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...