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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 4. March 26 1968

International Affairs Officer

International Affairs Officer

A notice appeared in the Exec. Workroom the other day: "Salient invites you to contribute short articles ... The names of officers declining to accept this invitation may be published."

Invitation!

As President of the Atheist Society. Bill Logan should know better than anyone else that he is not God and Salient heaven.

This attitude, that exec, is a self-penpetuating oligarchy not interested in student opinion, is fairly common. Ironically enough it is perpetuated more by the group of a hundred or so who virtually run everything in the Association, than by the less activist elements. Even Owen Gager, who should know better than most, perpetuates this attitude.

Superficially the student body is riddled by cliques. Rather than a form of in-bred snobbery, the clique interested in Association politics, at least. included more or less everybody who is sufficiently interested in the Association to take part in its politics.

Exec, members are well aware that they have a responsibility outside this group, and certainly do not need the scarcely veiled threats of Hill Logan to use column space in Salient to discuss aspects of Association affairs.

Much of the problem is probably caused by the retaliation of members of such groups as the Student Action Committee on Caf Prices, who get little sympathy from E:.ec. members when they jump off with half-baked ideas.

Their knowledge of catering is even more tenuous than their figures. One of their aims is "to make Executive more responsive to student opinion"—We have to pay just as much for the muck as anybody else, but have to operate through the channels set up by the University Council and the Student Union Management Committee to deal with such matters. Members of groups more like this would achieve more if they devoted their efforts to practical organisation than to cafe boycotts destined to fail from the start.

The same applies to everyone else. Don't sit back and negatively criticize. Join the clubs and sub-committees and) do something.