1. What will you have achieved by the end of the year for students? (in one sentence plz)
2. What is your star sign? Pisces.
3. Would you rather have legs the size of fingers or fingers the size of legs?
4. What’s your favourite movie?
5. If you could enact one law, what would it be?
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Declan Doherty-Ramsay
Vice-President (Engagement)
1. A more open, transparent and engaging VUWSA.
2. Leo/Virgo, on the cusp!
3. Legs the size of fingers – as a guitarist I need regular-sized fingers.
4. Brick: neo-noir starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his intermediate form. Nom.
5. I’d make possessing Kim Dotcom’s Good Times a criminal offence.
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Rāwinia Thompson
Vice-President (Academic)
1. I hope to have answers to the following questions:
a) Why have student tuition fees become increasingly more expensive every year here at Vic?
b) Is the quality of teaching and learning getting any better as a result of this?
2. Virgo. Don’t read too much into that.
3. Tweeting with leg-sized fingers would be quite a challenge, so I’d prefer finger-sized legs.
4. I’m quite a sappy, emotional person, so any film with intense music will get me good (see the scene where Rue dies in the first Hunger Games film).
5. I would implement a comprehensive civics-education programme mandatory for all high-school students, content including pre-European Māori society, first European settlement, the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles, and issues arising from the Treaty in the present day. It would also cover the basics of our constitutional framework, electoral system, and social issues like Māori rights, women’s rights and queer rights. I think this knowledge should be considered as necessary as basic Maths, Science and English, and no young Kiwi should leave high school without it!
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Rick Zwaan
Vice-President (Welfare)
1. I’m looking forward to continuing to progress on getting Fairer Fares for students on public transport, working towards getting warmer, healthier flats; campaigning for a universal allowance and lower uni fees.
2. Aries, Mars, Curiosity.
3. Fish fingers?
4. Brick.
5. I would enact a wide-ranging welfare-reform act that would address wage equity, minimum rental standards, liveable student allowances and the like.
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Jordan Lipski
Treasurer-Secretary
1. Keep VUWSA ticking over well.
2. Virgo.
3. Legs the size of fingers.
4. Any of the Bourne films.
5. An amendment to include economic, social and cultural rights in the NZ Bill of Rights Act.
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Caroline Thirsk
Education Officer
1. I would like to achieve easy access to VUWSA, through representation, that every student both knows about, and, feels comfortable using.
2. Aquarius.
3. I would definitely prefer to have legs the size of fingers.
4. The Matrix.
5. If I could enact any law it would be to have free and quality education, up to a tertiary level, for everyone.
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Elizabeth Bing
Clubs Officer
1. Availability of resources for clubs, and a more community-based campus with an increase in public events!
2. Pisces.
3. Legs the size of fingers.
4. The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
5. To eliminate income tax for the first $5000 of income earned in a tax year.
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Madeleine Ashton-Martyn
Equity Officer
1. I want to create and support representative structures and groups within the University that function as both a hub of community support for students who are underrepresented at VUW and as a strong basis for campaigns for structural improvements.
2. Aquarius, same as Justin Timberlake. I am Justin Timberlake with better hats.
3. I mean, I guess legs the size of fingers? Although leg-fingers would be pretty great for fights.
4. Space Jam. If you’re into internet time travel you should definitely go to the official Space Jam website: it hasn’t been updated since 1996. That website is old enough to legally drink this year.
5. Take abortion out of the Crimes Act: the conditions around whether a woman is deserving of control over her own womb are ridiculous.
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Alasdair Keating
Campaigns Officer
1. I’ll have engaged students at Victoria to vote in the general election and raised the salience of student and youth issues; also, I’ll have brought puppies to Kelburn Campus!
2. Leo, keeping company with Andy Warhol and Barack Obama.
3. Probably fingers the size of legs: I think I’d miss my opposable thumbs too much.
4. The Consequences of Love.
5. Repeal the Three-Strikes Act and replace it with legislation creating a rehabilitative justice system.
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Steph Gregor
Sustainability Officer
1. Progress towards less-shit flats and increased awareness of mental-health issues.
2. Capricorn.
3. Fingers the size of legs.
4. Across the Universe.
5. A comprehensive Climate Act.