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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. [Volume 39, Number 2. 11th March 1976]

Ryall Raves

page 4

Ryall Raves

Last Wednesday the Student Representative Council gave notice that it will continue to hold the power in the Students' Association during 1976.

Over the last few years great emphasis has been laid on grass-roots student participation in Association affairs and hence SRC has been invested with a much political clout as possible, because of its very definition. It is the Students.

The unfortunate problem with large meetings as such as SRC is that they are intimidatory for those students who do not have a grasp of meeting procedure, are not familiar with the constitution, and who are not in, or on the edge of, the elite that know what's going on around the union building. Last Wednesday it was the leaders of the Association (the executive) who were rightly in the firing line from students attempting to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of the office manager, Mrs Goodall.

Salient pointed out last week that there are many questions that still need answering in this affair. Although Mrs Goodall cannot be brought back now, the Executive owes an explanation to the people they are meant to be representing. Salient believes that any further action by students should be directed towards the relationship between the Students' Association, as an employer, and its employees in the Students' Association office.

This could be done in three ways:
  • Conducting an investigation into present staff conditions in the office and seeing whether they are satisfactory.
  • Drawing up guidelines for Executive members as to their duties to and relationships with office staff.
  • Setting up an appeals committee of student and union representatives to help in the adjudication of any disputes.

These are not the only alternatives. There are others. The important thing is that something is done for the future.

The no-confidence motion in NZUSA International vice-president Don Carson could be all over with before anyone knows what's going on with regards to the Asian Students' Association meeting.

When the SRC called for an SGM, it did so with the full knowledge that Don Carson would not be there to face up to his accusers. What makes it worse is that even his accusers don't seem to know of what they are accusing him.

The report in Salient last week of the National Executive has also been labelled as confusing, mainly over the reasons that Don voted on the Israeli motions. Before I finish this editorial (due to confusion) I would like to say that I believe that the whole situation would be much clearer if the SGM postponed its debate on the Carson affair until Don Carson is able to be present.