President's column (Gyro)

And then there was one. Ryan has left, he’s gone back down to Clinton to make some money as a builder. Ryan will be missed around the campus by students. In accordance with the constitution, the executive elected me to be Acting President until the elections later this year.


OPSA hosted the Annual ITP conference this year; we held it out at the Otākou Marae. The conference went extremely well in my opinion. There was a lot of networking, and some strong outcomes of where the associations are hoping to move towards in the near future. The strategic plan was split up so that each association had something to work on: the two that OPSA are moving with are improving the networking amongst ITPs and increasing the ITP portfolio.


The National Government has said they are not going to put any more money into the tertiary sector in this budget. Yes, this is something that is concerning – the institutions need to get their money from somewhere. If the fee maxima scheme is removed, then the fees could go up by any amount that the institution feels like. For example your fees of currently $4000 could go up to $8000 or more. Even though the fee maxima scheme isn’t the best in the world, it at least doesn't allow the institutions free range in the increase of fees.


OPSA is currently looking at ways to protest against the removal of fee maxima. Keep an eye out too and get involved when the action takes place.


Meegan Cloughley
OPSA Acting President