News

Orientation ’13 has been hailed as one of the best yet, with this year’s batch of fizzed-up freshers much better behaved than the previous year. The week was jam-packed with successful events, including the never-tiresome Toga Party, perennial favourite Guy Cater, headlining act Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and enough code to overwhelm even the biggest meathead in UniCol.

OUSA president Francisco Hernandez remarked that the entire week “couldn’t have gone better,” complimenting the excellent organisation and hard work of the OUSA events team. He also attributed the success to the fact that “people listened” to the message to act responsibly at O-Week events.
A major highlight of the week was Thursday night’s headliners Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who charmed a crowd of 5500 thrift shoppers at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Hernandez insisted that Otago’s O-Week was “the best in the country” and gave a triumphant snigger to his UCSA counterparts who tried to claim they had secured Macklemore first. Dream on UCSA.

Campus Cop Max Holt also hailed the week as a success, remarking that the students were “well behaved and had great attitudes at parties around the North End.” The female student population proved their moral worth with not one of their number arrested. Critic speculates that copious eyelash-batting and revealing togas may have been contributing factors. Of the nine male Otago students arrested from Monday 18 to Monday 25 February, only two of them were formally charged, the other seven receiving pre-charge warnings. OUSA also reported no arrests made at any OUSA gigs, presumably because the police prefer NWA to Macklemore and stayed at home.

University of Otago Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne got amongst the spirit of the week by spending time with students at sports day, on the marae, as well as attending events at the stadium. “In my view, Orientation was a huge success. Overall the standard of behaviour was high and there were very few serious problems involving Otago students.”

While nearly 60 noise complaints were received during 2012’s OUSA-run events, this year’s O-Week saw a record low of six complaints, presumably because everybody in the vicinity of the stadium had gone deaf after last year’s Shihad gig.