Salient. Victoria University Students' Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 23. September 20, 1976
Executive Meeting
Executive Meeting
Last Monday's Students' Association executive meeting spent several hours debating the merits of donations and club affiliations.
The donations were for the Black Power Defence Fund (passed at the last SRC meeting), and the Gregory Minor tour (nuclear expert), with a grant needed for sending two association representatives to a national meeting of overseas students in Christchurch.
On the Black Power Defence Fund donation the executive decided to hold off making the decision until after the specially requisitioned SRC, which was held last Wednesday.
The donation to defer expenses entailed during the Gregory Minor tour was made to the Auckland University Students' Association following their provision of a set of accounts for costs incurred in bringing him out from the United States. A.U.S.A. had requested $250, but as $100 had already been collected from his public meeting in Wellington, the executive donated $150 (Massey have donated $100, Canterbury $200, Lincoln $60, and Otago $250).
The money needed to send the two association delegates to the Overseas Students meeting was about $50. It was decided to send the matter to SRC to be discussed and for two representatives to be elected. Man Vice-president Steve Underwood suggested that the overseas student clubs had plenty of money and should pay it themselves, but president Gyles Beckford countered this by commenting that if he had so much money locked away perhaps he could pay for trips he had made in the past on behalf of the association.
Three clubs were up for affiliation the Victoria University Campaign Against Nuclear Warhsips club, the Irish Intellectuals on Campus Club, and the Emergency Committee for World Government Club. The first club was affiliated without much discussion (Peter Thrush and Steve Underwood abstained on the vote). The second club was affiliated after a prolonged discussion (dissents from Anthony Ward and Steve Underwood and abstention from u ike Curtis). The third club was not affiliated after an even more prolonged discussion when Gyles Beckford cast vote against the affiliation breaking the 3-3 deadlock.
The discussion was too inane to go into, but the questions were mainly directed at what the club could provide that other clubs weren't already doing, and how many students did the club think would be involved in its activities. Classic comments of the evening went to Steve Underwood, when he remarked that the Irish Intellectuals On Campus sounded more like the Communist Party, and when he asked the Emergency Committee for World Government what they were going to do about the class struggle.
—John Ryall