Archive

OPINION: Why We Must All Protect Ihumātao.

Posted 3:43am Friday 26th July 2019 by Tiana Mihaere

“Not One More Acre of Māori Land” was the rallying cry of the late Dame Whina Cooper in 1975. 44 years on we use her words to rally behind the Protectors of Ihumātao who call us to stand up against the destruction of Papatūānuku. Ihumātao has seen over 800 Read more...

A Win for OUSA Insiders in the Exec By-Election Results

Posted 3:33am Friday 26th July 2019 by Esme Hall

Georgia Mischefski-Gray is the new Admin VP, Benjamin McCook-Weir is the new Campaigns Officer and Matthew Schep is new Postgraduate Officer in a by-election Critic is calling a win for OUSA insiders. Hoping it’ll catch on. Probably won’t. All the new Exec members are OUSA adjacent. Read more...

Agnew Street Party Organisers Want a More Controlled Party than Last Year

Posted 6:15pm Thursday 25th July 2019 by Esme Hall

The student organisers of the Agnew Street Party are trying to make this year’s party safer after last year’s got out of hand. One of the organisers said the Proctor, Dave Scott, has been “an absolute legend” in helping them figure out how to make the now seemingly annual Read more...

Critic Gets Street Sign Spelling Error Corrected

Posted 6:14pm Thursday 25th July 2019 by Esme Hall

Critic corrected a spelling mistake not in our magazine, but in real life. We’re cool, promise.  Since 26 April, the street sign on Ethel McMillan Pl has read “Ethel McMillian Pl”. Critic’s intrepid reporter stared at the sign for weeks wondering if they’d Read more...

OPINION: VSM is the Worst

Posted 4:30pm Friday 19th July 2019 by Bonnie Harrison

The Otago University Students’ Association exists purely because Harlene Hayne saw a poor little piglet, primed for slaughter, and decided they were too special to be turned into pork mince. The story of OUSA is essentially Charlotte’s Web. Our student union was conceived and born in Read more...

North Dunedin to Get Two More “Barnes Dance” Crossings

Posted 3:20am Friday 19th July 2019 by Wyatt Ryder

Two more ‘Barnes Dance Crossings’ are being installed in North Dunedin in the next three weeks. Barnes Dance is a really lame name for those crossings that let you cross in any direction and have a flashing countdown that lets you challenge yourself to see if you can run across with Read more...

Advocacy Groups Have “No Empathy” for Landlords Scrambling to Insulate Properties

Posted 3:17am Friday 19th July 2019 by Esme Hall

Local advocacy groups are disappointed in landlords who left it to the last minute to insulate the underfloor and ceilings of rental homes for the July 1st deadline, which they had three years to meet. Changes to the Residential Tenancies Act mean that from July 1st rental homes must have ceiling Read more...

Who to Vote For in the By-Election

Posted 3:13am Friday 19th July 2019 by Sinead Gill

As per usual for OUSA events the seats in the Main Common Room were vacant for the candidates forum, all bar the current Executive, the candidates’ friends, and depressed Critic reporters. But no worries, we’ve assessed the quality of the candidates for you. For the more discerning voter Read more...

My Editorials: A Review

Posted 1:57am Friday 19th July 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

This is a review issue. We’ve got a bunch of reviews. Here’s a review of my editorials so far:    Editorial #1 Drugs are lame. 2/10   Editorial #2 We still haven’t had an answer from AskOtago. 7/10    Editorial #3 The University Read more...

Archway Shop is Dead and There is Nothing We Can Do About It

Posted 10:01pm Thursday 18th July 2019 by Sinead Gill

Despite having a name that confusingly refers to another building on campus, the Archway Stationery Shop has been a staple of the Link for decades. But as of last Thursday, the University pulled the plug. Campus and Collegiate Life Services Director, James Lindsay, said that this move was to Read more...

DCC VERSUS DCC: WHO WILL WIN?

Posted 9:59pm Thursday 18th July 2019 by Sinead Gill

One bold, annonymous Dunedin local has perfected community outreach by launching a ‘Dunedin City Council - DCC’ Facebook page that people actually engage with. Overnight they became a city-wide hit and quickly superseeded the 1k-follower mark. While unfortunately their posts are just Read more...

Writing About The Executive Reports So They Stop Asking Us To

Posted 12:46am Friday 12th July 2019 by Sinead Gill

If you noticed that we never covered the first quarterly reports of the OUSA Executive back in March, then you are either Will Dreyer or... (no, you’re just Will Dreyer). Now that the second quarterly reports are out, though, Critic can compare what goals and promises they kept first semester, Read more...

The University & The Sexual Misconduct Policy

Posted 12:43am Friday 12th July 2019 by Caroline Moratti

Under the new Sexual Misconduct Policy, which was made public at the end of May this year, the University is obligated to “ensure that students are informed of this policy, related resources, and education programmes,”. However, according to Thursdays in Black Otago, the University has Read more...

Editorial: I Don’t Want to Live in a World Without the Giant Mountain Lobelia

Posted 12:40am Friday 12th July 2019 by Charlie O’Mannin

Ok, buckos. It’s happened. I’ve snapped. This was the last fucking straw. I was on board, but now I’m jumping off. Don’t count on me no more. We all know that climate change is destroying the planet and that as humans we’ve pretty much proved ourselves to be unworthy Read more...

NZUSA are Preparing to Fight “Tweaks” to the Fees-Free Policy

Posted 11:28pm Thursday 11th July 2019 by Sinead Gill

Although the National Student Union, NZUSA, started the year at a $74,000 deficit, the entire staff of James Ranstead (President) and Caity Barlow-Groome (Vice-President), with the blessing of the NZUSA National Executive, have decided to invest in a 20-hour staff member for a Read more...

Student Enrolment Numbers Double

Posted 11:27pm Thursday 11th July 2019 by James Joblin

The number of students enrolled to vote in the upcoming local elections is on the rise, with the number of Otago students enrolled doubling so far this year. These numbers still remain a fraction of the total student body. In recent years, the percentage of Otago students enrolled has remained at Read more...

Savoury Scroll “No Longer Worthy” Of Hilarious $4.20 Price Tag

Posted 11:25pm Thursday 11th July 2019 by Sinead Gill

An anonymous student has accused St. David’s Cafe of shrinking the size of their savoury scrolls. In an interview with Critic, they allege that the portions are “no longer worthy” of the hilarious $4.20 price tag, but that “the real betrayal is that they never even Read more...

Otago University Trades Suicide Prevention Framework For ‘Wellbeing Matrix’

Posted 11:24pm Thursday 11th July 2019 by Sinead Gill

Despite working on a Suicide Prevention Framework for over a year, the Healthy University Advisory Group (HUAG) have decided to replace it with a ‘Wellbeing Matrix’. A framework is basically a set of ideas and principles about how something should work (so, how suicide could be Read more...

University Set to Start Charging for Cup Libraries

Posted 11:22pm Thursday 11th July 2019 by Caroline Moratti

In your daily update of ceramic news, the University is set to start charging for use of cup libraries, with borrowers paying $1 to get a cup and on returning it will get $1 off their next coffee purchase. You may have seen the colourful, quirky cup libraries around campus, looking like something Read more...

Otago Uni Says Nup to 126,000 Cups

Posted 11:21pm Thursday 11th July 2019 by Nina Minogue

Otago Uni has announced that as of July 15, they will be phasing out disposable cups across all campus cafes. The first three cafes to be affected by this change will be St. Davids, Te Mātiti and Staff Club. While some students already use reusable cups at the campus cafes, the University has Read more...