President

— Lindy [unclear: Cassidy]

Last Thursday it struck me as particuarly ironic (perhaps because I was drinking at SASRAC) that New Zealand has always prided itself on its 'Free, open to all' and secular education. But if you look at whats happening through anything other than today's Dominion this idea seems a bit of a myth. Most university students realise that they are expected to live on a 'shoestring' budget but we are now reaching a stage where it is not only their 'Bursary' which is being reduced by 'inflation' but also University and departmental resources.

This year has seen dramatic examples of this: eg. in the library, the university's main resource, inflation has eroded the grant to an extent that it can no longer provide adequate seating or staffing facilities. After the recent May holidays many students were expected to hand in major assignments or face tests as soon as they got back. However, the completion of these assignments suffered adversely because of the reductions in Library hours over this period and the fact that not all students have ideal studying conditions at home. This particularly affected the part-timers and the less priviledged students.

An ironic example of our 'open entry' policy is that of the recent restrictions in the Law Faculty where according to Prof. Keith the lack of staff has resulted in the necessity for restrictions on enrollments. However, students might well question the validity of restricting enrollments as opposed to reallocating resources within the department ie. using teaching methods which can be used for larger rather than smaller numbers of students.

When students' allowances are well below a living wage, when financing of University resources is tight, when courses are being restricted and when under 10% of the lower income group make it to University, it is a bit of a joke to refer to our 'open to all' education system.