Archive

Te Roopū Māori Student Election Postponed Due to Lack of Nominations

Posted 4:49pm Saturday 21st September 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

Te Roopū Māori, the Māori Students’ Association, has decided to postpone their student elections after they had almost no one nominate themselves, meaning that they couldn’t piggy-back on the OUSA election website and will have to use a paper-ballot. Taylor Terekia, Read more...

OPINION: Why Don’t More Women Run For OUSA Leadership?

Posted 4:43pm Saturday 21st September 2019 by Sinead Gill

This year Otago’s student union had no female presidential candidates. Empowering women and people of colour to run for any OUSA position is an annual talking point for the Executive, typically brought up in the weeks leading up to nominations or, in the 2019 Exec’s case, not brought up Read more...

OPINION: Archway Shop Shut For No Reason And I Am Mad

Posted 4:37pm Saturday 21st September 2019 by Sinead Gill

It turns out the University do not actually have a plan for the Archway Shop space. A few weeks ago Critic covered the closing of the Archway Stationery Shop in the Link. The University’s closed a useful store with one particularly friendly employee and replaced it with some cash-grab. At Read more...

Jack “The Poor Man’s James Heath” Manning Wins OUSA President in a Boring, Boring Result

Posted 10:48pm Friday 20th September 2019 by Critic

It’s more of the same for OUSA as Jack Manning takes the Presidential Crown. Jack, who prides himself on being described as “the poor man’s James Heath,” proved to be the most vanilla presidential candidate and won on being everyone’s second choice in the single Read more...

University Reveals How the New CCTV Policy is Being Used

Posted 10:42pm Friday 20th September 2019 by Erin Gourley

Most of the CCTV footage of non-University streets released by the Proctor’s office is in response to requests by residents to property damage or theft, according to an Official Information Act request made by Critic. Between the rollout of increased CCTV coverage of the student area at the Read more...

Canta Editor Calling For Editorial Independence

Posted 10:39pm Friday 20th September 2019 by Esme Hall

Samantha Mythen, the Editor of Canta (the University of Canterbury’s student magazine), is fighting for editorial independence. She is alleging that, since her time as Editor, UCSA have stopped her publishing stories that are critical of the students’ association or even of the Read more...

Come Fly With Me: A Semester in the Life of Harlene Hayne

Posted 8:50pm Friday 20th September 2019 by Sinead Gill

Like binge watching shitcunts on reality TV over and over again, there is something cathartic about peeking behind the curtain and laying bare the lives of the rich and famous. Unfortunately, Critic doesn’t know many rich people, and the most famous people we know (Joel MacManus and James Read more...

OPINION: I Hate that the Uni Wasted 42k on Some Promo Screens

Posted 7:14pm Sunday 15th September 2019 by Nina Minogue

Over the last few weeks the Uni installed a massive nine panel screen in the Link that cost $42,000. It plays exclusively ads for the Uni – you know, that place you already go. I have a conspiracy. The University is slowly but surely turning the Link into a massive man-cave. Think about it, Read more...

EDITORIAL: The OUSA Presidency is Anyone's Game

Posted 6:50pm Sunday 15th September 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

This week is the Otago University Students’ Association student elections. For those that don’t really give a fuck (fair), OUSA is the student union that represents you, entertains you, and fights for you. OUSA runs O-Week, Starters Bar, Student Support, and Clubs and Socs, as well as Read more...

Critic Breaks Down the OUSA Presidential Debate

Posted 12:58am Friday 13th September 2019 by Erin Gourley

Are Jack, Will and Sam the characters from a boring nursery rhyme? No, they’re the OUSA presidential candidates for 2020. It was repeatedly brought up that Jack Manning, Will Moffett, and Sam Purchas were “stale, pale, and male” during the daytime presidential forum - mostly by the Read more...

Critic Watches Student Politicians Fight Each Other

Posted 12:56am Friday 13th September 2019 by Critic

At last week’s forum debates, almost 20 students fought each other for the honour of fighting for you as your OUSA representatives. Critic was there through all of them, through the awkward roasts and the boring empty speeches. This year saw an unprecedented number of positions go Read more...

Otago Medical Students Association Denies that Electoral Fraud Influenced Election

Posted 11:32pm Thursday 12th September 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

The Otago University Medical Students Association (OUMSA) has said that a “very small percentage” of students exploiting a loophole in the system to vote twice in the recent MOUSA elections “were not counted towards the final results of the position” and that even if they had Read more...

DCC Mayoral Forum Makes Critic Lose Faith In Democracy

Posted 6:08pm Sunday 8th September 2019 by Critic

Critic’s winners of the DCC Mayoral Forum, hosted by OUSA and the University, are Mandy Mayhem-Bullock and Aaron Hawkins, with an incredibly honourable mention to Bob Barlin. But, to be honest, hearing fourteen people talk for about five minutes each doesn’t give a great idea about who Read more...

‘Near-Misses’ Provoked Walk Your Wheels Campaign, Rather than Actual Injuries

Posted 1:01am Friday 6th September 2019 by Esme Hall

The University has said that “near-misses” provoked its ban on skateboards, bikes and scooters on campus, the “Walk Your Wheels” campaign, rather than actual injuries. An Official Information Act request to the University of Otago revealed that there have only been two Read more...

Great Peanut Purge at Residential Colleges

Posted 1:00am Friday 6th September 2019 by James Joblin

Peanuts have been taken off the menu at University-managed residential colleges to protect students with severe nut allergies. As of 2 September, residential college kitchens are no longer serving peanut products, except Toroa and Abbey colleges, which do not currently house students with peanut Read more...

OUSA To Lobby For Independent Investigator on Sexual Violence at Unis and Polytechs

Posted 12:55am Friday 6th September 2019 by Esme Hall

The OUSA Exec wants an independent body to investigate sexual violence against students and staff, rather than incidents being handled by universities and polytechnics internally. In their meeting over the break, the OUSA Exec agreed to start lobbying the University of Otago, the New Zealand Read more...

More CCTV rolling out on Castle

Posted 12:53am Friday 6th September 2019 by Sinead Gill

A blind spot in the CCTV network in studentville has been identified, and Campus Watch are rubbing their hungry hands together in glee – more cameras are coming to Castle Street. Specifically on the corner of Castle and Duke Street, and the corner of Castle and Dundas street. In a letter Read more...

Harlene Tells High Schoolers to Piss Off

Posted 12:50am Friday 6th September 2019 by Nina Minogue

Before this year’s O-Week, Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne sent a letter to all Dunedin secondary schools asking them to encourage their students to stay away from university parties. The letter was a response to Campus Watch reporting an alarming rise in uninvited high school students Read more...

How Much Are Breathas Paying For Flats? A Critic Investigation

Posted 12:47am Friday 6th September 2019 by Sinead Gill

Some truths are eternal when it comes to being a University of Otago student. You’re going to gain 20 kilos in your first year, only old people call us Scarfies, and living in a ‘notorious’ flat on Castle street is going to be expensive as fuck. But why is that? Not the 20 kilos Read more...

The Tea So Far: 2020 OUSA Executive Candidates

Posted 12:45am Friday 6th September 2019 by Esme Hall

Critic will reserve a full judgement until the forums this week, but here is what you need to know about the returners and insiders of OUSA who are running. All the Presidential candidates are men (gross): Will Moffett, Jack Manning, and Sam Purchas. All we could find out about Will online, from Read more...