Salient

Eye on Exec

By BK Drinkwater | 6 Oct, 2008

Two hours before the VUWSA election results were announced, the VUWSA exec met for three quarters of an hour and wondered where the axe would fall.

Education Vice-President Paul Brown frequently instructed all present to praise someone called “Jeebus,” apparently because the end was nigh, and broke into song at two points, although Salient could not confirm whether or not the music came from the Oremus Hymnal.

President Joel Cosgrove ran the meeting in a brisk and casual manner. A minor procedural difficulty arose over the semantics of armstretching. Whether the gesture merely signifies the need for an arm to be stretched, or something more, like an abstention, is a matter too weighty for Salient to weigh in on. Whether or not abstention is actually more significant than an arm that needs stretching is another.

Whichever way, an accusation of “killing democracy” was leaked to Salient, but it was hard to tell who the complainant was making fun of: the arm-stretcher, the chair, herself or Salient’s alleged preference for juicy executive conflict stories over substance.

VUWSA’s resident numbers wonk and Administration Vice-President Alexander Nielson suffered an unfortunate brain spasm when he declared that seven out of eleven is 74 per cent, and when corrected by yours truly, who fancies himself quite the mathematician, tried to shut down dissent by reminding him that he has no speaking rights. So democracy died twice in 45 minutes, but nobody really cared as it didn’t seem like that big a deal.

Some business worth reporting arose, but nothing deliciously scandalous: a Relationship Agreement with the Post-graduate Students’ Association (PGSA) was passed; the PGSA website funded; Auckland University’s Students’ Association Education Vice- President Sophia Blair was given seven of VUWSA’s 11 votes for New Zealand Union of Student Associations (NZUSA) co-president, while the meeting room was flooded with alphabet soup; a ball was partially funded; and a chair, which Welfare Vice-President Melissa Barnard claimed was demonically possessed, was replaced.

Finally, Brown formally announced his retirement from the Executive. No decisions were made on his replacement. Only existing exec members can be co-opted to vicepresidency level, and none of the existing exec want the job.

The meeting was wrapped up as quietly as it started. Wednesday afternoon felt more like a Friday afternoon, and the participants gathered later downstairs at Mount St for election results and sausages.