Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 2. 1964.

exec. shall have the power..

exec. shall have the power...

The Student Association at Victoria is a curious mixture of New Zealand cowshed politics and the authoritarian system of the Soviet Union.

Most of the power exercised within the Students' Association is concentrated in the hands of a small elective body, the Executive. "All power to the Executive" seems to have been the motto of the persons who wrote the constitution, possibly past members of the committee.

They have given it the power to do almost anything it pleases in the students' name. Section 16.1 iii says—

"The Executive shall have the power to and may do all things deemed by it to be necessary or expedient for the fulfilment of the objects of the Association".

This places a great deal of power in the hands of the executive, as does the clause giving it the right "for any reason deemed by it to be sufficient, impose on any member a fine not exceeding five guineas."

Usually this power is not abused, possibly because a student committee anywhere has a tendency to turn into Parkinson's dream. Thus, despite its wide powers, the executive has a tendency to do nothing on controversial social and political subjects, even though they have a solid body of student opinion to back them up.

Like the Cabinet, the executive has its hierarchy of committees, all appointed by the central body. They are in theory only advisory bodies, but their much more detailed consideration of complex issues gives their recommendations a great deal of weight. Their power is thus difficult to see, but very real.

The thirty-page constitution which lays down the organisation of these committees is so complicated that it is difficult for a student to know what it means, and almost impossible to tell what it was meant to say.

But it recognises its own complexity, and states that should a dispute of interpretation arise which cannot be settled by the executive, a barrister of not less than seven years standing should be consulted. His considered or unconsidered opinion will no doubt cost the association a small sum of money, which only goes to show that a lawyer must have helped draft the document.

The only check over powers that executive uses constitutionally is the Special General Meeting of the association which can be called by any 50 members of the association to discuss any matter raised by them. In 1962 such an S.G.M. resulted in the dismissal of the executive which had not campaigned against the increase in fees in the way students would have liked.