The OUSA Executive are starting a sub-committee to tackle growing fears around student safety. The new working group will comprise of Executive members and will produce a report for Vice Chancellor Harlene Hayne.
During last week’s OUSA Executive meeting President Laura Harris raised concern around student safety in North Dunedin, saying she had recently been approached by a number of students concerned with the issue.
“A large number of our students are feeling unsafe in the North Dunedin area. The University has requested that we have an impact discussion, where we can talk about what kind of things we would like to see implemented,” says Ms Harris.
While the Executive was in agreement about the proposal to form the sub-committee, Administrative Vice President Jarred Griffiths raised concerns about the purview of the working group seeking to draft “terms of reference”.
“Can we draft the terms of reference for [the working group]?
“It would be helpful to have a firm view of the termination date of the committee, how long it will run for and what it’s expected to present,” said Griffiths.
However, Ms Harris was seemingly unwilling to implement any guidelines to the sub-committee responding that it was “just a working group”.
“It’s just a working group, the Executive will just come up with a few ideas and stuff. No official decisions will get made within the working group.”
Eventually Griffiths conceded “so long as there’s some indication of what’s required of the group.”
The Executive also unanimously agreed to decline the University of Otago Touch team’s $18,000 funding request for overseas flights in order to attend international games. OUSA declined as the amount was a “substantial” portion of the grants fund according to Administrative Vice President Jarred Griffiths.
“We just declined it. From my understanding in terms of the discussion we had, their requested flights were outrageous and their costing was just way off base, and we checked [flights] in the meeting. It was just a bit excessive,” said Griffiths speaking for the OUSA Grants sub-committee.