NEWS
Debate FINALLY has ‘Answers’ from the Vice Chancellor By Jack Pirie After multiple attempts and rescheduled meetings, Debate was finally able to secure an interview with the Vice Chancellor of AUT, Derek McCormack. Via Microsoft Teams, I was able to meet the Vice Chancellor and discuss the current situation revolving around AUT. With all that is going on with AUT, and New Zealand slowly returning to normal, now was the best time to get clarification to
help students understand the current situation and what the future of AUT looks like. In our hour-long meeting we covered a variety of topics and a lot of ground. Our first conversation was based around the initial struggles of going into lockdown and how AUT dealt with the situation. McCormack conveyed that the biggest struggle for the university was transitioning from an on-campus university to an online university. When asked about
the decision-making process and the groups that helped make those decisions, the Vice Chancellor explained that there were “several decision makers” including leading academics, paper leaders, financial leaders, as well as “student communication.” As expected, until prompted there was very little discussion regarding the power dynamics within these decision-making groups. In a previous Debate interview with AUTSA President Sisifa Lui, we were able to uncover that AUTSA had to fight to get onto the COVID-19 Action Planning Group. In the initial phases, no formal invitation was given to AUTSA and there was absolutely no student consultation. Even when student consultation was finally given, it was, well, pretty lackluster on our end, with members of the Student Representative Council (SRC) feelings as if they were simply acting as “feedback chains.”
