“Send out, Salient, the swift satiric point,
To smart the sluggard mind awake,
While Freedom anywhere in bonds is pent
No compromise with falseness make.
Those freed today tomorrow forth must leap
Some further outpost there to take and keep.”
Salient, 1938
We made it. 25 80-hour weeks, 25 all-nighters, 25 issues later. We have made it to the last Salient of 2010. It’s a bittersweet feeling. I am looking forward to developing regular sleeping patterns again. I am looking forward to not eating noodles out of a cup for dinner multiple nights a week. I am looking forward to lying in bed until midday without feeling guilty. It’s going to be sweet.
Then again, I’m going to miss this place and all the craziness that comes with it. I first started contributing
to Salient back in 2008. I had no inkling I’d spend the bulk of 2009 getting mocked and abused by a bunch of boys and having stuff thrown at me across the office. I also had no idea I’d be quite so sober this year. When I first walked into this office, a nervous volunteer, I had no idea I’d end up sitting in the editor’s chair.
Despite the sleep deprivation, the coffee dependency and the general grumpiness that comes with a job like
this, Salient has certainly achieved a lot this year. We had an all-girl editor/designer/news editor line-up for the first time ever. We monumentally shifted the gender balance in student media and proved we could still make a damn fine magazine without an overdose of testosterone. We interviewed a cat. We pissed off the
people of Murchison. We won a Qantas. We won a few ASPA Awards. We covered the closure of enrolments.
We scooped the Dominion Post. We increased pick-up at Te Aro. We made an awesome women’s issue. We got people thinking about the state of our abortion laws. We came second to Critic. We worked with Ngai Tauira to make one of the best issues of Te Ao Marama in years. We interviewed the Vice-Chancellor. We stuck to our guns in not taking an editorial line on VSM. We are still talking to VUWSA. We have lived, breathed and sweated Salient. And we are all still friends.
Salient is obviously more than just the editor. It takes a dedicated and talented team to make this all happen week in, week out. And keep me sane.
Firstly, Juliette. We started this job BFFs and we’re going to leave this job BFFs. I can’t think of anyone I’d
rather spend 80 hours a week in an office with. You’ve put up with my grumpiness and rants day in, day out.
We’ve had some of the best times ever. We’ve also had to deal with some weird shit going wrong. You have
seriously been the best designer and friend I could have ever wished for. And lol, we actually made all this up!
Molly, you have been an absolute pleasure to work with. You took to this news editor gig like [insert over-used cliché here] and you’ve done an amazing job and you should be immensely proud of yourself. Now that all this craziness is over you can start sleeping properly and doing school work again. Sorry about that.
Elle, my god you’re a girl with sass. No matter what ideas I’ve thrown at you, you’ve produced features like no other in student media. You will no doubt carry on this magazine’s high standard of feature writing. And you’re far, far better at getting them in at a reasonable hour than I ever was. For that, my sanity thanks you.
Uther Dean. What more can I say? Thank you for your witty quips. Thank you for your light relief. Of all the
ASPAs we won, I am by far the proudest of yours. How you’ve managed to juggle Salient, honours and all that crazy theatre stuff you do, I don’t know.
My two chief sub-editors. Mikey Langdon, we miss you heaps. Thank you for your patience and dedication. And thank you for putting up with Ju and I, and our poor taste in music. Hannah Warren, I can’t believe how well you’ve just fitted into this office. Please stick around Salient. Mikey’s ghost will stop haunting you. Eventually.
Paul Comrie-Thomson, Lewis van den Berg-Shaw, Stuart Taylor and David Smith—in your own distinct ways
you have each contributed something different to this magazine and given it flavour.
My arts editors Kim Wheatley and James Beavis, chur. You’ve put in some hard work this year—both of you—and it has been seriously appreciated. Best of luck with whatever you pursue next year.
The news kids, Lauren Priestley and Natalie Powlesland in particular, you guys have done a stellar job and made Molly’s life easier.
Renee Lyons, your stuff has always been in on time. And you bring us the most delicious brownie in the world, and that gets you some serious bonus points.
Sarita Lewis, Rebekah Galbraith, Carlo Salizzo, Stephen Jackson, Mariana Whareaitu, Liz Willoughby-Martin,
Denise and Dave, Henry Lyons, Zoe Reid, Candy Badger, and everyone else who has contributed columns, photos, comics and puzzles, THANKS!
VUWSA, you guys have done alright this year. Maybe we should go have some beers?
A few other people deserve mention too… Madeleine Setchell and Maria Cobden, you two have been amazing to work with this year and thank you for everything.
To the gaggle of ex-Craccum editors who have constantly reminded me of how good we’ve got it at Salient—Matt, Val, and Simon in particular—kia ora. There’s nothing like being reminded of how you guys have to bring in your own computers for the year to put everything in perspective.
I don’t think I would have got through this year without having someone to vent my frustrations with over Gmail, or when shit got really bad, over the phone. Ben Thomson, you would not believe how reassuring it’s been this year knowing that there’s someone else in the same boat. Thanks for listening to all the rants.
Laura McQuillan, Jackson Wood, Michael Oliver, Rory Harnden and Keith Ng—your advice and support has been invaluable this year. You’ve all been shoulders to cry on at one point or another. And Keith, thanks for fixing our computers all the time.
To all my friends I haven’t seen enough of this year, sorry! I promise I’ll be better from here on in. But thank
you for understanding the extent to which Salient has consumed my life, and not taking it personally when I haven’t shown up to parties because I’ve been asleep.
Mum and Dad, thank you for taking so much interest in Salient, feeding me on the odd occasion I have come home and being a source of encouragement and support. Dad, thanks for not making too many comments about our over-use of the word ‘fuck’.
And thank you to all you readers. Keep reading. Contribute. Salient is your magazine.
But one last thing:This time next year, VSM could almost be upon us. However, VUWSA appears, at this present point in time, to be more concerned with defeating the bill, rather than putting in place proper measures to ensure the association remains functional under VSM. The threat of VSM isn’t going to go away, even if the bill is defeated this time around. What is the harm in preparing for VSM regardless? The structure of Salient needs a serious shake up. The less reliance we have on VUWSA for funding, the better placed we are to deal with the reduced budgets that will be a reality if VSM is imposed on students’ associations in 2012. Now is not the time to be umming and ahhing about whether or not it’s the right thing to do—the last thing I want is to have Salient operating on a similar budget, and lack of resources, to Craccum in recent years. To whoever edits this magazine next year, best of luck to you. You have an important job to do. Salient is an organ of student opinion at Victoria University, and has been since 1938. You have a tradition to uphold, but you also have the opportunity to stamp your own mark on the magazine and make it what you want to be—this will probably be your only chance to have this much journalistic and creative freedom. Just remember who you’re making the magazine for—students. They want to be informed, they want to be entertained. They want you to listen and be responsive to them. They want Salient to be something they can identify with and call their own. It is their magazine after all. And don’t, whatever you do, give VUWSA an easy ride.