The burning question of the moment is how, and in what form, OUSA and the Otago Polytechnic Students' Association (OPSA) will be able to survive once VSM is in place.
Research shows that voluntary students’ associations will likely struggle to gain members. A recent report commissioned by PriceWaterhouseCoopers suggests membership would drop significantly if VSM happens, citing evidence from Australian universities, where, post-VSM, revenue reduced by more than 95 percent on average.
OUSA President Harriet Geoghegan is worried about the Association's future. The fact that members are required to sign up individually and pay an upfront fee, currently $179.59, will create problems for essential membership numbers. “Not all students are able to pay for an upfront levy amongst all of the other costs at the beginning of the year. Furthermore, as we do not have direct access to all students (email addresses, for example) it is really hard for OUSA to get any information to students [about VSM], let alone sign them all up at the start of each year.”
Anecdotal evidence from students around the University suggests Geoghegan’s fears are well founded. Pippa Sherratt, a fifth-year student, says that while she appreciates the work OUSA does, if she was to return next year she would not likely sign up. “There are just too many other costs at the start of the year. Becoming an OUSA member would be pretty low down on my list of important things to do.” Geoghegan says that OUSA has to be realistic, and realise that under VSM the number of students who would be willing and able to pay for membership would likely be only a fraction of current membership.
Geoghegan believes that once income declines, OUSA’s ability to continue to provide services will seriously erode. Furthermore, OUSA's priority is to retain legitimacy as a representative body for students, which means they have to get high membership numbers in order to be able to advocate students' views.
“It is really disappointing that the Government is looking to ignore the 98 percent of submissions that were against this bill to uphold an ideology that has so many clear and obvious impracticalities, plus has not been asked for by students.”
Between them, OUSA and OPSA collected more than $3.7 million this year from almost 30 000 student members. Membership fees are used to fund services such as tenancy advice, budget advice, hardship grants, common rooms, lockers, campaigns, events, contributions to the Unipol gymnasium, and contributions to Student Job Search. OUSA also owns Planet Media and the University Bookshop.
OUSA is currently considering a number of survival options for 2012 when VSM is likely to come into force. OUSA is already moving to minimise potential damage, with President Harriet Geoghegan and General Manager Stephen Alexander meeting Vice Chancellor Sir Professor David Skegg Thursday last week to discuss saving vital student services.
Geoghegan tells Critic that Skegg expressed his disappointment that VSM was now almost certain to come into effect, and added that the meeting had been very positive, with Skegg clearly indicating that the University would work with OUSA to retain student services.
Geoghegan says that the initial “preliminary” meeting was to assess the overall situation, and that specific details would be ironed out in negotiations in the coming weeks. The first priority was to work out how the University and OUSA could work together to retain service levels, and what arrangements would need to be put in place to ensure OUSA’s continued legitimacy as the voice of Otago students.
Geoghegan says the Vice Chancellor said the University was “definitely not interested” in subsidising Critic. That’s just mean.
Panic stations or business as usual?
