Archive

We Harvested Your Data and Are Selling it Online

Posted 7:25pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Fox Meyer

Oopsies, we’re reporting on politics. Can’t help but engage with a good bit of data. We polled students on the Dunedin Electorate, seeing as that’s where the majority of students live. Sorry, Taieri. We know students live there too. In the past, I’ve tried to show that Read more...

Most Predictable OUSA Election in Years

Posted 7:23pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Erin Gourley

Michaela Waite-Harvey won the OUSA presidency convincingly. The results were announced in the Main Common Room last Thursday. There are five current Exec members continuing on in their roles or taking new positions in the 2021 Exec. Michaela is moving up from Welfare and Equity Representative to Read more...

OPINION: All Students Should be Eligible for Another Grade Bump

Posted 7:22pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Naomii Seah

Wednesday 12 August, 2020. A new Covid-19 community cluster is found in Auckland, and New Zealand is faced with the prospect of another lockdown. Thankfully, only Auckland actually faced another Level 3. However, immediately after the announcement, I found myself once again on Zoom calls, once again Read more...

Jack’s Off: An Exit Interview

Posted 7:21pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Caroline Moratti

After one year in the top job, Jack Manning is preparing to leave the role. On December 31 he is out of the desk, and into the lion's den of life. The OUSA President sat down with Critic in his small, intimate office to talk about life, love, chicken satay and everything in between. Jack Read more...

ExamSoft Flagged 80% of Exams for Review Last Sem

Posted 7:20pm Sunday 4th October 2020 by Erin Gourley

6670 out of the 8188 exams conducted on ExamSoft were “flagged for review” in Sem One. ExamSoft was the remote invigilating software used for all of the Health Sci exams and some Accounting papers. 87 students had their grades delayed as a result of the ExamSoft review process. The Read more...

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...