VUWSA Feels Obsolete Because Students Won’t Engage
Year in, year out, I hear students complain about how “VUWSA doesn't do anything and sucks at engaging with students”.
But students also suck at engaging with VUWSA. It takes two to tango, and our indifference towards VUWSA is spinning the association into student-politics oblivion.
I am a firm believer that if you don’t like what happens in your community, you should do something about it. So it rubs me the wrong way when students complain that the VUWSA executive is “useless”, but refuse to run for VUWSA themselves or even vote in the damn elections.
Anyone. Can. Run. For. VUWSA.
For the 2021 executive, 23 candidates stood for the ten available roles. For the 2022 exec, the number of candidates dropped to 15. In that election, a whopping six positions only had one candidate nominated. There were so few candidates that VUWSA ran a by-election at the start of 2022 to fill the campaigns officer and equity officer roles.
Most shockingly, the position of 2022 VUWSA president ran unopposed. The small selection of students who voted had two options: ‘Ralph Zambrano’ or ‘No Confidence’.
VUWSA exec members should get voted in because they were the best candidate for the job, not because they were the only candidate who bothered to put their hand up. Salient exists, in part, to hold VUWSA to account. So give us people to hold to account.
Ralph himself said that it's frustrating when candidates have to run unopposed because there is no one to challenge them during the election debates. Along with wanting more students to run for exec positions and vote in the VUWSA elections, Ralph wants to see more students engage with VUWSA throughout the year.
VUWSA receives higher levels of engagement when shit hits the fan and students are responding reactively to an event. Examples include the 2020 Rent Strike, the VUW name change saga, and the Feb 2022 protest occupation of Pipitea campus.
But students should also engage with VUWSA proactively. Examples of events that get low student engagement are the Student Services Levy consultations, Sustainability Week, VUWSA budget setting, and VUWSA AGMs and IGMs. Ralph dreams of the day that over 100 students show up to their procedural events and have robust debates about how VUWSA should operate … instead of just coming through for the free pizza.
Nominations for the 2023 VUWSA executive are open right now, and they close on 13 September. VUWSA isn’t some unattainable political organization run by a cabal. It's literally your students’ association—so run.
This week’s From The Archives issue reflects on the past and explores how archives can help us navigate the future.
In our features: Max does a fascinating deepdive on Maoism’s stronghold over Salient in the 1970s, Maia explains why student activism hit differently in the 1980s, Bridget gives an overview of Aotearoa’s publishing landscape, and I investigate the ineffable culture of Law School.
In our news: the anti-mandate/anti-government protestors return to Parliament grounds for the second time this year, students feel the weight of the hospitality worker shortage, we interview Paul Eagle for our final mayoral candidate profile, and more.