Salient

News In Brief

By Nicola Kean | 2 Oct, 2006

A CAMPAIGN to fight the ‘silent epidemic’ of Hepatitis C is underway across New Zealand universities, after World Hepatitis Awareness Day last Saturday. The virus, which leads to as many as 25 new infections every week in New Zealand, is virtually an epidemic in injecting drug users under 25 according to the Hepatitis C Resource Centre.

THE WELLINGTON-BASED student accommodation provider EdPAC has made the news somewhere other than Salient, after a number of incidents in an EdPAC owned hostel in New Plymouth. Unable to fill the hostel with students, the company had been advertising rooms to rent for non-students. According to the Taranaki Daily News, one student’s locked room was entered and a computer damaged and another resident, said to be suffering an anxiety attack, threw some of his belongings over a balcony. EdPAC management have refused to comment on the issue.

A FEMINIST library, run by VUWSA Women’s Rights Officer Caroline Prendergast, opened last week. It will be run from the Women’s Room on Tuesdays from 2-3, and is offering a text message service for students who cannot make it during that time. Funded by the VUWSA Trust, the library offers a wide range of feminist titles, from Betty Friedan’s The Feminist Mystique, to collections of women’s journalism.

THE COMMERCE Student’s Association, or VicCom held its Annual General Meeting last week to elect a new executive. With VUWSA executive member Chris Hunt standing down as VicCom President, accounting student Thuan Nguyen was elected unopposed. His only election promise was to bring “sexy back to VicCom”. Twelve students were elected to the executive, with three positions remaining unfilled.