La Presidenta - 21

Posted 2:46am Monday 20th September 2010

Dear [insert MP here], University of Otago is full of intelligent, enthusiastic (not always) young people who are working incredibly hard to get a tertiary education and put back in to NZ society. In two days on our campus we asked students to tell us what they were working towards, how much Read more...

La Presidenta - 18

Posted 2:05am Monday 9th August 2010

I had a bit of writer’s block this week so opened up the floor for suggestions. I got a few and couldn’t decide so here’s a bit of all of them: Exec Restructure – don’t worry. It’s all going to be Okay. OUSA <3s minorities and wants to represent them all. We’ll Read more...

La Presidenta - 17

Posted 1:21am Monday 26th July 2010

Tena koutou katoa, Nei ra te timatanga o te wiki whakahirahira to t_tou reo rangatira, Te Reo Maori. Anei nga wero Kia ora koutou,   Ko Ariana Te Wake toku ingoa, ko au te mangai mo nga Tauira Maori o nga Akonga o Te Whare Wananga o Otago.   Greetings to you all, Read more...

La Presidenta - 16

Posted 3:21am Tuesday 20th July 2010

So here it is: the week that will show whether or not OUSA is an organisation beyond repair or too resilient to change, and the week that will define my success in this role. This week we are asking students to vote in two referenda: one to reduce the size of the Executive and one to reform the Read more...

La Presidenta - 15

Posted 12:10am Monday 12th July 2010

This week's column comes to you from the middle of the holidays (not because I have a time machine, but because that's when my deadline is) and while you have all been away there's been heaps going on at OUSA. Planning and preparation have been in full swing for ReO-Week. Art has been working Read more...

La Presidenta - 14

Posted 10:26pm Sunday 11th July 2010

Alcohol – that’s pretty topical.   There’s been a lot in the media about the Government potentially raising the drinking age and shaking up licensing laws. The University has banned alcohol sponsorship in an effort to reduce binge drinking focused event,s and Gardies is all but Read more...

La Presidenta - 13

Posted 8:31pm Sunday 11th July 2010

The first half of the year certainly has been a huge learning curve for me. As well as the big political things that have been going on, behind the scenes I have been rewriting OUSA’s strategic plan and working on some big internal changes.   Unfortunately it is only a one-year plan, Read more...

La Presidenta - 12

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 11th July 2010

The week before last, OUSA ran its first Student General Meeting. SGMs are a constitutional requirement that are currently necessary to allow OUSA to continue operating. However, if you were re-creating OUSA from scratch, you would have to be a complete muppet to come up with a process this stupid Read more...

La Presidenta - 10

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 11th July 2010

The first Student General Meeting (SGM) of 2010 is going to be held this Thursday at 1pm on the OUSA Lawn. SGMs are a pretty archaic process, though. The views of 20 000+ students are meant to be adequately expressed by a village-style vote by whoever doesn’t have class and is available Read more...

La Presidenta - 09

Posted 1:33pm Sunday 11th July 2010

As this column goes to print, changes to the Design department are being voted on at the University Senate. You may have seen posters around the place, and read about it in Critic. I’m pretty pre-occupied with that at the moment, and hopefully the meeting goes well (this column is due in Read more...