Salient

Eye on Exec

By Seonah Choi | 14 Jul, 2008

Despite the cancellation of their meeting last week (apparently some of them were still tired on Wednesday afternoon after a conference that had ended on Sunday), the VUWSA exec are still reassuringly causing me grief and getting mixed up in drama that no one cares about but that I’m unfortunately paid to write about.

In short (that is, with as much detail as I can be bothered with), the exec attended the NZUSA conference last weekend, where they spent a couple days discussing either issues of student interest, or shit – I wasn’t there so I don’t know for sure. (Nor do I care.)

Anyway, one of the supposed issues that arose was the formulation of a men’s network, jointly promoted by President Joel Cosgrove and Otago Polytechnic’s Student Association (OPSA) President Ryan Ward. The rest of the exec didn’t share Cosgrove’s vision and collectively voted against the motion to establish said network. Regardless, the motion passed.

Allegations have since arisen that Cosgrove began sending text messages to Ward before the closing plenary, advising him of when and how VUWSA were to strategically second moved motions. Seconding motions forces VUWSA to be consulted on any changes. Cosgrove’s actions were apparently undermining the unanimity of his own exec, causing a whole lot of bitching within an already bitchy group.

When questioned by Salient about the allegations made against him, Cosgrove maintained that he was simply giving Ward a “heads-up” about the exec’s intentions to get the last word on the motion. According to Cosgrove, his exec planned to manoeuvre some rewording of the motion – seemingly ample reason to rat out his exec.

Cosgrove added that he believes relations within his executive remain satisfactory despite his small act of betrayal. Now, thankfully, this is the end for this horrible column for another week.