A Taylored Budget

In student association terms at least, £1000 is a lot of money. And Victoria students can earn £1000 for themselves on June 17 simply by voting "aye" to a motion.

The motion that makes all this possible is one that has been talked about for some time, and it is, in substance, that the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association disaffiliate from NZUSA.

As a member of NZUSA, Victoria is obliged to pay a proportion of the NZUSA budget, and this works out at a payment by Victoria of around £1000.

There is, however, an even greater seat of dissatisfaction with NZUSA. The trouble is an obvious one: when there are students, there are opinions, and it is inevitable that all these opinions are not the same. Consequently, the more active that NZUSA (and at present this mainly means Mr. Taylor) is in expressing opinions in the name of students, the more will some students become annoyed with the organisation which identifies them with opinions to which they do not subscribe.

Students recently have seen a lot of Mr. Taylor. First of all they saw him in the flesh, campaigning with vigour for student action over bursary anomalies, low bursaries, Government delays in University building, and insufficient staff salaries, to name some of the complaints. In this matter it is probably fair to say that Taylor was being pushed at least as often as he was pushing, and that even if he was riding a tiger, at least it was the will of the majority that he should do so.

Then he emerged in print in the newspapers, and his identity with the student body visibly lessened; many students began to feel that they were not being consulted and that they were being committed to opinions and courses of action which were not their own. The matter did not stop there, however. Taylor appeared on television, in the programme "Right of Reply," and while most people felt that he had handled a hostile panel with considerable dexterity, there were disturbing elements in what he said.

He did not confine himself to the matters of bursaries, staff salaries and University buildings. He criticised educational planners, general Government attitudes, even the attitude of the general public to education. No longer could it be said that Taylor was representing students: he was expounding opinions that were his own, and many students were disagreeably surprised to hear so often the words "We think that ..." or "The students think ..."

These then are the anti-NZUSA feelings as they seem to be at the moment. It remains to be seen if Mr. Taylor and Miss Sutch can allay the criticisms that will be levelled at them on the 17th. And it remains to be seen whether they are going to lose their £1000.

—G.E.J.L.