Summer reissue: By the end it was was best known for the drunken brawls that marked its conclusion each year, but for a time the Undie 500 was a (relatively) innocent Christchurch-to-Dunedin lark. Chelle Fitzgerald met up with Undie 500 founding member Matt McCloy for a nostalgic look back. This is an edited version of … Read more
Thousands of former students and their families have now been affected by the last-minute postponement of Otago University and Polytechnic graduation ceremonies due to a security threat earlier this week. Among those set to graduate, the news was met with disappointment and disbelief, reports Sinead Gill – and a little relief. For an event that … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Infratil fends off first takeover bid but another run likely, Otago graduation ceremonies cancelled after threat, and port processing backlogs strain supply chains For today’s main story, there’s a really interesting bit of high stakes business brinkmanship going on at the moment that’s worth unpacking. Massive … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Review finds rest home with Covid outbreak breached care obligations, Coster clarifies rubber bullet comments, and Otago University forecasts heavy losses. Something slightly different today: Rather than a lead story with lots of detail, today’s Bulletin will be about rounding up a whole lot of news … Read more
By the end it was was best known for the drunken brawls that marked its conclusion each year, but for a time the Undie 500 was a (relatively) innocent Christchurch-to-Dunedin lark. Chelle Fitzgerald met up with Undie 500 founding member Matt McCloy for a nostalgic look back. This is an edited version of a story … Read more
Being a student means exam panic, crappy flats and getting wasted, a lot. So what does that mean for non-drinkers? Chelle Fitzgerald talks to Otago University students who gave up the drink. This story was first published in Critic, the University of Otago student magazine. In late 2016, I decided to become one with wellness … Read more
Some people say it’s confusing. Others think it’s boring. But running all its elections under an STV system could be the single most effective way for local government to fix its lack of diversity and woeful voting turnout, argues Hayden Donnell. The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about … Read more
Each year, thousands of students embark on a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree, the first step in any number of challenging healthcare careers including dentistry, pharmacy and medicine. But what happens when you realise Health Sci isn’t for you? This story was first published in the Otago University student magazine Critic Te Arohi. It was … Read more
New Zealanders are as parochial about charity as they are about sport, with only a fraction of the money we donate leaving our shores or even going outside our local areas. Less than 9% of private donations in New Zealand go to international charities because Kiwis prefer to give as close to home as possible. … Read more
Students and police who were present at the three most famous Dunedin riots of the last 30 years share what they remember about how it all went down. This piece was originally published in Critic Te Arohi, the University of Otago student magazine. 1990: Saturday 22 April – Easter Tourney “Easter Tourney” saw students from … Read more
Flatting comes with a lot of headaches, but none more stressful than a flatmate who owes you rent money. Erin Gourley talked to some students whose flatmates bailed, and found out what your rights are if the same thing happens to you. This story originally appeared in Critic Te Arohi, the Otago University student magazine. … Read more
More survivors of sexual violence at Knox College have come forward since Critic broke the story of sexual abuse and harassment at the Otago University hall of residence a month ago. Content warning: sexual assault and harassment. This story is published today in Critic Te Arohi, the Otago University student magazine. Original reporting by Esme Hall … Read more
There’s something about universities that make entitled young men feel safe pushing the boundary between consensual sex and rape – and it has to change, writes Jai Breitnauer. Admittedly, when I saw my old higher education institute, the University of Warwick, hit UK headlines earlier this year over a group rape chat scandal, I wasn’t … Read more
Students at the University of Otago will be able to separate the tinnys from the sinnyz this Orientation Week in a first-ever trial between OUSA and KnowYourStuff NZ. This article first appeared in Critic Te Arohi, the University of Otago student magazine. The Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) will introduce drug testing for O-Week, the … Read more
It might seem unbelievable to today’s students, but it’s true: once upon a time students regularly drank in bars, lured there by cheap drinks and a crude culture of excess. Chelle Fitzgerald looks back on the student pubs Dunedin has loved and lost, and talks to Marc Ellis, the celebrity sportsman who tried to resuscitate … Read more
If the Otago University proctor won’t respect students’ private property rights, students may have to take matters into their own hands, writes Otago law professor Andrew Geddis. Calling out members of your own institution for what you think is bad, indeed unlawful, behaviour is something of a fraught task. These are colleagues, after all, and … Read more
Otago University’s Dave Scott, a former police officer, appears to be making a habit of entering private property and removing inhabitants’ possessions, reports Critic editor Joel MacManus. A second flat is alleging that University of Otago Proctor Dave Scott entered their home without permission while everyone was out and took their bongs. This comes just … Read more
Dave Scott has defended going into a privately owned flat without permission and taking bongs worth hundreds of dollars, writes Critic editor Joel McManus A Leith Street flat says University Proctor Dave Scott trespassed and stole their property when he entered their house while they were out and took several bongs/water pipes. About three weeks … Read more
Victoria University has this week been shown to award significantly more C and D grades to its law students than the Universities of Auckland and Otago. But does it matter? C’s get degrees, never more so than at the law faculty of Victoria University of Wellington. Oscar Battell-Wallace is in his final year of a … Read more
As winter passes and new life takes hold in New Zealand, indigenous guests from far abroad have arrived to exchange cultural knowledge. It’s more than 12,000 kilometres from Salem, Oregon, to Dunedin, Otago – an epic journey across the Pacific – but for students like Cherokee Miranda Livers, it’s a pilgrimage for a cultural immersion … Read more
“Both the board and college leaders have been crystal clear this behaviour cannot continue.” Otago University halls of residence Selwyn College has shut down its controversial tradition of second years secretly voting on and publicly awarding nicknames to freshers at their AGM after previous recipients accused the awards of being “sexist and bullying”. Among the … Read more
The editor of Dunedin’s student magazine may not like it, but the University of Otago’s hunt for Nessie was science communication at its finest, argues Ellen Rykers. In a recent column, Critic Te Arohi editor Joel MacManus lambasted the Loch Ness “monster hunt”, calling the scientific project and the University of Otago’s promotion of it … Read more
Spoiler alert: They didn’t find it, writes Joel MacManus, editor of Otago University’s student magazine Critic. Correction, 16 July: Following communications with the University of Otago, this story has been updated to reflect the actual costs of the Loch Ness DNZ project, and to include a response from Professor Neil Gemmell, the head of the … Read more
In this editorial from the current issue of Critic, Joel MacManus looks back on week in which his small student magazine became a global news story. There are too many things I want to say and too little space to say them in, so here’s a big ol’ list of random thoughts about the Menstruation … Read more
If the University of Otago is really committed to free speech, yesterday’s events suggest they’ve a funny way of showing it, writes Andrew Geddis, a law professor at the university. In late 2015, I sat in a public lecture on climate change where Otago University’s vice chancellor sternly reprimanded the audience for heckling a “climate … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: EU gives go ahead for trade talks with NZ, marijuana referendum could be held next year, and Auckland’s mayor is under scrutiny over report secrecy. The European Union has given the go–ahead for free trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand. The story was broken by SBS yesterday across … Read more
It might seem unbelievable to today’s students, but it’s true: once upon a time students regularly drank in bars, lured there by cheap drinks and a crude culture of excess. Chelle Fitzgerald looks back on the student pubs Dunedin has loved and lost, and talks to Marc Ellis, the celebrity sportsman who tried to resuscitate … Read more
Police and council are trying to throttle the life out of Dunedin’s student culture. We sent a reporter down to experience its exhilarating chaos before it gets too boring. This story first appeared in the winter 2015 edition of 1972 Magazine by Barkers. When a party is really cranking, you can hear it long before … Read more
Dunedin journalist Helen Speirs investigates a controversy swirling around Robbie Burns. Robert “Robbie” Burns, Scotland’s national poet, feted worldwide, author of “Auld Lang Syne”, commemorated in Dunedin with a handsome statue overlooking the Octagon, one of the immortals of literature – and, now, accused as a “sex pest”, a rapist, “Weinsteinian”. Scottish poet Liz Lochhead has unleashed a storm … Read more