2011 Otago University Students’ Association Annual Report
Prepared by Logan Edgar
Executive members:
President- Logan Edgar
Vice-President- Brad Russell
Education Officer- Katie Reid
Welfare Officer- Shonelle Eastwood
Finance Officer- Daniel Stride (1/2 term)
Recreation Officer- Sarah Van Ballekom
Campaigns Officer- Dan Beck
Te Roopu Tumuaki- Ariana Te Wake
Colleges Representative- Francisco Hernandez
International Student Representative- Art Kojarunchitt
Postgraduate Representative- Thomas Köntges
Executive Summary: I assumed office half way through 2011 in a by-election following the
resignation of Harriet Geoghan. This report will largely outline the events and goings on that
took place over my time as president in the second half of the year. Prior to taking office I
was briefed on the Voluntary Student Membership Bill which was before the House of
Representatives in Parliament as a private members Bill. The following will accurately
construct the phase from me taking office as president and opposing the Bill to where OUSA
went to the University to negotiate a Service Level Agreement.
Contents:
1. Areas of interest
2. Financial
3. Recommendations
1. Areas of interest.
I.
Voluntary Student Membership- The obviously place to start in this report as it
posed a serious challenge to the face of the organisation and had the potential to
led to severe hardship. The Bill, as the name suggests was to make students
associations at tertiary institutions ‘voluntary’. Where previously upon enrolling at
a tertiary institution a portion of the fee you pay to study went directly to the
students association this Bill stood to take away this mechanism. The
fundamental failing in this is that OUSA functioned very well under this model and
that the services OUSA provided were necessary for the ultimate student
community, culture and environment that is and will always be essential to
Scarfies. So the trouble with the proposed legislation from our end is that it
doesn’t matter who provides the services- they need to be provided and who
better to provide them than the students themselves. This association that is
absolutely self regulating with its annual turnover of executives is in our eyes best
placed to be the provider. A student executive provides value for money and
accountability through its prominent mandate. So in terms of economic savings
for students this Bill would not change anything at Otago. Admittedly it did
achieve savings and heightened accountability within some of New Zealand’s
less engaging, relevant and representative Students Associations but finer tuning
and case by case analysis by government would have been far better received.
So with this all in mind I set about leading a nationwide campaign against the
VSM Bill which I championed to other student presidents at a conference in
Wellington. The campaign was called Presidential prison; it involved me sleeping
two nights in a cage in the height of winter in Dunedin during what was evidently
the coldest night of the year. Other students associations promoted the event on
their own campuses. The OUSA student executive was on hand to provide truck
loads of support. The stunt gained tons of traction and media attention with even
Campbell live running a story on it. The cage was to symbolize the fact that
government was locking students out in the cold by not listening to the students
on the matter (Over 98% of submissions to government opposed the Bill).
We had done all we could including another huge protest movement when the
Prime Minister was on campus to open the new Bill Rob library. The Bill
eventually passed and came into effect from 1/1/2012. The writing had been on
the wall for quite some time with the Bill being pulled out of the ballot box the year
before and awaiting it’s third hearing for an extraordinary amount of time. We
wrote contingency plans and engaged Deloitte to perform an organisational
review to look at how we might re-structure ourselves in a voluntary environment
including a ‘worst case scenario’ where we get no external funding. In December
2011 I spent my holiday in Otago at my desk as we entered into negotiations with
the University to create a Service Level Agreement where they could help fund
the provision of vital student services for the next year. As of 31st December 2011
nothing had been signed although the University and OUSA were moving in a
similar direction with similar vision for what students wanted in terms of their
services at the University of Otago.
II.
The Proposal to sell Radio One. After receiving the final version of the Deloitte
review, a proposal was put to the public that Radio One be sold. This proposed
austerity measure was very much in the face of uncertainty with the VSM Bill
encroaching and made sense to be the possible first cost cutting venture as it
rates the lowest out of all our services in terms of student satisfaction and
engagement. Although the proposal was a rough period it stressed a couple of
great points. The most important of these was that Radio One has the ability to
act as a bridge for graduates and alumni that have know left the region and even
the country so that they may reconnect with the goings on and feel like a Scarfie
again. I’m not 100% sure on whether or not Radio One does this effectively at
present but I do believe that it is an extremely adequate mechanism for the
engagement.
III.
A New Constitution. As a product of the constitution review committee that was
setup and superbly convened by Welfare Officer Shonelle Eastwood this New
Constitution was produced. This was desperately needed as the previous one
was the product of a previous executive and their cowboy-like actions to get a
poorly constructed version approved for bragging rights. The new constitution
functions very well and allows OUSA to function efficiently day to day.
IV.
The Closure of Student Job Search office on campus was a major change which
had been all signed away before I hit office. Student Job Search used to have
offices on every major tertiary campus in New Zealand. The Otago office was
prior to all this the best in New Zealand- It placed more students in jobs than any
other and earned the most money for students. However a direction came from
Student Job Searches’ National Council that all offices were to be closed to cut
down in costs and to path the way for Student Job Searches’ online service
delivery system. The decision proved to be extremely unpopular at Otago and
with OUSA seeing the change already take place and have a detrimental effect
on OUSA members. I attended the SJS annual general meeting and put myself
forwards to be a student representative on SJS National Council. I was elected
by the other student’s association presidents and won with the most votes out of
any other candidate standing. I will hold this office until November 2012.
2.
Financials for the year ending 31st December 2011:
OUSA’s Total Operating Revenue for the year was $10,042,315 which was not
incomparable to 2010 where it was $10, 444,878. The Total operating expense for
2012 was however $10,866,343. Although this is effectively recorded as a $824,028
loss. In actual fact the loss was due to the realized value of our shares the Unipol
recreations limited being different to the expected value. This overstatement is
because our shares could only be sold to the University due to a clause in the
longstanding shareholder agreement which would prohibit us to selling them at
market value which would have most likely seen the $824,028 close the gap to the
Total Operating Revenue figure. Although this situation is not ideal it isn’t an issue
overall because OUSA is confident that the University will continue to act in good
faith and with students best interests at heart with the new Unipol gym. Well done.
3. Recommendations:
1. Decrease OUSA’s reliance on the Service Level Agreement. Look to diversify
revenue streams in an effort to strong OUSA’s claim as being the independent voice
for students. These measures will also future proof OUSA against government
regulations around the SLA.
2. Lastly have a strong year in 2012, there was so much uncertainty for our members
and staff in 2011 about what the association will look like post VSM. Everyone
deserves a feel good year. Show the world that OUSA is alive and well. Kick it off
with a huge Orientation week and the first ever in the new Forsyth Barr Stadium.