Archive

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...

Youth Political Parties as Members of Your Group Project

Posted 10:17pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Alex Leckie-Zaharic

Upon arriving at the Link, I realised that all of the youth political parties lined up for Clubs Day were just a bunch of people in an awkward group project. The assignment is to get the youths to vote come September. And, just like in a group project, none of them seemed to know what they’re Read more...

Criminal Charges, Expulsion “Threatened” if Agnew Residents Host Flat Party

Posted 10:16pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Erin Gourley

The Campus Cop told a flat on Agnew Street that they could face criminal charges and be expelled from the University if they hosted a party in their flat. The Campus Constable, John Woodhouse, emailed one of the flatmates on 7 August stating that “the holders of such an event may be liable Read more...

OUSA Advocates For More Gender Identities In Stats NZ

Posted 10:10pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Fox Meyer

In addition to “male” or “female”, OUSA is advocating for Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) to include “another gender” and “no gender” when listing genders on census documents. They have submitted these suggestions to the Sex and Gender Identity Read more...

Otago Uni Loses Dietitian Programme Accreditation

Posted 10:08pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Sinead Gill

Otago’s Master of Dietetics (MDiet) programme has suspended new enrolments because they have lost their accreditation. Students who are already enrolled in MDiet will be able to complete this degree.  The NZ Dietitians Board notified Otago Uni that they would lose their accreditation Read more...

Lockdown, Part Two: Isolation Boogaloo

Posted 10:07pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Fox Meyer

At an impromptu announcement at 9:15pm, August 11, Jacinda and Ashley Bloomfield broke the news that Covid-19 has resurfaced in the community. It takes the form of one cluster: four family members. Aotearoa resumes lockdown protocol.  As of publishing, Auckland will be at Level 3 until Read more...

Dumpster Fire Breaks Out in Dunedin News Facebook Page

Posted 10:06pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Fox Meyer

Last week, Dunedin News admin Daryl Taylor convened a heavy Facebook debate on an article about a Dunedin man being acquitted of rape. The article in question named the accused, Michael Fraser, but did not name the two women who accused him of rape. Daryl linked the ODT article with the caption Read more...

Is Your Flat a Piece of Shit? Signs Point to Yes

Posted 8:44pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Annabelle Vaughan

In just one day, the Dunedin Tenancy Tribunal ordered $7040 of compensation for two groups of student tenants who had their flats disrupted by construction work. Critic spoke to the two groups about what the process was like. One group of tenants, who flat on Leith Street, took Edinburgh Realty Read more...

“Lack of Empathy”: Lecturer’s Quora Posts Made Students Uncomfortable

Posted 8:38pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Erin Gourley

Content warning: suicide, shootings. Luke Schneider, a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the University of Canterbury, implied that beneficiaries should commit suicide, wrote about why he would “shoot to kill” in a riot to protect private property, and suggested that a virus Read more...

Beer Pong Tournament Attracts Brotherhood of Punters

Posted 8:29pm Thursday 13th August 2020 by Oscar Paul

On August 9, the Landers Army - the official fanpage for the Highlanders - hosted the inaugural Beer Pong Masters at Starter Bar. Teams of two played for the rights to be Dunedin’s Best Team, and to head up to Auckland to demolish those northern fuckwits at the best sport ever Read more...

PSYC SOC Targeted by Facebook Scammers

Posted 10:42pm Thursday 6th August 2020 by Kaiya Cherrington

The Otago Students’ Psychology Society (PSYC SOC) has been targeted by scammers trying to sell unauthorized Wine and Cheese tickets using fake Facebook accounts.  PSYC SOC advertised their Wine and Cheese night during late July, to be held on Thursday 13 August at IBs. The event Read more...

Man Floor-Sucked Own Piss in the Zoo

Posted 10:40pm Thursday 6th August 2020 by Sophia Carter Peters

During the 2 August rugby match at Forsyth Barr, the tragic loss of the Highlanders to the Blues was briefly interrupted with a student literally drinking his own piss.  In the middle of the Zoo, a little before halftime, a breatha unzipped his pants and peed onto the seat in front of him. Read more...

OPINION: Crunchy Peanut Butter is the Best Type of Peanut Butter

Posted 10:39pm Thursday 6th August 2020 by Annabelle Vaughan

Crunchy peanut butter is the superior type of peanut butter, and if you disagree with that, then you should take a good, hard look at yourself. There are some big issues going on in the world, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for debate about peanut butter. Usually, I Read more...

Landlord “Nit-Picking” to Keep Bonds from Tenants

Posted 10:36pm Thursday 6th August 2020 by Erin Gourley

A lost kitchen sink plug, dirty chairs, blown light bulbs, and a missing oven knob were among the reasons a Dunedin landlord claimed her tenants should not get their bond back.  Since August 2016, Karen Brown has appeared in 31 orders from the Tenancy Tribunal and one District Court case Read more...

No Visa Applications For International Students

Posted 10:22pm Thursday 6th August 2020 by Sinead Gill

From 10 August, applications for “most visitor, work and student visas” will be suspended for three months. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) announced this change in their 31 July update. The suspension means that tertiary students who have been studying online from their home countries Read more...

OUSA Reviewing Clubs for “Inappropriate Behaviour”

Posted 10:18pm Thursday 6th August 2020 by Erin Gourley

OUSA has begun a review aiming to understand and deal with inappropriate behaviour within affiliated clubs. OUSA’s CEO, Debbie Downs, listed several aims for the review. “To understand the extent of inappropriate behaviour within OUSA-affiliated Clubs and Societies,” is the Read more...