Election

And, then, perhaps the most important part of the meeting began - the elections. Due to the untimely resignation of two exec members, there were two vacancies on the executive - those of man vice-president and SRC co-ordinator.

For the first position, there were four applicants. Stuart Frater spoke first, outlining his main concerns as being the problem of car-parking, the unsatisfactory nature of assessment, bursaries and civil rights. Then spoke Vas Gavriel, standing on no specific platform other than that the rest of the candidates were a pack of useless cretins. And then came Alan Philips who was concerned that so much attention was devoted to international affairs by the Association - the events in China and Vietnam are apparantly trivia. And then there was Stephen Watson, who was concerned that the students didn't present a unified front, with the politically experienced PSA not giving any assistance to the relative novices in VUWSA.

Our President then abandoned the chair to give them the third degree, and under intensive questioning they all agreed that they would not resign in the near future, yes, they had the time, yes they would pull their weight, and they thought that the executives job was to put across the point of view of the students. After being asked to leave the "from" (I quote our President) Alan was elected VP by a considerable margin.

To set the theme for the meeting, there was only one candidate for the position of SRC co-ordinator. This was Debra Montgomery, who was one of the two orientation controllers this year. She said that she felt that the SRC was the most democratic method of expressing student viewpoints. She vowed that she would do her best to encourage students to attend meetings, and was duly elected to the position.

Other positions were then decided, each one having only one candidate. Geoff Adams was elected Education Officer, saying that he hoped to fight against the declining standards in university education - the reduced value in real terms of the bursary, the cuts to the library and the failings of assessment.

Next up was the National Affairs Officer, which went to an unopposed Tim Rochford. Your new International Affairs Officer is Leonie Morris, and Victoria Quade got the job of Women's Rights Officer. In a rather novel manner, Paul Norman was returned as as Enviroment Officer, saying that he would resign as soon as a replacement had been and trained.

Some of the elections for committee reps were then held. Helen Worth, Paul Norman and Ann Riddle are the reps on the Professorial board. Andrew Tees and Lewis Holden were elected to the Disciplinary Committee, the Library Committee got La Heyman and Simon Wilson, and the timetable rep is Peter Beach - writes in Salient you know.