Stormy ACM at Waikato

NZSPA

The President of the Waikato University Students' Association (Mr. Russell Blair) returned from a State Department tour of the United States to a stormy Autumn General Meeting.

He was obviously out of touch on the main issue raised, the censorship of the Waikato Student by the Waikato Times. Because of this the Man Vice-President (Mr. Peter Allen) was the chief spokesman for the executive.

A basic policy motion, moved by Tony Knight, former Man Vice-President of the Hamilton Teachers' College Students" Association, and seconded by Bob Simcock. one of the recently resigned editors of the Student, forbade the Students' Association from passing on any official press releases to the Waikato Times.

A long discussion in committee among the sixty present saw the motion lost by 15 votes to 39.

A motion of censure was tabled as a "rap over the knuckles of the executive" for their part in the censorship but this was laid on the table until the presentation of a lull report on the matter by the executive at a later meeting. This was agreed to by a margin of 25. with abstentions.

What appeared to be an omen of perennial bugbear was the motion calling for the abolishment of the undergraduate gowns from the university.

However, a strong point for the gowns this year was that as they were available to students, and had been bought, it was only right, if freedom of dress was to be adhered to. that students should be allowed to wear them. The defeat of this motion by 30 votes to 16 with 10 abstentions, indicated that n the wording had been more compromising, then more support could have been mustered.

A move to have the first block of the halls of residence called after the Chancellor and Mayor of Hamilton (Dr. Denis Rogers) was lost, when, among other things, it was realised that it was to be women's hall.