“Holy Crap” – Marketing Professor Wins Top Honours at OUSA Teaching Awards

Posted 10:26am Sunday 17th September 2017 by Joel MacManus

“My first thought was holy crap,” says John Guthrie, upon finding out he had won Premier Lecturer at the OUSA Teaching Awards. Guthrie is a senior lecturer who has been with the Department of Marketing for 29 years. He specialises in Retailing, Personal Selling and Sales Management, Read more...

Keeping tabs on the Exec | Issue 21

Posted 10:18am Sunday 3rd September 2017 by Joe Higham

The 2017 executive have deteriorated into depths not seen since, well, last year, during the most recent two meetings, passing motions that to anyone who actually cares are outrageous, especially in light of the budget cuts the association is facing. University student Francis Bradley came along Read more...

Editorial | Otago Students Need a Mouthpiece to Speak on Their Behalf More than Ever

Posted 10:10am Sunday 20th August 2017 by Joe Higham

Critic has recently received several ‘Letters to the Editor’ criticising the OUSA Executive, particularly President Hugh Baird, for not taking a stance on some of the year’s most pressing issues. The ten members of the Exec have been inundated with a disproportionately large amount Read more...

OUSA Disaffiliate Religious “Cult” After “Bringing OUSA Into Disrepute”

Posted 10:21am Sunday 20th August 2017 by Joe Higham

OUSA have formally disaffiliated a controversial religious group, labelled by many as a cult, after “bringing OUSA into disrepute, ignoring OUSA directives and breaching the [association’s] constitution”. Elohim Bible Academy are a subgroup of the World Mission Society Church of Read more...

Queer and Far New Support for International Queer Students

Posted 10:44am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Zahra Shahtahmasebi

OUSA Student Support have initiated a new support service targeted at international University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic queer students. Named Queer and Far, it will provide a support and talking group. The project was conceived by the current OUSA Queer Support Co-ordinator Hahna Briggs, in Read more...

Flatting in Hell: Abuse in Student Homes

Posted 11:58am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Kirio Birks

“[My flatmates] threw away my dead sister’s necklace.” For Ava* that was normal; her normal. The same was true of her flatmate Beth*. They shared a world in which their house was not a home, not a sanctuary from the outside world, not even a place to eat, shower, or sleep. Both Ava Read more...

Nominate Your Favourite Teachers for OUSA’s Annual Teaching Awards

Posted 10:46am Sunday 30th July 2017 by Joe Higham

Nominations for OUSA’s 2017 Teaching Awards close on 18 August, meaning there is still plenty of time to put forward any lecturers, tutors, or lab demonstrators that you think deserve the much sought after recognition. As students provide the university with their largest revenue stream by Read more...

Building Code Causes OUSA To Scale Back Gender Neutral Toilets

Posted 10:32am Sunday 30th July 2017 by Zahra Shahtahmasebi

Earlier this year, OUSA chose to make the toilets in the Clubs and Societies building on both the ground and first floors gender neutral. In 2013 the Clubs and Socs Centre underwent extensive renovations, which included the ground floor toilets. However, in 2016, OUSA staff noticed that there Read more...

OPINION - Please OUSA, Can We Have Some More?

Posted 11:00am Sunday 23rd July 2017 by Joe Higham

The Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) website states that “online referenda are one of the many ways you can have your say through OUSA … on university policy or a wider issue, you can change OUSA’s stance.” This explanation, on top of the fact that Read more...

Opinion Piece: On The Upcoming OUSA Referendum

Posted 11:13am Sunday 28th May 2017 by Sam McChesney

A few years back, when the government was pushing through Voluntary Student Membership (VSM), students’ associations across the country were being slammed as leftwing fringe groups. Students’ associations, it was claimed, had no business making political statements on behalf of students Read more...