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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 25. No. 12. 1962

NZUSA President Is Satisfied With Fees Issue

NZUSA President Is Satisfied With Fees Issue

In Parliament on August 1, the Government member for Tamaki stood up and said that the President of NZUSA had written to the Minister of Education expressing "complete satisfaction with the situation as it now stands" since the changes in bursaries provisions.

The motion "that the President draft a suitable letter to the Minister of Education" was carried in NZUSA on July 21. Education committee chairman Florence Jones, recently the victim of Victoria criticism on the same issue, brought up the matter.

Miss Jones pointed out that new provisions had been made for 1963, and although full details had not been received by NZUSA, many points wore still in doubt, and not all NZUSA's wishes had yet been met, she felt it would be fitting to let the Minister of Education know that NZUSA appreciated what has been done so far.

Misrepresented

It was to be expected that the President, in writing the letter, would have made Miss Jones's reservations quite clear. Whether he did so to his own satisfaction or not, (he terms of the letter were apparently such that the member for Tamaki could misrepresent the feeling of student.

President Mitchell has had plenty of warning about the sensitivity of the students on this issue. A recent issue of Salient carried two highly critical articles, one which was headed "The Indictment Against Our National Union" and condemned its poor public relations and the gulf between it and students, and another which specifically mentioned Mr Mitchell's "position in the National Party hierarchy" as a possible explanation for his somewhat conservatism in the fees affair.

Salient has been present at meetings of NZUSA where a student matter troublesome to the Government has come up and the Executive (mostly public servants by day' has thought it best not to end the Government, as it could prejudice chances of getting some other monetary favours, Ex-President Woodfield was particularly adept at these explanations.

The question arises, is NZUSA there to protect the students or is it there to represent the students. Where the Executive thinks that student interest and student opinion are in conflict, what should it do?

Make Way

Surely students are sufficiently intelligent to decide what is best for themselves. And surely, even if it plays hell with the finer feelings of NZUSA, the function of the Executive is to represent the students? I suggest that if it is painful for the members to do so, they might make way for students who arc prepared to act under direction

NZUSA has had its head for so long now that perhaps the notion of responsible representation has slipped its mind.