I recently attended the inaugural meeting of the Progressive Students' Alliance, where I was amazed to hear the view expressed that one of the reasons for the decline in involvement in Student Union activities was the lack of nationally important issues which directly affect students. I was even more amazed however, when after a week of news items including:

(a)	the branding of Trevor Richards as a traitor,
(b)	restrictions imposed on the 'political activities' of Some overseas students,
(c)	the gag on Horta over the Fretilin's cause;

that the Student Representative Council's agenda for 9 August should ignore these issues. Surely questions of civil and academic liberty should should take preference over such trivia as items (4) and (5) relating to the dress of executive members and the singing of self-praise. It seems ironical that a protest about overseas students by Canterbury, the most conservative student union, should have made national radio news.