Over the tea cups

The problem of relations between students and the academic and administrative authorities at this University has been a long-standing one. When in October, 1933, "The Spike", an official journal of the Victoria University College Students' Association, was published, only about 40 copies were sold before the issue was suppressed.

A member of the University Council of high legal Standing said certain passages were seditious, though the evidence of F. A. de la Mare, in "Academic Freedom in New Zealand, 1932-35", suggests there were no seditious passages.

Omitted from the reprinted edition was, among other things, an article critical of the Law School entitled "Untwisted Teaching", by I. D. Campbell.

This person wrote to me last Wednesday in his role of acting Vice-Chancellor. He invited the signatories of last week's editorial—the one in error headed "Student Power"—to discuss its proposals.

For an hour on Friday afternoon six of the seven signatories sipped tea and talked with Professor Campbell.

He found one request difficult to get used to—the inclusion of three student representatives on the Professorial Board—but he fully agreed that students needed more representation in the administration. By the end of the hour he had suggested none of the requests to be unreasonable.

As the success of the first stage depended on the attitude of Professor Campbell, so the success of the next stages depend on the attitudes of the new Vice-Chancellor and of the other members of the Council. We must remember that these attitudes will be coloured by our own actions. We must not only be responsible over the next months; we must—only temporarily—be also seen to be responsible.

The Executive of the Students' Association has resolved to forgo demands for bursary increases this year and to press instead for increases in staff salaries to offset the effects of devaluation and to make them compare better with overseas salaries.

This shows perhaps that students are not so self-centred or short-sighted as to be unsuitable to a greater voice. The argument that such obviously desirable co-operation has been rare merely emphasises the need for greater political unity within the University.