Archive

Critic Decides The Worst Campaign Posters

Posted 3:17pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Critic

Findlay OK dude, we know you’re rocking the pedo ‘stache for some inexplicable reason. It’s already not a great look considering you’re going for Colleges Officer where you have to hang out with a bunch of young, supple freshers.  But why on God’s green Read more...

James and the Giant Pile of Broken Promises

Posted 3:15pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Sam McChesney

OPINION: In 2012, Francisco Hernandez was elected OUSA President with a manifesto (or “Franifesto”) containing over 100 policies. He spent the following year meticulously checking his progress against these pledges, eventually delivering around two-thirds of what he’d promised and Read more...

Presidential Debate Draws Biggest Crowd In Years

Posted 3:12pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Nat Moore

UBar was humming, as a crowd murmured in surprised disbelief that people had actually showed up for an OUSA presidential debate. “What is going on?” they whispered. “Does everyone think it’s pint night? Did they get the day wrong?  Yes, weirdly, people actually showed Read more...

We Need to Open Our Minds to Drug Reform

Posted 3:08pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Josh Smythe

OPINION: The drugs we use as a society shape us, individually, and collectively.  Alcohol is a depressant, a neurotoxin, a carcinogen, and a teratogen (damages foetuses). At high levels (which kiwis most often consume) it can be a significant factor for increased risk of injury, Read more...

OPINION: OUSA Needs Some Fucking Balls

Posted 3:05pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Joel MacManus

OUSA desperately needs a President and an executive that are willing to actually start a fight with the University. We need to demand change, not suck up and beg for it. In the last couple of decades, OUSA made a big effort to professionalise and pretend that they’re big important grownups, Read more...

Critic Saves Lost Dog

Posted 3:04pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Joel MacManus

She’s graced the cover of New Zealand’s best dog-related student magazine, and now her fame has got her out of trouble with the law.  Maya, the beautiful border collie – husky cross that graced the cover of GOODBOY magazine (better known as the Critic Dogs Issue), Read more...

OUSA Introduces Alternative Vote for Elections

Posted 3:03pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

This year OUSA is changing its voting system from First Past the Post to Alternate Vote (AV). Under AV voters rank the candidates they want instead of voting only for a single candidate.  The winning candidate has to reach over 50% of the vote to be declared the winner. If that doesn’t Read more...

Editorial: This Is Who You Should Vote for in the OUSA Elections

Posted 2:02pm Friday 14th September 2018 by Joel MacManus

Editorial: Firstly, welcome to the Drugs Issue, our biggest issue of the year. The print run this week is 6,000 copies, that’s up from just over 3,000 at the start of the year, so a massive thank you to all you wonderful people for being bored enough to pick up a Critic.  It’s Read more...

Tickets Are Dead and Critic Is Claiming Full Credit

Posted 4:06pm Thursday 13th September 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

OPINION: Not a single ticket is running for this year’s OUSA election. Critic has won its long war on OUSA election tickets and are in the process of killing all our horses, saying goodbye to the trenches and boarding the steamer for home.  In the past three years, a total of 30 OUSA Read more...

Josh Smythe Allowed to Run for Re-Election After Absurdly Tense Meeting

Posted 7:40am Monday 10th September 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

Josh Smythe, OUSA Re-Creation Officer, almost lost the ability to run for re-election in an EXTREMELY STRESSFUL emergency general meeting of the Exec after he got his application form in two hours after the deadline. Josh thought that the cutoff for applications was 4pm Read more...

Analysis: Laura Cairns and James Heath Are the Best OUSA Presidential Candidates in Years

Posted 11:26pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Joel MacManus

This is weird. No one saw this coming. Out of nowhere, the annual OUSA CV-padding elections have actually produced a really, really fucking good presidential race. And best of all, there’re no fucking tickets, so we can actually have a contest of ideas instead of just a bunch of cliques in Read more...

Campus Watch vs. Alt Right Feud Enters Second Week

Posted 11:21pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Joel MacManus

University Proctor Dave Scott is investigating allegations of Campus Watch harassment, after a student posted a video of his interaction with officers online.  Malcolm Moncreif-Spittle, an alt-right activist, had been putting up posters promoting a far-right Youtuber. The previous week, as Read more...

Te Roopū Māori Proposing to Leave OUSA

Posted 11:07pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

Te Roopū Māori (TRM), the Otago University Maori Students’ Association, is looking to leave OUSA and get funding from the University independently. The decision follows OUSA receiving criticism last year for cutting Te Roopū’s funding as part of across the board Read more...

I Got Blazed and Went to the Anti-Fluoride Lecture: a Review

Posted 10:29pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Alex MacKygee

Last Tuesday, Saint David Lecture Theatre played host to a talk titled ‘Fluoride Is a Neurotoxin that Reduces Children’s IQ’. Personally, my IQ and dental health were both (probably) fine growing up in a fluoridated area, and I never noticed a drop in either until I started Read more...

When is a Studio Room not a Studio Room?

Posted 10:28pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Esme Hall

It’s that time of year when it looks like most of the good flats have already been signed and those people in your hall you agreed to flat with in O-Week might not actually be your best friends for life. You might be considering throwing in the towel and moving to St Kilda, or just into a Read more...

Local Good Cunts Save Students From a Shit Flat

Posted 10:26pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Sinead Gill

We’ve all approached a grotty flat for a viewing and, in a wave of flat-seeking desperation, thought, it might not be that shit. To save students from themselves, the four tenants of an old corner-store flat came up with the ultimate idea: leaving notes. Not just subtle post-it notes Read more...

Students for Environmental Action Given $5,000

Posted 10:17pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Thea Bailie-Bellew

The Students for Environmental Action (SEA) club has been bequeathed $5,000 from the Estate of Kenneth David Mason, a gift that aimed to ensure a continued interest in nature and ecological preservation among university students. An avid lover of the outdoors, Kenneth Mason was an honorary member Read more...

Law Students Slam Law Camp Review

Posted 10:02pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Esme Hall

The Society of Otago University Law Students (SOULS) have got more than 200 people to submit their experiences of Law Camps in protest after a draft review of Law Camps was released that only drew on interviews with five former attendees. A review of Law Camp was commissioned from Dunedin Read more...

Who Is Watching Campus Watch?

Posted 9:58pm Thursday 6th September 2018 by Joel MacManus

EDITORIAL: A couple of years ago, I lived on Hyde Street. There was a flat on the street that was apparently connected to the Mongrel Mob. There were a bunch of high school cunts that would always show up on Saturdays looking for a fight. There were drunk randoms constantly trying to crash Read more...

The Otago Uni Students Running an Art Exhibition for 125 Years of Women’s Suffrage

Posted 11:32pm Thursday 30th August 2018 by Esme Hall

Two Otago Art History students have organised an ambitious two-week art show accompanied by a publication and events to commemorate 125 years of women’s suffrage. The show centres on intersectional feminism, which event organisers, sisters Kari and Lydie Schmidt see as a “natural Read more...