VUWSA Election Candidate Interviews: President
The VUWSA President leads the Executive and acts as the association’s principal student representative, advocating for students to the University and local and central government. This year, Skyla Ashford, Charlotte Lawrence and Ethan Rogacion are contesting the role. Salient asked each candidate questions tailored to the promises they have made during their campaigns, which you can read across the next three pages.
Candidate: Ethan Rogacion
You’ve criticised a culture of overpromising and underdelivering in student politics. What would you do differently as President to make VUWSA more accountable for the promises it makes?
Fundamentally, VUWSA exists for the benefit of students and my plan is to ensure that our Executive are directly responsible to all of our tauira for how we spend money, time and resources. The decisions that our Executive makes about campaigns and initiatives need to be led with real student consultation and student voice.
This looks like the Executive being present and accessible at all campuses through regular events, frequent hui that allow students to question VUWSA about how we’re spending their money and - as President - an open door policy that means students can always reach me with ideas, concerns and whakaaro. I'm committed to having an open communications channel with Salient and to providing regular updates on social media about VUWSA kaupapa, to ensure students can see what their Executive is doing to act on their needs.
After two years as Academic Vice-President, what have you learned about where VUWSA can genuinely achieve change—and where its influence is limited?
The biggest factor that limits VUWSA’s influence is funding! As Academic Vice-President, I’ve worked hard to build a strong relationship with the University, meaning students are increasingly key stakeholders in how this place operates, with more tauira in the rooms where decisions are made. In that respect, we’ve made strides with the University’s AI policy, workloads for students and the equity of assessment across the University. However, if VUWSA wants to do more - whether it’s events, campaigns or direct support for students - we need more resources. Since Parliament introduced voluntary students’ association membership in 2011, our mahi has been constrained by the bounds of the Student Services Fee. That's why VUWSA needs to invest Trust money back into students now, and why I’ll keep fighting for law reform that will let us serve all students to the fullest.
You want VUWSA to put more resources directly into students’ hands. How would you decide between spending on direct support, services, representation, and campaigning?
VUWSA is one of the least funded students’ associations in the country, so how we use our money must be directly led by the needs of students. As President, my biggest priority will be affordability for students, which involves increased investment by VUWSA into our food bank and grants. I also believe that VUWSA needs to increase investment in our operational services, like Advocacy and Student Voice, to ensure that students are well supported at the university.
By thinking creatively and planning well, the Executive can run initiatives that reach more students, more affordably. As Academic Vice-President, I’ve supported low-cost and high-impact initiatives, leading Tea Time events that connect students with VUWSA across all campuses. By running more kaupapa like this, VUWSA can better engage with students, understand student needs and build organic support for our campaigns in a way that reaches all tauira.
You’ve proposed both immediate measures like cheaper kai and grants, and larger political goals like free public transport and a universal student allowance. How would you balance achievable short-term wins with longer-term advocacy?
Our students’ ability to participate in political advocacy and campaigning is constrained by the fact that tauira already have to choose between going to lectures and picking up a shift just to pay rent every week. At the same time, ensuring that student hardship isn’t a rite of passage requires VUWSA to hold central and local government accountable to the interests of tauira. That means that VUWSA needs to both directly support students here and now, and push government to do better.
As President, I’ll commit to providing immediate support to students to ease the cost of living pressures that makes student life difficult. At the same time, I’ll focus on holding the next government accountable to student needs, directly lobbying MPs and Ministers on student hardship and building a broad base of support from students for VUWSA’s political mahi.
What would you change about how VUWSA currently operates to make it more transparent and accountable to students?
The biggest thing that I’d change about VUWSA to make sure that we are accountable to tauira is making our goals clear, and our Executive available to all students, at all campuses. Every student pays around $80 per year from the Student Services Fee into VUWSA. I take the responsibility of using that money in the best interests of students seriously.
As President, I’ll work over the summer with the Executive to draft a 2027 VUWSA Action Plan that sets out our aims for the year, including the outcomes, campaigns and initiatives we want to accomplish. This, alongside regular events at all campuses and more opportunities for students to directly ask their Executive questions, will empower our tauira to keep us accountable. These forums also allow students to tell us what they want to see more of, and ensures our kaupapa aligns with what students actually need!
Candidate: Charlotte Lawrence
Your campaign puts major emphasis on protest, organising, and building student power. How would you decide when VUWSA should campaign publicly and when working directly with the University or government would be more effective?
The University and the government will not just collaborate with students through their own goodwill. Our recent 6% course fees hike shows this. We must put public pressure on them so that they come to the table. Students don’t have stacks of cash to lobby politicians but we do have thousands of us on our side. Hence VUWSA should utilize its people power!
However, the full force of students is not always necessary and of course we must be practical. There are ways of working around this. For instance, in some circumstances a smaller delegation could attend a hui.
It’s also critical that VUWSA holds ourselves to high standards and always acts with mana and manaaki, so that we can negotiate effectively with all parties.
I think it is important to remember VUWSA is independent from the university - part of its job is to critique it on behalf of students.
You’ve said you want VUWSA to focus its energy on campaigns that can win. With limited staff time and resources, what criteria would you use to decide which issues VUWSA prioritises?
It’s true that VUWSA cannot focus on every issue. I would target our resources on campaigns that are ambitious, but also winnable.
I’d also focus on campaigns that significantly affect the most students. We’re all affected by the cost of fees, housing and public transportation, so these issues would be a priority.
These decisions should be democratized as much as possible. This year, our main campaign, Paid Placements, was decided by nearly 100 students at the Student Action Hui which I lead. This guaranteed that students had a voice and stakes in the campaign from the start. This meant the campaign belonged to students and not just the executive.
If the right is reelected, students will have to fight for everything we have now. If the left is elected, we’ll have to put pressure on them to secure any wins for students. Either way, we need to have strong campaigns.
Looking ahead to 2027, what is one concrete change you would want students to actually notice in their day-to-day lives as a result of your presidency, and how would you go about delivering it?
If I’m elected, students' lives will get cheaper, our community will be strengthened and our student power will be boosted. All of these will affect students’ everyday lives.
It’ll become cheaper to study! I’ll boost our food pantry, our provision of period products and our public transport passes. We can study better when we’re not worried about money. I would go about this by creating a team within VUWSA that would apply to sponsors, seek donations and consider options like fundraising. We’d also pressure the university to increase funding for these services.
Students would also notice a greater sense of community! This would be built by uplifting different clubs and representative groups, and running lively events.
Lastly, students would notice a captivating increase in political activity. They’ll have the chance to join engaging campaigns, meet new friends, learn new skills and be part of a new era of student power.
It's likely a number of executive members will have ties to political parties or political organisations. How would you ensure those affiliations do not shape VUWSA’s priorities in a way that undermines its responsibility to represent and advocate for all students, including those with different political views?
I am a firm believer in the idea that student associations should have ‘no permanent friends and no permanent enemies’. VUWSA should work on a case by case basis with whichever political party can offer the most to students, regardless of the political affiliations that executive members have.
I would place clear expectations on the VUWSA executive that while we may have our own political beliefs, these should not interfere with our mahi. We need to act as a disciplined and unified group to achieve change.
What’s clear is that regardless of the political views that our tauira have, everyone is facing the same cost of living crisis and the same fee hikes. A VUWSA that focuses on these issues belongs to all students.
You’ve said you’ll ensure VUW does not begin charging students for Mauri Ora. As far as Salient is aware, there are currently no plans to introduce charges. Do you have reason to believe that could change, and if so, what information are you basing that concern on?
Firstly, the University already charges international students for Mauri Ora, which I will advocate strongly against. International students deserve the same access to healthcare.
This year, when the University was consulting on where the Student Services Fee is spent next year, they asked students whether they support adding a charge for using Mauri Ora health services. I’m completely against this because you don’t solve long wait-times by cutting access to healthcare. I’ll work hard to ensure this doesn't happen.
I am a firm believer in the provision of universal services. While there’s significant room for improvement at Mauri Ora, so many students are better off because it exists.
This is not the time to walk existing services backwards.
Candidate: Skyla Ashford
You’ve centred your campaign on meeting students where they are and supporting people directly. As President, how would you turn that approach into priorities for an organisation representing thousands of students with very different needs?
The main thing affecting all students is the cost of living crisis. I plan to enact a greater subsidy on bus fares for all students, and also re-expand the number of passes for between campus trips given per office visit. I also wish to have VUWSA services available at Te Aro and Pipitea campuses offered. An example of this would be food pantry expansions on other campuses, as well as high nutrition options to be offered for students who would otherwise be skipping lunch to cut costs- within limits, same as the Food Pantry initiative already has.
You’ve prioritised expanding on-campus physiotherapy and food pantry support. Why are these the areas where you think VUWSA can make the biggest difference to students in 2027?
While they are priorities, I would love to hear back from the wider student body on what they need, not just what I have come across students needing around me. But to explain the physiotherapy, the representative of the WSM group, who provide the physiotherapy on campus, approached the Equity and Wellbeing officers of both UniQ and VUWSA about the history of physiotherapy offered on campus. Before their on campus space was downsized in 2020, they were holding ~11000 appointments for students and ~1000 for staff every year, showing clear demand. It was revealed to us that this last year, they only had ~700 appointments total, due to only having a single room part time on campus. I don’t need to tell you how significant of a decrease that is. What was asked for was 2-3 rooms to occupy and supply his group’s services at a 50% discount for students.
Your background is strongly grounded in wellbeing and queer advocacy. How would you ensure your presidency also responds effectively to students and issues outside the communities you already know well?
The other major part of my UniQ portfolio is equity, which is very significant to this question. While I have primarily advocated for queer students this last year- due to them seeking me out- I have been doing the same advocacy for students from all backgrounds as they have come to me, whether it be due to being in the bubble together or as a class representative for any of my given classes, which I only stopped doing this trimester due to significant timetable clashes. But queer students are also just another part of the student body, and while there may be different finer details, such as misgendering in emails, they are still students in the same courses as non-queer students, completing the same workload and living in the same circumstances as students from all backgrounds. So the nature of this question feels divisive in its wording.
You haven’t previously served on the VUWSA Executive. What gives you confidence that you have the governance experience and institutional understanding needed to lead the organisation effectively from day one?
While I have not served on VUWSA, I have worked closely with them through my leadership position in UniQ, allowing me insight into the institution in place, even if it is not yet the whole picture. I have confidence in myself to fulfil this role to the same standard as my competition for President, because I have a love for the student body at Te Herenga Waka, and until these past holidays, was preparing to officially step into the leadership role of President of UniQ, before seeing further into the system and wanting to make greater changes than UniQ is institutionally able to, being an outside entity and charity organisation. I also would not be starting from a blank slate, since VUWSA has permanent staff, and there will also be handovers, to make sure people understand the pieces on their boards.
At the end of 2027, what concrete outcomes would you want students to judge your presidency on?
This is a tricky question to answer, because it is all reliant on how compliant the university as an entity wishes to be in my own and VUWSA as a whole’s plans. We have seen plenty this year of Aiden being held in stalemate by Victoria University being a for-profit organisation first and foremost, with Manawa Ora; the Equity team employed by the university; being an underfunded entity which is entirely separate from VUWSA and the student run representative groups.
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