UPDATE!
VUWSA President Jasmine Freemantle has confirmed that the motion, “That VUWSA actively supports the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill,” is void following yesterday’s Student Representative Council (SRC) meeting.
Freemantle told Salient this morning (Thursday) that the VUWSA solicitor “has confirmed that the motion was void.
“The meeting was closed, and as outlined in the constitution, could not be reopened.”
Freemantle also said the SRC meeting planned for this Friday will be postponed.
A motion has been passed that has seen it become VUWSA policy to “actively support” Roger Douglas’ Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill.
The motion, “that VUWSA actively supports the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill”, was passed by a majority of ten votes at Wednesday’s Student Representative Council (SRC) meeting.
“The passing of this motion is a significant breakthrough for the many students who feel that VUWSA is not receptive to or representative of their views,” ACT on Campus Vice President Peter McCaffrey said.
The SRC had been called to discuss the recently released Tertiary Education Strategy (TES), as well as the voluntary student membership (VSM) issue.
The meeting has been described by some students as a “clusterfuck”.
It took 40 minutes for the one motion to be passed, as a number of “stalling tactics”, including multiple quorum counts and points of order, were employed by parties on both sides of the VSM debate.
The motion, which was supported by members of ACT on Campus, Young National, as well as a number of politically unaffiliated students, was finally passed with a vote of 45–35.
At one point the meeting was deemed closed because it was claimed quorum was not met. The meeting continued regardless under a new Chair, Hugh McCaffrey (who is of no relation to Peter). Once it was confirmed the required quorum of 50 was reached following yet another count of hands, the meeting was properly resumed.
“It was the biggest SRC I’ve seen in my four years at university, and yet they claimed that they didn’t have quorum, because it wasn’t the right kind of people who showed up,” Peter McCaffrey said.
Peter McCaffrey says there were multiple procedural problems with the meeting.
“VUWSA had no idea of its own rules, and the rules they knew they deliberately ignored.”
As well as the age-old quorum issues, Peter McCaffrey said motions were allowed in the middle of votes, and speakers continually interrupted the meeting’s proceedings.
Alex Sorenson, President of the Massey Wellington Students’ Association, who was also present at the SRC said that the meeting “was hijacked by one group of people and both sides of the debate were fuelled by emotion.”
This “muddied the procedural functionality of the meeting,” she said.
Clandestine SRC breaks rules
It has been brought to Salient’s attention that VUWSA will hold another SRC meeting this Friday at 11am in the Mount Street Bar.
Notification of the SRC meeting was placed on the VUWSA noticeboard on Wednesday afternoon. [Photographic evidence to the right. JJW]
The notice says that the meeting will be held “pursuant to part IV s. 2 (3-4) of the VUWSA Constitution.”
However, part IV s. 2 (4) of the VUWSA Constitution says that “such special meeting shall be held no sooner than three (3) office days and not later than ten (10) office days after the date of receipt of a requisition [for a meeting], or resolution by the executive.”
Fewer than 48 hours will have passed between the notification of the SRC, and the meeting actually being held, directly contravening the procedures outlined in the constitution.
Comment was still being sought from VUWSA President Jasmine Freemantle at the time of publication.
Stay tuned for more updates.