Heather Roy's Diary

Voluntary Student Union Membership long overdue

Hon Heather Roy, ACT Deputy Leader
Friday May 1 2009

The Victoria University Students' Association (VUWSA) is in the gun this week following revelations that it declined an invitation from the Wellington City Council to lay a wreath at last Saturday's ANZAC Day celebrations.

According to VUWSA's president, the association has no "official mandate from students" to recognise ANZAC Day - but student magazine 'Salient' has reported that some members of the executive opposed laying a wreath because they believed it would condone war.

In the wake of these revelations, many Victoria University students - past and present - are outraged about the attitude of an organisation that is supposed to represent their views. VUWSA completely missed the point of ANZAC Day. In any other setting, an organisation behaving in such a manner would fast find itself bereft of members - but not this student union.

Student associations are among the last organisations in New Zealand that can legally force someone to affiliate themselves. Being a member of a student association is compulsory at every New Zealand University except Auckland - whether students like it or not - and levies are built into the fees students pay every year. If a student refuses to pay that levy, their enrolment isn't processed and they are not permitted to attend that university.

The action taken by VUWSA in the run up to ANZAC Day is nothing new: student associations have an abysmal track record of representing only the views of a minority of students - usually those on, or associated with, the executive - while the opinions of the student body at large are rarely canvassed.

Rather than representation, the majority of students are misrepresented - and there's nothing they can do about it if they want to continue studying where they are.

With a 'captive audience' of fee-payers, student associations have no incentive to manage funds responsibly. Despite having a six-figure budget surplus only two years ago, VUWSA currently has a six-figure budget deficit. VUWSA's answer to the looming financial failure is to raise compulsory annual levies by 21 percent.

So what students have is a representative body that forcibly charges students for representation, and then doesn't actually represent them. In any other part of society, forcing someone to give money for nothing in return is extortion. At university, it appears, it is called student association membership.

For these reasons I drafted the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill in 2007 - a Private Member's Bill designed to introduce voluntary membership of tertiary student associations. One of the goals behind the Bill is to end the political misrepresentation that occurs under compulsory membership - like VUWSA's misguided actions on ANZAC Day.

There's a simple solution: make student association membership voluntary. People can then choose which group they wish to speak on their behalf. This works in the rest of the country and there's no reason it can't work at tertiary institutions. Misrepresentations caused by incidents like this - and dozens of others around the country and over the years - confirm that voluntary membership is long overdue.

Lest We Forget - First Woman Doctor Registered In New Zealand (May 3 1897)
Swine Flu has had a high profile in the news this week. Like the bird flu in 2005 it is linked to the 1918 Spanish flu and the anniversary this week of the registration of our first woman doctor is particularly apt given her work during the Spanish Flu epidemic.

On May 3 1897, Margaret Barnet Cruickshank became the first registered female doctor in New Zealand.

Dr Cruickshank was born in the Otago community of Palmerston in 1873. Following her mother's death in 1883, she and her twin attended school on alternate days to ensure one could always stay home to care for their five younger siblings. In the evening, one would teach the other what she had learned that day.
Following study at the University of Otago Medical School, Dr Cruickshank worked as assistant to Waimate's Dr HC Barclay. After being registered as a doctor, she eventually became a partner in the practice.

During WWI - with Dr Barclay away on active service - Dr Cruickshank ran the practice alone, shared the role of hospital superintendent, and organised the Waimate Red Cross Fund.

During the 1918 influenza pandemic, she worked day and night providing services beyond those expected - including feeding the babies of ill mothers, preparing meals, and even milking cows where an entire family was ill.

During this tireless work, Dr Cruickshank contracted the disease herself and died of pneumonia on November 28 1918. A three-metre memorial statue of her was unveiled in Waimate in 1923 inscribed 'The Beloved Physician/Faithful unto Death'.

In 1948, the Waimate Hospital Maternity Ward was named in her honour and in 2007 the health Ministry dubbed on of its pandemic preparedness strategies 'Exercise Cruickshank' in recognition of her work in 1918.