Death of NZUSA

Salient reports:

In VUWSA’s statement on August 1st, they indicated that the presidents of Aotearoa’s students associations had met and decided to institute a national body to replace NZUSA. Salient sat down with VUWSA President, Supreme Leader, First of Her Name, Marcail Parkinson. …

According to Parkinson, NZUSA had become structurally unstable, and corrupt. “The role of the President effectively became a power grab… people were using fees to attend conferences overseas rather than helping students”. At the start of 2024, the President of NZUSA resigned with no plans for another election, bringing to light a range of issues within the organisation—including the fact that it hadn’t been financially audited in over seven years. 

Not audited in seven years is amazing. And labelling NZUSA as corrupt is strong language.

At a July meeting in Christchurch, the respective student association Presidents of all eight universities convened to launch a new alternative student body—the National Presidents’ Council, which is able to appoint a nationwide spokesperson for students. The body also includes the New Zealand Disabled Students’ Association, the New Zealand International Student’s Association, and Te Mana Ākonga. 

I’ve remarked in the past that students would get a better return from each paying say $10,000 to Saunders Unsworth to advocate for them on tertiary policy issues, than they got from NZUSA.

I’d like to see a credible national student body. What I would do is:

• A board made up of all the campus presidents and sector presidents
• The board elect one of their own as President. This is not a seperate FT role. They would remain a campus president also, and are a Chair of the Board not a CEO.
• A staff of two – an executive director and a comms/policy person
• A focus solely on student education and welfare issues

I hope they manage to set up a credible new body.