Short answer: “yes with an if”. Long answer: “no, with a but” as MUSA continues to prevaricate.

As the final issue of CHAFF for the year finds its way into readers’ hands, MUSA has yet to officially confirm whether or not it is the last issue of the publication, despite some strong indications that it won’t be around next year.

In last week’s issue of CHAFF, MUSA President Alex Jones indicated that the Association would not be able to enter negotiations with Massey over what services the University would contract MUSA to provide until the Tertiary Education Minister’s guidelines around student services levies are finalised on October 28. MUSA General Manager Dave Broderick echoed those sentiments at last week’s non-SGM.

However, MUSA’s 2012 Strategic Plan, released in August, stated that the Association was “currently exploring a new and exciting monthly publication that will showcase what is happening in the Massey Community, local community and Wider New Zealand”. The Strategic plan did not mention CHAFF or a weekly publication.

In the incomplete results of the 2011 MUSA Survey released to CHAFF this week, CHAFF places above the Post Shop and Radio Control in terms of student usage and value. MUSA has not yet released official information on their intentions for Control, but then-President Kent Gearry confirmed to the Manawatu Standard in July that Radio Control was “here to stay”.

Read more...

As reported in CHAFF last week, 131 students signed a petition calling on the MUSA President to explain the Association’s plans for operating under voluntary membership and to engage with students on the issue at an SGM. This came after CHAFF reported that MUSA has been in discussions regarding amalgamating with the Massey at Wellington Students’ Association (MAWSA) and the Massey University Extramural Students Society (EXMSS), as outlined in a document leaked to this publication.

Read more...

(and it tastes like roast chicken)

CHAFF had a more than solid showing at the 2011 Aotearoa Student Press Assocition (ASPA) Awards, held in Wellington just over a week ago, with only the shocking closing of the bartab only forty minutes in casting a shadow on the festivities.

Held at the “Milk & Honey” student bar at Victoria University, representatives of the fourteen student newspapers and magazines gathered to sit around in small groups and judge each other.

Not only did CHAFF pick up six “top three” placings, including the top spot in Best Editorial Writer, but author and journalist Nicky Hager came to sit at their table and seemed to have a nice time until the Editor started trying to force him to go to the zoo with a six-year old. These are strange times we live in.

Read more...

The Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill passed in its third and final reading in Parliament last Wednesday, meaning that students’ will not be required to join their institution’s students’ association from next year.

The bill passed by 63 votes to 58, with National, ACT and United Future supporting it, as they have done since its first reading in September 2009.

Without the guaranteed revenue that comes with charging students compulsory membership fees, students’ associations will struggle to provide the same level of services that they have in the past.

The Bill’s passage ends a long, drawn-out affair that saw 98 percent of submitters oppose it at the Select Committee stage, and Labour slowing down debate in an attempt to prevent the Bill from passing before the election.

Read more...

Alex Jones elected MUSA President 

MUSA Environmental Officer Alex Jones will be stepping up into President’s role in 2012, after winning an election that saw his opponent withdraw at late notice.

Mr Jones picked up 93 votes to Wiebe Marinus’ 18. Because MUSA did not receive a written notice of withdrawal from Mr Marinus, his name was left on the ballot.

Mr Marinus was not the only candidate to pull out, with Vice President Education candidate Andy Ewen and Vice President Welfare candidate Kyle Willoughby withdrawing prior to the Election. Despite voters being informed of their withdrawals, some still chose to vote for Mr Ewen and Mr Willoughby.

As a result of these withdrawals, each election candidate ran uncontested.

Read more...

Kent Gearry’s future as MUSA President hangs in the balance, after students organised a petition calling for him to face a confidence vote by his constituents.

Just before noon last Wednesday, MUSA received a petition signed by 131 students calling for Mr Gearry’s presidency to be put to a vote at a Special General Meeting (SGM). The meeting will be held at 12pm on October 5 (venue to be confirmed).

“We the undersigned, believe that MUSA President Kent Gearry has been acting contrary to due process, the spirit, and constitutional practice of the Association,” the petition reads.

According to the MUSA Constitution, the Vice President Administration is required to call an SGM on receipt of a requisition signed by at least 50 Ordinary Members of the Association (i.e. students who are not part of the Executive).

Student Paul Mitchell said that he and a few other students organised the petition in part due to CHAFF’s report that MUSA has been looking at amalgamating with the Massey at Wellington Students’ Association (MAWSA) and the Massey University Extramural Students’ Society (EXMSS) in the likely event of students’ association membership becoming voluntary next year. A document outlining this proposal was leaked to CHAFF three weeks ago.

Read more...

The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) has hit out at the Minister of Tertiary Education’s proposal for how student service levies can be spent, saying that the directions would make it impossible for the levies to fund most of the services that students’ associations provide.

Read more...

The 2011 MUSA General Election to determine next year’s student Executive will be held this week.

Voting will run from Monday to Wednesday from 9.30am to 3.30pm. The polling booth will be located in the library foyer.

All MUSA members (i.e. most internal students) are eligible to vote, and will need to bring their student ID with them.

Information about most of the candidates can be found in last week’s issue of CHAFF. Come up to the CHAFF office if you need a copy.

Vice President Welfare candidate Kyle Willoughby withdrew from the Election last week. A by-election will be scheduled to fill that position, along with Pacific Island Students’ Officer, Maori Students’ Officer, and Graduate Students’ Officer, which did attract any candidates.

Proposal for MUSA to amalgamate with extramural and Wellington associations finds its way into CHAFF’s grubby little hands

A report, dated August 2011 and anonymously supplied to CHAFF last week, reveals that the Massey University Students’ Association (MUSA) has been looking to combine with its Wellington and extramural counterparts in the likely event of association membership becoming voluntary under the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill. The final reading of that Bill is expected to take place on September 28, and its implementation intended for January of next year. 

Untitled, the document “aims to present an overview of the delivery of services” provided by the three associations, and “detail the adjustments necessary for survival under the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill.”

The confidential report, which CHAFF believes to be the precursor of a similar document discussed under Part 2 (the closed section) of Massey Council, outlines how MUSA, the Massey University Extramural Students’ Society (EXMSS), and the Massey At Wellington Students’ Association (mawsa) plan to amalgamate into one cover-all Association as of 2013. The Massey Albany Students’ Association (ASA) does not figure in the strategy presented in the report.

Read more...

Students raise questions over teaching

The results from the semester one Review It surveys are now online, with many students raising concerns around assignment return times and lecturers not taking full advantage of Stream.

Read more...