Archive

More Tenants Come Forward With Landlords Trying to Rent Boarding Houses on Illegal Contracts

Posted 12:43am Friday 6th September 2019 by Erin Gourley

The problem of landlords trying to rent boarding houses on fixed-term leases is widespread, with three tenants telling Critic that they realised they were living in a boarding house after reading our boarding house article last week. One tenant told us that she lived in a boarding house in 2018 Read more...

Second Year Law Exam Timetable Mix-Up Creates 24 Hours of Panic

Posted 12:42am Friday 6th September 2019 by Erin Gourley

Second-year law students were shocked to find all of their exams scheduled within one week when the exam timetable was released on the Tuesday of the break. “A lot of people lost their shit,” said one second-year student. The mix-up was quickly resolved after a barrage of complaints Read more...

OUSA To Solve Climate Change

Posted 12:40am Friday 6th September 2019 by Sinead Gill

OUSA have stepped their pussies up and are not just encouraging students to ditch class, but TELLING them to not go to class and go to Union Lawn on the 27th of September, 11:30am, for climate change. They’re doing it as a part of the School Strike 4 Climate campaign, which sees high Read more...

Guest Editorial: Don't Just Learn Māori this Week, Learn It Every Week.

Posted 10:22pm Thursday 5th September 2019 by Taylor Terekia

Kia ora e te whānau! (Hey fam) It's your one and only Tumuakz or Tumuaki, not to be confused with Tumauki (iykyk) of Te Roopū Māori. It's that one week of the year people seem to remember te reo Māori is a national language. You'll find Māori language Read more...

Library Opening Hours Extended

Posted 12:06am Friday 30th August 2019 by Esme Hall

The University Central Library will trial being open from 6am to 12pm seven days a week in the lead up to exams. The change in hours, which were previously 7am to 11pm, comes after OUSA President James Heath and Education Officer Will Dreyer negotiated with the Library Executive. “The Read more...

Clubs Vote Against Having to Attend Boring OUSA Meetings at a Boring OUSA Meeting

Posted 12:05am Friday 30th August 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

In what has been described as both a resounding victory and a crushing defeat for boring OUSA meetings, 88% of people at a boring OUSA meeting voted against forcing representatives from OUSA Clubs and Societies to attend boring OUSA meetings. The rejected proposal was to have OUSA grants funding Read more...

DCC Candidates Commit to Student Pledges

Posted 11:53pm Thursday 29th August 2019 by Erin Gourley

This article was originally published in Issue 21 (02/09/2019). More candidates have made pledges, therefore this article has been updated (Issue 24, 23/09/2019). OUSA have released the seven local body election pledges they will ask candidates to sign. “Take that, Lee Vandervis,” Read more...

Students Choose Politics Over Equity

Posted 11:45pm Thursday 29th August 2019 by Sinead Gill

The week before mid-semester break, OUSA had a Student General Meeting (SGM). Critic, along with the 100-and-a-bit other students, went for the free pizza, dumplings, and hot goss. Although the motion to tie SGM attendance to club grants was the real reason why so many people turned up, in the Read more...

Employee of the Month: Ella Roding

Posted 11:43pm Thursday 29th August 2019 by Sinead Gill

Everybody stop what you’re fucking doing. There is a doggo at OUSA student support (5 Ethel Benjamin Place) every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and she has an employment contract. Ella Roding, a rescue dog from a Community Led Animal Welfare organisation in South Africa (CLAW), had an Read more...

Spiked Drinks At Student Event Raises Alarms

Posted 11:41pm Thursday 29th August 2019 by Sinead Gill

In May of this year there was a student event hosted at a Central Dunedin venue. During this event, the water dispenser was allegedly spiked, and multiple attendees ended up in the Emergency Department. Jenny* was one of the students whose drink was spiked. She said that she was lucky her friends Read more...

Editorial: Dunedin’s Landlords Are Shit and Something Needs to Change

Posted 10:08pm Thursday 29th August 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

Over the past few years Critic has covered a lot of tenancy stories about landlords and property managers being cunts: Mike “Dunedin’s Dodgiest Landlord” Harbott rented properties that were “unliveable” and then just refused to pay when the Tenancy Tribunal ruled Read more...

Boarding Houses and Illegal Contracts: How a Dunedin Landlord Got Her Tenants to Pay Extra Rent

Posted 10:06pm Thursday 29th August 2019 by Erin Gourley

Don’t you just hate it when your landlord emails to say that “your father is DISGUSTING PUTRID AND RUDE”? And accuses you of “RUDENESS, DISGUSTING BEHAVIOR, DISGUSTING MOCKING AND BULLY LAUGHING, RUNNING YOUR MOUTH 10000 MILES AN HOUR WITH BS”? That’s the kind of Read more...

RIP Forever, Captain Cook

Posted 12:23pm Monday 19th August 2019 by Sinead Gill

The Captain Cook has been sold (again), cementing the pub’s status as Otago students’ ex-boyfriend with serious commitment issues.  Michael McLeod, who had operated the Cook since early 2018, told the ODT that he planned on keeping the upstairs venue open for hire under the Cook Read more...

Squash Club Evicted From Damaged Courts

Posted 11:04pm Saturday 17th August 2019 by James Joblin

The Otago University Squash Club has been walloped from their courts at 51 Union Street after being served a closure notice by the University. “We would have loved to stay at the venue,” Squash Club President Jayden Millard told Critic. “It’s on campus, it has history, and Read more...

Sustainable Student Business Gets National Interest

Posted 11:02pm Saturday 17th August 2019 by Esme Hall

The University said that new sustainable Otago student-led business ‘Spout Alternatives’ should tender for the University’s milk contract when the current supplier’s three-year contract ends. Spout Alternatives founder Jo Mohan told Critic that cafes all over the country Read more...

Storming the Dundas Wall Kind of a Success

Posted 11:01pm Saturday 17th August 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

Despite multiple people storming the Dundas Street Construction last weekend, the Otago Regional Council (ORC) is “really pleased that nothing came from the storming of the Bridge” according to ORC Communications Channels Manager Eleanor Ross. Ross said that the storming was a Read more...

“Incident” with Richardson Building Lift

Posted 11:00pm Saturday 17th August 2019 by Esme Hall

An “incident” with one of the Richardson Building lifts that made a loud crash was not the lift falling, according to the Property Services spokesperson. “Whilst Property Services is awaiting its full report from the Lift Contractor (Otis), we can advise the lift car did not Read more...

Korean Bible “Cult” Returns to Campus

Posted 10:59pm Saturday 17th August 2019 by Esme Hall

International students allege they were targeted by a controversial Korean religious group, described by many as a cult, that has been trespassed from campus. Sela and Mele, residents of a St David’s Street UniFlat, allege two young Korean people knocked on their door with an iPad and a Read more...

OUSA Deciding About Mandatory Club Attendance at Student General Meetings, at a Student General Meeting

Posted 10:57pm Saturday 17th August 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

The OUSA Student Executive have decided to take the question of whether it should be mandatory for a representative from every club and society to attend their Student General Meetings (SGMs), which historically have an abysmal turnout, to the next SGM for the students to vote on. Or at least the 90 Read more...

Everyone Agrees Agnew Street Went Pretty Okay

Posted 10:56pm Saturday 17th August 2019 by Erin Gourley

Students traversed freezing weather and hiked up a small hill to make it to the annual, un-ticketed Agnew Street Party. The party went ahead despite a steady temperature of 4°C and persistent rain. “You can’t deter Otago students,” said one of the organisers. An organiser Read more...