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Student Suicides?

By Graeme Clarke

The denial of (he existence of student suicides by Waikato University administrators is another example of how lightly these people deal with students' lives. In the Waikato Times(July 5) the Registrar said that to his knowledge and that of the Vice-Chancellor and university medical staff, there were no suicides at the university in 1972. In the Dominion (July 6) they admitted to one suicide. The Students' Association has confirmed that there were definitely two and claim there were possibly another six.

It appears that the administration does not know what is going on inside its own university. They have attempted to stop anyone else finding out and talking about it too. The day after Dr Fretz, a lecturer in History at Waikato, disclosed to the Students' Association the suspected suicide rate at Waikato University, he was summoned to a meeting with the Registrar and Vice-Chancellor and hauled over the coals for daring to tell the students that they were the most exploited he had met in eight years of university teaching and further, relating the information on suicides in this context. He has been asked to appear before the University Council to justify his statement to the students. Whatever happened to the freedom of speech that is meant to exist in the university?

Carl Gordon, President of the Students' Association and a co-opted member of the council has been denied access to university documents because he will not undertake to respect their confidentiality. He has been excluded from all confidential business of the Council. The students at Waikato have no access to information that is vital to their interests.

Students at Waikato University are victims of paternalistic and dictatorial Council and Professorial Board. Dr Fretz claimed the workload of Waikato students must be partly responsible for student suicides and alienation. A survey at Otago University in 1970 showed that workloads and stress were major factors in students' problems. He said that the responsibility for the situation lay with the administration. The Registrar said that students' workloads were not the responsibility of the administration. 'This is left to staff and students.'(Waikato Times, July 5.)

The Waikato University Act states the contrary. The Act says it is the function of the Professorial Board to 'prescribe from time to time the content of any subject in any course, and the extent and nature of any practical work.' The final responsibility for the scope of the course and workloads therefore lies with the administration.

In a situation where the university authorities so obviously and cynically act against student interests, students must have access to all information. The only way for students to safeguard their interests is to have more than a token representation in the administration.

At Victoria University workloads are very high. What is the recorded suicide rate here? What has been the effect of heavy workloads? Some information gathered by the Welfare Service on the subject was given to the Professorial Board last month. But this is not enough. The University Administration has a duty to ensure that workload effect on student health is carefully and comprehensively studied and acted on. Any report dealing with this topic must be openly available, not just to the Administration. As an indicator of workload effect, the suicide rate amongst students at Victoria University is most relevant.