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SMAD. An Organ of Student Opinion. 1931. Volume 2. Number 3.

Students' Association Buildings

page 2

Students' Association Buildings

The Victoria College student who endeavours to participate in the club life of the College labours under two serious disabilities. In the first place the great majority of students can devote very little of their day-time hours to study. Accordingly with so many evening lectures in the syllabus, the hapless student must sacrifice many invaluable opportunities of knowing his fellows and learning from them, because he must tear off to cram up for that inevitable examination rushing towards him like a modern Juggernaut. However, a little more system in the student's scheme of studying and a little more co-operation on the part of our tutors might overcome the first difficulty. The second disability must also be resolutely faced by students. For too long now the facilities for club life at Victoria College have been a disgrace to an "institution" catering for approximately 900 students. Admittedly Victoria College is the Cinderella of the four main University College in regard to endowments. Certainly no member of Victoria College, who travelled to Dunedin for the Easter Tournament and more recently to Christchurch for the hockey tournament, can look forward to next year's Easter Tournment at Wellington with anything but feelings of misgiving—we simply have not the facilities to repay the boundless hospitality we have received in other centres. However, it is too late now, and we know our friendly rivals will make allowances and do their best to understand why we have allowed this deplorable state of affairs to continue for so long.

At present if clubs wish to hold meetings they must use the gymnasium hall, complete with thunder effects, either by the sturdy athletes above or by people decorating the room upstairs for a dance, who drop hammers, ladders, and themselves all over the place in the process. As a great favour, however, some clubs are allowed to hold all their meetings in the College Building, such meetings to end at 10 p.m. Annual meetings of clubs, too, are generally held in the building with the same time limit. The whole thing is a farce—the hall is too noisy and the time for which the main building is available is too restricted. The Free Discussions Club, to take one example, cannot possibly live up to its name in the two hours at its disposal. Any person leading the discussion must have at least an hour and a half to develop his subject and half an hour is too short a period to discuss such a question as the recent subject of "The Deplorable State of the Legal Profession." Finally, the men's common room should not be allowed to remain in its present position as a source of annoyance to lecturers, and a distinct source of discomfort to men students. Accordingly we think the Students' Association should cease tinkering with the project of Students' Union Buildings in general, and the present erection in particular. If the tinkering process is continued any longer, future students will have to build from the ground up when the present monstrosity falls down which it daily threatens to do in spite of sporadic forays made on it by the New Zealand workman.

It is manifestly impossible to have a suitable building of our very own by next Easter, but we should make a determined effort so that we shall be able to play the host to our guests in fitting quarters and carry on our club activities under somewhat less primitive conditions, even if we have to raise the necessary funds by means of a mighty art union.

The views of students on this highly important and necessary project will be received for publication in our next issue.