The Uni have used some creative statistics to boost the appearance of student support for CCTV cameras which are about to be installed around North Dunedin.
A brochure set to be delivered to student mailboxes says that “65% of students who provided feedback to the University said that they don’t oppose the use of cameras if they were for safety and crime prevention reasons.” Critic calls bullshit on those numbers.
At the 2017 OUSA Referendum, which 3702 students responded to, 51.22% opposed the CCTV proposal. Rather than use the much larger statistical sample gathered by the OUSA referendum, the Uni used figures from a University-run student consultation process, which had a grand total of 98 responses. They then got even fuckier with the numbers.
Of the 98 submissions, 58% were in favour of, 7% had no opinion and 35% were against CCTV installation. The Uni’s claim was ‘65% of students did not oppose the cameras’, but let’s just leave that poor 7% of people with no opinion out of it and say 58% of surveyed students were in favour of CCTV. Done.
OUSA President Caitlin Barlow-Groome thinks the University did “an average job for the largest consultation [they] have ever done.” There was “an incredibly short time frame … there needed to be a forum which facilitated discussion rather than having the feeling the University had already made its mind up.”
Barlow-Groome says student feedback did result in a decrease in the number of cameras from 37 cameras in 29 locations to 26 cameras in 18 locations. Privacy measures also increased, including introducing software which blacks out private areas like windows and doors.
Otago Campus Greens co-convenor William Dreyer is concerned the “University could treat CCTV as a fix-all solution … Physical and sexual assault happens far too often” in North Dunedin and CCTV should only be “one aspect of a push to change this”. The University brochure also says CCTV camera footage cannot be used “for addressing non-criminal behaviour under Code of Student Conduct”.
Thus far, the Uni has not provided dates for installation other than “late March to early April,” which Critic would like to point out is pretty much now.
Barlow-Groome says it is “incredibly frustrating” that there are no confirmed dates. “I have emphasised the need to make the dates public as soon as possible and am relentlessly on their case about it.”