I had been looking forward to writing a silly little editorial this week about something inconsequential and fun. Daylight savings brings it out in me – you don’t need to be bogged down by a hot take when you’re shuttling back and forth from campus in the dark. I wanted to write something to read in the middle of your lecture and have a chuckle under your breath. Just a conversation starter really, something you can have a passionate yet ultimately unimportant debate about over $4 lunch with your friends – like whether it’s acceptable to drink a glass of milk (my take: it’s fine).
Then the feature got interesting, and that plan went out the window. You’ll see why if you read it.
This week, News Editor Hanna emerged from a rabbit hole of Alice proportions. She’s been in and out of the office for weeks with updates, revelations, tips, and speculations while investigating the fuckery that has been our national student union. Or, the corpse of it at least. The original angle of the article was sparked by current student presidents’ attempts to start a new national body that can campaign for student issues. We desperately need one, but to cut a long story short, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. A bit like a student bar, really, with the last (Starters Bar) ironically being sent to its grave just the other day.
The quick and dirty of it is that a national student union is a collective of student politicians who are able to be the voice of students when it looks like they may be shafted by something the Government is trying to implement – again. It’s what student associations like OUSA do, who write submissions on laws such as the no-cause eviction bill (a prime recent example of the shit Government tries to pull). The national version just has more weight behind it. Or it would have if these Beehivers-to-be would pull their heads out of their asses, pause the bickering, pay their mounting bills, and actually do what students’ fees are paying for them to do.
Hanna’s feature wound up being more of an autopsy on NZUSA. She felt for a pulse, wishing for a flicker of a beat, and all she found was a cold, stiff cadaver. She donned her sheriff’s hat and sought out to piece together the story of how poor old NZUSA had died, and it turned into an episode of Broadchurch. People who she spoke to who actually knew something were tight-lipped and shady, and those who didn’t really seem to know were more than happy to express bold and somewhat baseless opinions.
It’s a massive shame and we don't want to point fingers too harshly. The whole situation was sparked by a bill passed in 2011 that meant NZUSA was operating with its hands tied behind its back, and was run by a body of students who were sacrificing their time (and probably their social lives) for the good of their peers, while lacking the time and competence. From what we could see, there were some awesome students involved throughout the whole messy situation, people who were trying to do what they could to ensure students had someone advocating for them at a national level. But there were some disappointingly petty accusations thrown around about power grabs and petulance that froze any real mahi.
The importance of the feature is to bring this into the light. So many of these decisions were made in a black box – decisions made with students’ money, something I don’t need to point out is a precious commodity when y’all are emptying piggy banks to afford OUSA lunch. You have the right to know what is going on with your student associations. I’m willing to bet that a big number of you haven’t even heard of NZUSA – and that’s not your fault.
So a big kudos to Hanna. Her autopsy report: “shitstorm”. Flick to the feature for the tea.