I was frolicking with my white middle-upper class socialite friends down at Law School today when I spotted our VUWSA president, Joel Cosgrove, working away heroically behind the Law Students Society Barbecue – pumping out snarlers and Kebabs for hungry Tort Law sufferers. Don’t get me wrong – its great to see our VUWSA president out and about, and representing students in what ever way they can. Joel should be commended for the great visible presence he has had in the opening weeks of university. What he should not be commended for is his overtly political stance and affiliation to the Workers Party.
I say this with trepidation. Every person is allowed to hold an ideological opinion. Joel is perfectly justified in Supporting the Workers Party and advocating their position – just not on students time. Joel was spotted wearing a T-Shirt that criticised Labour and was pro the Workers party – an obvious form of advocacy – while he also was serving students. To me, that’s a perversion of the position of President.
This issue has raised its head before – returning students may remember the political furore over the A-Team’s unsuccessful bid for VUWSA supremacy last year. One interesting point that did arise from their campaign, was the fact that VUWSA should be apolitical – it shouldn’t campaign or support a particular political position, beyond that which directly relates to students – e.g. Interest Free Student Loans, and an increase in Living Costs. There is still even tension about whether they should even campaign for those very focused issues – some students may be against the idea of interest free student loans – they may see them as economically damaging to New Zealand, or principally immoral. Who Knows…
That’s the point in a nutshell really – VUWSA doesn’t really know. There was a 15% mandate for all student politicians in this years VUWSA cabinet. That’s probably the combined student numbers of Young Nats, Act on Campus, The Workers Party, The Debating Society, Young Labour, UniQ, Gecko and some sports clubs. All groups with large vested political interests in both National Politics (and therefore the need to influence students) or vested political interests in VUWSA itself.
I am unsure how to solve this problem. It’s not just one that rests solely with Joel – VUWSA executive members are also Young Labour supporters – and in the past VUWSA has been dominated by Young Nats divisions. To really advocate politically for students – and have a REAL mandate for doing so – VUWSA needs to know what students want politically, and it needs to do ascertain what those are better than its doing now.
Student politicians are often elected on promises of competence, not politics – I would be surprised to hear that a majority of students voted for Joel because of his socialist leanings – it is more likely they did on his promise of Free net and Printing (which we are still waiting for). Due to this fact – and its applicability to all Student politicians, it seems strange that they feel compelled to advocate anything political at all.
Joel has every right to promote the Workers Party as much as he wants – just not on students time, or when he is acting in capacity as the president of our Students Organisation.
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NEW DEVELOPMENT 5th March 2008
Workers Party posters have been distributed around campus this week, encouraging people to obtain new infomation about the Workers Party – Joel Cosgrove is mentioned by name.
The offending wording Follows – I will upload an image once its scanned.
“What is the Workers Party? – Being a Revolutionary on Campus – Joel Cosgrove – President of the Students Association.”
This is exactly what I was talking about above – Joel should not be using his impartial position as President of the Students Association to legitimise his own political ideologies. It would be like Geoff Hayward stating – “inquire about the Labour Party – Says Geoff Hayward.” Thankfully Geoff didn’t do such a thing – his ability to divorce his own personal politics from his role at VUWSA president is a trait Joel should seriously consider adopting.