Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 20. August 27 1979
Behind the Scenes
Behind the Scenes
Thus; deals, lobbying and tactical manoevres continued right up until the eleventh hour. In fact, five minutes before nominations closed Paul Gourlie (President, Otago) and Dave Merritt (Editor, Craccum) were trying to persuade Peter McCombie ('average student', Canterbury) to stand for President of NZUSA.
So at 7-00pm on the second day of Council, the atmosphere was very tense when Simon Wilson, still the only candidate for the position, sat before about 90 delegates, observers and national officers. He gave a long speech about the role of President, his own experience and qualities and why he thought he would be good for the job.
Simon declared that the situation that education will find itself in in 1980 will provide a challenge to NZUSA. The Government's intentions are clearly opposed to the interests of both university students and education as a whole. NZUSA has responded well with the Education Fightback campaign so far, but it must continue especially next year.
He believes that, so far, 1979 has been a good year for NZUSA because it has worked well and therefore shown its value to students. Simon feels that NZUSA must continue this work, to involve students and co-ordinate action. Simon claimed that his work on the Education Fightback campaign has given him the organisational skills 'required to do this. As editor of Salient he has gained the ability to organise people as well as action, to become aware of the issues in student politics and gained a knowledge of how universities work. He
[unclear: en] a member of various university [unclear: ucational] committees and has thus [unclear: perience] in working with academics [unclear: deational] administrators.
[unclear: claimed] that his political views will [unclear: event] him from carrying out the [unclear: of] the Association. He believes that [unclear: le] of President is to ensure that set at May and August Councils, is out. Policy comes before personal [unclear: w]
[unclear: all], it was an impressive speech — much for content as for its delivery on showed a strong personality and [unclear: ity] to put forward a point of view.