News

By the time you read this OUSA will have announced the fate of the eight motions in its referendum, as well as the results from the International Officer by-election.

Due to insensitive scheduling on the part of OUSA, the results were not yet available when Critic went to print on Thursday night. They will have been released on Critic’s Facebook page on Friday. Critic has now had its mind boggled by the feat of writing a future article in the past tense.

As of Thursday 1126 students had voted in the referendum and 88 had voted in the by-election.

The referendum included eight motions, four of which were external with the other half internal. External motions are those submitted by students, and required the majority support of at least 5% of the student population to pass. These included the motions that OUSA should “actively support prioritising the transition to a carbon neutral University” and provide “a constructive alternative to the proposed liquor ban in North Dunedin”.

Students concerned about OUSA’s close relationship with the University have put forward the motion that OUSA should adopt a policy to “affirm its status as an independent voice for students from the University and direct the Executive to behave as such for the duration of any service level agreement with the University.”

The VSM dead horse has been given another flogging thanks to the motion that OUSA should “affirm its continued support for universal student membership, and call for the immediate repeal of the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Act 2011”.

The remaining four internal motions were put forward by OUSA and required only a 1% quorum. These covered routine matters, including the aceptance of OUSA’s annual report and financial statements, and the appointment of Pricewaterhouse Coopers as OUSA’s auditors and Anderson Lloyd as its honorary solicitors.
In the by-election Yee Min Chua ran unopposed, meaning the only question is whether the No Confidence camp could thwart her bid for the position of International Officer.

As a side note, Critic wishes to remind readers that “referendums” is a valid word, and provides a clearer and less pretentious alternative to the Latin-sounding “referenda”. Also, “octopi” is a truly amazing word. That is all.