BDS is Back: Students Overwhelmingly Endorse Posture at SGM

Posted 10:18pm Sunday 24th August 2025 by Nina Brown

It was standing room only in the Main Common Room (MCR) last Thursday as a large group of students met to vote on a motion on whether OUSA should re-adopt their Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) posture. The student general meeting (SGM) was called by Political Representative Jett Groshinski and Read more...

Editorial: It’s All Political

Posted 9:09pm Sunday 10th August 2025 by Nina Brown

“It’s all political.” That’s what Chlöe Swarbrick told me when I said to her that we’d focus on the ‘Politics’ section of the Critic census in our interview. Two weeks later, the words were ringing in my ears as I edited the fashion issue. Fashion is Read more...

BDS Binned: OUSA Executive Fronts Up to Widespread Criticism

Posted 9:29pm Sunday 10th August 2025 by Gryffin Blockley, Hanna Varrs & Nina Brown

News of the OUSA Exec abandoning their Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) posture has triggered an outpouring of criticism from the student community and beyond. The decision went against the 53% of 1,766 students (8.83% of 20,000 students) who voted “yes” to maintaining the policy Read more...

Op-Ed: Otago Community holding Congress to adopt the Otago Declaration on Palestine

Posted 3:38pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Staff for Palestine

On Thursday 15th May at 12pm staff, students and alumni from the University of Otago community are coming together to adopt a Declaration that supports Palestinian rights and adopts BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction). All staff, students and alumni are invited to join us as we come together to stand Read more...

OSJP Rally For Palestine (Again)

Posted 10:30pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Hanna Varrs

Otago Students for Justice in Palestine (OSJP) held another rally for Palestine on Otago University campus on April 16th*. Speeches were given by Neave, an organiser for OSJP, and Brandon Johnstone, a member of Staff for Palestine. The group proceeded to march around the Uni, chanting for their Read more...

OUSA Exec: BDS Explained

Posted 11:36pm Sunday 9th March 2025 by Jett Groshinski

BDS is a global movement launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society, inspired by South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement. It is a non-violent campaign applying economic and political pressure to encourage compliance with international human rights law through: Boycott – Avoiding Read more...