Shit gets weird at VUWSA
Last week down at the VUWSA Office was extremely fucked up, complete with wall-art, resignation threats and a smashed door.
Following last week’s exec meeting, Welfare Vice-President Heleyni Pratley went on an alcohol-fuelled rampage around the VUWSA office and stairwell with a permanent marker, sparing no wall or window from scribbles of ‘Love’, hearts, and ‘I realized VUWSA is our canvas’.
Union Manager Rainsforth Dix said that she wasn’t angry or upset by Pratley’s doodling, but that VUWSA would have to fix the damage and repaint the entire back stairwell behind the Salient, Union and VUWSA offices (because just painting over the ‘Love’ won’t blend in with the old faded mint green paint) as well as most of the VUWSA office, which was only repainted late last year.
Pratley put her wall-decorating effort down to the fact that her role as Welfare VP has been enormously stressful in recent times, particularly due to the lack of support and work received from Education Officer (Welfare) Chris Renwick. Pratley announced last week that she intended to carry out a recent threat to roll him (get him booted off the exec), when she gets a chance to type up a petition.
Pratley’s exterior office door also received damage on Wednesday night, with exec members alleging that Acting Women’s Rights Officer Clelia Opie had threatened to hit them for asking her to get off the phone, and that she had thrown a bottle at Pratley’s door, the glass window in which was only held together by wire.
Education Vice-President Joel Cosgrove, who doubles as Pratley’s boyfriend, was overheard last Thursday night berating President Geoff Hayward, insinuating that Hayward was to blame for the scribbles, saying “this wouldn’t have happened under (2006 VUWSA President) Nick [Kelly]”, and claiming that Pratley, Renwick and Opie are all considering resigning.
As Salient goes to press, VUWSA exec members Clubs Officer Melissa Barnard and Education Office (Education) Stefan Tyler are spending their Thursday night cleaning the walls with some really potent spirit which eats through vivid, paint and their rubber gloves.
And so anyway, back to the meeting. I left about a third of the way through to do important things elsewhere, and missed pretty much everything good.