Archive
Students Make a Stand for Reproductive Rights
Posted 2:50pm Monday 25th July 2022 by Zak Rudin
Last Saturday, almost 200 Otago Uni students organised a peaceful sit-in at the lower Octagon to protest the overturning of Roe v Wade. The hour-long protest included speeches, music and (of course) TikToks. On June 25, the United States Supreme Court announced the overturning of Roe v Wade, a Read more...
MĀOR110 Te Reo Aptitude Assessment gets the Axe
Posted 2:46pm Monday 25th July 2022 by Skyla & Fox Meyer
For the first time, Health Sci First Year (HSFY) students can take “Intro to Conversational Māori” (MĀOR110) as an optional eighth paper. Last week, the University repealed an entrance requirement to the paper barring students with virtually any te reo background, lest they Read more...
UniQ Top Pride Fundraiser In The Country
Posted 3:57pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Denzel Chung
Otago Uni’s queer students’ club, UniQ, raised nearly $13,000 for Sweat With Pride – more than double what they originally aimed for. This made them the top fundraising team in Aotearoa. Sweat With Pride is an annual fundraising event which encourages participants to do 21 Read more...
Swappa Cup App On The Rise
Posted 3:55pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Zak Rudin
Chatime has finally given single-use takeaway cups a hard pass, instead stamping its seal of approval on the Swappa Cup “cup-borrowing” app. Outlets across campus are expected to roll it out soon. Every day, an estimated 800,000 disposable cups are (you guessed it) disposed of. Read more...
Inhibition-Lowering Substance Lowers Inhibitions, Study Shows
Posted 3:54pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Nina Brown
New research by global comparison site Finder has made the shocking revelation that people like to buy shit while drunk. Every breatha who has bought a new vape after their first Mav of the night could tell you as much. According to their research, involving “a nationally Read more...
660 Scholarship Winners: What’re They Up2?
Posted 3:47pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Annabelle Vaughan
Last year, Emily Bell and Samuel Leaper were two of the four students who received the University’s inaugural Six60 Scholarship. The scholarship lets them live, rent-free, at 660 Castle Street, for the whole year, as well as giving them the chance to be mentored by one of Aotearoa’s most Read more...
Volunteer Service Abroad Bounces Back After Covid
Posted 3:45pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Fox Meyer
Te Tūao Tāwāhi (Volunteer Service Abroad, VSA) is gearing back up to send recent grads to work overseas. The whole “international travel” aspect was complicated by Covid, but a new “e-volunteering” strategy is now an option alongside the traditional Read more...
From “Fuck! I Can’t Cook” To “Fuck! I’m a Cook!”
Posted 3:40pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Denzel Chung
Former Otago student Alice Taylor’s MasterChef run came to an end last week with a solid third-place finish. This isn’t the end of the culinary road for her, though, with judge Michael Dearth offering her a new job at his Italian restaurant Baduzzi. Alice sat down with Critic Te Arohi to Read more...
Leith Surges, Paddlers Rejoice
Posted 3:37pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Denzel Chung and Keegan Wells
The nationwide storm last week saw the Leith rise to 70 times its normal flow. Local legends from the Otago University Canoe Club (OUCC) were all over it, tackling what they estimated was about a Grade 4 rapid. While the Leith normally cruises along at around 0.8-1 cubic metres of water per Read more...
Aotearoa Continues Imports of “Blood Phosphate”
Posted 3:32pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Zak Rudin
A group of around 15 activists gathered outside Ravensdown’s fertiliser factory at Ravensbourne last Tuesday, for a “morning of mourning” over a “shipload of shame”. On a cold, dark and wet morning, the black-clad protesters were opposing the “unwelcome” Read more...
Ireland Screws All Blacks, Unscrews Lightbulbs
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Fox Meyer
After handing the All Blacks their first-ever Dunedin defeat on Saturday 9 July, the Irish national rugby team parked up at Vault 21. And evidently, they weren’t too keen on leaving. Chris Dickie, a bartender at Vault, said that as closing time grew near that night, staff at the bar started Read more...
Everyone’s Favourite $4 Lunch Lady Begins A “New Incarnation”
Posted 2:27pm Sunday 17th July 2022 by Denzel Chung
Jane “J-Ma” Beecroft, long-known as the $4 lunch lady, is beginning a “new incarnation” on campus. She’s hoping her new “chat room,” which she calls “Life, the Universe and Everything”, will help provide a space where students can feel Read more...
Ireland Screws All Blacks, Unscrews Lightbulbs
Posted 1:14pm Wednesday 13th July 2022 by Fox Meyer
After handing the All Blacks their first-ever Dunedin defeat on Saturday 9 July, the Irish national rugby team parked up at Vault 21. And evidently, they weren’t too keen on leaving. Chris Dickie, a bartender at Vault, said that as closing time grew near that night, staff at the Read more...
SCANDAL! Man Opens Door!
Posted 1:59am Saturday 9th July 2022 by Denzel Chung
An Edinburgh Realty tenant was left feeling “infuriated” after a tradie unlocked her bedroom door to complete some repairs while she was asleep. Marie* rents in the Station Apartments complex, a set of 5 studio apartments on Anzac Avenue managed by Edinburgh Realty. At first Read more...
GARBAGE! EnviroWaste Red Bins GONEBURGER In Dunedin!
Posted 1:57am Saturday 9th July 2022 by Denzel Chung
At least one provider of Dunedin’s red bins, EnviroWaste, have pulled the plug on signing up new customers. Fears of an impending bin monopoly have been dismissed by EnviroWaste, who said the move is only temporary. A check of the EnviroWaste website using Dunedin addresses shows an Read more...
WOW! Otago Student Chef makes it BIG TIME
Posted 1:55am Saturday 9th July 2022 by Denzel Chung
While most of us were dumping two-minute pasta into a microwave bowl and serving it with a side of James Speight’s finest, an ex-Otago student has been rubbing shoulders with the likes of Nadia Lim on the latest season of MasterChef New Zealand. Critic Te Arohi caught up with Alice Taylor to Read more...
SOUTHLAND: The Next Silicon Valley???
Posted 1:54am Saturday 9th July 2022 by Fox Meyer
A massive, cutting edge carbon-neutral data centre is slated to open in – of all places – Southland. Otago Uni have already signed up to be one of the facility’s major clients. Despite what some Aucklanders may be thinking, there are actually some pretty good reasons for tech Read more...
Otago Lecturer speaks at Anti-Mandate Protest
Posted 1:35am Saturday 9th July 2022 by Elliot Weir and Denzel Chung
At a demonstration against vaccine mandates and Three Waters legislation, an Otago Uni lecturer spoke for five minutes to "educate" the opposing counter-demonstration across the road by reading the Britannica definition of fascism and sharing a stage with a prominent alt-right Read more...
Protest Standoff! Big Anti-Fash Bash TRIUMPHS Over “Freedom and Rights Coalition”
Posted 11:37pm Friday 8th July 2022 by Zak Rudin, Denzel Chung and Elliot Weir
At 12pm on Saturday 2nd July, around 150 anti-fascist counter-protestors faced off against a “Freedom and Rights Coalition” (FRC) protest, led by Destiny Church’s Derek Tait. With the anti-fascists outnumbering the FRC group five to one, Ōtepoti sent them a clear message: Read more...
Heaps of West Coast Land to be Reclassified
Posted 11:29pm Friday 8th July 2022 by Denzel Chung and Fox Meyer
The Department of Conservation (DoC) is set to reclassify 600,000 hectares of protected “stewardship” land on the West Coast – the size of over 3 Rakiura (Stewart Islands). DoC says that this will provide stronger protections for its natural and historic features, but some worry Read more...


