SGM: Fees Go Up We Stay With Nzusa

The Victoria University Students' Association will stay affiliated to the national association, NZUSA. A motion to withdraw the association from NZUSA was easily defeated at a Special General Meeting on Tuesday night.

Peter Winter who proposed the motion attacked NZUSA as a bureaucracy which had too many officers and spent too much money ($25,000 per annum) on wages and honoraria. He and the seconder of the motion John Allum said NZUSA did nothing to help students in their basic concerns.

A number of the elected and paid officers of NZUSA were present at the SGM and they pointed out exactly what work they had been doing. Education Research Officer Christine Scott pointed out that NZUSA's officials could only do what they were directed to do by the August and May Councils of the national association. Peter Wilson took up this point and emphasised that NZUSA policy was made by the constituent students' associations, not the officers.

Graeme Collins said the demand for withdrawal from NZUSA reflected a fair criticism of NZUSA, its officers and the local students' executives. He said there was a lack of knowledge about NZUSA's activities, but also a lack of interest on the part of students. However the onus was on NZUSA people to spread information about the association and exactly what it was doing; "But if I was to get up at every meeting and say what I did last week and what I'm doing now I'd feel a proper tit," he concluded.

Closing the debate Peter Winter said the discussion had done a lot of good in spreading information about NZUSA's work. However he was not satisfied by the replies to his criticisms. He said NZUSA officers should find out what it was like to be a student because they were out of touch with students and acting from a position of arrogance. However when the vote on the motion was finally taken few students present agreed with Winter's criticism and his motion was thrown out.

The SGM also decided to raise the Students' Association fee for 1974 by $1.50 to pay for increases in costs for maintenance in the University Union, and to increase the levy for publications by 75c per student. This latter increase will not be used for improved wages or facilities, but merely to meet past and present deficits and hopefully ensure that they do not occur again. VUWSA Publication's Board has been struggling to make ends meet on a budgetary amount set at $1 in 1965 and unchanged since despite rises in production costs and a decrease in income.