President Paul Hunt kicked off the dryest meeting of this year by outlining that Vice President Isaac Yu has been finalising a review of the Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival as well as other OUSA events. Hunt said Yu will make “potential recommendations” based on “what students want from events”.
Hunt said he has been speaking with OUSA’s solicitor about questions for the upcoming referendum. Hunt said they originally talked about only having one question, which would ask which of the three voting options students prefer. However, Hunt said this doesn’t “necessarily provide a clear majority”.
The two questions in the referendum will be:
1. Should the Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) alter the structure of its Executive members?
2. Which of the following alterations to the Otago University Students’ Association Executive is more desirable?
The first option will be having one full-time vice president to replace the finance officer and campaigns officer roles. The second option would add a second 20-hour vice president of external affairs, which will replace the finance and campaigns officers. The second option would add another 10-hour position to the executive with no specification of what this role would entail. The third option is to leave the executive as it is.
Hunt said they need a “five percent turnout” for the referendum, otherwise the results will be void. Whichever option wins the majority vote will come into action in 2017.
On Thursday 1 October at 1pm, a public forum will be held on the potential executive restructure, with debate on each option.
Recreation Officer Jonny Martin has been representing OUSA at the Festival for the Future, which Hunt said “focuses on social enterprises and startups”. Martin has “got lots of ideas coming back from that”.
Hunt asked whether the executive have any further thoughts or questions on the PMDL situation. His question was met with silence. Hunt said the PMDL board is still looking into “how best to enshrine media independence”.
Last week OUSA announced that it supports an increased refugee quota in New Zealand. Hunt said the government’s recent announcement of accepting a further 750 refugees from Syria was good progress. However, OUSA still needs to focus on making sure there is “a more regular evaluation of how many refugees we let into New Zealand”. Hunt said Amnesty International and Choose Kids are running events to support an increased quota.
