Daa-dee-daah! Here you have in your hot, sweaty, little hands is the VSM issue of Salient. So, what is VSM and why do we care? I’ll talk you through it.
I must declare: I am indeed the same Freya as was Freya the Vice President of VUWSA in 2009. So I think it’s important to declare my situated perspective in this way. However, this is not an opinion piece, and in no way am I saying ‘yay’ or ‘neigh’ (whinny) to the VSM bill, or the concept of VSM. But y’know, just so we all know where we’re at.
The Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill was drawn from the ballot on 20 August 2009. It passed its first reading on 23 September. It has now been referred to the Education and Science Select Committee, for which submissions close on the 31 March. So not far away!
Yeah. But. Why. Do. We. Care?
Orright, we care because this bill would change the way we subscribe to our students’ associations.
The bill would stop the tertiary educations at which we are enrolled (in this case, Victoria University) from automatically deducting our students’ association (again, VUWSA, in this case) levy from our fees. We would no longer be members of VUWSA just by virtue of being enrolled at Vic. We would have to ‘opt-in’ (that means, sign up and pay up-front) to VUWSA at the beginning of every year.
Currently, the system we have is ‘opt-out’. It’s called Universal Student Membership (USM) or Compulsory Student Membership (CSM).
Should you not be so cool with being a member of VUWSA—well, in the words of El Presidente, Max Hardy:
“To opt-out, students just need to write the president (in this case, me) an email or letter explaining that they wish to be exempt for reasons of conscientious objection and explaining, briefly, why they conscientiously object to membership of VUWSA. They should then stipulate a reputable charity that they wish their money to be paid to. Quite a simple process.
To opt-out on the grounds of financial hardship they need to explain, briefly, their financial situation and explain, briefly, why they are in a situation of hardship (e.g. high rent etc).
It used to be that an external party (VUW Council) decided applications for exemption, and VUWSA would be more than happy to return to this process if students wanted that.”
So, we are automatically members, but we can opt out on an individual basis by means of conscientious objection or financial hardship.
We can also change our system to become ‘opt-in’, as a collective—that is, all students at Victoria University. For this to occur, there needs to be a petition, signed by 10 per cent of the enrolled students at Victoria (we have about 22,000 students, so that would mean 2200 of us), which calls for a referendum. If, in that case, it is voted that Victoria students would prefer to ‘opt-in’ to VUWSA, then—wowser—VUWSA would have ‘opt-in’ membership. This is the case at Auckland University Students’ Association (AUSA).
This opt-in/opt-out business is all relatively new. In 1999, parliament passed an amendment to the Education Act to allow this element of choice. Previously every enrolled student at a tertiary education was a member of their students’ association, and this bill allowed for people to opt-out.
If the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill gets through the third reading and becomes law, it would mean that every students’ association in New Zealand would be ‘opt-in’.
This is an important thing. It’s a big deal. It will affect how your studies go. It is up to you whether you want this or not. There are two very vocal sides to the debate about whether this is a good thing or not. So—hear what other people have to say. Go to the anti-USM/pro-VSM website (www.act.org.nz/vsm and Facebook: Free Me). Go to the pro-USM/anti-VSM site, ‘Save Our Services’ (saveourservices.org.nz and Facebook: Save Our Services).
Go on. Read the bill for yourself—just google the title, “Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill”, and it should come up, along with a whole lot more information on it. Have your say, make a submission to the Select Committee.
This bill matters, so make sure you are involved in the debate.