President
By Joel Cosgrove | 6 Oct, 2008
This is what may be my last column as VUWSA President. I feel proud to say that the university are bringing about a $20 one-off internet levy. This is bringing about my pledge last year to make internet free, or non user-pays as explained when pressed last year, as nothing is ever free. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 29 Sep, 2008
Go Wellington have called off their lock-out of the 300 or so bus drivers. This is an amazing feat. A lockout is the ying to a strike’s yang. This has been building up for a number of years, with various bus managements incompetently antagonising the drivers. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 1 Sep, 2008
One of the first ways I got involved in my (and your) Students’ Association was writing music reviews for Salient. I’d read it in secondary school whenever I found a copy, it was an elusive thing and something that in 6th form seemed so impressive and removed from anything to do with me (how have things changed?). I soon started volunteering for Orientation and activities in general. I helped out at The Shins and Interpol. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 11 Aug, 2008
This year has been (in comparison to previous years) relatively low key emotionally. I’ve come into this job with a clear idea of what I wanted done. Namely campus activism and progressive engagement with the university (usually picketed outside their door, but not always) More
By Joel Cosgrove | 4 Aug, 2008
By Joel Cosgrove | 28 Jul, 2008
Student debt is an issue. I’ve sat down at Student Hardship meetings and gone over the details of a lot of students (around 1000 off the top of my head, last year) who are in what I’d describe as pretty extreme situations, financially and/or emotionally. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 14 Jul, 2008
What is the direction forward for Victoria University?
Questions like this get asked regularly and to most extent we as students have little control over the university and our wider existance in general. That the university is asking students for their opinions on the strategic plan is new and interesting, it hasn’t been done before. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 26 May, 2008
Dear Salient,
At Graduation on May 16th I wore a t-shirt emblazoned “I (Heart) My Penis”. This T-Shirt is concerned with a campaign run by both VUWSA and the students association of Massey Wellington, it is about raising awareness of the shockingly low levels of male sexual health checks. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 19 May, 2008
If there’s one thing I’ve picked up from graduation, it’s this. Faculty of Education have the best collective group of singers of all the graduating students who’ve passed by the Michael Fowler centre so far, with commerce seemingly the best applauders. One thousand, nine hundred students are having their degrees conferred over what would have been last Wednesday to Friday (for those reading this column in the paper). More
By Joel Cosgrove | 12 May, 2008
In her reply to AUS (Association of University Staff), NZUSA (New Zealand Union of Students Association) and of course VUWSA, Deborah Willis argued against the request we made in relation to her standing down from the Film School Change Committee. She also argued against the request made by all three parties to have a student placed on the change committee. Her reasons for making this decision were as follows:
More
By Joel Cosgrove | 5 May, 2008
Contary to popular opinion, most people in Rotovegas were quite fond of Vic students. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 24 Mar, 2008
Free internet and printing? I’ve been getting hassled by a couple of angry politicos about it. “Where’s my free internet and printing Joel? Huh? You’re a fucking liar, you fucking liar”. The level of discussion ends about there, usually. Having said that, there are also some real people out there asking me about it too. Cause those people I’m talking to are having a hard time as it is, and something small like free internet would make a difference. Accommodation, food, text books, travel; it all adds up. While at the same time Vic Uni charges what appears to be the most expensive internet in the country (100 dollars a gigabyte). That makes you think…
More
By Paul Brown |
In this a time of war VUWSA seeks a peaceful solution between Alfs Imperial Army and our associates at Salient. Therefore we propose a series of peaceful talks over a few beverages. Should VUWSA be provoked during these talks however, it will unleash the beast with wrath (Melissa Barnard drunk on rum).
More
By Jackson and Conrad | 17 Mar, 2008
JW: So… President’s column aye… woah…
CR: What power. I feel like a rampaging bearded Marxist.
JW: As a person with a beard, I feel slightly offended by that… I mean really, Joel isn’t t` bad is he?
CR: I can actually grow a pretty fearsome ginger beard. The problem is it scares away little children. All beards do this. Perhaps this is why there is no one in the Workers Party under the age of 55.
JW: I feel your pain brother. I as a hairy male with much too much testosterone have sprouted an enormous amount of chest and stomach hair. Summers are hard for me. I can’t go to the beach without hearing “MUMMY! MUMMY! THERE’S A POLAR BEAR ON THE BEACH!” I think you are mistaken about the Workers Party though, Nick Kelly is in it, and he’s about 12 isn’t he?
CR: I don’t think they let 12 year olds drive busses Jackson. But hey, anything is possible in a socialist utopia man. This convo is getting a little too beardorotic. And we are ragging on those crazy Marxists too much. Let us talk about what we would do if we were VUWSA president! More
By Joel Cosgrove | 3 Mar, 2008
Most students enrolling for film papers this trimester will have only recently become aware of the change proposal being circulated around the Faculty of Humanities in regards to slashing the film school. More
By Joel Cosgrove | 25 Feb, 2008
$10 for Tiki! No Shit! Best Deal in the Country this Year! I’ve talked to a lot of you already and that’s fun, big shout out to the 60 odd NZSM students I took on my ‘alternative’ tour of the university, I need to do more of that, as the university is an interesting place. What with the glory holes and peepholes abounding the Kelburn campus. Just to clarify, myself and Steve Nicoll (last year’s Salient editor) heard from some mates (who are into that sort of thing…) that there are a bunch of glory holes etc. around discrete spots in the on campus, we were planning on writing a column on the sordid nature of the university, but just decided from that not to use any toilets with cubicles in them… More
By Joel Cosgrove | 18 Feb, 2008
2008, Uni has almost begun (except for Karori teaching students who started a month ago, but that’s quibbling). Some of you have been here before, read this before and some of you are new to this game. So welcome to you all.
My name’s Joel Cosgrove, I was elected last year (by 2500 odd of you) as President of the Victoria University of Wellington Students Association (VUWSA). More
By Geoff Hayward | 15 Oct, 2007
It’s the last column, yet the one I think I had thought of the longest. It’s the one where you know one important thing: there will be no next week.
I am reminded of the thoughts that I faced more often that not each time I came to the end of the academic year. A lot of apprehension, with exams looming in the near future, what I was going to do to survive in the holidays, and whether or not I had to work, or study in the break. More
By Geoff Hayward | 8 Oct, 2007
While preparing for Monday’s Fee setting (which I will be hoping you will attend and show your displeasure with the Council should they raise fees), I noted that the University spent approximately $1.7 million (according to a Neilson Media Survey) this year on its marketing strategy: you know, “it makes you think” etc? I noticed that it doesn’t make you think about attending Victoria for anything else but study. I think that’s a shame. I’ve always said that University should not be seen as a degree factory, it is a place for the universe of experiences that you can sample. And then I thought: remember when you were in high school, year thirteen (or seventh form for those too old to remember). More
By Geoff Hayward | 1 Oct, 2007
The definition of fee setting is trying the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result!
First of all, by the time you read this article, the results of the VUWSA election should be known. Whatever the results are, it is important to remind ourselves that it is the collective will of the students that the results illustrate. More
