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Victoria '65 Supplement to Salient, Vol. 28, No. 1. 1965.

The Student Union

The Student Union

The main Student Union building, the theatre and the gymnasium were opened on 10th June, 1961. The management of these buildings, like all university property, is the responsibility of the University Council.

The Council has appointed a sub-committee, the Student Union Management Committee, to manage the Student Union facilities.

As most of the activities taking place in the Union are organised by students, the Student' Association has been given a predominant role in establishing Union management policy whilst being spared from dealing with the many routine problems of controlling the dining room, cleaning staff and general building maintenance.

The Students' Association has six persons representing its interests on the Management Committee, namely, the President of the Students' Association, four other Association members, and a graduate representative, while the University Council and the Professorial Board each has a representative on the committee. The remaining members are the Vice-Chancellor, the Managing Secretary (a member of the university staff who is the executive officer of the committee), and the Physical Welfare officer.

The Management Committee has deployed the control of the various areas in the Union in the following way:

The Common Rooms, Committee rooms, Activities room, Quiet room, Students' Association office and Executive room are controlled by the Association. Thus the day to day operation of these areas is the responsibility of the Students' Association executive which in turn delegates certain matters to its House Committee.

The Gymnasium is under the control of the Physical Welfare officer, Mr W. H. Landreth.

The Theatre is the responsibility of the Managing Secretary, Mr I. H. Boyd. Also under his control are the offices of his staff and the circulation areas of the main Union.

The Dining room and main kitchen are managed by the catering contractor, Mr F. Levenbach.

Policy decisions relating to these various Union facilities are made by the Management Committee. Arrangements can be made with the Students' Association office staff if clubs and societies wish to hold meetings or social functions in the Union. Theatre bookings are arranged with the Managing Secretary. The Management Committee has endeavoured to ensure that student clubs and societies as well as university departments have adequate access to the Theatre. The Theatre is, therefore, let on a restricted basis to non-university groups.

Bookings for functions in the Dining Room are made with the caterer. He has the right to cater for non-university functions in the dining room provided that such functions do not interfere with the serving of meals to students. The dining room is open to students from 9.45 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.

Mr Levenbach makes a profit on his non-university catering to offset the loss made on student meals, the prices for which are controlled by the Management Committee. Whenever the dining room is used for an outside function the organisers pay fees to the Student Union Building Extension Fund. Since the beginning of 1962, £6500 has been raised in this way.

The Student Union facilities at Victoria are more extensive than those at any other university in New Zealand. Past students, members of the university staff and the Council have planned and worked for many years to provide the university with these amenities. At the present time each member of the Students' Association contributes £1 per annum towards the Union's operating and maintenance costs. This provides nearly 50 per cent of the money needed, and the remainder is provided by the university.

Another £1 of the Students' Association fee is paid to the university to repay a loan on the buildings. When this loan has been met, various generations of students at Victoria will have contributed about one-third of the cost of the buildings. The remaining two-thirds of the total cost (£296.000) has been provided by Government subsidies, appeals, donations to the university, and contributions from special funds available to the university.

Although the student contributions to the buildings are indeed substantial, the efforts of past students, donors, the university and the tax-payer should not be overlooked. The buildings have been described as a trust in the hands of current students, and Union property should therefore be treated with respect. Indeed, in 1962 the Students' Association expressed its gratitude to all those who had worked for a Union they would never see or use, by deciding to contribute a further £1 of the Association fee annually to a fund for extending Union facilities.