Environmental SRC meeting fails to meet quorum
The Environmental Student Representative Council (SRC) meeting last Thursday was abandoned after only six students attended, instead of the required 50 to meet quorum.
Five of these students were from the VUWSA exec. They “joked” about pretending quorum had been met and the meeting held until they realised Salient was actually present.
The meeting was planned as part of Environmental Week organised by VUWSA, which also included stalls in the quad, herb potting and an open mic night at Ramsey House.
Advertising for the meeting was minimal, with the only notice of the event included in the Salient Environment Week schedule and on a poster on the VUWSA noticeboard in the Student Union Building.
Topics for the meeting included preventing a BP disaster and the proposed motion from Environmental Officer Zachary Dorner for VUWSA to oppose all new offshore oil drilling in New Zealand.
After the meeting was cancelled, Dorner discussed student involvement in Environmental issues.
“There’s a good number of core people who do a lot of stuff, but in saying that, they do a lot. Others have good ideas but don’t do as much.”
Dorner did manage to see a positive side to the failed meeting.
“A good thing about these meetings, even if they don’t meet quorum, is that they’re a good opportunity just to talk about other issues.”
While waiting for the meeting to reach quorum, Bridie Hood (Acting Vice-President Education) also stated that despite the fact there is more contact with student representatives now, there is still minimal student interest in VUWSA meetings as a whole.