OPINION: Half of the OUSA Exec Positions Are a Complete Waste of Time

Posted 11:24pm Thursday 4th October 2018

OUSA just went an entire year without the Campaigns Officer running a campaign, despite it being in their job title. The closest thing to a ‘campaign’ was making a weekly exec roundup video on Facebook that fuck all people watched.  We don’t want to entirely dismiss the Read more...

Critic Breaks Down the Second OUSA Referendum

Posted 11:20pm Thursday 4th October 2018

As winter passes to spring and Mole crawls out of his hole in the ground (casual Wind in the Willows reference for all my peeps out there) the student population gradually come out of hibernation and their minds turn irresistibly to a single end. That’s right, the OUSA Referendum is upon us Read more...

Re-Creation Officer Josh Smythe’s Pay Re-duced by 20%

Posted 8:28pm Thursday 4th October 2018

Josh Smythe, OUSA Re-Creation Officer, has been in the centre of a debate around whether honorarium payments should be linked to an Exec Officer’s performance after his pay was cut by 20% at a recent OUSA Exec meeting for not fulfilling his role to the satisfaction of the Read more...

The Week the ODT Tried to Make Old People Feel Better About Dying

Posted 8:27pm Thursday 4th October 2018

Welcome to the last ODT Watch of the year. To start this week, apparently a local fish and chip shop has been amassing weapons of mass destruction.       Tsk. You can never tell with some culinary establishments. One day they’re saying they love you and the next Read more...

The Best Unpublished OUSA Exec Quotes

Posted 6:54pm Thursday 4th October 2018

Critic has to sit through all the OUSA Exec meetings, which are mostly either horrendously boring or absurdly tense. However, in between there are some ok moments.  So Critic presents: the best quotes from Exec meetings that never made it into Read more...

All The Time We Scooped the ODT This Year

Posted 6:51pm Thursday 4th October 2018

Critic: 26 February – Re:Fuel Rebrands as Ubar ODT: 28 March - Business as usual for University Bar    Critic: 5 March – University Cracks Down on Initiations ODT: 7 March – Students Excluded Over Urine and Booze-soaked Initiation   Critic: 5 March Read more...

OUSA Demands Proctor and Campus Watch Be Stripped of All Disciplinary Powers For Off-Campus Actions

Posted 1:29am Friday 28th September 2018

After political infighting and threats of no confidence, OUSA came together last week and dramatically voted to both support the Proctor Protest and to demand that all off-campus disciplinary powers of the Proctor and of Campus Watch be removed.  Critic went to print on Thursday, so we Read more...

Checking in on the Exec: Third Quarter Exec Reports

Posted 12:21am Friday 28th September 2018

Dear OUSA Exec, Critic are paid to read your reports and even we struggled. We tried to find the good bits but it took ages. If you’re so big on ‘engagement’ and ‘consultation’ you need to communicate in a more accessible way. Please and thank you. Love, Critic. All Read more...

The Week We Were Too Busy to Read the ODT

Posted 12:10am Friday 28th September 2018

This week ODT is a little bit different. In celebration of our ODT issue, and because we were too busy gossiping about OUSA to actually read the newspaper, ODT Watch presents our favourite excerpts from the last two years.   To start there was that time that the ODT forgot what the word Read more...

The History of the Critic/ODT Journalism Turf War

Posted 11:43pm Thursday 27th September 2018

New Zealand is a small country. We’d fit in the pocket of a real country and be indistinguishable from lint. Our small population moulds our news outlets into unusual beasts. One of the most unusual is the Otago Daily Times, the hyper-local community newspaper that in the midst of the digital Read more...