Archive

Unprecedented Demand for Beer Festival Tickets

Posted 8:14pm Thursday 9th August 2018 by Joel MacManus

The Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival sold out of tickets in a record three minutes after going on sale last Friday. The OUSA-owned festival, which is scheduled for November 10, made 6000 tickets available. 2000 were made available to email subscribers on Wednesday August 1, which sold out in Read more...

Why We Need Landlord Licensing

Posted 8:10pm Thursday 9th August 2018 by Joel MacManus

EDITORIAL: In issue three of Critic this year we labelled Mike Harbott as “Dunedin’s Dodgiest Landlord” after he rented unliveable flats, ignored Tenancy Tribunal orders to make repairs, and failed to pay thousands of dollars of compensation.  Adding to that, he threatened Read more...

By Refusing to Ban Tickets, OUSA Exec Turned Their Back on Students to Serve Themselves

Posted 8:00pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Joel MacManus

OPINION: What’s the word for when politicians rig the system against the will of the people to keep themselves in power? Because maybe someone should teach it to the baby politicians on the OUSA Executive. In this year’s OUSA referendum, students voted to ban people from running on Read more...

The Otago Uni Student Swimming the Foveaux Strait

Posted 7:48pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Esme Hall

Hannah Morgan is a swimmer. Not a ‘yes I swim laps at Moana Pool every now and then’ kind of swimmer. She’s an open ocean swimmer and, in February next year, she’s going to swim the Foveaux Strait. You know, that shark-infested stretch of sub-Antarctic water separating the Read more...

OUSA Fighting for Increase to RA Pay

Posted 7:44pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

OUSA is currently lobbying the University to increase pay for RAs after 85% of students in the recent OUSA referendum said that they wanted RA’s pay to entirely cover their accommodation costs. Currently, after their pay is deducted, an RA at a University-owned college still has to pay Read more...

Microwave Reinstated in Women’s Room After Two-Year Struggle

Posted 7:43pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Esme Hall

In the most important news Critic breaks this week: a microwave has been reinstated in the Women’s Room on a trial basis after a two-year struggle, although the University said the microwave will be removed again if people revert to the dangerous behaviour of leaving their cooking Read more...

International Students Feel Like The University’s ATM

Posted 7:40pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Umi Asaka

OPINION:  International students pay far more for their fees than domestic students, and, because there is no cap on how much the university can increase international fees, that amount only keeps going up every year for most of the departments.  On average, international Read more...

Can We Stop with the Double Standards on Gendered Spaces?

Posted 7:21pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Esme Hall

OPINION: Recently, the Women’s+ Club was affiliated by OUSA, despite specifically excluding membership for cis-gender males. Last semester, Men in Med, a social and emotional support group for male medical students, was shut down for being ‘too exclusive’. By the same logic, one Read more...

Power Use Overloads Infrastructure During Free Hour of Power

Posted 7:18pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

Students have been left “frustrated” after repeated power cuts in the student quarter due to system overloads during Electric Kiwi’s Hour of Power.  For the first few weeks of semester two, power use has been so high during the Hour of Power that Dundas Street, as well as Read more...

Diversity Week Was Cool

Posted 7:14pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Sinead Gill

Diversity Week is an annual campaign by OUSA Queer Support and student volunteers to increase visibility and awareness of sexuality and gender diversity, and provides a platform for experts and students to educate each other on issues that the LGBTQIA+ community faces.  The week started with Read more...

ART: The Big Friendly Giant

Posted 7:05pm Thursday 2nd August 2018 by Jessica Thompson Carr

GUEST EDITORIAL:  Art is daunting. Art is broad. Art is the big friendly giant who wakes you up in the middle of the night to give you a good fright, but turns out to be your best friend who takes you on adventures.  I am not going to go on with more ideas on what art is because Read more...

New Plan for Suicide Prevention at Otago University

Posted 3:41pm Friday 27th July 2018 by Esme Hall

TRIGGER WARNING: contains discussion of suicide     The University is currently operating with no specific suicide prevention or postvention policy, though a new plan hopes to bring together existing efforts in an over-arching system.  While some students that Critic Read more...

Women’s+ Club Causes Controversy Over Cis Male Exclusion

Posted 6:39pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

The Women’s+ Club has been affiliated to OUSA despite controversy about its policy of excluding cis men from membership.  Members of the OUSA executive raised concerns with the group in an exec meeting, as it would be the only group affiliated with OUSA that excludes membership to a Read more...

Man Flown the Coop! Critic Cracks the Case and Gets Another Feather in Its Cap

Posted 6:37pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Charlie O’Mannin

The system has failed us. The masked person who ran naked into a first year health sci lecture and released a live rooster before running out again is still at large. A university spokesperson told Critic when we asked if the Proctor’s office had caught him yet, “No. Unable to identify Read more...

NZUSA Begging for Cash

Posted 6:35pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Esme Hall

In the latest instalment of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Association's dire financial situation, the association has started asking alumni for donations.  NZUSA President Jonathan Gee said in an email requesting money that the organisation is at a “financial and Read more...

Sold Down the River

Posted 6:34pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Chelle Fitzgerald

As the clock tolled 1pm, the winds were quiescent across the soon-to-be tainted Leith river. Several hundred* protesters craned their necks as Charlie O’Mannin, a self-professed “Beleither” and part-time activist, took his place on the centre of the creeping iron bridge. Wearing Read more...

Lack of Health Cover for International Students "Unfair"

Posted 6:33pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Sinead Gill

International students are not covered for the same health issues as domestic students are, despite paying high rates for insurance, with many labelling the system as unfair.  The insurance plan that Otago automatically enrols international students into  - Studentsafe University - Read more...

Advocates Push for Flatmate Violence to be Recognised as Domestic Violence

Posted 6:31pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Joel MacManus

Flatmate violence is being treated as less serious than family or domestic violence by the police and the courts, despite there being no legal difference, according to lawyers at Community Law Otago. According to Caryl O’Connor, Managing Solicitor of Community Law Otago, the courts are Read more...

10Bar to Rebrand, Add Door Charge

Posted 6:30pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Sophia Carter Peters

Popular nightclub 10Bar will be rebranding in 2019 to “change the club scene for the better”.  Owner and manager of Vault21, Andre Shi, said he’s looking to revamp the student hub in the Octagon and hopefully contribute to a more positive student image.  He’s Read more...

It’s Not Clifford the Regular-Sized Red Dog

Posted 6:28pm Thursday 26th July 2018 by Joel MacManus

EDITORIAL: Clifford the Big Red Dog is my absolute number one favourite after-school children’s cartoon TV show of the early 2000s. I would even make the bold call of arguing that it was better than the books.  For one, Clifford could talk in the TV series, meaning he actually had a Read more...