OUSA Are Idiots
Yesterday OUSA amended passed amendments to their constitution brought about because of the passage of the Voluntary Student Membership bill.
This isn't surprising - most students' associations around the country have been doing the same thing to ensure they comply with the new Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Act.
But OUSA have tried to be tricky, and ended up just making themselves look like idiots. Complete and utter idiots.
One of OUSA's amendments is as follows:
"Member" or "member" means:
(a) a student at the University who has not opted out of membership by way of notice in writing
Basically OUSA are trying to amend their constitution to make membership of OUSA opt-out. Students would 'become members' upon enrolling and be required to inform OUSA that they don't wish to be members to be let out.
Of course, s229A of the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Act says:
Membership of students associations voluntary
No student or prospective student at an institution is required to be a member of a students association.
An Otago student has quizzed various members of OUSA's Constitutional Review Committee, to try and find out what OUSA are thinking and their responses indicate that this amendment is a deliberate attempt to circumvent the intention of the law and create an opt-out membership system.
Some quotes from committee members include:
"Basically they've adopted an opt-out model via the constitution for the purposes of having a mandate. They're not requiring anyone to be a member of OUSA, you can pull out, so they're not breaking the law. I found this very strange, but I spoke to the legal mind who gave it to them, and it's quite convincing as to whether they can do it - though I'm sure it will piss VSMers off."
"They're not requiring someone to be a member, people can opt out at any stage. So it's not a breach of the VSM law which says you can't be required to be a member, nor coerced to be a member. And it's not illegal to point to a group of people and say "you're all members of my incorporated society". Several rate payer associations already do it - including the Dunedin one. Basically OUSA is following the Ratepayers model - they represent all people within a group, but those people can opt out of membership and still use all the services etc."
"It's certainly against the intent of the law that was passed. It will be a legal test to see whether it's actually against the law. The advice comes from the law school, and while it wriggles around the law, I'm not sure it breaches it ... It's the model that UCSA has used for over a decade successfully, and I'm not sure if the new legislation prevents it - because it uses the term 'required', and they'll use the opt-out with no loss of services to say that there are no requirements for you to be a member."
"It's really playing VSM at its own game. The membership becomes irrelevant in terms of cost or what you can access. The only reasons to not be a member are philosophical ones ... It's also going to help them achieve the contract they want from the university, as there's no question of people being denied access to student services through membership. Whether or not it will fly in terms of public relations is another question of course."
"I don't see a contradiction. You are a member by default, you're not required to be a member however, so you can opt out of membership at any time. Required to be a member would mean entirely that - you have to be a member of the students association while attending the institution. No doubt there will be a legal challenge, but OUSA is hopefully following my advice and looking to Wellington for some decent advice here and avoiding the honorary solicitors. The distinction between being a member and not being a member is entirely philosophical, as there's little practical difference between the two."
"I said that the argument is that they're not required to be members because they can opt out with no penalty at all. There certainly isn't anything illegal about an incorporated society making a whole bunch of people members of their society without their consent - lots of organisations do this in NZ already. It's not my construing, it's OUSA and several high powered lawyers. This hasn't come from me. I think it's an interesting solution, whether or not it's legally right I have no idea about - you can go argue with professor geddis if you want. Morally I definitely agree it's dodgy and certainly goes against the intent of parliament."
So OUSA's entire plan for their operation in a VSM environment operates on the assumption that if students are allowed to leave OUSA then they are not requied to be a member.
I see where they're going with this - the law says that students must not be required to be a member, not that they must not be required to join.
The problem for OUSA is required does not mean required to remain, it means required. At any time. Ever.
Whichever law student gave them this idea should probably drop out and try studying for a BA instead and whichever lawyer wrote these amendments for OUSA should probably look for a new job.
As if OUSA's idiotic interpretation of the word required wasn't bad enough, they've completely disregarded this section of the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Act:
229B Undue influence
A person must not exert undue influence on any student or prospective student with intent to make that student or prospective student—
(a) become or remain a member of a students association; or
(b) cease to be a member of a students association; or
(c) not become a member of a students association.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that telling people they are automatically a member of your organisation when they sign their enrolment form would count as exerting undue influence on someone to become a member of a students association.
OUSA do seem to be aware of this problem though as another constitutional amendment said:
The Association will not at any time exercise undue influence in encouraging students at the University to remain members. Therefore, the Association will not restrict the privileges and rights of membership to members only.
Sorry OUSA, but saying in your constitution that you wont exercise undue influence over students doesn't mean that you aren't, or exempt you from any law that prevents you from doing so.
We suspect OUSA is about to become the laughing stock of the education sector, and no doubt be hearing from the Otago University Council, the Education Minister, the Registrar of Incorporated Societies and the Charities Commission in the very near future.
Sink Or Swim For The OUSA: Moving On From The Era Of The Logan Edgars
There is one certain question that will be addressed by the upcoming OUSA elections, and that is: who shall replace Logan Edgar? Edgar is a President who won office and then gave us the punchline to the joke that was his campaign of empty slogans and irrelevant promises. As if to put the messages I'm about to express to justice, media coverage and accounts of his actions lend to the impression that the seriousness that must come with the leadership of the OUSA is lost on him. For Edgar, it appears the association is nothing more than a dialysis machine to keep his fragile ego alive.
Though, and it might come as a surprise to Edgar, it is not all about him. The Executive have much to be grateful with the Edgar presidency; his immaturity has hidden the culpability of the Executive who must think he's easy prey. An overall view of this muddled situation is clear to see: the Executive maneuvers itself into a comfortable position and Edgar pretends to be a revolutionary hero while the history of our association burns.
Students who will make the effort to vote in future elections for the Executive and the President, and thus express their confidence in the future existence of our association, will have a major decision in front of them. Why? This will not be an ordinary election. We will not just be deciding who will represent us as a figurehead of this university's student body, we will also be deciding who will lead our association as it sails into stormy seas. Contributing to the storm, will be voluntary membership.
There have been many reasons given against voluntary membership, but none are all too hardy to stack up against it. Neither have those very reasons roused the silent majority the compulsionists thought were behind them. Let us not be fooled: the OUSA will be the victim but the villains won't be found on the front benches of Parliament - though no doubt they will be made to be scapegoats. It will be the student leaders who took advantage of compulsory membership's bounty of coerced wealth who should be blamed. It is compulsory membership which has made possible the wreckless spending, self-righteous attitudes and alienating partisanship the OUSA have been able to undertake with impunity. As a result, a vast amount of the student population at Otago no longer see the relevance of the OUSA. The OUSA, and student associations in general, have dispensed with their friends, and now when it needs friends most, none can be found.
It is important to understand what voluntary membership will mean for our association: it will be the transfer of power from the Executive to the students and nothing could be more frightening to those who derive power from the current arrangements. Voluntary membership is not a threat to the organisation of student bodies, just to those who abuse the trust of those bodies.
Apathy, voluntary membership and future viability are the issues that aspiring and incumbent leaders alike must take seriously in their campaigns in the next student elections. Ultimately, the political spectrum in the impending student election will not be between the left and the right; it will be between competent, proactive leadership at one end and mocking, self-serving leadership at the other. More importantly, the triumph of one over the other will be a telling referendum on the future of this student association.
If students want no more OUSA, they will either vote for Logan Edgar or his equivalent. If students love the OUSA, then those candidates who accept the principles of voluntary membership and display mature, competent leadership will continue the life of our association. You will know who to look for by how relevant the issues they represent are to the future of the OUSA and what you, as a member, want from it.
It is no easy task being at the top. It must be said that despite the product we get from our leaders, it takes admirable courage and dedication to go through with the job and to put one's reputation on the line. But our current leaders have been found wanting. No student election at Otago will ever be as important at this one. Logan Edgar has been elected and we have had a laugh and a giggle. But now its time to get to work and restore the OUSA to full health.
Students Call On OUSA President To Resign
Students are today calling on Logan Edgar to resign from his position as President of the Otago University Students' Association (OUSA).
Late last night Logan Edgar, in reference to the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill, commented on the Facebook wall of Sir Roger Douglas, saying:
"Get fucked you dinosaur…just trying to give yourself a legacy because you know you’re getting too old. You should actually debate the Bill with Pete or Grant… you’d get torn to shreds. Cunt"
In addition, today, Logan Edgar has encouraged students to rip up photographs of the Hon Heather Roy MP, the sponsor of the bill, as part of a protest at Otago University.
"These personal attacks and hateful messages, committed by someone who claims to represent the views of all students, are completely inappropriate and Mr Edgar should resign from his position of responsibility immediately," says ACT on Campus President, Peter McCaffrey.
"The vast majority of students at Otago University, and around the country, are not interested in the petty, self-serving nature of student politics,"
"Voluntary student membership will allow students to decide, for themselves, whether to join a student union. This will ensure student unions will focus on providing services that students want and need and provide much-needed accountability that will discourage the type of obscene behaviour that has been demonstrated by Mr Edgar in the last few days," said Mr McCaffrey.
Note:
Due to constitutional changes made by OUSA in 2010, students at Otago University are no longer able to force members of the OUSA executive to resign - they can only lose their position if they resign or face criminal convictions.
Release Students From Compulsory Union Cage
Joke candidate turned student politician Logan Edgar, Otago Univeristy Students' Association (OUSA) President, will lock himself in a cage overnight to protest ACT's Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill.
The Bill will prevent Mr Edgar and other student politicians around the country from forcing students to join their associations and pay hefty subscriptions every year.
"Sadly, as a comedian, Mr Logan has failed to notice the joke is on the thousands of Otago students he claims to speak for," says ACT on Campus President Peter McCaffrey.
"Students are forced to hand over hundreds of dollars, on top of their tuition fees, to be locked in an ideological cage with him and his cronies - against their own will."
"ACT on Campus calls on the Government to release students from the cage they have been locked in for decades - in time for the 2012 academic year."
NZUSA Conference
While they weren't kind enough to extend ACT on Campus an invitation, I have already been leaked no less than six copies of their internal conference papers, all from different sources.
I won't publish the full papers yet, but I have summarised some of the highlights for you, my fellow students' association members:
NZUSA's 2009 accounts - which they had previously refused to provide to us, show a $77,000 deficit.
NZUSA hired a new full-time staff member to run their campaign against VSM.
The office holders' reports are full of apologies for not quite getting around to their other important student work because they were too busy fighting VSM.
NZUSA tried to get all the university chancellors to sign a joint open letter against VSM to be published as a full page advert in all the major newspapers. One VC agreed to do so and the attempt was abandoned.
When NZUSA apologised for 'accidentally' using VSM-supporting students' names and email addresses to spam MPs emails lobbying against VSM, what they actually meant was that they they regularly lobby MPs by spamming them with emails pretending to be from different people but actually all coming from NZUSA, they just 'accidentally' used the wrong list this time.
NZUSA admit that the poll they commissioned from UMR wasn't designed to find out what students thought about VSM but to "demonstrate that the position NZUSA and students’ associations were taking against the Bill was shared by the general public. This was intended to address and debunk the criticisms of self-interest often made about us." In other words, they didn't care what the actual poll results would be, they just wanted results that agreed with their position - as we always knew.
And finally, the bombshell - every student association except Lincoln, Waikato, Massey Wellington and VUWSA have already given notice that they are withdrawing from NZUSA.
Students Counter-Protest Against Own Union
NZUSA Protests Crashed By Real Students
"Students across the country have taken to the streets to counter-protest against their own union, in support of Voluntary Student Membership and the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill," says ACT on Campus President, Peter McCaffrey.
"The New Zealand Union of Students' Associations held pro-compulsion rallies but, despite having hundreds of thousands of dollars of students' money for advertising, were only able to scrape together a dozen protesters in Wellington and couldn't find ANY Otago students willing to oppose the bill and so didn't even bother to hold a protest down south."
"While the NZUSA protesters were mostly NZUSA officials, former officials, staff and other trade unionists, real students crashed the NZUSA rallies and counter-protested in support of the bill."
"How can students' associations continue to claim that students are opposed to VSM when their own members are protesting against their position?," asks McCaffrey.
"Clearly NZUSA are more interested in ensuring their own pockets remain lined with compulsorily acquired student money than actually advocating for the views of students,"
"The VSM bill will give choice back to students and will ensure that students' associations accurately represent their member's views." says ACT on Campus President, Peter McCaffrey.
NZUSA Fractured By VSM Dissent
"The New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) is splitting at the seams after disagreements over its approach to Voluntary Student Membership (VSM) and the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill currently before parliament," says ACT on Campus President, Peter McCaffrey.
"The union is falling apart thanks to the extremist views advocated by the left-wing leadership of the organisation over Voluntary Student Membership and other political issues in the last two years"
"Emails leaked to ACT on Campus show that more than $65,000 of students' money was spent by the NZUSA federal executive on a legal opinion and a Price Waterhouse Cooper's report into VSM without prior permission from NZUSA member associations," says McCaffrey.
"The spending was authorised during a very short federal executive meeting, without all member associations present and without following due process."
"NZUSA have followed in their member association's footsteps by disregarding due process and ignoring the views of their members, and just as students have fought back against students' associations, now students' associations have fought back against NZUSA."
Internal complaints and disagreements over the expenditure and the priority NZUSA has put on VSM have raged all year but now tensions have spilled out into the media and the public:
Already, the Otago Polytechnic Students' Association has officially announced plans to withdraw from NZUSA and the decision was confirmed by students in a referendum last week.
OPSA President Meegan Cloughley was quoted as saying that saying that OPSA is not getting value for its annual subscription fee of $31 000. “I have said the same thing for my three terms in this position: we have not seen financial accountability, their actions are not well communicated, and we have seen little proactive as well as reactive campaigning, so this isn’t a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction; it’s been going on for years,”
Similarly, Otago University Students' Association has indicated it will likely withdraw from NZUSA, with a final decision to be made shortly.
"Tensions have escalated throughout the year and now, at the annual NZUSA conference in Palmerston North this weekend, almost 4 hours will be dedicated to VSM discussion in an attempt to resolve the disagreement, while only an hour will be spent disucssing issues like recent changes to the student loan scheme and how that will affect students."
"Clearly NZUSA are more interested in ensuring their own pockets remain lined with compulsorily acquired student money than actually advocating for important student issues," says ACT on Campus President, Peter McCaffrey.
Human Rights To Finally Be Restored On Campus
ACT on Campus has today congratulated the Education and Science select committee for its recommendation to restore the fundamental human right of freedom of association to students.
“It is recognised around the world that it is a fundamental human right to decide whether to join an organisation and to determine who should represent your views.” says ACT on Campus President, Peter McCaffrey.
“We do not have compulsory gym membership, church attendance or trade unionism in New Zealand and now, after a 20 year long struggle, students will once again enjoy their right to freedom of association.”
“Compulsory membership created a massive incentive for minority special interest groups, whether left or right wing, to exploit the silent majority of students. This bill gives students the freedom to choose whether to join their student union and returns that power back to the students themselves.”
“Despite claims by Labour and the Greens, analysis of the submissions reveals that fewer than 300 people made substantial submissions against the bill. Of these, only about 50 submissions were made by actual students, the remainder coming from students’ association executive members or trade unions longing for the return of the days of compulsory trade unionism.”
“We look forward to the passage of this bill and the return of the fundamental human right of freedom of association to the more than 100,000 students around New Zealand.” says ACT on Campus President, Peter McCaffrey.
Students seeking to use their new freedom to choose their representatives are invited to visit http://www.actoncampus.org.nz/join
13 Questions
Student Job Search is conducting a survey assessing the quality of their service which is partly funded by students associations.
Tucked in near the end of the survey is this question:
But the real question is, which of these services are ACTUALLY paid for by the student association?