By now I was supposed to have written an article about the WSU elections and how dubious I feel about the Waikato Diablos but seeming elections are on now and I am not Nexus I won’t.
But what I will tell you is that the WSU elections are now being held from now until Wednesday. Take your student ID to the voting stalls, there’s one at the Village Green and one outside of Management School.
The results had just arrived for the WSU elections about 15 minutes ago. Sehai Orgad stays as the president, however Moira Neho got VP. Megan had some good plans for the WSU, but alas.
Almost all of my predictions were true. BOC only won in positions where they ran unopposed, so James Greenless (Finance) and Ana Moriaty (Womens Rights). Olivia Beattie got Campaigns; Education went to the only runners, Ben Delaney and Whetu Taukamo; Environmental to Claire Taylor and Katy Dimmendaal; Tatiana Hohepa and Elaine Kameta for Maori; Vince Malcolm-Buchanan for mature students; Sports officer is Glen Delamare; and disabilities went to Jeff Hawkes.
Official results in next weeks Nexus.
If you haven’t voted in the WSU elections yet, do it now! If you don’t, then it is likely that people who will be crap at the job will get in. If you believe in the BOC idea, then vote for Liam Kerr for Campaigns.
People are apparently voting for whoever is at the top of the list, and that is Carl Bishop, and that isn’t on. So be smart, see my list and vote. It’ll only take five seconds!
Voting booths are:
The Waikato Student Union executive candidate debates was big, there were lots of people out in the sun listening to the candidates, definately more than last year.
The most exciting time of the whole event was when the president and vice-president candidates were up for question time. Nexus staff were quick to ask Kahu Nikora, candidate for both president and vice-president, about his verbal assault on one of their staff. They quoted him as saying “I’ll cut your fucking head off,” after the magazine published comments about him. At first he said that they have no proof, then he denied he said the word “fucking,” then claimed he would do it again to anyone that defames him, and said that it wasn’t assault (he is doing law at Uni).
The BOC guy going for president, Carl Bishop, did not say anything new, but the other candidates were trying to prove that they were up for the job. VP candidate, Martin Dalton, did admit they were not up to speed with what happens in the WSU, but pressured that he is up for learning the ways, and that the other BOC candidates are learning their specific fields at the University. James Greenless, the only candidate for Financial Officer, was not available, and nor was Woman’s Rights Officer candidate, Ana Moriaty.
So, after that, here’s who I pick (Updated 14/9):
Voting starts on Monday. Go out and vote!
After writing my rant about BOC yesterday, I went to the Nexus Forums and someone was talking about how great it is. I then responded, and today got asked if it’d be fine to put it in next weeks Nexus. Here it is for you, look out for it next Monday.
I do agree that this uni doesn’t have much of a culture, and seeing images of Otago and other universities makes me annoyed.
However, BOC has said barely anything about what else it plans to do besides parties. Everything they talk about seems to involve a keg somewhere. I think the WSU rolls out the kegs quite often. Another thing, if they didn’t want O Week ‘06 to suck so badly, then why didn’t they help with the organising of it? Considering the reports in late 2005 that it was going to be in turmoil.
One of the things BOC should have done was each member writing something personal about what they are going to do in last weeks issue. Not the copy-and-pasted MySpace blurb. It would’ve leaned me more towards them if they had.
Involvement in the Uni clubs is very much an issue. But why is participation so low? They talk about Clubs Day a lot in Nexus, there is all the chalk writing, we have two days a year where all the clubs have a chance to shine. Club listings are included in the new students guide. What else can happen?
It seems to stem from the problem of student apathy. The lack of a student culture at this University is possibly because we are all lazy and couldn’t give a damn - or just that we hope for it to fall from the sky one day.
That said, I’d rather someone a bit more level headed presiding over the WSU than someone who is all parties.
It seems people are pretty geared up towards BOC, if only because of the shake up it is giving the WSU, and making them realise that we need a better student lifestyle here.
Just a reminder that Rodney Hide, will be at Waikato University tomorrow. While I don’t totally agree with everything (or, most things) he says, he is a pretty charismatic fellow who does stand for what he believes is fair, so it’d be interesting to hear what he has to say. Plus, Nexus reminds us that it isn’t often politicians come here, unless they are soliciting votes during elections, so play nicely.
He’ll be at the Village Green from 12 noon to 1pm tomrrow.
Once that is over, stay for the WSU election debates! They should all be there ready to answer your questions. There will be a free BBQ and alcohol (yes, free beer, and BOC says we don’t have enough). That’s 1pm to 2pm (you don’t have class then) tomorrow.
Once again, it is Waikato Student Union elections for all the positions. Last year I don’t think there was too much contention with Sehai Orgad being the favorite for president and suitably winning.
This year, there are three contenders. Sehai is running for a second term. She seems to be picked as the favorite this time around again, with a Nexus poll showing 59% of voters will vote for her (yes, a whole 13 people!). She has done well this last year, cleaning up the mess of the last couple of WSU executives, that it would be a shame for her not to get back in. Kahu Nikora is running again after his defeat last year. His advertising campaign left a lot to be desired. Random contender is Carl Bishop, who is apart of the BOC group, which stands for Beer On Campus - because all other problems in life don’t exist.
BOC are perhaps the worst contenders for the positions they are running for. They have seven people in their group, running for most of the positions. The sad thing is that two are running “No Confidence”, the Finance Officer (James Greenless), and the Women’s Rights Officer (Ana Moriaty). Everyone one of their blurbs had the exact same thing written, which is taken from their MySpace page.
While it is nice to have more free alcohol, the main thing that WSU puts its money towards is hardship grants towards students who are having trouble getting by. Who cares about them, eh? Let us just put it towards more kegs.
So, what are some really cool, alcohol involving, events that BOC have in store? Nexus this week gave each president candidate a page, here’s what Carl had to say:
I am a student who wants to bring back O-week, kegs in the park and a killer Month of Mo.
“Month of Mo?” I think that is that strange facial hair-style he has got, and at one point on now defunct television program Sports Cafe, they had a Month of Movember or something to that effect. Of course, Uni is wrapping up at that time, so I fail to see how that would work.
On making the WSU more relevant to students, Carl gave more examples of what they would do.
[After talking about improving communication between students and WSU] Then we would introduce more fun stuff. How about giving students events they actually want to turn up to! More events during O-week? Kegs on Campus? Month of Mo? Flat Crawls?
Thing is, the WSU does end of semester parties, when they have Open Student Meetings they usually have a BBQ and a couple of kegs of beer at hand. Certain departments do pub crawls for students. Month of Mo, is in November.
The Nexus then asked what would they say to the Waikato Times about the declining enrolments? Well, how about market the University for having massive O weeks, you know, stuff that probably doesn’t affect student numbers.
Some more questions were asked. He got the student levy wrong (”Wondering where that $100+ goes every year.”), the levy is $84 (incl. GST). In the year that he started, the levy was $30 less.
Alarm bells went off while reading the Lettuce page, from an annonymous student:
To those chumps who dared each other over a beer to run for the WSU exec
(Emphasis mine). That’s scary. And to think two of these guys are running up against No Confidence (which many don’t get so they’ll most likely get in). You can just see these positions being empty when Uni starts and then the WSU having to run another by-election. What a waste of time and effort.
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