Analiese Jackson

Despite having been asked by the Albany Students’ Association to reconsider some of their more graphic advertising, The Ferguson has decided to continue marketing parties to students by using questionable images on their posters.

Last Wednesday, Satellite received a formal complaint from a student who went to The Ferguson for a casual drink with friends during their lunch break, only to be confronted by the poster on the LCD screens.

The complainant, who wanted to be known only as “Grossed Out”, described the posters as depicting a “buxom bird, a pathetic play on words and marketing that is more reminiscent of K’ Rd than a student bar at a university.”

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Student journalists distraught

By Sarah Robson (Salient)

Education Minister Anne Tolley had the tertiary education portfolio taken off her hands in a Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister John Key last month.

Steven Joyce took over as Minister of Tertiary Education, reportedly to allow Tolley more time to focus on the implementation of the controversial national standards for literacy and numeracy in primary schools.

The announcement marked the end of the “Great Tolley Hunt”, a quest embarked upon by student media outlets across the country in a bid to get Tolley to respond to requests for comment.

Tolley’s lack of engagement with students on tertiary education issues, and her reluctance to talk to student media, did little to instill confidence in the Minister.

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NZUSA

Student leaders reject the appalling generalisations cast on students by an unbalanced story on the student loan scheme, aired on TVNZ’s ‘Close Up’ programme Tuesday evening.

Three tertiary students were profiled in the report discussing their borrowing from the loans scheme, and investing this money rather than using it for living costs, as intended by the scheme.

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Analiese Jackson, Satellite and Sarah Robson, Salient

Delegates of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) descended upon Wellington in late January for their first conference of the year.

Under the watchful gaze of newly elected Co-Presidents David Do and Pene Delaney, members of Students’ Association Executives from across the country mixed, mingled, ate, drank and discussed the pressing issues likely to affect tertiary students in 2010.

“One of the main issues discussed at conference was protecting the quality of tertiary education by fighting the threat of Roger Douglas’ voluntary student membership bill,” Co-President David Do said.

There was a minor hiccup when keynote speaker Norman Kingsbury was unable to attend the conference due to his flight being cancelled at the last minute.

Kingsbury held the NZUSA vice-presidential role in 1955.

His replacement, Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, spoke primarily about the importance of student involvement in the tertiary education sector.

Robertson acknowledged he was a “very poor substitute” for Kingsbury, who he considers to be “… an absolute treasure; the taonga of the student movement.”

Despite the setback, Do was pleased with the way the conference panned out.

“Our conference went very well, and we were very successful in equipping student representatives with the skills and knowledge to face them and stand up for students and the challenges ahead,” he said.

“Voluntary student membership will harm the quality of students’ experience at universities and polytechnics by cutting important student services and representation. Roger Douglas’ bill will cost students more, cost universities and polytechnics more, and ultimately cost the government more.”

(Or “two people make rude comments; editor locks door and cries a little”)

Tui Monteith

The first Albany Students’ Association Satisfaction Survey elicited some interesting results from Massey University Albany Students over the latter half of the second semester last year.

Only 2% of eligible Massey students completed the survey, with the majority of students being full time domestic students between the ages of 18 – 24. One third of the respondents were in their first year of study at Massey University.

The most well recognised and most utilised service provided by the Albany Students’ Association was Satellite Magazine, with 81% of students saying that they used the service on a regular basis.

Other well utilised services included the website; the ASA wall planner and the Student Diary, as well as Wednesday lunch time events and Orientation.

The services that students most valued were reasonably different to those they claimed to utilise on a regular basis. Class Representation, Student Representation; Orientation events and Satellite Magazine were purported to be the services that students identified as being most important to be provided by the Albany Students’ Association.

Only two students who responded were deeply dissatisfied with the quality of Satellite with one student saying that it needed “a little attention”.

Editor of Satellite Magazine, Analiese Jackson, was reasonably pleased with the feedback. “Whilst we always appreciate feedback, whether it be positive of negative, it is important for students to take into account that a lot of what we publish relies on the student body and the extent to which students actively contribute to the publication.”

“If students think they know of ways in which the magazine could be improved, they could always try either sending a letter to the editor or actually contributing to the magazine itself” said Jackson.