News

Paul Hunt, Payal Ramritu and Jess McLean have been elected to positions on the OUSA Executive after almost five per cent of University of Otago students voted in last week’s by-election. The results were announced last Thursday 17 July.

For the role of Finance Officer, Paul Hunt won with 64.49 per cent of the votes against Ricky Daniel-Nield (28.99 per cent) and No Confidence (6.52 per cent).

Paul Hunt , a sixth year Law and Politics student, has said he wants a “diligent focus on day-to-day expenses,” as well as working on building revenue for OUSA in the future. He points out that the budget for the remainder of the year has already been set, but he says that he plans to focus on “the long term outlook of OUSA” and working on “diversifying OUSA’s income.” His favourite animal, as asked in the candidates’ forum last Monday, is the dog.

With regard to winning the by-election, he used Facebook and chocolate bars to persuade people to vote for him. He did not meet Ricky, as he was not present at last week’s forum, but notes that Ricky’s absence “probably helped” his campaign. Ricky was “pretty gutted” at losing the campaign and says it was because he “definitely underestimated the number of people voting.” Clearly going for the role for all the right reasons, he said, “I guess I’ll have to find another way to fund the bevvies.”

Payal Ramritu won the position of Welfare Officer with 48.20 per cent of the votes against Michaela Corlet (38.71 per cent) and No Confidence (13.09 per cent). Payal is a self-declared feminist and coordinator of the Tea Cup Club, a women’s support group at the University. Her main focus for the semester is to make the most of the Welfare Committee, as she believes the role of Welfare Officer and the Welfare Committee has been “underutilised.” She wants to make herself available for regular drop-in office hours and plans on adding additional members to the Welfare Committee, including a disabilities representative. She could not decide on her favourite animal, and Critic hopes she will show more decisive behaviour in her new role.

Michaela Corlet, an eager protestor, hoped to “really focus on street harassment and boost awareness of it.” During last week’s forum she said harassment was “prominently white males” who did not realise the effect of their “drunken slurs.” Michaela also wanted to introduce gender-neutral bathrooms for the wellbeing of those students who would feel more comfortable with them.

Jess McLean, a third year St Margaret’s resident, was “really excited” to win the position of Colleges Officer with 80.79 per cent of the votes against No Confidence (19.22 per cent). She plans on introducing a “what I wish I knew guide” for halls, similar to a project that Education Officer Laura Harris has talked about. She believes awareness of OUSA’s services should be promoted more to first year students. She also doesn’t think halls of residence have enough integration with the University life or knowledge of University events “due to so much focus on hall events.” She says that in her new role she wants to get the students “more involved in OUSA clubs and societies.” Her favourite animal is the cat.