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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 6, No. 9 July 14, 1943
Editorial — What has Happened to O.U. Exec.?
Editorial
What has Happened to O.U. Exec.?
A question which has been pending for some time. Unity in the present crisis surely demands close co-operation with Training College, up-to-the-limit participation in Liberty Loans, etc., and intensive all-round work in aid of the war effort we ask of Otago Exec., as we asked of our own Exec. at Undergraduate Supper, "How do they measure up?" The answer is disappointing.
In T.C. they see only a "lesser breed without the law," an academically inferior article, and dismiss the subject with a resolution, "That this Executive is unaware of any reasons why Training College should affiliate . . ."
Surely Victoria presented adequate reasons at the N.Z.U.S.A. Conference. Surely our own Exec. has good grounds for appointment of a liaison officer. And yet the friendly advances of O.U. Training College seem to be regarded "more as the importunate scratching of a puppy at the door than as the just request of a corporation of equal footing," as an incensed member writes to "Critic." Enough of this side-stepping—Wake up, O.U.! Take a lesson from those students who also teach.
"This Executive has been given no mandate by the Association to make a financial contribution to the war effort . . ." Has it ever thought of asking for that mandate? Victoria has recently put £1,234 into the Third Liberty Loan. £634 of this was ratified, unanimously, by the Annual General Meeting; the other £600, campaign proceeds, adequately demonstrates the spirit with which V.U.C. students meet the call for funds. Surely Otago students would show the same, if not a better, response. Why not ask them?
Hitherto the only voice of criticism and constructive comment has been that of "Critic," the O.U. newspaper. In spite of severe censorship (imagine an Exec.-appointed editor working under the eye of an Exec. censor) they appear, to us at least, to have attempted that leadership which the Executive lacked. Even "Critic," however, has now been silenced. Editor and staff have been forced into resignation. For this the Executive must answer, not in words, but in an attempt to rectify past mishaps and to rally Otago students behind the war effort.
—K.T.F.