It’s that time of year when Critic gets its hands on the coveted quarterly reports of our OUSA overlords. Rumour has it these are just as sought-after as a copy of Sunrise on the Reaping. Our Exec members get paid by honorarium, meaning they have to provide proof they’ve done stuff to get paid. These reports are the proof – let’s see if they’ve earnt the moolah in a sea of bureaucratic writing. Bonus points because all Exec reports landed in Critic’s inbox on time, which hasn’t always happened in the past.
Daniel Leamy – Finance and Strategy Officer
Email response time: 1 hour, 7 minutes
Favourite sport: Rugby
Taking great steps since accidentally getting scammed last year, Daniel’s settled and busy in the role he was first thrust into through a by-election last August. Tent City was a dominating event in the first quarter, with Amy (Administrative Vice President) getting a shoutout for their collaboration, calling her an “absolute legend”. Future plans for the rest of the year include a new health and safety policy, initiatives around cost-of-living, a student bar (please, we’re counting on you) and future strategic direction of OUSA.
The only negative of the report was the shocking revelation Daniel has not done his required five hours of community service as required by all Exec members, saying, “No, I need to get onto this ASAP, but I sit on an OUSA affiliated club committee so will likely use these hours.” Critic won’t snitch if you increase our budget.
Deborah Huang – Clubs and Socs Representative
Email response time: 4 hours, 43 minutes
Cats or dogs: Dogs
Our Clubs and Socs Representative has been busy at work for the first quarter, despite the lack of roof on her name-saken building. Deborah impressively states that she follows every club she can find on Instagram, planning to utilise her Instagram next quarter. Continuing on the grind as caretaker to all the clubs, Deborah said, “[I] spoke to (almost) every single club, asking them what challenges they might face, what they would like from me, and how they can reach out to me.”
Future plans for Clubs and Socs include overhauling the “overall extremely difficult to work” with OUSA clubs constitution, creating a global calendar of Clubs and Socs events, and changing alcohol, welfare and grants policies. Sounds like a busy schedule for the representative of OUSA’s branch promoting student relaxation and recreation, aye?
Ibuki Nishida – International Students’ Representative
Email response time: 49 minutes
Coffee order: Long black
Ibuki’s had a stacked first quarter to coincide with the arrival of many international tauira into Dunedin – along with key events like the International Food Fest and International Welcome and Expo. A big goal for the next few quarters is to create more casual and conversational events for international students, for both OUSA and the International Students’ Association. In other Exec work, Buki’s working hard to improve communication and record-keeping between each year’s exec. Ibuki ended his report shouting out Bailey (Residential Rep Callum’s dog). Critic would like to shout them out too (just cos).
Seluvaia Ratoul – President of the University of Otago Pacific Island Students’ Association
Email response time: 1 minute
Favourite bird: Pīwakawaka
Our Pacific Island Students’ Association (UOPISA) President, Saluvaia, has been hard at work for our Pacific whānau in the last quarter. Work continues from last year to find an appropriate fale for UOPISA exec operations. She’s collaborating with their member associations to host more events, and create advocacy opportunities. A Pasifika focus group is also being put together with the Uni’s Campus Development team to gauge dedicated needs and spaces for the future too. Seluvaia gave special mention of making “the treacherous drive to Waihola in the fog” to introduce herself to the OUSA Exec during training. Critic concurs – something about that lake is fucking terrifying.
Liam Patrick White – President
Email response time: 15 minutes
Favourite colour: OUSA green (or brown)
If you’ve ever wondered what the President’s middle name was, he put it in on the report, so Critic is sure he wants this broadcasted to the entire student body. Hot off the heels of being the 2024 Political Rep, there’s no doubt Liam Patrick White has locked in for his first stint of the dictatorship presidency.
His report contained the singular goal (that we were allowed to see) of the President Role: “Be the official spokesperson of the association.” Liam mentions yarning to the ODT, TVNZ, Critic Te Ārohi, the New Zealand Herald, and Times Higher Education as part of his role. And he has the receipts to prove it – twelves links to news articles involving his Presidential duties. OUSA Prez or media mogul? Critic can hardly tell now.
Amy Whyman – Welfare and Equity Representative
Email response time: 2 hours, 34 minutes
Black or blue ink: Black
Amy has literally put blood, sweat and Treatles into the Exec this year, sacrificing the top of her thumb during the prep for the International Food Fest. This was accompanied with many bags of Treatles given away during Tent City – part of the 2,750 boxes OUSA shifted in O-Week. Progress has been made on three key goals this quarter, which will continue as the year goes on: Te Whare Tāwharau training for tutors and demonstrators within the University, creating a sub-warden committee, and overhauling special consideration and arrangements for disabled and chronically ill students. Critic Te Ārohi wants to give a shoutout to Amy for having one of the least-dry reports to read. Thank you for thinking of the welfare of the writer who had to read all fifteen of them. Highlights include calling Academic Rep Stella a ‘G’, and admitting, “I love emails. I am also the kind of person that cannot have an email just sit in my mailbox without doing something about it.” Slay Amy.
Jett Groshinski – Political Representative
Email response time: 2 minutes
Favourite club: POLSA
Submissions seem to be the name of the game if you're the Political Rep. Jett spent lots of time learning how to write submissions to governments and councils, especially good ones. He shouts out his and Liam’s oral submission on the Treaty Principles Bill as well, which Critic reported on in Issue 3. Wholesome bonding with the President? Apparently not, since he shades Liam elsewhere in the report for rocking up to an Exec meeting late (perhaps the hottest piece of gossip in any of the reports).
Lots of work lies ahead in the next three quarters with the Local Body Elections and OUSA’s Politics Week both coming up in the second semester. Jett also hopes to focus on advocating for better housing quality for students on behalf of OUSA, which will undoubtedly become a much bigger priority with impending winter doom.
Stella Lynch – Academic Representative
Email response time: 36 minutes
Favourite flavour of cake: Mum’s chocolate sour cream cake
Putting aside the duties of Academic Representative this quarter, Stella assumed the mantle of Treatle fairy during Tent City. If that alone wasn’t enough work, Stella might’ve misread the title of “academic representative” as “academic weapon”, boasting membership on a stella-r nineteen different committees. Work continues from the mammoth lecture recording policy campaign from last year, with a more focused consultation upcoming on the freshly-made draft policy. In the future quarters as well, we can expect advocacy for paid placements, and work on an AI expo with the Uni. Exciting times for those that are locked-in.
Amy Martin – Administrative Vice President
Email response time: 1 minute
Preferred mode of transport: Walking
Our Administrative Vice President has been here, there, and everywhere in the last quarter. Supporting the President, other Exec members, facilitating training and chairing the policy committee has kept the OUSA-ship smooth-sailing. Future work plans to keep improving student engagement (including their Instagram, which Critic still has beef with). As a Vice President, part of their duties are to “assume all the power and duties of the President in their absence”. This happened once, apparently, when “Liam passed over power once during a sausage sizzle when he had to go to a meeting, but he hasn’t let power out of grasp yet.” Not doing much to beat those dictator allegations, are you Mr President?
Josh Stewart – Postgraduate Representative
Email response time: 1 hour, 44 minutes
Favourite lecture theatre: Te Iringa Kōrero in Te Tumu, or St Daves G.04
Despite a difficult personal start to the year, things are ticking along well for the University geriatric community (postgrads). With a whopping ten committees with his membership, most have been met in the last quarter to get the ball rolling. The main goal for the next quarter primarily includes getting the Society for Postgraduate Students (SPS) fully up and running, Critic is unable to think of any retirement villages near campus appropriate to host their events.
Callum Hadlow – Residential Representative
Email response time: 19 minutes
Electric blankets or hot water bottles: Hot water bottles
“Boots on the ground work” describes the work our Residential Rep has been up to. Good news after the role sat absent for a decent chunk of time last year following the resignation of the previous rep in August. Flatting Fest and hall visits have been the main outreach in the last quarter, so students can remind Callum that no matter where you live as a student, it’s a bit shit. Reviving the residential and subwarden committees are a big goal for the rest of the year, to ensure students’ and kaiāwhinas’ concerns can be properly heard. Oh, and another shoutout to his dog Bailey who’s earning himself a reputation for crop-dusting weekly Exec meetings.
Ngātiki Taylor & Porourangi Templeton-Reedy – Te Rōpū Māori Tumuaki Takirua
Email response time: *crickets*
It’s been a busy start of the year for Te Ropū Māori (TRM), with the freshers pōwhiri, Kickstart 101, and submitting against the Treaty Principles Bill included in some of the achievements for Q1. A revamp of Te Rito’s whare over the break has increased student engagement for the first quarter too, and engagement and participation in social events and kaupapa has likewise been just as high. A memorandum of understanding is in the works between TRM and OUSA, hopefully strengthening the relationship for future quarters ahead.