Archive

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...