The National Executive of NZUSA is made up of all the constituent (students association) presidents and the elected national officers. It meets about half a dozen times a year and is responsible for overseeing the running of the Association, but cannot make policy. Each president and each officer has one vote. The first meeting of 1978 was held at Victoria on 18th February.

NZUSA faces a crisis this year. Both Canterbury and Lincoln have served notice of motion to withdraw. To date very little has been done to keep them in. Certainly the national officers have given the matter a great deal of thought, but they, like everybody else, are short on answers. The problem has been compounded by the difficulty in finding out just why the two campuses want to leave. Not surprisingly, it cast a great shadow over the meeting and lots of nasty business was afoot. We'll get back to this.

Business for the day included: Bastion Point, holiday employment, a recent visit to Les Gandar and Australia, NZUSA publications, STB finance worries, ISIC abuse, the SIS campaign, James Movick, bursaries, International Women's Day activities, and the Overseas Students campaign for women in the Third World.

The Merritt problem

One little problem facing NZUSA concerns the National Vice President, David Merritt. It is all very well calling him a fluffy bear, as one report put it, but Merritt seems not to have been as commited as some would hope in proving himself more than a mascot. Never let it be said, however, that he cannot conduct himself shrewdly when he wants to.

Take the first matter up for discussion, NZUSA's forthcoming handbook. Merritt has lost $300 worth of advertising, but before anyone could bring that up he jumped in with eagle eye and suggested an amendment to an introduction in the song section. Dave MacPherson, who has been in charge of the songs, was quite agreeable but wanted to know why the matter had not been raised earlier. Just then Auckland and Otago presidents Mervyn Prince and Andrew Guest jumped in wanting to know why there were songs at all.

Now if there's one thing that gets MacPherson's goat it's untimely criticism. Prince and Guest were being downright ridiculous, he suggested bluntly, in wanting substantial changes the day before the thing was off to the printers. And anyway, a decision had already been made in December Guest, who cultivates a certain bluntness of his own, didn't have an easy answer to that one. In the ensuing pause Merritt was forgotten.

Not for long. Publications really don't seem to be his thing. It transpired he had given quotes on the new Sexuality booklet variously at 45 cents and 6—7 cents. Armed with the former Auckland had ordered 10,000 copies (!), while some people had taken hardly any at all. The real cost is 20 cents but Merritt claims that not even our own pocket calculator Steve Underwood was able to spot the mistake. (If you want a copy and didn't get one at enrolment, the Studass office has them. VUWSA footed the bill, so they are free to students. NZUSA are also bringing out booklets on Tenancy and Overseas Students, which should be available soon).

The last publication discussed was a leaflet on bursaries, to which Merritt had affixed the fictitious name "NZUSA Media Department". This must be compulsive, because he's done it before.

Most serious of all was an affair involving 12 Pacific Island students late last year when Merritt was International Vice President. Somehow or other they had been brought into the country thinking there was work lined up for them. Just who led them to believe this is unclear, but even when the arrived in Auckland it seems no one told them any different. Merritt brought them all to Wellington, set them up at Everton Hall, and although he made some effort in their direction, at the end of two weeks they had no money, only two jobs (which they had found by themselves), and no clues about what was going on.

At that stage incoming IVP James Movick and Vic President Lindy Cassidy stepped in and spent considerable time setting things right. In the outcome, NZUSA's name almost became mud with the Labour department and in other places, and Fijian students may no longer be able to come to New Zealand early to earn money for the academic year.

Mervyn has a go

Turning to lighter things there were the constituent reports. These are memorable for the expressive power of the presidents, if nothing else. Mike Pratt from Massey: "The Chaff cottage is no longer erect. At the moment it is a sandpit." Mike Lee from Canterbury: "March 8 (International Women's Day) seems to be going fairly well. I've had quite a few feminists into my office in the last few days." Mervyn Prince: "Abortion's running smoothly. As a matter of fact everything's fine up in Auckland." Lucky Merv.

Prince took the limelight late in the day when it came time to discuss a proposed money deal. Student Service Holdings Ltd., which runs the student travel scheme, is urgently short of money, while NZUSA actually owes it some. NZUSA will be able to pay off its debt gradually through the year with moneys coming in from ISIC sales, but SSH want a lump sum now. So Victoria and Otago are going to lend NZUSA $15,000 a piece at a healthy interest rate. This money will be held in trust in a separate account by finance wizards Peter MacLeod (NZUSA) and Steve Underwood.

Says Prince: "It seems to me two constituents are making a killing at the expense of the rest of us." In actual fact, all constituents were offered the opportunity, but only two took it up. Says MacLeod: "I would do it myself if I had the money. It's a good deal." Prince wanted NZUSA to mortgage its building instead. This would be an unnecessarily extreme measure, and from our point of view we are being given "a means of replenishing our investment portfolios without touching levies" (Cassidy). The motion was passed with Prince continuing to express grave doubts on our behalf which nobody else shared. Could it be that he wants in but can't figure out why he isn't?

First indication of Lincoln's reservations about NZUSA came in a discusiion on Bastion Point. The people up there are reaching a critical time, so a speaking tour has been suggested, to be funded by the North Island constituents. However as Lincoln President Guy Macindoe put it, the issue which concerned them was, "not the loss of land to the Maori, or gain of land to the government, but the loss of land to Auckland." They wanted to "stay out of this sort of thing." Feeling in the North Island is that it should be kept a national issue. In the outcome the tour will go ahead.

A little later came the SIS campaign, (see page 9 for details) Some constituents are no longer so staunchly opposed to the act as they were a few months ago, when most campuses voted for NZUSA to defy certain of its provisions. Prince, for one, said the issue had changed and urged caution against protests which "are not seen to happen". Doug Drever from Waikato, Pratt and Cassidy all strongly objected to this. Said Drever, "We are committed to civil liberties, and this is the natural progression." Canterbury and Lincoln joined Auckland in voting against NZUSA's proposed involvement, but did not say a word during the debate.

Swords are drawn

Then came the real hooha. James Movick reported the events of 27th January, when Mike Lee had gone on radio claiming, a Movick put it, that "NZUSA no longer represents the views of students; and that National Office is dominated by trendy lefty Maoists." National Office quickly resolved that "NZUSA should not indulge in a public fist-fight with a constituent association." When TV 1 got in on the act Lee backed down and the dust got a chance to settle.

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Lee decided to counterattack with the facts. I didn't say "trendy lefty Maoists" but "trendy Maoist lefties" he retorted. Cassidy and Prince pointed out to him that public exposure of internal difficulties undermines NZUSA on every front, especially with the government. Did he accept that? "Not at all," replied Lee. "I could have done far worse."

Then Merritt played his ace. He outlined a plan to set up a commission of inquiry into the whole matter of NZUSA's viability. The proposal is a good one, and denoted the first concerted public attempt to face the problem square on. But, said Lee, it's "just another bureaucratic committee."

It's quite obvious Lee doesn't want to stay in under any circumstances. Nevertheless while his belligerence is deliberate, it is another matter whether he carries the whole of Canterbury with him. If he is moving into that position it's partly because he has considerable ability to make National Office look like the villains, and sometimes they don't altogether disappoint him.

The discussion had moved onto whether special emphasis should be given to Canterbury and Lincoln by NZUSA officers.

To give the bare bones:

Prince:"What if Canterbury and Lincoln are going to be awkward?"

Lee: "I object. . ."

Cassidy: "Say with a bursaries campaign not participated in by the campus and exec."

MacPherson: "That is awkward."

Lee: "If National Office come down when we have decided one way and stick their big fat noses in they'll get pushed."

MacPherson: "That's just what I mean."

In the middle of the row Lee stated "I never threaten, that's for little people. I warn ... I never bully anyone."

Finally, it was moved and passed without dissent, "That the National Executive direct National Officers to carry out Council policy with particular emphasis on the Canterbury and Lincoln campuses." Lee was heard to mutter, "They'll laugh at that one back home."

What they said about Movick

So, with Lee wanting nothing to do with anything except fights, and Macindoe wanting an apolitical association, the meeting moved onto the Movick controversy (see front page). Lee had another go. He claimed Canterbury had specifically asked at the time of Movick's appointment [unclear: wheth] whether the latter would be allowed to stay, and had been told by NZUSA President Lisa Sacksen that he would Sacksen denied this, claiming she had said at the time that there might be a fight.

Lee stuck to his guns. "We said at the time we weren't prepared to join a major campaign to save an NZUSA political heavy." Furthermore, he added, Movick had "an academic record which looks like an intellectual fucking bunny." Lincoln's attitude was quite different. Said Macindoe "I suppose it is government interference in political affairs, but we aren't keen to make a statement on it one way or another." In the end everyone voted for the motion and the campaign is underway.

Not everything discussed at the meeting has been covered here, but separate stories will be appearing on many of the issues. Two last little things. Judging from Sacksen's report of a recent meeting with Les Gandar, the minister has taken up dialectical thinking. He has decided that there can be no such thing as a reformed bursary. Like everything else, it is in a constant state of development and modification. In real terms, that means an increase has been budgeted for 1979. And to demonstrate their ever self-effacing nature, the National Executive are holding their next meeting on April Fool's Day. At Canterbury.

Simon Wilson