Columns

It’s graduation time at University. Everyone who finished up at the end of last year leaves their high-paying jobs up north and rolls into town for the weekend for one last blowout in Dunedin. Then it’s back to work on Monday.
Most of them only left after exams last November, but it is interesting to note how things have changed since then.

 
Firstly, the University bought Gardies for the sole purpose of shutting it down. Cue outrage from older students and indifference from freshers who now party in the Octagon, apparently.
Then Design Studies got the chop (p10).
And now we can report that three other areas of the University are under review. The Government has cut funding to universities, and this is how Otago is responding. Vice Chancellor Sir Professor David Skegg lays out the University’s perspective and tells us that the College of Education, the Department of Social Work and Community Development, and the Departments of Accountancy & Business Law and Finance & Quantitative Analysis are all being looked at. “In some of these areas, the possibility of merging parts of existing departments is under consideration,” Sir Professor Skegg says. But “no final decisions have been made …”
In our weekly look at the Otago Daily Times (p38) we call out the rag for claiming morale at the University is plummeting, which they based on some guy saying … not exactly that. This also seems to have hit a nerve with Sir Professor Skegg, who “rejects” the suggestion. “Many of our staff would be very worried if the University were not taking appropriate steps to prepare for the changed financial environment,” he tells Critic this week.
But what about students? The University has shut down a beloved pub, is closing down departments, and this week locked out many students from Blackboard (pX). Meanwhile, the Government is slapping a $50 fee on every year you don't pay your loan off (pX) while also trying to hurry you up and out into the real world (p22); plus, the Cook has had its license suspended for 24 hours (p15). Holy shit!
I’m not going to go all ODT on you, but student morale could quite possibly be taking a hit as well. I know a lot of students back in town for graduation are asking, “What the fuck is going on?”
Maybe the Capping Show will cheer us all up.
If you are pissed off about stuff, one forum where you can make a fuss is the OUSA Student General Meeting being held this Thursday at 1pm on the Union Lawn (pX). Even if your morale is high, it is worth heading along. President Harriet Geoghegan has plans of pretty much scrapping all (read: all) motions from the past and starting again from scratch. She has a point: many of the policies that OUSA officially endorses are baloney. For example, OUSA has a policy on the books from 1999, “that OUSA spend $250 000 on its famed penis-shaped skytower, design to be commissioned by Stephen La Roche and built by IBM.” 
Funny. But stupid.
However, Geoghegan is kidding herself if she thinks she is going to get away with rescinding everything. It will be a very interesting meeting.