Beckford's Bumph

This weeks column is something of a pot pourri, with bits and pieces from about the campus and around the country.

Firstly, the bursary question. It was pleasing to see such a good turn out for the forum on Wednesday. More should have been there because it is an issue that affects many students on this campus. The situation to date has been more fully outlined in this issue of Salient, but other steps that have been taken by Association officers have been to contact the major banks around the city and let them know what the situation is. We have received replies from a couple who have said that they will treat all applications for help with a sympathetic ear. Further action has been to make the usual press statements and radio interviews which have received a fair amount of coverage and this can serve to bring more pressure upon all concerned.

It is important, however, that students individually mount their own campaigns. Writing letters to Gandar, sending him telegrams and also badgering the Education Department (all communications to Mr Renwick the Director General of Education), as well as being in contact with your local MPs will also emphasise the size and urgency of the problem. Remember that the success of anything that NZUSA's national office does depend on the pressure and support which individual students can exert.

It is unlikely that we will receive any satisfaction from the faceless wonders at Parliament and in the Education Department, and we must be prepared to take action both on our own account and also through NZUSA. The most important matter is that the regulations are put into affect immediately, and that the contradictions are worked out to the benefit of all parties - Student Teachers, University Students and Technical Institute students. We cannot afford of let the matter lie or else we may find that the second bursary payments are also 'delayed'.

The next matter is the continuing saga of the Don Carson antics at the ASA conference last year. The result of the AGM at Auckland last Wednesday was that a motion of no confidence was lost, but a motion calling for an investigation for Carson's 'abuse of power' at the conference was passed. A motion opposing any past present, or future moves by NZUSA to exclude NUIS from ASA, and makes NZUSA membership conditional on the readmission of the NUIS to ASA 'if it so desired to be a member'. This motion coupled with the motions passed at Canterbury must lead to some sort of blood letting or similar exercise at NZUSA National Executive or May Council.

The most sensible approach to this issue must be to pass a policy redrawing the boundaries of the Asian Students Association so that they stop at the Indian sub continent. To be sure, we have not heard the last of this issue.

On campus there seems to have been a bit of an upsurge of people questioning what is going on in their courses. The latest incident is the case of Accountancy 203, where the students stood up in class and asked for some revision and discussion on the workload for the course. It seems that the lecturer concerned, Prof. Oed is not willing to be too generous although he seems to have agreed that some revision is necessary. It now remains to be seen whether the students in that course are satisfied with what they receive and if not whether they will be willing to carry their demands further. Once again the crucial matter is that change and improvements in courses can only be won through action from the students concerned.

Finally the AGM in my opinion tended towards being a non event. But it was interesting to note that a lot of people were asking questions on the matters of finance and the bookshop, and were not content to be given poor answers. This is in my view is a continuation of the healthy trend to make all elected Association officers accountable for their actions. We can't have enough of it.

Finally, quite a few students have stopped me recently asking about this and that, and on what is going on around the university and NZUSA. I hope that this continues and that if there are matters you would like to talk about, crucial or trivial, then please call in and see me or stop me on campus or wherever. A further point is that there are often documents from the past which people want to get their hands on for one reason and another, and I am happy to get copies of these to people whenever possible.

Gyles Beckford