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Salient. Victoria University Students' Newspaper. Volume 39, Issue 10. 24 May 1976

Council Capers

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Council Capers

General Impressions

Leap year is the year for marriages, so they say. That really has little to do with it, but the most important decision reached at NZUSA May Council (at Auckland 13-16 May) was the setting up of a National Union of Students, combining NZUSA, the student teachers association (STANZ) and tech students (NZTISA).

However, instead of a merger (which was suggested in previous years and resulted in much fruitless debate), May Council decided on a shotgun affair. The proposal is for NZUSA to change its name to National Union of Students, and open it books to any other students association who may wish to join.

But that's jumping the gun a little (not to make any reference to raft races). NZU SA holds two Councils each year (May and August) at which all constituents send delegates to debate policy, compare notes and decide on action. Victoria sent seven delegates:

Chief delegates:
  • Gyles Beckford
  • Anthony Ward
International:
  • Leonie Morris
National:
  • Kevin Swann
Education:
  • Lindy Cassidy
Welfare / Accomodation
  • Mark Sainsbury
Finance and Administration
  • Steve Underwood

From the start, there was a strong feeling this was the best Council in a long time. National Officers (especially the President, John Blincoe and International VP Don Carson) were criticised severely over their reports to the Council. This showed clearly the willingness of constituents to question what NZUSA is doing, and of NZUSA to accept such criticism.

The constructive debate continued (well, not all the time) into the Commissions (which study special areas of concern) Especially impressive were the reports of the student directors on the Board of Student Travel Bureau Ltd, arguing the need for real student knowledge of what was going on.

Thus far, it sounds like an administrative jungle. What can NZUSA do for students? What policies is it actioning? Those are the most important questions (and it was good to see the widespread recognition of the divergence of administrative and political functions of student Delations)

The questions are discussed in the reports from each delegate. Two issues not discussed there, which have the most effect on students (with the Women's Rights and Education recommendations) concerned Arts Council, and the setting up of the NHS.

Students Arts Council, which is technically a subcommittee of NZUSA but has reps from most teachers colleges as well, is facing problems. From the massive losses it had two years ago (some $18,000 in total) it has concentrated on profitable (hopefully!) tours, and tended to ignore the other side of its work, namely to build up "culture" and interest in the arts on campuses. Alas, many small campuses felt they were missing out on Arts Council activities.

The proposed solution to this state of affairs is a full-time paid Chairman of the Arts Council. This office would give more encouragement to local groups and setting up regional cooperation. The proposal was defeated at a meeting of Arts Council one week before NZUSA Council, but there was general agreement at Auckland that the position should go ahead.

The issue is being discussed at the next SRC (this Wednesday).

The other major issue was the National Union of Students. This, surprisingly, had very little discussion, most people recognising the need both for it and for real political discussion as to its nature and I establishment. There are worries in the way it was proposed (no students teachers or tech institute reps were present to discuss it), and Victoria (as bound by policy) opposed the idea. That too is coming back for more discussion. From these points, and those raised by the other delegates, I feel this was a most constructive and valuable Council. Action priorities have been set, and questions such as bursaries, assessment, nuclear power, women's rights, welfare services, East Timor and Aboriginal rights will soon be debated on this campus. On the structural side, watch out for discussion on: raising the fee (presently $1.20 per student) to $2.00; a second Research officer, concentrating on Welfare and Accommodation; and the dreaded National Union of Students.

NZUSA Vice Presidents: left David Tripe (General) and right Michael Shaskey (Education). Photos by Ross Ahernathy.

NZUSA Vice Presidents: left David Tripe (General) and right Michael Shaskey (Education). Photos by Ross Ahernathy.

Overall, I think the Victoria delegation performed very well, cooperating and discussing issues as they arose. We have a reputation as one of the more democratic delegations, and more democratic in the way we action studass policy. Both of those reputations were, I think, enhanced by this Council.

May Council 1976 was, then, a most important Council, both in the way it operated and the strong guidelines it gave for action. As a national organisation though, NZUSA (and even more importantly for NUS) can only succeed through and with the support of the mass of its members. There were encouraging signs that this necessity is realised and student leaders are prepared to work on it.

NZUSA is our union. Its one of the most democratic and effective unions around (Muldoon in 1971 called it the second most effective pressure group in the country). With our interest and support we can surely make it even more democratic and effective. If you want to get involved, or to get something done, see Gyles or myself at the Studass office.

Anthony Ward,

Women's Rights

Only ten out of fifty-eight delegates to NZUSA May Council were women.

Discussion on the NZUSA Women's Rights Committee showed that nothing had been done this year to action NZUSAs policy on women's rights.

Fortunately there was a reaction to this pathetic state of affairs, several of the women at the conference met and later presented a submission to the National Commission on the present disquiting position of women in NZUSA.

Arising from this a motion was passed unnamously stating that "a women's commission he provided for August Council with at least one woman delegate from each campus and that a representative of NZUSA staff be invited to attend".

reports from the National delegate, Kevin Swann and the other chief delegate, Byles Beckford, will appear next week.

While the delegation from Vic wholeheartedly supported the spirit behind the motion, after thrashing out (almost literally) our position on the motion in caucus we unanimously agreed to oppose it at final plenary.

We felt that this motion established the lack of women involved in NZUSA as a fault inherent in the structure of NZUSA and thus the answer to this must be to change the structure of NZUSA.

It is not the fault of the structure of NZUSA that more women are not involved; it is simply a reflection of the attitude in society towards women. It is these attitudes that must be changed generating interest among women in every sphere of life and giving them the confidence to speak out on issues that concern them. Once this is done women will automatically become involved in NZUSA.

Furthermore, given the present stage of development of the women's rights movement we are afraid that a Women's Commission could become separatist in its approach. This is likely becuase the Commission would be composed entirely of women, who would identify with each other very strongly because of their shared position in an unfamiliar environment, and their common viewpoint on the position of women in society.

What is more the women would still be in an inferior position to men at the conference, who would have a greater knowledge of the workings of NZUSA, greater confidence in themselves, and would still be in a numerical majority.

Thus at the plenary and priority meetings (essentially male) the Women's Commission would come up against male opposition to their ideas. This could divide the commission into male/female with a good deal of hostility between the two groups.

This would only alienate male support and confuse the focus of the women's rights struggle which should be against an oppressive society not against men.

Despite Victoria's opposition the motion was passed at final plenary. Nobody knows what will happen next, who will organise the Commission so that something productive will come out of it. If you have any ideas please contact NZUSA ph. 856-669

Leonie Morris and Lindy Cassidy

Education

Student politics at a national level seem to suffer from the same bugbear that hits Exec members on campus (ie as soon as their members feel removed from the centre of information and activity then the National officers like Exec members lose all credibility and move along the same 'circular path to nowhere').

This is the central problem with which each Commission had to contend. And perhaps it would be fair to say that a confrontation to this problem was made in the Education Commission.

At long last it would appear that something is actually beginning to happen on the assessment front. A number of proposals were endorsed which are designed not only to encourage closet cooperation and coordination between NZUSA central office and its constituents (a major criticism in the past) but also between the various campuses.

These measures include the establishment of a National Education Action Committee, consisting of all constituent education officers. Its functions would be to coordinate campus activities: ensure continuous development of initiatives made by Councils in policy they set down; and generally to facilitate the sharing of information personally and informally.

Another important measure was that of the establishment of a resource centre with education resources the priority for organisation. This would mean that knowledge and resources could be gained easily and speedily.

Proposals were also made in regard to a National assessment week with tentative dates being from the 26th July to 30th. Activities centred round this week would include forums, guest speakers and general educative articles and posters.

Further policy developments were made in the areas of Maori and Polynesian education. Whether any action will occur on these policies in the immeidate future is highly de bateable, especially when considering the traditional record of neglect in these areas.

These measures included the urging of New Zealand Universities to establish minimum quotas for the admission of Polynesian students to all courses with restricted entry. Support was also given to the extension of Maori/Polynesian preference schemes and the encouragement of widespread advertising of existing schemes.

One of the key motions to come up was that of a recommendation for each campus to research the University cuts in finance. It was felt that this could he used as an excuse to severely restrict courses and enrolments. This is evidenced in a recent VUW arts faculty meeting where it was stressed that departments should be taking a critical look at superfluous courses and cutting back.

Bursaries were of course one of (Inmost importent priorities. It was felt that the present anomalies and inconsistencies in the Standard Teriary Bursary called for an immediate representation to Government and an immediate campaign.

We wil be asking for an immediate increase in the unabated rate of a STB for cost increases from the December quarter of 1975; for the payment of fees for PhD candidates and granting of a STB for all doctoral students not on a UGC Scholarship and the removal of the abatement.

This campaign would include massive publicity, intensive lobbying of Government back-benchers, mass meetings on campuses with national officers and a national demonstration being organised with the tentative date of 16th July.

The discrepancies between the policy formulation of NZUSA and the actioning of that policy are in some way to being resolved. However, without the support of every student these proposals will remain worthless scraps of paper.

Bearing this in mind there is an assessment meeting on Tuesday. 25 in the Boardroom, 12-2pm.

Lindy Cassidy.

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International

Priorities set in the International Commission reflected New Zealand's recognition of her responsibility to and membership of the Pacific and Asia.

One of the main compaigns will be in support of the people of East Timor in their struggle for self-determination and independence from Indonesia. Also, NZUSA will continue to fight the government's cutbacks in the number of overseas students admitted into New Zealand universities.

A motion was passed condemning the US and USSR military, political and economic competition as being contrary to the independence and development of all other nations. Muldoon has drawn N.Z. into this competition, aligning us with the U.S., withdrawing N.Z. support for a nuclear free Pacific and allowing nuclear warships to dock here. Thus the other main priority will be opposing visits of nuclear military vessels in our ports and campaigning for a Nuclear Free Zone in the Pacific.

The only gripe I have about the International commission is that rather than making policy on the basis of conscience we listened to speakers on issues we were unfamiliar with and were then asked to vote.

Consequently, we could not be sure we were representing students, and listening to speakers who took up time that should have been spent debating policy and formulating campaigns on the basis of that policy.

One answer would be to have greater inter-campus and NZUSA contact throughout the year to change ideas and co-ordinate campaigns.

At present inter-campus contact is nil and Vic's relationship with NZUSA is such that often they are telling us what to do for a campaign that we had no part in organising.

Inevitably greater co-ordination would involve more Money and this won't be forthcoming until students are convinced that New Zealand's situation (and thus their own personal situation) is largely determined by international developments

Convincing students of this is what the international affairs committee is all about. - concentrating on different international issues that directly involve New Zealand.

If you want to help, come to the next international affairs committee meeting on Monday, 24th May, 12 noon in the Boardroom.

- Leonie Morris

Welfare and Accomodation

This sphere of NZUSA has been aptly described as the "poor sister". However two constructive directives came out of this commission.

1.The creation of a Welfare Research officer to assist constituent associations in coordinating and Implimentating, Welfare policies and to take direct action in improving facilities. However, VUWS A could not vote on this motion as it contravened SRC policy at October last year. The matter however is sure to be raised again and I will enlarge on it at SRC on Wednesday.
2.The other directive I found to be on the more constructive sphere was that in respect of accomodation. It has been recommended that constituent associations assist legal action against landlords who Violate tenancy rights, whereas is so often the case the Labour dept. will not bring prosecutions. These will have the twofold purpose of protecting students' rights and to force the Dept., in face of much concrete evidence to increase its activity. Also "Flatting" a legal guide to tenants rights is soon to be published.

I will elaborate at the SRC on Wed.

Mark Sainsbury

Finance and Administration

Finance and Administration is probably the most crucial commission of any council and thus it is essential that each rep understands how NZUSA works financially. As a result most of the first two sessions were taken up by the accountant, Peter McCloud, explaining the 1975/76 accounts and the 1976/7 budget.

We were informed that NZUSA had purchased a building located at 22 Courtenay Place and that renovations would shortly be completed and officers would be moving in sometime in June. STB Ltd will have an office with street frontage which should result in a greater level of business.

The Arts Council budget was amended as a result of the Board decision not to have a full-time chairman, and approved. There was considerable discussion over the future of Arts Council and the full-time position of chairman. It was felt that the Arts Council question must be resolved this year and as a result a report was called for that would evaluate the the present position of Arts Council, (b) what students wanted from an Arts Council and (c) the prospects of Arts Council becoming a promotions only organisation. It was quite obvious that Arts Council is under capitalised and that if more money does not come from constituents it may well fold up at the end of the year.

A motion to increase the 1976 levy to NZUSA from $ 1.20 to $ 1.25 per student was lost but Auckland gave notice of its intention to move for an increase to $2.00. A general consensus was that $1.65 was more acceptable.

A report was presented on NZUSA's business intermediary Student Services Ltd and it was decided to proceed with the formation of this company. The Holding company will be owned by NZUSA Inc and will own the shares in STB Ltd. The reason for setting up a holding company is to get greater flexibility in making decision to expand NZUSA's business activities.

At this stage F & A had used its alloted time and an extra meeting was called at 6.00am on Sunday morning. Unfortunately I had to catch the 7.00am plane and missed this session but one important decision made was to ask constituents to reject any advertising in students newspapers from Student Supplied Ltd until the word 'Student' is removed from the company's name. The reason being that should this company get into financial difficulties and collapse this could reflect badly on the credit rating of Student Associations and student business ventures. Student Supplied Ltd has no financial backing or investment from any student body.

Steve Underwood

The Prime Minister's Press Secretary recently attacked the news media (and television in particular) for too much "entertainment "and not enough information. Consequently, TV I has altered its programme schedule to be more informative: