How ASA is restructuring and what it will mean for you. [Opinion]
Nigel Green

Ding dong, the witch is dead…Heather Roy, the architect of Voluntary Student Membership left Parliament as the ACT Party disintegrated at the last election and she and her other Ayn Rand ideologues rabidly turned on each other as the public decided it had had enough. But Roy’s political stain will take some time to get out of the sheets, particularly in terms of the drastic effect it will have on Students’ Associations including your own ASA.
Roy’s argument was that students’ associations were basically the equivalent of Goldman Sacks or Lehman Brothers – they couldn’t be trusted with your money. They were led by rabid left-wingers – proto-unionists in drag. Her solution – a golden bullet – remove compulsory funding – starve them out – place the power back in the hands of the institution – after all; tertiary education is a ‘paragon of virtue’ that has the best interests of its ‘clients’ at heart. Please – really?
ASA is a service organisation. It employs people to provide services – about eight (people not services) of them – mainly part-timers, more often than not, students. ‘Restructuring’ is a euphemism for ‘budget cuts and redundancies’. Political representation – the anathema that Roy and National railed against during the sub-committee hearings – can continue on a completely volunteer, if less effective, basis. It is happening already with ASA successfully persuading close to 1,000 students in two weeks to be members – although importantly at no cost to them. But all the other service areas – all the things that students developed over time to support students and funded collectively because individualism does not work, needs people. No money – no people – no service. Simple.
So how is restructuring going? Events people – gone (hope you enjoyed Orientation; it had to be down-sized and was probably the last), Media people – fingers crossed (Satellite is now part of a collectively grant-funded experiment), Administration people – next to feel the axe (who needs all the boring accounting and management stuff that allows everyone else to do their jobs?) These people were completely absent from Roy’s argument. Talking about the effect of their politics on people is not what ACT is about. Individualism is what ACT is about. ‘Social structures and collectivism’ equate to ‘communism and socialism’ and therefore are ‘bad’. Reductio ad adsurdum.
But Roy was only the delivery mechanism. Steven Joyce, the Minister of Tertiary Education – who is ironically (and some would argue – insultingly) coming to open the new Student Amenities Centre – fired the gun. This is a man who once pulled down a pay-check from a students’ association while he bummed around their radio station trying to finish his degree. Joyce amended, under parliamentary urgency, the ability for anyone to collect compulsory fees unless they fit his list of proscriptive service areas. Events aren’t one of them; neither are cultural groups. Students can fund everything else through User Pays.
Students’ Associations naively seemed to believe this meant their own tertiary institutions, who for years have rorted large sums of money from students under the guise of funding their own complement of student services and capital building projects, would finally have some level of ‘transparency and accountability’ – National’s risible new catch-phrase. But no – it meant that the only avenue left to ASA and its counterparts was to go cap-in-hand to the powers that be in the hope of getting funding to survive. Where is this money coming from – you guessed it – you – the money go round begins.
Students’ non-academic compulsory fees rose by 60% between 2011 and 2012. That’s enormous. Did any of you realise that? Did anyone tell you? Sit you down and explain why? Did any of the ACT supporters who thought they would be saving on paying Students’ Association fees realise that the money would end up being collected by the institutions anyway – now even they have no say in how it gets spent. Idiots.
Where is all that money going? No one seems to know or say. Not all to ASA or any of its sister associations – we will struggle on what we are lucky to get – we have no bargaining chips – it’s all down to ‘institutional goodwill’. Already there are plans afoot to charge occupancy in the Student Amenities Centre. If that happens – ASA will be operating out of a tent in the middle of ‘Student Central’ by 2013 while students wonder what part of the new building belongs to them – answer – all and none.
In fact you’ve been paying $180 each in terms of a building levy (and will continue to do so for the next 30-odd years) ever since the building broke ground. It seems reasonable that you have a space (other than the Student Common Room) in this building – but watch as it gets nibbled away. Roy and Joyce have effectively stripped the funding off associations, provided less service, provided less accountability – all under the guise of ‘freedom’. You are now all free to watch the death throes of your association-led services; Massey is waiting in the wings to pick up what it values – and, judging by the response so far, that isn’t a lot.
The current contract offers a sixth of the operating income restricted to Advocacy, Welfare and Clubs. And the Association better be grateful it gets anything – Lincoln University Students’ Association didn’t from their institution; so bye bye LUSA. All this will be part of an annual contract and the indication is that, when the paperwork is finally done and dusted, ASA will probably get even less in future periods. Please sir – can I have some less? In the meantime, the institution is rushing around like headless chickens attempting to put its own house in order to meet the same compliance regimes, while ironically the annually audited students’ associations have much better, more ‘transparent and accountable’ practices. Talk about sticking it to the little guy.
So what can you do about it? Simple – become fully-paid members. You want a voice – or perhaps cynically – just all the ‘free’ stuff in the Orientation goodie bags – well it needs to start somewhere. ASA doesn’t’ need a lot, per member, to survive. About $100 per student would see them able to continue to employ the people they need to serve you and, as members – you get to choose what it gets spent on. If you think it is important to maintain a strong and able student voice. If you would like to retain the power to make decisions about what you think is best – as opposed to being told what you are simply going to pay for – then become a member. You can even put it on your Course related costs and (shortly) claim it as a charitable donation.
So when ASA comes door-knocking in the next couple of weeks – think about whether you can afford $50 a semester and if that is worth what you will lose. Because once it is gone, it ain’t coming back anytime soon.

What has the ASA done for me lately?
For everyone who asks the perennial question about why it is important to join a students’ association; here’s a list of some of our achievements working for you since we arrived…
• Hardship fund – supported students in need since 1993
• Club Grants– established policy to administer and gave away thousands to help student clubs
• Chaplaincy – supported it financial for two years while Massey dithered over funding
• Childcare – annual donations towards computers, play areas, ovens, and Christmas parties
• Student Amenities Centre – began asking 1996, part of the steering group 2003 – 2011
• Bar – we ran the only bar on campus 1993 – 2009 and supported the Ferguson Bar when it was floated
• Campus Events – funded them, ran them, delivered Balls, Champagne breakfasts, Winter Festivals Wednesday lunchtimes and many, many more.
• Equipment – purchased BBQ tables and BBQs for use around the entire campus
• Recreation Centre – supported the levy
• Car-parking – kept it free
• Supported teams to University Games – every year since 1996
• Orientation, Winter Festival – every year since 1995
• Student newspapers – Satellite 1995 – 2011, Massive 2012…
• Advocacy – employed a professional advocate to assist in academic grievances, hardship, and support
• Class Rep programme – established in 2005
• Lecturer of the Year began in 2005 – 2011
• Grievance Review – fought to get the Academic Grievance procedures overhauled – 2005 -2012
• Rideshare – established in 2004, designed, managed and administered
• Travel Plan – part of transport surveys, management plans, steering group
• University Council and Committees – provided student representation to operational, strategic and management committees, academic audits, campus development strategies, 1993 – 2012 because sometimes the university staff don’t remember what it’s like to be a student
• Provided the only place to purchase tertiary discount bus tickets on campus, along with continual advocacy to Auckland Transport about student travel needs. This is a service the University wasn’t interested in ensuring students had – if ASA didn’t foot the bill to have a these sales over the last 15 years – you would have to go into Auckland to purchase discount tickets.
• Some of those little things, like ensuring there have been microwaves available for students, advocating for prayer spaces and clubs spaces and study spaces, going to meetings about how services are offered, trying to ensure fees are as low as possible, and
• Getting Albany students’ voices heard in Palmerston North; we haven’t won every battle, but ASA has made the University stop and think about this campus and the needs of its students.

Lots of things the university would have dropped or never started because they didn’t see it as their role or it was economic enough ASA advocated for, offered, and administered because sometimes it’s those things that are the difference between making it to University or not. But none of it comes free.

Zombies are wretched creatures. They are often ridiculed by theirglittery vampire horror movie peers for their lack of speed, intelligence, and success at the box office. But for all their failings they are a lovable bunch really – the tortoise as opposed to the hare. Always moving forwards steadfastly, getting shot at, stabbed, burned or clubbed in the process. The brains they desperately seek just slightly out of reach. Everyone loves the underdog, right?

Run For Your FreaknLife is the first event of its kind in New Zealand, and will involve flooding Aucklandon April 15 with hordes of zombies tasked with finding and devouring slow humans.

There will be plenty of surprises on the five-kilometre obstacle course set around the grounds of the old Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital, a spooky place in its own right, having featured in an episode of Ghost Hunt and a local ghost dubbed the Grey Nun.

Competitors will be battling around 16 hectares of Freaky Forest, CornEvil, derelict grounds, and swamps while avoiding hordes of brain-hungry, virus-spreading zombies desperate to take you out of the race.

Event organiser and part time zombie advocate, Julia Watson, is being tight-lipped about what sort of zombies will be unleashed onto the region. When asked what movie or game best described the ‘horde’ (from the shambling Dawn of Dead variety or the quick-sprinting, quick-to-rage variety found in Left 4 Dead and 28 Days Later) she responds cryptically with: “The zombies are Spooker’s Zombies, an entire breed of their own with no known reference to any genre. They may be people markedly strange in appearance and/or behaviour.Some may move faster than others. Some have slow, stiff, lumbering gaits, with apparently little dexterity, but it is important not to underestimate these zombies. Other zombies may have no impairment in speed, and only slight loss of dexterity.”

Julia says the zombies will be stationed around the 13 challenging obstacles as well as roaming around the course looking for unsuspecting runners.

“The zombie modus operandi will depend on the type and style of each particular obstacle.”

Zombies eliminate players by grabbing flags strapped to their waist. Each runner has four flags and when they are all gone you are recorded as deceased.

Julia says teamwork is the name of the game.

“If competitors band together, and work as a team they should be able to get most of the team past zombies with their flags intact.”

Prizes are awarded for runners who make it through with at least one flag still attached. There are lots of prizes on offer and these will be made available

Safety is important for Spookers, and zombies are not permitted to grapple or tackle competitors and will only try to grab the flags off the belt. It is a two-way street, however, so runners expecting to slay zombies in the way Woody Harrelsondid in Zombieland should leave their clubs and pistols behind. Runnerscan’t physically attack the zombies, either, and will have to rely on cunning, speed, and lightning agility to make it through.

This teamwork angle seems to be causing a stir among corporate groups, with several company teams already registering for the event. It will also be a perfect way to get to know your friends, and see who will sacrifice themselves for the group, and who will run off leaving you as zombie bait.

• MASSIVE has four passes to give away to Run For Your Freakn Life. To enter simply email where you would run to in case of a zombie invasion, and why, tocompetitions@massivemagazine.org.nz. For more information about the event, including times, divisions, and ticket sales visit www.runforyourfreaknlife.com

A joint initiative between Auckland Transport, Massey University and the Albany Students’ Association, revealed that while travel trends around use of public transport and multi-passenger cars has increased since the last survey undertaken in 2006, 72% of staff and 63% of students still drive alone to and from the campus. With a combined population of 6,832 and only 2,130 car parks the survey hopes to identify current behaviours, barriers and actions that may be required in order to make sustainable transport more attractive.

Since inception, Albany has been a ‘transient campus’ with the vast majority of its student population arriving in single-person cars to park on campus for free. However the recent completion of the Student Amenities Centre aims to attempt to keep more students in and around the campus while future developments around the Science Block will place even more pressure on parking. Hence the initial target of “…encouraging 10% of current single-occupant car drives to travel by more sustainable options over the next 5 years.”

The first combined Travel Demand Management Plan will be launched in the Study Centre Auditorium Friday 28 March at noon. All welcome.

Basically an SGM is like a normal General Meeting; however it is outside the pre-set dates of a normal General Meeting. So it’s basically a meeting that is set whenever there are some changes that need to be made with members’ approval. This usually relates to budget or constitutional issues but can be about other important issues raised by our members or Exec.

So why do you have to attend? Well partly because a meeting needs people for it to be of any use. Secondly, it affects you and your voice on campus. Thirdly, there’s usually pizza and a couple people who have a moan about something, which usually tends to be quite entertaining. Lastly, and most importantly, it will be chaired by my El Presidente himself……ME!

So I’ll give you all a run down of what we need to accomplish at this meeting.

First, we need at least 20 people in the room, this is so that we can get what is called “quorum” which is basically a fancy Latin word which means “have enough people in the room to make decisions.” The actually dictionary definition may vary, but that’s the general gist of, and you can trust me, because I am a Linguist.

Second, we need to pass a few motions (or decisions) that change parts of our constitution, so that we can operate legally in the new voluntary membership environment this year. To explain that a bit further, everyone at Massey Albany is technically a member of the Association, until we pass these motions saying you are not. Don’t freak out just yet about being part of an Association when you don’t want to be. Like I said, “technically” you are a member, but in reality you are not. It’s like when Rob says he was technically Alison’s first boyfriend. First person to get that reference, and can tell me where it’s from I’ll buy you lunch.

That’s about it really. To summarise, I’ll put the important bits as bullet points:

• Come to the SGM. It’s on Wednesday 28^th March at noon in the Student Common Room upstairs in the new Student Amenities Centre next to the ASA offices;
• It’s really important, so turn up; we need at least 20 people there;
• There will be voting, “Aye” means “Yes”, “Against” means “No” and Abstention means you don’t want to vote. I’ll ask you if you want it on record.
• There is a good chance there will be pizza.

See you there.

“We were, partly due to the mismanagement of Amendment 4, cast adrift by the University who opted for a conservative approach and left us out of their new enrolment software. So we just rolled up our sleeves and went for it,” says ASA President, Stephan van Heerden.

“We went with the absolute basics – manual sign-up sheets, word-of-mouth and friendly faces. Our next step, after the data entry, will be getting people to move from the base free membership to full paid membership, which works out to be $50 a semester – nothing when you consider the vast range of stuff we offer and do. Students’ fees were increased by the University by almost 60% and only a fraction of that amount will be coming to ASA to provide only a small amount of what we have done in the past. Needless to say we really need members to help see ASA remains a viable and visible organisation.”

“So far we have signed up over 1,000 students in just under two weeks – that’s three times the number who voted last year showing students really do want to be part of the association – so one in the eye for VSM.”

Satellite out.

On Wednesday the plaza in front of the Student Amenities Building was filled with stalls promoting a wide range of clubs, societies and groups for Clubs’ and Cultural Day. I was there to promote the Business Students’ Group (BSG) and to sign-up new members, and to check out other groups on campus.

As each group arrived and set up a stall, they added their own splash of colour to the animated plaza. And then the crowds arrived…

AMESS (Engineering Club) were demonstrating their quad-copter while hoards of students lined-up to get a sausage from the ASA. The sports clubs made their presence known with the Tennis Club setting up a mini-court and the Airsoft (Paintball) Club setting up their firing range. Up in the cultural area under the veranda, the Indian group drew eyes and noses with their food and displays, while the Catholic society made a hot day more pleasant with free ice-blocks. Te Waka, the Maori Students’ Association and PIUMA, the Pasifika students gave students an opportunity to see share with them as well as putting on some dances.

As I was wandering around the stalls, I came across the community garden stall where they were giving away their produce. By the radishes and cucumbers they had some large heads of broccoli. I chose one and once the festivities ended, I took it home for dinner.

For information about clubs or cultural groups contact the ASA, the Campus and Activities Officer, or me – the Recreation and Clubs Rep: recnclubsrep@asa.ac.nz.

The new Student Amenities Centre has been 17 years in the making but it is finally nearing completion. The new structure is distinctly different to the almost monastic feel of the rest of the buildings dotted around the East Precinct but it still has a lot to live up to in order to become the ‘Heart of Student Central’’ as the university administration has labelled it.

ASA [Albany Students’ Association] General Manager, Nigel Green, says everything comes to he who waits. “The project goes back to 1996 when I, and then Student President, Paula Bennett, first drafted a letter to Campus Principal, Ian Watson asking Massey to consider a Student Amenities Building,” he adds while fishing out a copy of the letter from a foot-high pile of variously labeled document boxes (all relating to ASA’s involvement with this project. He adds cheerfully, “Never throw anything out. Especially when dealing with the University.”

Nigel had hoped that Paula would be able to read the letter out at the opening since; technically, she was the first to ask for the building. “But it’s a bit on the dry side.” Massey has decided to go with Steven Joyce (despite a few rolled eyes).

The letter describes the vision of the building as being a ‘one-stop’ shop incorporating “virtually every student-related service provided by both the University and the Association in one location.” It finishes by commending “the University for their Ongoing Commitment to supporting their Students’ Association in the hope that together we can work towards the completion of this vision.”

The piles of paper make for interesting reading, and act as a perfect time line to the building. Everything can be found within the piles: design notes, financial planning documents, and minutes from meeting after meeting after meeting, and attest to the vast amount of work required to achieve this vision. “I don’t think it was on the University radar up until ASA finally got its first Council Representative in Matthew Evetts in 2004. A lot of the work around it felt like ‘busy work’ – designed to lay the groundwork for when the time was right, but it kept getting delayed or deferred.

“We [ASA] learned a lot about University politics and processes – stuff your average student has no idea about. But it is a 25 million dollar building and we all wanted it to be done right.”

“The funny thing is that we started out with a proposal where ASA would loan the money from the University and build the building – but there are issues with sub-dividing the land. Then we argued that we should shop around for architects and go for a design that maximised the available capital – that got knocked back but the argument came full circle over about 10 years and our view was eventually vindicated. However we had to wait for a change in administration before we finally saw progress – a lot of credit goes to our past Student Services Manager, Gary Williams and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, John Raine as well as our current Campus Registrar, Andrea Davies who together managed to get the business case in front of Council. Asking for large sums of money for capital infrastructure, especially for non-academic buildings isn’t a way to make you popular. In the end Council approved the building in two stages.”

When asked if he felt it was worth the wait though the GM is more guarded in his response. “Voluntary Student Membership was a game changer for all students’ associations. The irony for ASA is that we fought for the campus to have a heart and for us to be in that heart, however VSM has ripped away our funding just as we are settling in. In all honesty I don’t know how long we will be here – it’s all down to the largesse of the institution – if they think we are worth supporting we will have a future, if not…” he tails off, then adds “But in the meantime we encourage all students here to use what we think is one of the best, if not ‘the’ best purpose-built facilities in the country – after all – they are paying $180 each for it.”

Leaving the office ASA shares with its sister Association Te Waka O Nga Akonga Maori, you drift out through the student common room, past the Health Centre that occupies the other major section of the top floor, and downstairs into the main promenade below. A large cafeteria graces the lower back section opposite a coffee shop that appears to be doing good trade.

Along the rest of the spine sits the commercial vendors – a pharmacy/mini-mart, travel agent, and Bennetts bookshop, with one more service yet to be added. Outside the main entrance a two-storey verandah shades the students drinking their coffees, while what passes for summer sun dapples the main plaza area. Amongst the mixture of grass, seating, and flagstone walkways stand seven four metre Po – representing the original Maori waka glistening in brushed steel. Students are everywhere and contractors are still putting the finishing touches to the landscape gardens but you can understand the realisation of the architect Warren and Mahoney’s vision. Albany campus has heart, and it was worth the wait.

The official Opening of the Student Amenities Centre is on Friday March 23 at 2.00pm by the Hon Steven Joyce, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment.

A pink ribbon