase two, which is an assessment/evaluation of phase one. “An independent review has been completed and is awaiting consideration by the Read more...

Abbey College Residents Told to Leave in November

Posted 10:14pm Thursday 3rd September 2020 by Erin Gourley

Abbey College residents are being “kicked out” over summer as the University considers a proposal to make the building an undergraduate residential college. The news was “a shock” to residents, said Renata*, a student who lives in Abbey College. “This is not how you Read more...

Otago Uni Has Created A Sustainability Neighbourhood

Posted 4:17pm Sunday 30th August 2020 by Zoe Humprey

Otago Uni has converted three of their UniFlats on Great King Street into a “sustainability neighbourhood” for 20 students in 2021. This “living lab” initiative will allow Otago researchers to study the potential environmental gains when sustainable living is made accessible Read more...

Sweeping Changes to the International Student Sector Receives Mixed Response from Students

Posted 4:14pm Sunday 30th August 2020 by Charlie O’Mannin

A government proposal to overhaul the regulations around international students in the wake of Covid-19 has had a mixed reception from student leaders. While changing the emphasis from quantity to quality was praised, changes to make it harder for international students to get work visas were Read more...

Students Fighting Cap on Māori and Pasifika Entry to Med

Posted 4:11pm Sunday 30th August 2020 by Sinead Gill

Student representatives are fighting a proposal to cap the number of Māori and Pasifika entrants to med school. Radio New Zealand have reported that the proposal includes capping Māori student entrants to Professional Health Sciences programmes (such as Medicine and Dentistry) at 56. Read more...

Skip Days Too Trashy, Recycling Is New Best Friend – Uni and OUSA

Posted 9:35pm Thursday 27th August 2020 by Jamie Mactaggart

Otago Uni and OUSA are proposing an alternative way of disposing waste rather than the designated skip days we currently have.  The proposal is still being reviewed, but aims to give students more options to recycle and dispose of general waste any time of the year, or on specific dates, Read more...

OPINION: Cover Your Damn Face

Posted 9:33pm Thursday 27th August 2020 by Naomii Seah

People fucking suck at physical distancing. Honestly, tell me right now, can you accurately estimate what one or two metres looks like? If you see someone coming towards you on the footpath, can you safely physically distance? How many times have you passed someone just slightly too close at the Read more...

Students Disappointed at Loss of Dietitian Programme

Posted 9:28pm Thursday 27th August 2020 by Naomii Seah

Students affected by the University of Otago’s loss of the Masters of Dietetics programme (MDiet) were disappointed by the lack of communication by the Human Nutrition Department. Rose, the President of the Human Nutrition Students Association, said that students were not given much advance Read more...

Uni’s Shovel Ready Projects Get the Axe

Posted 9:22pm Thursday 27th August 2020 by Oscar Paul

Roughly $300 Million worth of government funding may be deferred from Otago Uni, potentially stalling the five shovel-ready projects the University had planned for years to come. The five projects include a new building for the Te Rangi Hiroa residential college ($90 million), earthquake-proofing Read more...

No Skeletons in the Closet

Posted 9:20pm Thursday 27th August 2020 by Fox Meyer

Although they’re careful not to advertise it, Otago Uni’s Anatomy Department curates a fascinating and rare collection of human cadavers. The collection is an invaluable teaching tool for the medical professionals of tomorrow, and what began as an investigation into a purportedly Read more...

​OPINION: Infiltrating Open Day Is Hard

Posted 10:19pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Alex Leckie-Zaharic

My frequent inability to grow meaningful facial hair played into my favour last Monday, as I joined the hordes of naive high schoolers venturing onto the University campus in order to see how much Open Day had changed since I was a wee lad. My first port of call would have been the Schools’ Read more...