News

The results are in for the 2015 OUSA Executive. The positions were all filled except for a 2015 International Officer.

Paul Hunt won the position of OUSA President 2015 over Henri Faulkner. Faulkner thinks he “was really approachable” but notes that he failed to visit the halls, “didn’t communicate why I was running well enough” and that his actually policies were not as strong as they could have been. “I wasn’t very comfortable going door to door knocking, I don't like going into people's homes and telling them what to do." Critic notes that you shouldn’t go inside strangers’ homes. Faulkner added that he congratulates Paul Hunt, who “ran a really good campaign and will be a very good OUSA President."

Hunt said his campaign focus was “a lot of door knocking, a lot of talking to people in one-on-one conversations.” He says, "I think this year the campaign was much less professionalised than last year; one of the reasons for that was that there were a lot of top positions uncontested."

Hunt would like to let students know that he thanks them all for voting, “even for those who didn’t vote for me and voted for Henri. I hope I can be an OUSA President who listens to their concerns and operates an OUSA which works for them too."

Nina Harrap won the Finance Officer position and said, “it wasn’t the most difficult campaign I’ve ever run but 2,500 votes is really good and I’m really looking forward to it.” She added, “I will work to the best of my abilities to be the best Finance Officer that I can be and hopefully be a credit to the University and to OUSA.”

“I was worried about losing to no confidence – I woke up in the middle of the night two nights ago in a panic because I had a dream I lost to no confidence but I’m really glad I didn’t because I would have been laughed out of Refuel probably,” she concluded.

International Officer Eric Lim was very happy with his win against no confidence for the remainder of 2014. He said he will “focus on events, welfare and wellbeing for the International committee.” He adds that although it’s just a position for the rest of 2014, “I’m laying out the preparation for whoever comes in next year.“

Payal Ramritu, who won the role of Welfare Officer again, said, “I’m feeling pretty bad for Taylor-Jane. I know what it’s like to lose. She campaigned really hard but she isn’t here so I’ll meet her another time.” However, she wants to thank everyone who campaigned and voted for her. When asked if she believes there will be improvements next year, she felt that she couldn’t make a judgement as she only joined the Executive halfway through the year. “Hopefully we’ll all be able to work through the year together next year.” She explains that she thinks it will be easier when they all learn what to do in their roles at the same time.

“There hopefully won’t be a whole load of people coming in the middle of the year going ‘ah, what are we doing?’”

Anton Hovius, who was one of the most active campaigners for Colleges Officer, but lost the position to Taotao Li, said, “I don’t know if I would want to work with the Exec that has come to form. So I’m glad I didn’t win. Except Payal. I’ve had lots of personal interactions with Payal. She’s helped me out.” He added, “Pretty much every other contestant spot went the other direction as to what I wanted.” He says he will continue to be involved with campaigns in future and will contest for any future positions.

He believes his loss came down to his number, or lack of, Facebook friends. “As Alex showed, having lots of Facebook friends [is] the cheapest, easiest non-committal way of doing something in your favour. Exposure is the hardest thing to get in this kind of situation.” Critic are unsure of the reason for the Alex [Gregory] reference as he only received 100 more votes than Hovius and did not win. Hovius is still going to work up his Facebook friends over the next year, though. Critic recommends adding him.

Alexia Cochrane said she was “pretty gutted” at missing out at the Education Officer spot, the role instead going to Greer Mahoney. Despite her disappointment, Cochrane is definite about plans to run again in 2016. “I think I’ll hit more lectures,” states Cochrane, whose campaign this year included door-knocking. Cochrane wishes Mahoney all the best for next year. Mahoney was not available for comment.

As for the Te Roopu Maori committee, by the time voting arrived, every candidate was only competing against “no confidence.” Deinda Stanway won the position of President. For the other positions the results were: Tyson Tautari for Vice President; Damvian Winselborn-Rawiri for Communications Officer; Kahurangi Salu for Education and Culture Officer; Franky Maslin for Events and Social; Tukohirangi Pini for Welfare and Recreation Officer; and Renee Brown for Finance Officer.