President

This week there is a march scheduled to start from the Rankine Brown Courtyard at 12.00 on Wednesday in support of the $9.00 a week increase in the bursary payment, as well as a new equitable reformed Tertiary bursary. The basic issues concern the abolition of the abated bursay payments (i.e. only $19 a week for 37 weeks of the year for most students), demands an indexed increase in the bursary (in relation to the rise in the cost of living), and the various anomalies in the bursary system. The abatement in particular should be of interest to Victoria students as nearly 60% of us are on an abated bursary.

- there is every prospect that free entertainment will be provided.

Remember that VUWSA is not just me or the Executive, or the Student Representative Council, it is You so bear that in mind and support your Association in pursuance of your interests - in this case an equitable reformed bursary for all students.

Last week of course there was the Annual General Meeting of VUWSA and there was a good turn out of students. Thank you very much for your attendance. The fact that a decent number of students turned up made the meeting quite worthwhile even though the numbers did sink rather dramatically after 2 pm and finally resulted in the lack of a quorum around 3 o'clock. The only questionable aspect about the meeting was the marked lack of questions from students to last year's Executive members about their activities, and how our Students' Association doles out approximately $6,000 a year in honoraria to Executive members, and in spite of the fact that some past Executive members did not even turn up and present their reports on various topics (or, in some cases did not even write such reports).

Still, it was quite amusing to see how much paper various so called 'progressive' Mao and Trot groups on campus wasted in order to summon up opposition to various motions tabled in advance of the meeting. Some people, it seems, have a lot of time to write a lot of verbose and mostly boring material for inclusion in their long and copious leaflets which you and I often use for paper darts and note paper.

Well, and Onto more Serious Stuff. This year is a 'Quinquennial year' when the Government, through the University Grants Committee decides how much the Universities are to get for the next five years.

Present indications for Victoria's quinquennial grant are extremely gloomy. This premise seems to be confirmed by various rumblings and rumours flying around at the moment. Rumour has it that the money supply is going to be reduced to such an extent that free entry to Universities will come to an end very quickly with few people being able to come to Varsity unless they have at least UE regardless of whether they are over 21 or not. If this rumour proves to be true then it means a complete change from the University system as we know it. Education at University will obviously become more and more the perogative of the select few than it is already at the moment. Students must make it quite dear to the Government that this is not on; the principle of equality of opportunity in all levels of education, including tertiary education, roust be adhered to.

Of particular interest to Victoria with its chronic shortages of space and accommodation problems, is the suggestion that only $13 million will be allocated for the entire building programme for all the Universities in New Zealand for the next five years. If this is the case, Victoria can expect its accommodation problems to persist for many years to come.

Looking at the quinquennial grants in general, Victoria has lost out in two previous consecutive quinquennial assessment years, so far as an adequate money supply is concerned. It is to be hoped that Victoria's case will be recognised this time. It would seem that this point has been made effectively to the powers that be. This is confirmed by reports from various senior Universtiy officers as well as the Minister of Education, Mr Mery Wellington, who commented when he met the National Executive of NZUSA in Wellington last month, that Victoria's case had been well and adequately presented by the various interested parties.

Looking at things from Victoria's point of view, those who dole the money out to the Universities have failed to appreciated that at least 60% of the University's total bill consists of wages and salaries, of which roughly 80% have to be paid due to permanent staff tenure, etc. Thus the most significant cuts, when they come (and they most surely will) will come in other areas of the Universities' activities. This is where student representation and VUWSA comes in; as the Association must endeavour to make sure that if cuts in expenditure are to be put into effect, that they do not unreasonably and detrimentally affect key learning resources on campus such as the Library. For instance, individual academic departments must not be allowed to get a prior claim to funds being made available. Hits may result in some key sector of the University being run down, and thus affecting the University Community as a Whole, as has been allowed to happen in the past.

Andrew Tees