Being an elected student representative is pretty hard yakka. Especially so in a year where the National government appears hell-bent on destroying Students’ Associations with the Voluntary Student Membership bill (VSM), in collaboration with ACT. So when I encounter claims like those made by columnist the Eagle (see issue 4), I feel the need to launch into a good old-fashioned rant.
Where to begin? First, contrary to the claims made by the Eagle, VSM won’t mean you’ll have an extra $190 next year: you’ll still pay, it’ll just be to the university rather than OUSA and you’ll have zero say in how it is spent. Try telling the university you don’t like their Welfare and Recreation levy.
Then there’s the old “the AA isn’t compulsory” line. I could bring up the fact that OUSA’s membership policy isn’t compulsory (it’s actually a put-out universal system with referenda provisions), but I’ll content myself with this; if you don’t want to join OUSA, don’t study at Otago. Go to Auckland. Or Australia. I would have thought that the Eagle, as an ostensible defender of freedom would have been aghast at the government meddling with freedom of contract (surely the university has the right to offer a package deal, which just so happens to include membership of the Students’ Association?).
But it is the Eagle’s “OUSA budget numbers” where one truly enters a fact-free zone. Indeed, if there were any justice in the world, those numbers would be the focus of an “epic-fail”-themed lolcatz image. But since there is no justice in the world, I’ll have to content myself with ranting about their (in)accuracy.
OUSA’s “administration costs” aren’t $800,000 and 40% of the budget. Our administration costs (which includes the wages of the hardworking staff who keep this organisation running) total $537,000 (22% of the operational budget). Oh, and Student Support provides services for students suffering from harassment, discrimination, flatting difficulties and various other problems.
Then there are the Eagle’s claims about Te Roopu (aka “the exclusive Maori Club”). Te Roopu ain’t a club, it’s a separate body funded by the levies of Maori students. Non-Maori students contribute exactly $0 towards it. As for what OUSA gives “all other clubs combined”, our expenditure on Recreation services totals $585,905, with a further $50,000 being set aside for club grants on top of that. One wonders whether the pro-VSMers at February’s Clubs Day appreciated the irony that the only reason the Clubs Day took place was because of that evil universal membership system.
Nor does OUSA give money to socialist organisations (unless, perhaps, the Tramping Club is socialist according to the Eagle?). It does, however, pour $172,000 into Planet Media (Critic’s parent company). As a staunch believer in freedom of speech, I’ve got no problem at all with the Eagle (or anyone else) bashing OUSA expenditure in a publication propped up by OUSA expenditure; I just wish that he’d get his facts right first. It might help Mr Eagle from looking so, well, birdbrained in future.
Diatribe
