President

A Mass of words

During the August holidays NZUSA held the second of its bi-annual council meetings. Although delegates on the whole did not come back as full of inspiration and energy as they did after May Council, which was the basis for the nationwide Education Fightback campaign, it was an extremely important council in terms of defending students against future Government attacks, specifically in education. It was decided the campaign against education cuts would continue on a lower scale,- the third term concentrating on protesting against the new Tertiary Study Grant and the first term of next year, against education cuts on a broader scale, with some form of protest action of National Education Day, July 26.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of Council was the NZUSA elections. Victoria's Simon Wilson was elected President with a vote 37 for, 5 against. After Simon's impressive effort as Education Fightback Co-ordinator, most students at Victoria, I am sure, will have every confidence that he will do the job well. Further details of the elections are in a Council report included in this issue.

The third term is always a busy one for students. With only six weeks to exams most students can usually be found in the library catching up on essays, preparing for exams etc. It will also be a busy term in other ways. In just over two weeks — on September 13, 14 the 1980 Executive elections and a special by-election for the position of President for the remainder of this year will be held. If you are interested in standing for any executive position, you have until this Thursday, 30 August, to put in your nomination. If you are slightly interested, come along to the Studass office, any time, and talk either to me, or another exec member a it. Being on the executive can actually be quite rewarding sometimes...

On September 19 VUWSA commemorates Women's sufferage Day. There will be a special women's issue of Salient coming out for that week — if any women are interested in contributing an article, or interested in the layout, come along to the Womens Action Group meetings usually held on Thursday 12-2 in the lounge and smoking room, or see editor of Salient.

Last summer holidays saw the introduction of the Student Communis Service Programme. A total of 4,796 students were on this programme throughout the country by February 1979; in the Wellington and Lower Hutt area—830. With the introduction of the new Tertiary Study Grant, it will be even more imperative that this scheme goes ahead for the summer. Although there has not been any official statement by the Government announcing the reintroduction this year, it is extremely likely that it will be repeated.

Last term we saw sasracs revised with banks, performing, this will undoubtedly continue this term, so if you missed them, give yourself a break from study, and enjoy a few beers and good music.

Caroline Massof.