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Salient: Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Vol. 32, No. 5. 1969.

President

President

Joint Committee On Student Participation

At The 1968 Annual General Meeting of this association a resolution was passed suggesting a joint committee be set up to consider the part to be played by students in the government of the university. The University Council subsequently aggreed in principle to the establishment of the joint committee, suggested some changes in its composition and proposed terms of reference. These changes and the terms of references were accepted by your Executive in early May. The joint committee consisted of four members each from the University Council, the Professorial Board and the Students' Association and it was chaired by the Chancellor. The joint committee held eight meetings in 1968, received submissions from interested stall and students, and made numerous recommendations from interested staff and students, and made numerous recommendations during the course of the year. These recommendations resulted in many new positions for student representatives or members including a further representative on the University Council, three members on the Professorial Board, and representation on various council and Professorial Board subcommittees.

It was appreciated by members of the Joint Committee that the question of student participation involved considerably more than just membership of committees. It involved a realisation by academic and administrative staff and students alike first that a university is a community of people, sec-only that there should be effective communication of ideas and decisions within the community, and thirdly that students wanted and should be given the opportunity to make a contribution to the university community.

These factors and the various recommendations are to be explained fully in the Joint Committee's Report which was scheduled for publication early in 1969

Union Building Extensions

The Government's approval in August of the second-floor extensions to the Union Building ended several years of frustrating delays. Despite some disagreement on architectural questions your Executive concurred with the University's decision to call for tenders in September and construction commenced in November with the estimated completion date being the end of 1969. No final decisions were taken in 1968.

President's Honorarium

At a Special General Meeting of the Association held on 30th July a proposal that the President of the Association should be paid an honorarium of $400 per annum as from 1st January 1969 was adopted. It was considered that in view of the time and responsibility involved in the office of President it was in the interests of the Association that he should be paid an honorarium.

Student Representative Council

The 1968 Annual General Meeting set up a special committee to investigate the desirability of establishing a Student Representaive Council at Victoria. This committee held several meetings including an open one at which submissions were made by interested students. In September the committee presented its report to your Executive recommending the establishment of such a Council on the grounds that first it would provide an opportunity for more students to participate in Association activities, secondly it would enable closer contact between Executive and more students, and thirdly it would contain a broad base of student opinion in a growing university

Development Fund

The VUWSA Development Fund was set up for the purpose of Association capital expenditure or for capital grants and loans to clubs affiliated to the Association. The Fund initially consisted of $24,000 which included the $10,000 loan to the Halls of Residence Appeal and the $9,000 loan to the VUW Ski Club, with the balance of $5,000 invested in Wellington City Council Loan Stock.

NZUSA

Highlights from the past year for NZUSA were the establishment of the position of full-time Educational Research Officer, which should assist NZUSA in its role as a responsible university educational pressure group, the expansion of the popular student travel service, the schemes to help the new University of the South Pacific, the granting of autonomy to the NZU Arts Council, the inauguration of the insurance scheme, and the development of the national student magazine. Focus. While the success of the year was due to the work of NZUSA's full-time President, Mr McGrath also had to attend meetings of one sort or another at every university, apart from Massey and Victoria, to justify the existence of the national student body. This attitude of other constituents prompted a note of Caution over NZUSA's effectiveness during the year.

Doug White