I’m no student politician and I am highly pragmatic. I’m just an average student. So, why would someone like me join VUWSA? Because I think it is important. In fact, I think it is vital that VUWSA survives in a voluntary environment. So why is VUWSA important? It’s not because we at VUWSA give away free bus passes, run orientation, and so forth; it’s because we unified voice for students—people like you and I—to the University and to the general public. New Zealand’s education system has become all too familiar: we go to university and get a student loan, finish our degrees and go into a $40,000 per year job, and then spend eight years trying to pay it off.
But in our minds it didn’t start like this– we wanted to be change-makers. We wanted to make our mark on the world. We wanted to make the world a better place. University, before it became a job factory, was a place filled with passionate intellects, a place where the rules could be broken and a place where the basic assumptions we face on a daily basis could be challenged. Every innovation we see around us is based on this: challenging basic assumptions and breaking the rules. It was a place where we could be inspired, and not just to earn more money and have a successful career, but a place where our innermost views could be challenged.
The point I am really trying to push here is that we all have three-to-five-years where the majority of us have hardly any responsibility. During this time, we have a rare opportunity to partake in the student community and gain an excellent, inspiring and challenging education that enables us to grow into world changers. As student representatives, we have the opportunity to sit on Faculty Boards and to sit on University Council and shape our education, influence what we are taught, decide who we are taught by and what we want to get out of it. As a student, you are in a position of privilege and owe it to others to feed back into the university system and the student voice.
While working VUWSA stalls at New Students’ Orientation, students have come up to me wanting to know what VUWSA is, and why it is important. Here it is: if you want to shape your education into something that inspires you, that challenges you, that helps you to be a better citizen; join VUWSA.
Make your voice heard in 2012–get involved. Join a club, become a class rep, write for Salient, even just come to the VUWSA office and share your opinion. If you want to discuss anything further, email me.
Every student is different, and the real power of VUWSA is that it unites our differing opinions and thoughts into one powerful catch-all voice.
✆ PHONE: 04 463 7406
✆ MOBILE: 027 8448905
✉ EMAIL: treasurer@vuwsa.org. nz
☞ WEBSITE: www.vuwsa.org.nz