Massive Magazine Volume 03 Issue 01

THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MASSEY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: ISSUE 01/ 2014 MASSEY STUDENT MAGAZINE HISTORY WHERE IS YOUR MONEY GOING? MASSEY STUDENT ART

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SFA1128380

Contents EDITOR

Morgan Browne editor@massivemagazine.org.nz 0800 MASSEY ext. 62136

Editorials

02

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN

Local Pages

07

Sean Walker seanvictorwalker@gmail.com 0800 MASSEY ext. 62064

Key’s Guide to Student Success

12

A Massive Problem at Massey University

14

In Memorium: 80 Years of Massey Student Magazines

26

Massive Massey Art Showcase

35

ADVERTISING & SPONSORSHIP

James Collings admin@mawsa.org.nz 04 801 5799 ext. 62060 LOCAL CAMPUS REPORTERS

Albany – Josh Berry josh@massivemagazine.org.nz Manawatu/Extramural – Rachel Purdie rachel@massivemagazine.org.nz Wellington – Brigitte Masters brigitte@massivemagazine.org.nz LEAD ILLUSTRATOR

Brodie Nel brodienel@gmail.com CONTRIBUTORS

Charlie Mitchell, Morgan Browne, Rachel Purdie, Brigitte Masters, Sasha Borrisenko, Josh Berry, Sally Pringle ILLUSTRATORS & PHOTOGRAPHERS

Brodie Nel, Jesse Bowling, Melissa Irving, Jessie Rawcliffe, Patrick McDonald, Iain Anderson, Lance Cash, Sean Walker Publisher

massivemagazine.org.nz ISSN 2253-5918 (Print) ISSN 2253-5926 (Online)

Disclaimer: The views, beliefs and opinions reflected in the pages in MASSIVE magazine do not necessarily represent those of Massey University, its staff, Albany Students’ Association (ASA), Massey University Students’ Association (MUSA), Massey at Wellington Students’ Association (MAWSA), Extramural Students’ Society (EXMSS) or the MASSIVE editor.

Come get some Free stuff facebook.com/MASSIVE.magazine Twitter: @massivemagnz

2

R.I.P. MASSEY STUDENT MAGAZINES 1934–2014 – MORGAN BROWNE E d i to r i a l

Welcome to 2014 at Massey University. Whether you are a new or returning student, from near or far – I’d like to welcome you on behalf of your student media.

You’re in a university that is world-renowned in specialist areas, with fantastic lecturers and tutors.

A university that provides exceptional seminars and events to enhance the academic experience. A university which you’ll hopefully remember as fondly as I did.

I remember starting my first day at Massey University. I sat next to this girl with knee-high pink Chucks in my first ever lecture. I was straight out of high school, didn’t know anyone, and didn’t know what to expect.

After the lecture ended, we listened to a free oncampus band and rode on a free mechanical bull and drank cheap beer and ate free pizza together*. Massey didn’t only have this awesome environment, but the place seemed to breed awesome people too.

Massey was like, the coolest place I’d ever been in. I felt for the first time in my life I was in a place I truly belonged. And that girl with the Chucks? We’re still great friends to this day. *I later found out that these things weren’t really free, they were paid for by the students’ levy before the Voluntary Student Membership bill. Read about it on page 14.

Free food, free events… but most of all, I remember seeing free magazines. Wire racks and wooden stands, crammed full of paper. Paper coloured with the voices and arti stry of Massey students from all walks of life.

Massey voices on paper whose origins dated right back to 1934!

You could ask what student magazines are all about.

What even is journalism? Student journalists are just “witch hunters”, closely related to seedy paparazzi characters, right? No, not really.

I can only speak for MASSIVE, but we take balanced writing and fair stories pretty seriously.

We have a lot of fun on the side, though! Writing independent, critical stories takes balls, and it is done for the sole purpose to benefit the public’s interest and right to true information.

Massivemagazine.org.nz

Haters’ gonna hate, and people seemingly complain about anything printed in the magazine. You learn to not take it personally after a while. I remember a journalist and academic that I look up to telling me, ‘if you’re not pissing someone off, you’re not doing your job properly.”

Readers do surprise you though. One time, MASSIVE published a story about the history of the word “cunt”, to not even one complaint. And for the odd complaint about the sexcapades of Dick Hardy, there are triple the positive responses.

Getting this glowing feedback is such a lovely reward for what, at times, can be a really trying endeavour for all of MASSIVE’s writers.

Realising that there was a magazine on campus on my first day at Massey sold the university experience to me. I could get practical experience that complemented what I was studying, as well as reaching out to and connecting with other Massey students.

From that day, I tried my hand at writing as often as I could, and it paid off, getting a part-time job as a MASSIVE reporter and, the year later, as editor, which I had dreamed of since that first day starting at Massey.

Hell, I even moved cities for it!

When I started my role as editor within the students’ association environment I almost felt like a kid that had found out there was no Santa. Not because of the students’ association though.

The Massey Wellington Students’ Association staff (whom I work with) are exceptional people, and so are the students at Massey. But some of the university staff who we’ve had to deal with are not. I harbour no bitterness, but I felt like Massey had really let me down, because my student experience was so wonderful.

Every day, I looked forward to going to university, to learn, to see my friends. My lecturers knew my name and there were so many opportunities to take on new endeavours, something I’m told is so unique and special within the Massey community.

I’d recommend Massey to everyone I knew. I was a Uni Guide, was the recipient of a Massey University leadership scholarship, was involved in several clubs, but I was also the magazine editor – who sees first-

hand what unusual and complicated relationships students’ associations have with the university.

I, myself can recall a time where someone from Massey who worked in external relations asked me to change a quote in a story before it was published, asking for it as “a personal favour”. Honestly, even now, Massey staff manage our website, and sometimes request changes to the content before they’ll publish it online.

Is this truly independent student media? Is this even freedom of speech?

Regretfully, there have been circumstances which have meant the students’ association has not been given the amount of funding required to continue this publication by the Massey staff who manage the student media grants from the student services levy money, so this is our last issue of MASSIVE in print form for the foreseeable future.

When I dreamed of writing for Massey student magazines, I never once thought I’d be writing what may possibly be the last editorial in print form.

It is disappointing. Not for me, but for the long-tailed history of Massey student journalists, illustrators, you name it, who contributed to Massey student magazines, and for the future ones that won’t get that opportunity to see their name on paper, and for the readers, for whom every story we do, and have done, are for.

BUT… You can find us online and on Facebook.

We’re here and we’re not going anywhere. We continue to rely on your content, more than ever. Engage in student life. Stand up for what you want out of your university. Take hold of these opportunities. We’re students, for students, we’re here, and we’re not going anywhere.

Have a good semester and all the best for your future.

That’s all folks. Stay classy, Massey students.

Morgan Browne Editor

3

MASSIVE’S FOUNDING EDITOR – MATT SHAND E d i to r i a l

I guess at the end of things there is nothing left to do but look back at the beginning and hope there are no regrets.

And while I would not sit here and say that everything ran smoothly in the creation of MASSIVE Magazine, it was a worthy try and as such I am proud to have been involved at the start, but even more proud of every writer, designer, columnist, illustrator and reader that joined in with the MASSIVE vision.

MASSIVE really was a last ditch effort to try and curb the hemorrhaging student media beast that had perhaps not evolved with the world around it. It was feral, savage, rough, filled with in jokes but, in its own way, beautiful. Unfortunately the world was moving on, and the days where budding journalists could run their hand over printed ink was limited. The beast was going the way of ‘Old Yellow’.

In a way MASSIVE was a way to give the old dog one last one run. One last chance to let loose in the wild. It was a big eff-u to the world. VSM came and went and as predicted the clamps came down hard on student media. While others publications were cutting back and attaching life support lines, we swung for the fences. Doped student print media up with adrenaline and set it loose to rampage one last time.

The hope was it would find its place out there in the media wastelands and become a force of its own.

All the ‘cages’ people thought would contain it only made it stronger. Having an editorial board gave us mentoring and legitimacy, taking ourselves away from the student associations let us take them on when needed, and going large gave us the power for bigger and better content.

Every writer, illustrator and contributor was all part of that dream, that vision and spirit of MASSIVE Magazine. That mad-cap, last-minute-hail-mary play that was MASSIVE Magazine. You have all done incredible work.

It is with a sense of pride that the beast didn’t slip out into the night, but was taken down kicking and screaming. Simply put it got too big, too fast and too dangerous. But there is legacy in that. There may be other student publications that pop up. But

they will never grace that same level of insanity that was MASSIVE. Dreamed up in a student flat in conversations with other journo and design students, and turned into a reality when the chips were truly down on print student media. But we got it to work. And Massey University is full of dreamers and innovators. Dreamers who also pass bottles around or sit staring at the sky thinking ‘why not me’ or ‘one day I’ll make it’. I see MASSIVE as one success story of the student dreamers. Everything was against it, but somehow we got it up and running.

I’m sad to see it killed off for the sake of money.

The lesson here is sometimes the best plans don’t work.

There is another lesson, don’t place too much faith in handshakes, but that is story for another time.

Thank you for letting us live that dream. Even for just a moment.It was an honour and a pleasure. And while this sounds like the end, the spirit of student media I know student media will live on. Eventually another dreamer, or rebel, will think of an idea and find a way to make it fit. Because the world needs student media. It’s the one place free from the bureaucracy and bullshit that you see flooding the TV screens and internet feeds. It is pure, raw and bold when done well. And when enough people miss it, the beast will naturally rise again.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Matt Shand

Massive IN SHORT

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“300: Rise of an Empire” pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes, and Artemisia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy. Starring Lena Headey, Eva Green, Rodrigo Santoro, David Wenham, Jack O’Connell, Sullivan Stapleton, Hans Matheson and directed Noam Murro.

To enter email editor@massivemagazine.org. nz with “I WANT TO SEE 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE” in the subject heading and all of your contact details in the email text by March 6 to be in to win!

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7

ALBANY LO C A L N OT I C E S

New-Fangled ASA seeks Orientation success The newly elected Albany Students’ Association members will have their work cut-out for them this Orientation Week in retribution for flawed festivities in past years.

ASA president André Budel says the ASA has been working closely with Massey’s Student Life.

“We’ve been working hard to design and execute an orientation week which we think will engage our students.”

The 2014 ASA executive, led by new president Budel, is made up entirely of new members except for Men’s Welfare rep Jonathan MacDonald who enters his third term with the association.

This means fresh ideas and initiatives for Orientation at Albany; however the lack of student participation at past Albany student events bears a heavy load on the new executive.

“We have looked closely at mistakes made in past years and have decided that working closely together with the university and strengthening our relationship will result in a more enjoyable Orientation,” Budel says.

He and his executive are working towards a more participatory role for students in a bid to engage interest.

“This year we have planned many fun activities which require student participation throughout the week, mainly focusing around 11am-2pm.

“We have organised loads of cool prizes which can be won by just attending any of our planned activities.

“We have also made sure there will be free food provided during lunch times because what student doesn’t enjoy free food? We are also attempting to get staff involvement this year by creating a student-staff water fight.”

Day time events include: Human Fussball, Student Job Search BBQ, Big Games (giant jenga, twister, pickup sticks), DJ Matias, a giant water fight, food comps, rodeo bull, giant climbing walls plus extra events and games being put on by outside promoters.

Night events include: A sex-education quiz at the Ferguson, a traffic light party put on by the engineering club at the Ferguson, an outdoor movie event put on by

the Movies club, The BSG Amazing Race and, finishing off the week, a foam party at the Ferguson bar on campus.

Josh Berry Student Accommodation Given Green Light The construction of brand new Halls of Residence at Massey University’s Albany campus is underway with the university setting aside $26.8 million for the project.

The completed 292-bed accommodation will attract prospective students to the campus with its location centred in the “student heart” of Albany’s East Precinct.

The student heart currently boasts the student hub, ASA offices, library and numerous student amenities all within close proximity of one another.

However the added accommodation block has attracted concern from some who believe the onsite location could provoke trouble unless drinking and habitual activities of students are clearly regulated.

The Millennium Village, Lucas Creek Village and Casa Bella Apartments are the current student accommodation offerings at Albany but their locations are situated away from the main grounds of the campus.

Massey Albany’s campus registrar Andrea Davies says the accommodation will add “vibrancy to the campus, giving it that 24/7 feeling.

“The [drinking] rules we have will be the same as on the other current campuses such as the ones in Palmerston North.

“Host responsibility will be enforced as well as the encouragement of sensible drinking.”

Despite this, Davies says it is unclear at this stage whether the brand new hall of residence will be alcohol free. This is something to be determined nearer to completion.

The student accommodation will provide a much needed boost in bed numbers for the Albany campus with 292 bedrooms: of the 292 beds, there will be 210 beds in the Halls of Residence, 12 studio apartments and 70 beds in 14 five-bedroom apartments.

A central lounge with games room and study area will

also be included along with dining facilities for Halls of Residence students in Student Central.

Future stages are planned to increase capacity to 1000 beds available on campus.

Construction began early this summer after contractors, Arrow International, were awarded the tender for the job.

Completion is expected in February 2015.

Josh Berry President set to make amends 2014 Albany Students Association president André Budel is keen to shake off the woes of troubled past-presidencies by establishing a new business model for this year’s executive.

Since the introduction of the Voluntary Student Membership bill, the ASA has struggled to find the momentum needed to achieve a sustainable business model.

Budel emphasises the core focus this year will be to strengthen their relationships with the university and The Ferguson. “These relationships are extremely important to us as we no longer have the financial backing which we used to.

“We are the voice of our students and, to be heard, we need the people whom we do business with to respect us.”

The association will still be operating under very tight monetary circumstances, Budel says. “Our executive is still working as volunteers as we currently do not have sufficient revenue to provide salaries.

“We are looking to create a new business plan for the ASA enabling us to become more financially sustainable in coming years.”

He has, however, been able to negotiate paid wages for doing hands-on work for things through orientation week. “This is a huge step forward for the ASA as last year none of our team received a penny for their hard work.

“I have every confidence that this year the ASA will step up and build upon our foundation to create a successful, sustainable association which our members can be proud to be a part of.”

Josh Berry

Massive Local notices

8

MANAWATU LO C A L N OT I C E S

ALL AGES ALCOHOL FREE Massey University Students’ Association is trying “something a little different” for 2014, including alcoholfree events for all ages during Orientation Week.

Though traditionally O-Weeks involve alcohol, six alcohol-free events at Massey University Palmerston North will be sponsored and run by the Halls, the Centre, MUSA, and the Students Trust.

MUSA President Linsey Higgins says there is a need for such events.

“As we move towards a more multicultural campus we do need to provide events for people that don’t drink, especially cultures such as Muslim cultures where there isn’t a huge focus on drinking. And meeting the needs of those that are under 18, there are students.

“I was one of those people who didn’t turn 18 until near the end of O-Week, and it’s tough when everyone else is going out and you’ve got nothing to do but sit in your hall”.

An AAAF Combo ticket, setting you back $35.00, includes access to the following: movie nights on February 24 and March 1; International Night on February 25; hypnotist Grant Boddington on February 26; Pancake Night on February 27; and live music at The Stomach featuring Splitting Atoms, Given Names and Guests - on February 28.

Whether the inclusion of these events will encourage students to attend events or take away from the numbers is hard to forecast, Higgins says. “It’s always something that’s really hard to predict. We’re hoping for a good O-Week”.

Rachel Purdie Orientation 2014 O-Week in Palmy for 2014 comes off the back of a tough year for MUSA. A new President and executive have been voted in who will take the reins and set their mark during the first, and usually biggest, event of the year.

The event is an important start for the university year.

Not only do new students have the chance to get involved, but students of other years, including those in the area, all keep a keen eye out for O-Week events and what they have to offer.

Massivemagazine.org.nz

As well as the AAAF events, there are several others on the cards for which access can be gained by purchasing a Passport for $70, with the events taking place at the Royal: Toga Party ft DJ Sanka on February 22; Black Out ft 8 Foot Sativa and Guests on February 27; and a Beach Party ft Benny Tipene and DJ Sanka on March 1.

MUSA President Linsey Higgins says she is excited for O-Week.

“I think it’s really good, I’m excited that we’ve got people like Benny coming back.”

Other events include Clubs Day on February 26 where a majority of the clubs, associations and groups based in Palmerston North represent what they have to offer, giving students the opportunity to be aware of the huge variety of extracurricular activities available around Palmy.

Funding is a big issue this year, with Higgins saying, after discussions with the University, there appears to be less available.

“I think from discussions we have had with the University, it appears that there is less funding available this year due to less students enrolling. We’re not sure what that is going to look like yet in terms of service level agreements.”

Saturday 1/03/2014 PPort Beach Party @ The Royal Saturday 1/03/2014 AAAF Movie Night Rachel Purdie Manawatu Magnet for Musos The start of 2014 brings with it a flood of alternative music groups and artists to Palmerston North, such as Australian bands Bare Grillz and Inches, along with Auckland band Carb on Carb, and Sweater.

Local musician Harry Lilley says there are more musos involved than normal, after big efforts to bring in more acts.

“Every year, up ‘til this year – this is the final year for it – we’ve got Camp a Low Hum happening in Wellington, which is the big alternative music festival, so it’s like a three day festival from Waitangi Day through till the Monday.

“Heaps of bands come from all around the world for that festival, and they come down through Auckland, Whanganui, Wellington and usually skip Palmy. But

this year [we have made] a really concerted effort to pick a few as they’re coming through and put them into DIY shows, ‘cause that’s sort of what the whole scene’s about – everyone wants DIY.” DIY shows are perfect for the area, Lilley says, because of the lack of venues, and the demographic of the audience targeted.

“So your typical show would be going to this venue, paying $10 to get in, there will be a bar, you’d expect the band to start an hour after, you’d expect maybe two warm up acts and a headline act – it’s all advertised and there’s a very formal structure to it.

“With DIY shows, we sort of follow some of those structures but, because we don’t have great venues in Palmy, other than The Stomach which is an all ages’ venue, and that’s awesome, we have to do it for ourselves, make up our own shows. So a DIY show could be anywhere, at any time, we don’t feel like we have to do it on a Friday night, or a Saturday night.”

The shows could be anywhere, Lilley says.

“Could be in a flat, could be in a park, could be anywhere. It feels more informal – you can go up and talk to the artists and everyone’s just mixing and mingling like it’s a party.”

Because DIY shows are not the type to be advertised extensively before the show, other means will be used to get the word out there.

Lilley says social media and certain well-known websites used for advertising are the source of information for all gigs of that type.

“I usually do a post through a site called Locals which is a local alternative events site, and it has a stack of events on a Google calendar which you can check out, which you can hook into your own Google calendar so it tells you when stuff is happening.

“The shows are usually free, or like $10 on the door, usually they’re BYO. We sort of go with the joke ‘cool people only’ - ‘cool people’ meaning you’re not going to come trash someone’s house and all that.” onsidering hosting Te Huinga Tauira in 2014, and any new members are welcome to take part in the experience.

Rachel Purdie

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OUR WELLINGTON A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE, STUDY, WORK AND PLAY Welcome to Wellington, new and returning Massey University students

To help make your time in Wellington both successful and enjoyable check out the things that you can access during your stay

Go online to find when your rubbish and recycling days are

Wellington’s public libraries are great places to both study and access information

Spend some time at one of the many sports grounds, pools, mountain bike trails or take a walk through our beautiful Botanic Garden or Otari-Wilton Bush

Chat to the guys at Club Active and ASB Sports Centre for student deals

Keep yourself safe while you party, download The Wolf Pack app, which was designed by thirdyear Massey University visual communication design students

To find out more, please visit Wellington.govt.nz – we’re here to help

The team at Wellington City Council wishes you all the best for your studies this year.

Wellington.govt.nz

Don’t just cross the Strait.

Cruise it.

interislander.co.nz Massive Local notices

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WELLINGTON LO C A L N OT I C E S

ONE ORIENTATION WELLINGTON Massey University Wellington students’ orientation kicks off on the first week of the semester, for the first time ever, with a combined orientation timetable with Victoria University.

Massey Wellington Students’ Association and the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association have historically taken very different approaches to Orientation.

Having the Hunter Lounge on campus has meant that VUWSA has generally kept things on the hill and in house.

MAWSA, on the other hand, has focused on putting on a number of shows in and around town.

It has continued this work with the city approach over previous years.

This year, the two associations have decided to combine strengths - Victoria’s large capacity venue, and MAWSA’s links with the city and music industry - to bring Wellington’s students One Orientation.

Massey’s Toga party is an exception, however, which is only for first year students from Massey.

The programme features gigs from the massive to the intimate, from the mainstream to the obscure, including Baauer (from the Harlem Shake) with Ryan Hemsworth, rising Kaytranada and Slow Magic, and returning MAWSA favourites Gold Panda, Baths, @peace, and Trei.

Other artists performing include David Dallas - with live band - and Electric Wire Hustle.

Throw in acts with cult followings like Freq Nasty and Awesome Tapes From Africa, then add more great locals than you can shake a stick at, and finally Wellington has an Orientation almost befitting a “creative capital”.

One Orientation festival director Mike Ross says this is only the start.

“To be honest, the concept of a combined orientation was signed off on very late in the piece this year, seriously limiting what could be done scale-wise.

“I’m fairly happy with what we’ve been able to swing under the circumstances. If it’s deemed to work well, we’ll obviously have a far longer lead-in next year.

“If the associations and institutions wish to cooperate with local industry, there’s no reason why Wellington’s

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students can’t expect to see Orientation line ups exceeding those in Dunedin.”

You can pick your tickets up from the MAWSA office or on the door at the events.

Brigitte Masters MASSEY LIBRARY TAKES TO ART Roll up roll up, calling all social media fiends out there, a Massey art competition will be launched this orientation in a bid to eradicate the library’s “stuffy and fussy” image.

The campaign, which will officially kick off at the Orientation Expo on February 20 and run until March 14 is aimed at luring first year students into the Wellington campus library by promoting the trending artform, “bookfacing art”.

Bookfacing, a trend established in the United States, is an art form where participants are encouraged to choose a book cover that can be substituted for a face to create “an entirely new and exciting” artwork.

Students are encouraged to photograph the book/ face combinations before uploading them to the Massey University library Facebook page.

The photographs with the most “likes” on Facebook will win a $100 Tussock cafe voucher and a $40 printing card. Second prize will take home a $40 printing car while third place will be in to win a $20 printing card.

Creative Arts librarian, and man behind the initiative, Paul Orsman, said the campaign was created in a bid to induce new students to discover some of the wonderful resources the library had to offer.

Hopefully the project will inspire students so that when they have projects to complete for the purposes of their study, they can come to the library and use the hard copies rather than “googling images”, he said.

It was also a good chance to teach students how to accurately source material.

The campaign was not the result of a declining number of students coming into the library but rather something that they did “from time to time”.

“We spend a lot of money on the collection, therefore we want to get it looked at and used.”

Libraries could be fun and the campaign was an attempt to eradicate that “stuffy and fussy” traditional image, he said.

Campus librarian Kat Cuttriss said the initiative would hopefully increase awareness and engagement.

“We have a really image-rich collection, in Wellington.

“By manipulating images, we can use these great books and make it look like entirely new and exciting artworks, plus, the use of social media of course will be beneficial for getting the library out there.”

Despite the ironic nature of the campaign given the use of social media, there was nothing like that “traditional, tangible and tactile experience” that comes with reading a book as opposed to an ebook, she said.

Sasha Borissenko FREE SAUSAGES, AND MORE FREE SAUSAGES Orientation week on campus sees a variety of events that involve free stuff, more free stuff - and free sausages.

The busiest day of the week is February 26, named “Giveaway Day” which, as its namesake states, is all about the free buzz.

“It’s the day where the price for businesses coming on to campus means they have to give you free stuff,” MAWSA communications and programmes manager Mike Ross laughed.

“As usual” in the first week there will be lots of BBQs. MAWSA student president Todd Williamson said the executive woulod be ensuring that all of the new Massey students were fitting in, and that everyone knew where they needed to be.

“The executive will be out mingling with students, and cooking sausages,” he said.

Clubs Day was scheduled for March 12, where Massey Wellington’s 20 clubs would be recruiting new members and showing students what they were about, MAWSA clubs development officer Anna Hobman said.

“Massey has a bunch of exciting clubs to join and they’re only growing.”

Giveaway Day will be held in the Pyramid,and on the grass outside Tussock. Clubs Day will be held out on the College of Creative Arts concourse.

Sally Pringle

11

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Notice of Massey Council election for student members

The Massey University Council will be holding elections in April for the three student positions on the Council. There will be elections for an internal student member, a distance student member and a MÄ ori student member.

All students enrolled at Massey on March 24 will be eligible for nomination in one of the three categories.

Nominations will be called for on March 3 and must be received by the Returning Officer by March 19. Voting will be online from March 31 until closing on April 16.

Students will be sent emails about the nomination and election process, initially at the time nominations are called wfor, with follow-up when voting starts and a reminder before voting closes.

Massive Local notices

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KEY’S GUIDE TO STUDENT SUCCESS How would John Key cope with costs of student life in the 2010s? Not very well, our Prime Minister confesses to MASSIVE after the Three Keys event last year highlighting inspirational Kiwis. But, he points out, students can always borrow…

What would you change or do differently if you were a student again?

I would have studied harder at university. My grades were fine but in the end I would have tried to ace it.

Did you go out drinking a bit?

Yeah, well, we had a good time.

Do you think universities have an obligation to provide degrees that make jobs attainable? Some degrees, like the Bachelor of Arts, are quite broad.

I think they should provide degrees right across the spectrum, because people do postgraduate study and tertiary study for a wide variety of reasons. And society needs all of those degrees covered.

But in reality, it’s incumbent on the person who’s going to undertake that course to understand what they think they’ll achieve by it. So if they are very focussed on getting a job, that’s the reason they are undertaking those studies, they need to be mindful of what courses are likely to lead to better employment opportunities.

But I think, a world where we said no-one can study art history because it’s not a course that’s going to lead to a lot of jobs, we’d make New Zealand a poorer society.

Do you think you could live on the former postgraduate allowance of $244 per week?

In reality, no, certainly not if you’re flatting and you’re not living at home and all those things. But the scheme’s underpinned by the capacity to borrow at zero percent, so in reality, while it’s changed a lot from in my day, the primary changes have been around the way they’ve charged the fees for study, as opposed to the allowances of living away.

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In fact, in my day, there were no student loans so, in that regard, you didn’t live in the city where you studied and that’s always going to present costs.

We’ve made some changes in the tough economic times but, in the end, the primary focus has been on initial learning … the argument’s really been on why we don’t provide allowances for PHDs and the likes [especially for low-to-middle income families].

But the evidence shows [after graduation] they’ll earn high levels of income and a much higher level of income over what they otherwise would do, so their capacity to repay those student loans is generally very high.

Politics in New Zealand is important. What about student politics?

Yeah, I think it’s really important. We engage with student political leaders all the time. It’s a good breeding ground for political parties. There are strong views held on campus and there’s a good source of Young Nats and Young Labour and Young ACT and Greens, and student debates are always fun.

I speak quite a lot at universities, and people challenge you on your views and that’s actually a healthy part of democracy – the bright young people who care about the future.

What about student media? How important do you think that is in New Zealand?

I think it’s a lot of fun. It’s a great way for students to communicate and to understand and to learn.

But quite a lot of it is satirical and I don’t take it too seriously when they have a go. [laughs] What about Massey University? Why do you think students should go to Massey?

It’s a world class university in specialist areas, particularly in agriculture and the sciences, and that underpins the New Zealand economy. We’re very supportive of Massey.

We’ve been working closely alongside the ViceChancellor Steve Maharey and, given the significance of food and food technology to New Zealand, Massey is a credible part of our future.

What advice would you give to a new graduate from university?

I think it would be to work hard, and to work consistently.

It was my son’s first year at Auckland [in 2013] and I said to him, “if you start summarising the notes straight away, by the time you get to the end of the year you won’t have to cram as hard”. It’s changed a bit, back in my day it was 100 per cent all about your final exam.

These days the workload is spread way more evenly throughout the year, which is good and bad. But I think you want people to enjoy their time at university because it’s one of the few times that you’re grown up enough to be given lots of freedoms and to make your own choices.

Lots of young people that go to university find it very liberating to no longer be under the strict guise of mum and dad all the time but, on the other side of the coin, you’re not having to think immediately about working and the like all of the time, so you have a nice balance there.

So it’s a great and really fun time in people’s lives but it’s a serious business these days for people going and getting their degrees and it’s highly competitive.

In the world I grew up in, very few people went to university and having a degree was enough. In reality today, it’s much more competitive.

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A MASSIVE PROBLEM AT MASSEY UNIVERSITY MASSIVE is going online-only due to a lack of student levy funding. Does Massey want to kill student media? Are they spending student money appropriately? Charlie Mitchell, amateur detective, investigates.

This will be the last time MASSIVE is published in print.

Why? Even though this magazine now covers the three campuses of Albany, Palmerston North and Wellington, Massey University is unwilling to give us more money towards its staffing and production.

The four student associations can no longer afford to produce a magazine even though it is a necessary outlet for the student voice.

Why won’t the university give us more support? We (MASSIVE) have suspicions that Massey is unhappy with the independence of this publication, which is why it is allowing it to fail when it could quite easily save it.

How things have reached this impasse is a complex issue. At the heart of things is the way services are being delivered by the University, via something called “Voluntary Student Membership”, introduced in 2011, which has dramatically changed the way things work.

We (student journalists) are deeply unhappy with these changes. We believe nobody is better off than they were a few years ago.

The following is an in-depth investigation by MASSIVE reporter Charlie Mitchell into the tumultuous events leading up to and subsequent to the introduction of Voluntary Student Membership.

We believe it is an important account and a sombre warning of the way things are going.

It’s more than 6000 words-long, but it covers some very important details. We urge you to go over it carefully.

On the face of it, this is a story about Voluntary Student Membership. It is a story about Old versus Young, Left versus Right, and University versus Student.

But there is an immense subtext to this story which looms ominously over the entire issue. It is a story of journalistic independence and university accountability. It is why this will probably be the last issue of MASSIVE you will hold in your hands. But we’ll get to that.

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To really know why this story exists, it helps to know about Voluntary Student Membership. VSM is a topic we’ve covered a number of times at MASSIVE, because it’s something that affects us, the university and, most importantly, you.

CONTEXT

In 2011, the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill, introduced by then ACT MP Heather Roy, was passed by Parliament. This meant that students were no longer automatically enrolled as members of their students’ associations, effectively allowing students to decide for themselves whether they wanted to join an association or not.

Massey currently has four students’ associations that receive funding - ASA (Albany), MUSA (Palmerston North), MAWSA (Wellington), and EXMSS (Extramural). There is also the Albany based Maori Students’ Association, and the Manawatu based Maori Students’ Association at Massey University Manawatu. At time of print it was unknown whether the latter two are funded.

The debate over VSM is best seen as a proxy war between ideological opposites. One side believes that forcing someone to join a group, regardless of whether they want to or not, is morally wrong. They also believe that forcing everyone to give an association money dilutes the association’s accountability, potentially harbouring financial mismanagement and corruption.

Those who lie particularly far on the right-wing might say that students’ associations - which habitually produce future left-wing politicians - encourage bad political habits, namely the relatively unchecked ability to spend large amounts of other peoples’ money The left-wing see VSM as a sword in the stomach for students’ associations. They believe that students will suffer unless everyone has a vested interest in making sure services are adequately provided by an institution independent of the university.

They may also say - as Sir Geoffrey Palmer did in his report on the VSM bill - that students already had the Freedom to Associate, because they were able to conscientiously object to joining an association, making the bill a solution to a problem that didn’t exist.

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Pre-VSM

POST-VSM

UNIVERSITY

STUDENT BODY

ASSOCIATION

UNIVERSITY

STUDENT BODY

ASSOCIATION

Terms of agreement Massey, which is now responsible for delivering services to students, make agreements with the student associations.

These agreements detail what services the association will provide on behalf of the university.

This means that the associations are effectively acting as extensions of the university, rather than as independent groups that represent students.

The passage of VSM, as you can imagine, presented an apocalyptically large problem for students’ associations. Where previously they were assured of a membership fee from every person enrolled at the university - an amount that was steady, predictable, and large - they now received a small amount of money from an inconsistent amount of people, depending on who actively decided to join the association.

Most associations have now opted for free membership in a bid to attract new members.

This makes providing core services, such as student media, student welfare, advocacy, university events, etc, very difficult. Where once these things were funded by everyone for everyone, associations are now trying to provide these services for everyone but with the money generated from a fraction of the students.

The associations aren’t really into this, naturally.

Controversy soon followed as student politicians tried to stop the passage of the Bill. Logan Edgar, then president of the Otago University Students’

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Association, requested that Sir Roger Douglas “get fucked’’ on Douglas’ own Facebook page. He also, in the same post, referred to him as a “dinosaur” and a “cunt”.

Not long after this, Edgar locked himself in a cage on university grounds for 42 hours in a metaphordriven protest against VSM. During this time he endured a physical assault from an enraged member of ACT on Campus, and urinated into a bucket in front of a captive online audience.

This protest, which didn’t end up changing the course of the Bill, did manage to gain a brief amount of traction on breakfast television.

Elsewhere, 60 students barricaded themselves in a building at Auckland University, and 30 more staged sit-ins at both Otago and Victoria. It wasn’t the Arab Spring, but the protest, albeit small, was forceful and sincere.

Alas, the Bill passed, and the students’ associations were forced to accept their fate with something of a resigned shrug. They now had to compete in a market economy, and prove their value to the students who were no longer forced to associate with them.

Which brings us to the present day. Students now, in theory, have all the “Freedom To Associate” they could possibly want, and students’ associations no longer have comically large piles of money to spend on whatever they see fit. Predictably, their ability to provide services have been heavily curtailed as a result.

But, as we’ve discovered, students are actually paying more than they were before VSM. They’re just paying it to someone else.

THE STORY

Before VSM, students were required to pay two separate fees: one for membership of a students’ association, and another (called a “student levy”) to the university itself. In 2011, before VSM, it cost $165 to join MAWSA, the Massey Wellington Students’ Association. Post VSM, you don’t have to pay this fee.

A recurring theme throughout the debate about VSM was that the law would allow students to save themselves from paying this additional fee because they were no longer required to join the association.

Much of the online scuttlebutt, for instance, centred around the idea that VSM was good simply because students would get an extra $165 in their pocket.

But barely a week after the VSM Bill became law, Massey University announced it would increase the cost of its student levy. By $165.

Massey, alongside every other major university, increased their student services levy to fill the gap left by the now neutered students’ associations. It intended to use the extra money to provide the services that were once delivered by the independent associations.

VSM, in a practical sense, became functionally useless before Heather Roy could dispense her last celebratory high-five on the floor of Parliament.

The “Freedom to Associate” has become more of an abstract idea than something that tangibly benefits students. Students still pay the same amount of money they did before VSM, they’re just paying it to a large, bureaucratic institution that wasn’t designed to provide services to students, that faces corporate pressures, and that has an unproven ability to provide services to students as well as the students’ associations have in the past.

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WHAT VOLUNTARY MEANS Voluntary Student Membership means no one has to join a student association if they don’t want to.

When it was introduced, the student associations lost a lot of money.

Massey, alongside every other university, stepped in to provide the services the associations used to provide. They did this by making students pay more in compulsory fees directly to the university.

Students are paying more than they were prior to VSM, even though everyone expected them to be paying less.

The group responsible for deciding how much funding MASSIVE gets is called External Relations. It is basically Massey’s PR department – a clear conflict of interest, considering we sometimes write things that are damaging to Massey’s PR.

We don’t want to fool anyone into thinking that students’ associations are wondrous beacons of democracy and good decision-making: look at MASSIVE’s own investigation into the abuses of power that took place at EXMSS last year. An even more insidious case occurred in 2003 when MAWSA’s then association manager stole thousands of dollars from the association. And those certainly aren’t the only incidents of misuse of power and corruption within a students’ association.

But what the changes mean is that the university has had to play a crucial role in providing services that have traditionally been independent, such as student advocacy and student media.

The problems with this are self-evident. When Massey petitioned the government in 2012 to raise their fees by up to 8 per cent, twice what the government usually permits them to, how were students able to independently and formally advocate against this when student advocacy was financially supported by the university itself ?

This is a particular problem for extramural students, who currently have no form of independent advocacy at all. Advocacy that used to be handled by EXMSS is now handled by the Distance Learning Centre, who are contracted by Massey to deliver the services that were previously provided by EXMSS before the, uh, “events” of last year.

EXMSS interim co-president Tiri Porter said it was vital that advocacy was run by an independent body.

“Does the uni have a staff advocacy centre paid for by the uni? If no, then why do they think they can run an advocacy service for students,” she asks.

The Distance Learning Centre, incidentally, also has the right to publish MASSIVE’s online content.

They’ve held these rights since late last year. During this short period of time, Massey External Relations staff, who are tasked with managing the Service Level Agreements for student media, have requested that details be changed in several stories, particularly ones that are critical of Massey.

They’ve done this partly under the guise of being concerned about being liable for defamation, despite the fact that all MASSIVE’s stories are vetted for such details, and always have been. For the last few months we have been living under the reality that External Relations have the ability to refuse to publish student stories on our website, if they decide that’s what they want to do.

How can student journalists be independent when they are financially reliant on the institution they are supposed to be independent from? How can we write critically about Massey when External Relations, whose primary job is to protect the reputation of Massey, are the people who control the amount of funding that is given to this magazine?

Surely they are the last group of people within Massey that should be controlling MASSIVE’s funding, right?

How’s that for a conflict of interest?

PROFIT OR BUST

VSM has established a new but onerous status quo for students.

Universities make “Service Level Agreements” with associations, effectively contracting them to deliver services to students on the university’s behalf. The associations have to “bid” for these contracts, often at a price that does not allow them to operate effectively as service providers.

Former ASA president Stephan van Heerden says the process has been reduced to a business model.

“Pitch a low bid so the university will use you as a service provider and then see if you can offer the service for cheaper which then equals profit. If you don’t turn a profit, or have an external income, and you run over budget, then you won’t be there next year.

“It’s simple business logic,” van Heerden says. “This could lead to a decline in quality or just a stagnation of the organisation, that is, an association that just keeps afloat but never gets to build up reserves to eventually go on to do bigger and better things for students.”

The funding organised from these agreements is drip-fed to the associations at a speed that barely allows them to survive. It also leads to a situation where students, who are paying a mandatory fee to the university, are having services they can’t object to, delivered to them by a students’ association.

Eagle-eyed readers will notice how similar this is to the pre-VSM system. You’re paying a compulsory fee to someone who will deliver services you may not want on your behalf. In some cases these services will be delivered by the students’ association, the very group you now supposedly have the ability not to associate with.

In a pragmatic sense, VSM has changed absolutely nothing about your inability to choose how you want your money to be spent.

In 2012, the university accumulated just over $8 million from student levy fees; $1.5 million of this money was given to students’ associations through SLAs.

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Y/N AT THE MERCY OF MASSEY Student associations are now at the mercy of the university, who could theoretically withhold funding for services at any time.

It used to be student associations that helped fund MASSIVE to the point where they could print a monthly magazine; they no longer have the money to do so.

We (MASSIVE), therefore, do not have enough funding to operate the magazine. We have $108k to work with, which is nowhere near enough. The university declined our request for more.

This leaves $6.5 million dollars that was spent by Massey directly on student services. They are legally required to spend this money on student services, and nothing else.

The student associations we spoke to claim the portion of the money given to them through SLAs is inadequate for them to function properly as service providers.

ASA president André Budel said, in respect to the funding of service contracts, the university decided how much they would pay the association, which seemed to be getting less every year – “and we can either take it or leave it”.

“The university will only pay cost for our services, which means we are not making any profit for the hard work the team puts in throughout the year. As a result the ASA exec work as volunteers, which makes running and managing events difficult.

“Every year Massey students are paying more in student services’ levies. Every year the university is decreasing the amount of funds it gives to the Albany Students’ Association to provide student services.

Something doesn’t add up.”

Former MUSA president Steven Christodoulou detailed an incident MUSA had while working out their SLA with the university which, he said, gave them very little room to negotiate.

“The university had sent us an email on December 22 at 4pm telling us what we were going to receive for our funding for provisional services. We were unfortunately not there at the time, so we didn’t find

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out what we had until the very beginning of the next year. By then it was too late.

“Effectively there was consultation over what they would fund, but the amount we were going to receive wasn’t provided until that email.

“Post this email, there were no further negotiations.”

MAWSA President Todd Williamson said the inconsistent amount of funding from the university had been causing problems for some of the associations because it made planning for the future difficult.

“It has become difficult to implement any concrete long term plans due to the year-to-year nature of funding.”

For both MAWSA and EXMSS, the funding agreed upon through their SLA with Massey had to be practically wrenched from the university’s iron grip.

According to Porter (EXMSS), when the university was slow to make payments to the association last year, the then president ended up knocking on the door of anyone and everyone on campus to get payments paid.

“How is it that the uni can delay payment to students’ associations without consequence, but when students are late to pay their fees, we get penalised?” she asked.

Christodoulou [Former MUSA] said MUSA never had problems with getting funding around SLAs when he was president, but did occasionally have problems receiving other funds.

“There were no issues with ever getting the money.

Around SLAs, that is. It was the same for Media Grants. However, there were other things that weren’t so simple for getting the funding from.

“I’m not going to say they were always good with giving money but, with the SLAs and Media Grants, they always paid after invoices were sent.”

It seems the few services that are being delivered through SLAs with the students’ associations have been hamstrung by a difficult relationship with the university. These problems didn’t really exist pre-VSM, and the current situation speaks to the messiness of the way services are currently funded.

The law also requires Massey to consult with students about how student levy money will be spent.

Whether they’ve done this to a desirable level is tenuous - but we’ll look into that in a moment.

So now we’ve arrived at a couple of Big Questions: where is all of this student money going? Who’s deciding how it is spent? And are students better off now than they were before?

A MASSIVE PROBLEM

Well, we can assure you the money’s not going to us.

When you hear about a magazine going “online only”, it can generally be read as code for “our bank account lives in a figurative toilet”. MASSIVE, unfortunately, is no exception.

For the past few years, funding for MASSIVE, which covers Massey students nationally, has worked like this: we receive $108,000 from the university itself, which comes from the student levy fund. The rest of our budget, which amounts to about $200,000, comes from a mixture of advertising and funding from the students’ associations.

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ALL OTHER SERVICES – $2,546,000

HEALTH & COUNSELLING – $2,579,000

PASTORAL CARE – $2,573,000

SERVICE & CARE Massey spend a third of its student money on something called “pastoral care” It spends more on this than many other services combined.

It’s hard to know exactly what is funded under “pastoral care”, but the services cited by Massey don’t seem to justify that much spending.

Massey also had a surplus of student money in 2011. This means nearly $400k of student money was not spent on services that year (though it was carried on to the next year).

Service providers (such as us) would have greatly benefited from some of that money.

Of the $8,000,000 raised by massey through student services fees In 2012, $1.5M of this was distributed to student associations through service level agreements.

$2,573,000 – Pastoral care $2,579,000 – HEALTH AND COUNSELLING $1,093,000 – CLUBS, SOCIETIES & REC. $707,000 – ADVOCACY & SUPPORT $384,000 – UNUSED SURPLUS $312,000 – MEDIA & COMMS

1.3%

1/20

Approx. of the 2012 SERVICES FEES WERE DEDICATED FOR USE BY MASSIVE MAGAZINE

th

Of the money set aside for PASTORAL CARE ALONE COULD PAY FOR ENOUGH MASSIVE MAGAZINES TO BE PRINTED FOR EVERY STUDENT IN THE COUNTRY

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REACHING STUDENTS Massey told us it would not give us more money because it believes the magazine isn’t reaching students in the way that it should.

It informed us it would be re-figuring MASSIVE in a way that meant it would be run by a group whose membership would be partially decided

by Massey.

This means Massey would have had some control over how decisions would be made in the operation of the magazine.

It then decided not to do this, instead insisting we continue to operate with the small amount of money we’ve been given.

For comparison’s sake, Victoria gave their student association a $160,000 media grant to be specifically used for student media. Victoria has one third of the campuses, and 13,000 fewer students than Massey does.

The $108,000 given to us is about 1.3 per cent of the $8 million raised from compulsory student services’ fees in 2012.

Unfortunately for us (more so for them), the students’ associations are broke. The ASA generated $723,000 from student fees in 2011. In 2012 they generated $1600. That is a 99.78 per cent reduction in their primary source of revenue.

The other associations - MAWSA, MUSA, and EXMSS - aren’t doing much better. They’re certainly not in a position to finance a magazine.

Because they have struggled to acquire any meaningful assets in the past (excluding MUSA, which owns the campus shop and several other properties, which has helped keep them afloat for the time being), the associations have been completely reliant on revenue from students.

Now that they’re not getting this assured yearly revenue thanks to VSM, they are reliant on funding from Massey to continue operating as service providers.

This clearly ruins any notion of independence - the associations now exist in a culture of dependency on the university, rather than as representative bodies for students.

“There is a constant fear that we could have any institution funding revoked if we do anything wrong or we speak against the university when trying to hold them accountable” Higgins (MUSA) said.

“Associations who have no assets such as MAWSA and ASA are at the mercy of their funders and Massey has the power to end these associations through choosing not to fund them, which is incredibly wrong and amoral.”

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Because MASSIVE has been reliant on the students’ associations for funding - who are now reliant on Massey for their own funding, and therefore cannot fund us - we are left with a rather large hole in our operating budget.

MASSIVE, at this stage, is primarily owned by MAWSA. MAWSA went right to the source and approached Massey for more funding. Because they have all the money the associations used to get from students (via the increased student levy), it was hoped they’d be able to fund the association to a level where we, the students, could viably run a magazine.

This request was declined. MASSIVE’s grant this year will be $108,000, as it has been for the entirety of its existence. Considering the cost to simply print this magazine throughout the year approaches $100,000 in itself, the amount we’ve been given is woeful, calamitous, untenable, et cetera.

AN INDEPENDENT “STUDENT” MEDIA COMPANY?

Let’s speculate about why this request for funding was declined. During a meeting with MAWSA’s president and association manager, staff from Massey’s External Relations department verbally rejected the proposal for more funding.

In this meeting, External Relations cited a survey they had conducted concerning MASSIVE’s impact on students. The results of the survey, they said, concluded that MASSIVE was not having the desired impact on its readers, and did not justify the amount of money being spent on it.

External Relations gave us some more information about this survey on request. 1529 students responded to the survey: 20 per cent said they regularly or occasionally read MASSIVE, 24 per cent said they had read it once or twice, and 55 per cent said they did not read it at all.

Of those who did read MASSIVE, 72 per cent said they read the print version only, 16 per cent read online only, and the rest read both.

We could have a go at picking apart this survey.

We don’t know how many of those students were extramural, and therefore highly unlikely to read MASSIVE; we don’t know how representative the responders were of the overall student body; we don’t know how the responders were distributed across the campuses.

But to be honest, the survey could just indeed be a fair reflection of how Massey students view MASSIVE. What we do know is that over the last two months, articles on our website have been viewed more than 52,000 times. Stories that were broken by our student journalists have appeared in mainstream news’ publications, including the 6 o’clock news bulletins.

We know people who have never stepped foot onto a Massey campus in their lives have started to read this magazine since we began distributing copies throughout Auckland and Wellington.

Legitimate or not, External Relations used the results of this survey to justify a complete re-figuration of the way MASSIVE operates.

They said that MAWSA would no longer be providing MASSIVE Magazine, as they did last year.

MAWSA, in fact, would not receive any funding at all for a magazine, because the university had plans to set up a new company, which would then elect a board, which would go on to operate the student magazine with student levy funding. MAWSA was told to continue making MASSIVE like usual whilst the university set up this new company.

In simple terms, Massey was willing to invest money into a re-formed magazine, of which they would have played a crucial role in developing.

The university later had a change of heart about

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CURRENT STRUCTURE VS PROPOSED STRUCTURE YES

Massey external relations

STUDENT APPOINTED EDITOR

NO

MAGZINE DISTRIBUTION

YES

Massey external relations

MASSEY APPOINTED EDITOR

this. They’ve chosen to continue giving MASSIVE the usual $108,000 for the year. They then suggested we cease our print publication and go “online only”.

MAWSA was never given the opportunity to negotiate the level of funding. MAWSA’s draft proposal, which requested $340,000 to fund MASSIVE for three campuses plus extramural students, was rejected immediately, and negotiations for a compromise were never held.

Apparently External Relations was willing to put more money towards student media, but only if it was able to completely reconstruct it in a way that gave it more influence than it would otherwise have through a magazine operated by a students’ association.

This plan, if it had gone ahead, would have raised a number of ethical questions about the independence of student media. Massey already has an unwelcome influence on the stories we can publish on our website, and a Massey appointed editorial board would have exacerbated the problem of independence even further.

They already operate their own in-house magazines (one called Defining NZ): do they want to operate this one too? The need for independent student media should be self-evident.

Massey Journalism lecturer Alan Samson said student publications should be autonomous and independent. “Without surety that a publication is free to pursue its stories without interference, the necessary idealism and enthusiasm of emerging generations of leaders is quickly curtailed.”

Massey has little obligation to support MASSIVE. It has a legal obligation, as written in the Ministerial Direction on Compulsory Student Services Fees, to “support the production and dissemination of information by students to students”.

They do currently do this, albeit in a manner that might be best described as “begrudgingly”. We’ve come to accept that.

NO

MAGZINE DISTRIBUTION

Our objection isn’t just to the way student media at Massey has been neglected. We object to the way VSM has fundamentally reconfigured the relationship between student and university.

Students are giving money to an institution that was not designed to deliver services, and which hasn’t to the best of their ability consulted students about the services they want their money to pay for.

VSM has removed all accountability from universities while simultaneously placing a heavy financial burden on students.

CONSULTATION

The Ministerial Direction on Compulsory Student Services Fees for 2012, which Massey is legally obligated to adhere to, says the following about student consultation: “Providers must establish adequate arrangements for decisions to be made jointly, or in consultation with the students enrolled at the provider, or their representatives, on the following matters: (a) the maximum amount that students may be charged for student services; and (b) the types of services to be delivered (within the categories set out under paragraph 8 of this direction); and (c) the procurement of these services; and (d) the method for authorising expenditure on these services” When we asked Massey Communications Director James Gardiner how Massey had been consulting with students about student services spending, he replied: “Student forums were held on each campus, with question and answer sessions, an online survey of all students was conducted and specific feedback was sought from students’ associations. This year we will hold forums on each campus in semesters one and two. We will also be talking to distance students.”

When we asked the presidents of each students’ association whether they had been adequately consulted by the uni, the answer was a unanimous “No”.

Higgins [MUSA] said there had been a definite lack of consultation with MUSA. “I’m of the opinion that Massey are making their funding decisions based on a lack of meaningful consultation. As Massey has no reason to contract with us, they potentially feel that they do not need to consult with us.”

Budel [ASA] echoed that sentiment. “We contract our services to the university and work with them to a certain degree with running clubs, orientations, events. However, as far as consulting us about what they should do with the money, no, not that I know of.”

Williamson [MAWSA] said the association was not working with the Institution as cohesively as desired, and he hoped to see increased communication between the university and association in 2014.

Porter [EXMSS] said the extramural association was initially consulted, but had not been adequately informed about how the money was being spent afterwards.

“What happened to that pool of money that the uni said they distribute out to students every year?

Student presidents met with the Massey Foundation last year to discuss ideas as to how to spend it, but we heard nothing afterwards. Are they going to do it again this year?”

So even if Massey originally consulted with student presidents, on-going communication has been strained, with a lot of confusion about how student money is actually being distributed.

Former presidents, on the other hand, do claim to have been consulted by Massey.

“Yes, we were consulted. However it was only in

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LEGALLY REQUIRED Massey is legally required to consult with students about how they spend student money on services.

The student associations believe they haven’t been adequately consulted about how the money is spent.

Massey has consulted with students, but in a way with limited impact.

regards to our allocation of the Student Services Levy, what we were contracted to do. All other expenditure was on the Massey side of things,” van Heerden [Former ASA] said.

Christodoulou [Former MUSA] said Massey did engage with MUSA students, but the extent to which they did followed a “tick-box” approach.

“The biggest issue I had [as president] was with the exclusion of the general management… Young presidents who didn’t have a huge knowledge of the institution were forced into situations where they were required to make decisions around SLAs, especially after the first change post VSM… they were expected to know a lot more than they should have been expected to know,” he said.

“If general management had been included in those conversations I think we would have had a much better outcome.”

Even when Massey did consult with the associations after VSM, their approach seemed to be simplistic, limited in scope, and certainly not negotiated by two entities on equal footing. On-going consultation, according to the current presidents, has been almost non-existent.

Gardiner also referred to forums held on each campus to solicit student feedback. These forums did indeed take place.

A forum on the Wellington campus, for example, attracted 21 students, 11 of whom were members of the student executive. This is 0.7 per cent of the roughly 3000 students enrolled at Massey Wellington, or 0.37 per cent if we only count students who weren’t obligated to be there as members of the student executive.

The existence of the forum did not seem to be widely known - MASSIVE learned about it two days prior and advertised it on its Facebook page, but details about the event were otherwise scant.

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Questions for the forum were sent in by the student attendees beforehand, and vetted by Massey staff. A few off the cuff questions were allowed, but they were in the minority.

The topic that dominated this (again, small) forum centred around Tussock, the campus cafe, which forum attendees complained was too expensive, not healthy enough, unsuitable for students, and suggested should be replaced with a dining hall. Little was mentioned about other services.

PASTORAL CARE

Other services’ spending would benefit from further analysis. According to Massey’s 2012 annual report, it spent $2.5 million on “pastoral care”, which is a third of the overall student services budget.

According to Gardiner, “pastoral care” covers leadership and transitional programmes (such as Uni Guides), spiritual support, accommodation advice for all students, and student events and activities such as orientation for all students.

It’s hard to know exactly what these categories entail.

“Uni Guides”, for instance, are unpaid volunteers, so it’s hard to imagine that programme is the beneficiary of the millions of dollars being spent within the “pastoral care” category. Though, to be fair to Massey, all universities tend to be slightly vague about what exactly they’re spending student money on.

Looking at Victoria and Waikato, for comparison’s sake, show that they spend 12.9 per cent and 24 per cent respectively of their student service levy budget on a category called “pastoral care and counselling”.

Massey lumps counselling together with “health”, which together make up another third of the student levy budget. This makes Massey the only university to consider “pastoral care” its own category.

Victoria and Waikato fund similar services to Massey under the term “pastoral care”. They do not

provide student services such as orientation as Massey does, but they do provide counselling, and manage to spend a lot less of their overall budget doing so.

More was spent on “pastoral care” at Massey than advocacy, legal and financial support, careers and employment advice, clubs, societies, sports, recreation, media and communications combined.

If External Relations gave MASSIVE one twentieth of the money spent on “pastoral care”, we would be able to continue printing enough copies of MASSIVE for every Massey student in the country.

In 2012, Massey generated a $384,000 surplus from the student levy budget. It was the only university to generate a surplus; others, such as Waikato and Otago, produced a considerable deficit. Gardiner noted that this surplus was earmarked to be spent on student services, and occurred because of the time it took to set up some services after VSM. We could have done with some of that unspent student money, as could the increasingly impoverished students’ associations.

Students at the Albany campus pay more in compulsory non-academic fees than any other group of university students in the entire country. The number, as it currently stands, is approaching $900 for every student.

All students at the Albany campus are required to pay a levy for the recreation centre, even if they have no desire to use it. Manawatu students also pay a compulsory “building levy”, even though Massey should be capable of financing its own buildings.

If VSM was intended to provide individual choice for each student, why are students being forced to pay for things they might not even use?

Ongoing consultation with students has been lacking, and the consultation that has taken place seems to have been ambiguous and ineffective. All four students’ associations, who are the closest thing

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0.37%

rate of voluntary student engagement WITH A RECENT MASSEY ORGANISED STUDENT FORUM, REFERRED TO AS A PRIMARY CHANNEL OF STUDENT FEEDBACK.

students currently have to a representative body, have expressed concern with the way services are being delivered.

This is partially because services are no longer being student led.

Porter (EXMSS) said that because the quality of services was first and foremost university led, students were only being technically “consulted”.

“We would like to see more student-led quality services,” she said.

Higgins (MUSA) agreed. “I believe that service quality across the entire range of services has declined.

MUSA is underfunded, yet Massey expects us to provide services and events, but are unwilling to fund them.

“I do not believe the University is having meaningful engagement with students and that means services are not targeted to meet the needs of students today.

“The reality [is] that nobody knows the student mind like another student. It is easy to become disengaged from students when one is not a student.”

INDEPENDENCE

We briefly mentioned the risks that come with a lack of independence, both in regards to student media and student advocacy.

VSM has made it harder for students to function independently from the university.

Because of the ineffectiveness of the students’ associations in the post-VSM world, the student body no longer has a practical way of ensuring university accountability.

Massey has not only failed to stop this from happening, but in some cases appear to have actively encouraged it. The attempt to moderate this magazine’s online content, for example, or the even more brazen attempt to replace a student-run magazine with one run by a Massey appointed board, are just examples of this happening to us.

The need for student independence from the university is vital. MASSIVE, in its current form, is one of the few services that currently provide this. At this rate, this seems unlikely to last.

Samson said an independent student voice was a vital part of student life.

“The magazine is a necessary organ to inform, to express concerns, bring to light wrongs, even to rant.

“Logic suggests that an online version of the magazine alone will not generate an enduring student audience, so there is a real possibility this is a death knell.

“The published product is, or should be, central to the university experience. Three-campus Massey has peculiar difficulties in generating such a student focus; if the magazine were to die, the university as a whole would be much the poorer.”

We (student journalists) believe the paltry amount given to us by Massey is an attempt to eradicate independent student media from the university altogether. We have a proud history of advocating for students, even if it requires us to take a stance in opposition to the university.

That’s our prerogative as servants to Massey students across the country, and the formative reason for this publication’s existence.

We have no idea if we can survive as an online-only publication; but that’s what we’re being forced to do.

It’s quite possible that other student media outlets will follow in our wake.

PROUD BEGINNINGS

Chaff, Massey’s first student publication, was created in 1934. That makes it 80 years old this year.

It existed decades before Massey was even accredited as a university. In that sense, student media is older than the university itself.

Chaff survived a world war, but its successor won’t survive VSM.

Massey is about to publish a book detailing the history of Chaff as part of a celebration of Massey’s student media. This is strange considering Chaff is owned by MUSA, and not Massey itself.

We think it’d be nice if they celebrated student media in a way that allowed it to keep going, but we don’t get to make that call.

This article will likely be seen as an attack on the university. That isn’t our intent. VSM created an awkward situation for everyone, including the universities, which had to step in to fund the student services associations no longer be able to fund themselves.

Universities were not designed to provide these services, and were not given a lot of time to make appropriate arrangements. This is an important detail to acknowledge, because things don’t always work perfectly right out of the gate, particularly when there are money, bureaucrats, and ACT MPs involved.

The real enemy here is the pragmatic reality of voluntary student membership. Not the idealism of the “freedom to associate” it was intended to provide; that is a noble cause, even if it has been exposed as a complete turd in practice.

The battle over VSM has no victors. Students are paying more for less; the university was forced to reconfigure the way it operates, making way for overlycritical articles from student magazines; the students’ associations are broke; we’re going online only; Philip Seymour Hoffman’s dead. It’s a sad state of affairs all around, really.

But whatever, we’re going to make MASSIVE work, even if we do have to do it on the internet. Print media is dead anyway, right? Right?

Massive FEATURE

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IN MEMORIUM: 80 YEARS OF MASSEY STUDENT MAGAZINES As MASSIVE magazine ceases print production, we look back on 80 years of Massey student magazines and reflect on their time and what they were about. Josh Berry, Rachel Purdie, Brigitte Masters, and Morgan Browne report on the history of the university’s student owned and operated magazines: Satellite, Chaff, Magneto, and Off Campus.

CHAFF: 77 YEARS OF LAUGHS

Palmerston North campus student newspaper Chaff began life with the slogan “printed every now and then, God only knows why”.

Published by the Massey Agricultural College Students’ Association, the paper began its longreign in March 16 1934, with an issue that could be purchased for a mere three pence.

Early issues were typewritten pages with drawn illustrations, which can now be relived, with Chaff now ensnared forever in digital archives – the new bringing to us the days of the old. On the computer screen, under the Massey University slogan, the 70-plus year-old publication has been reproduced digitally, the aged paper brought to life, bringing the words of writers who would now be in their ninth decades.

The newspaper persisted even in times of war, with intermittent publication following the outbreak of the World War II in 1939 until 1946. This period brought about a change to the production of the newspaper with the students’ Cultural Club producing it as a “war edition” from 1943 to 1944, with the title of The Horse’s Neck.

Chaff ’s final editor William Muirhead had a longstanding association with Chaff in several different capacities.

“I was a student volunteer for six or so years before taking over as editor in 2007, which I did for five years, and then last year I produced a full book of reprints and interviews covering the whole run of the paper from 1934-2011,” he says.

“I even remember reading Chaff in the common room in seventh form, as we called Year 13 then, and being super-impressed by all the bad language and occasional blurry black-and-white nudity.

“Up till then the only ‘student-y’ magazines I had

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seen were things like Tearaway and Rip it Up, teen magazines obviously written by adult writers trying to sound like young people. “ Chaff was actually written by young people, Muirhead says.

“This is what I think was most important about Chaff, and about MASSIVE - it offered a student voice actually provided by students. Mainly this meant a very poor grasp of the possessive apostrophe, but it also made for a lot of stuff that was very funny, honest and occasionally profound.

“Having just worked through over 1200 issues for “The Wheat from the CHAFF”, I can say that those qualities ran through the whole 78-year life of the paper.”

Chaff ’s 1934 beginnings were under the auspices of “Turitea Newspapers Inc” as an A4 news sheet reproduced by typewriting through carbon paper.

Back then, it was already full of jokes about drinking, sports club bulletins and complaints about food in the dining hall.

From the fifties onward, when the printing timetable and format expanded, Chaff also began to offer a great deal of insightful journalism and feature writing too admittedly often hidden beneath a jokey headline.

“Hard-hitting journalism and dick jokes became our slightly ironic mantra in the late 2000’s,” Muirhead says.

“There was also, of course, a lot of filler and randomness. In many ways, it must be remembered, right to the end, we were still producing a weekly 64page magazine from an agricultural college.

“It was partly because of those limitations, I’m sure, that Chaff developed an attitude and a tone quite unlike those of the other student newspapers. It was scrappy and with little to prove was free to push any boundaries it wanted to, often in deeply odd ways.”

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Chaff had varying voices, ranging from lighthearted, to sarcastic, to serious, and everything in between. The section headings hint at humour, such as “Editorial Lament” in the issue of July 23 1939.

And in Chaff on June 12 1946, an editorial read, “We want our humour to be of a decent type. Any mug can bring out a low ‘joke’ but it takes a smarter chap to bring on a good one. And this is the only type of humour that will go down”.

Some of these voices have become personalities beyond the pages of Chaff, such as journalists and media stars Tom Scott and Jon Bridges.

Scott was a legendary political cartoonist, author and documentarian, Muirhead says.

“His main involvement was with MASSkerade, the annual Capping Mag, but he popped up in Chaff frequently, with covers, cartoons and occasional articles from 1966 to 1971. One of them, a piece about his very brief stint cartooning for the Manawatu [Evening] Standard, actually got Chaff sued for about $600!

“The most famous story about Tom’s creative career at Massey is the one about the Attorney General wanting to sue him for blasphemous libel following

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MASSkerade 1969. He said: ‘Let’s go to court! We’ll subpoena God - if that call goes out and He doesn’t show up, we’ve won. And, if He does turn up, we’ve struck the biggest fucking headline in the history of the world!’”

Successful comedian who had a long stint on Chaff was Jon Bridges, well-known IceTV co-host, TV producer and cycling enthusiast.

“He took up a long-running advice column called ‘Aunty Bri’ in the late 80s which is still hilarious to read today,” Muirhead says. “In fact, he actually returned to write a ‘Farewell from Aunty Bri’ for us when we did our last issue in 2011.”

Other advice columnists from 1943 were a far cry from the sex gurus and love specialists of today. In the issue of April 15, 1943, ‘Cowshed Annie’ ‘appealed to students to “alleviate the throbbing pangs of my heart.”

“Have you ever had your footsteps dogged, toes trodden on – in short, your whole life made a gruesome nightmare by an imposter, a deceiver, an infidel?” she wrote.

Throughout the years, Chaff was not without controversy.

In 2006, a satirical representation of Chairman Mao led to a protest by approximately 50 or so (mostly) Chinese students on the campus. The cover page, which represented the Chinese Communist leader superimposed onto a woman’s body, led to an open letter published by Chaff, addressing those that were offended.

Traditional student grumblings that are still around today could be found throughout the pages of Chaff, with everything from the miserable state of the dining hall food, to a repeated request for recognition of the basic need for “hot food on cold days, and cold food on hot days”.

Being produced in the Manawatu gave readers a different view. “Going through the back issues of Chaff is a really interesting way of seeing New Zealand’s wider history from a uniquely local perspective,” Muirhead says.

“Massey started small, isolated and almost entirely concerned with cows - just like New Zealand. In the sixties and seventies it faced the Big Social Issues of the Day - war, feminism, gay rights - just like New Zealand.

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“In the eighties and nineties, as again now, there were huge debates about what kind of uni we wanted to be - the same argument being had, only about the whole future of New Zealand as nation, in the rest of the country too.”

Chaff was everything a student could need – news, classifieds, upcoming events, reports and reviews – all of which were conveyed to students by students. An entertaining and informative read, the iconic student publication will remain a part of the history and culture surrounding Massey University.

Muirhead reflects on his time as editor fondly.

“Though that time - like the paper itself - had its ups and downs, I wouldn’t change a minute, or page, of any of it”.

SATELLITE: 16 YEARS AND COUNTLESS BEERS

At the ever-growing Albany campus, Satellite magazine served as a light-hearted jab in the ribs and a means through which students could slip away from the serious nature of academic endeavours.

In the golden days of student journalism, when funding was a minor issue and the biggest qualm editors faced was whether they could churn out each issue amidst their sex, drug and rock n roll fuelled lifestyles, the need for a strongly-expressed student voice was minute.

Soft news reigned. Although there was the odd controversial piece of writing here and there, a soft approach proved to be the right formula. Thus an approach aligned toward providing the small, but growing, student population with local news and entertainment became central.

Satellite came to be in 1995 on the Albany campus, just two years after the inaugural opening of Massey’s third tertiary campus in Auckland. In awe of established student media elsewhere in New Zealand, it set out to become the local rag for the country’s youngest university campus.

Former editor Stacey Riordan speaks highly of her time at the magazine despite pressure from some quarters to strive toward publishing hard-hitting investigative journalism.

“I preferred yarns and soft news. There never seemed to be an appetite for anything harder from the general student population.”

In following the soft news formula set out by editors before her, Riordan revelled in the magazine’s flexibility to “do crazy things with the other staff there, all in the quest of an article”.

“Speed dating, pen-palling with a Russia email scammer [Yulia], writing a certain controversial column and the Erotica Expo spring to mind.”

Unfortunately Riordan, who held the editorial role for nearly two years, also witnessed the emergence of the Voluntary Student Membership Bill before it entrenched its stranglehold on monetary allowances.

“Universities are such stuffy corporations, student

media is a place for the real vibe of the university to shine,” Riordan says.

“I think it is a shame not to have any student magazine.”

Reminiscing on her time spent as Satellite editor, Riordan outlines the clear funding protocol for the magazine and its employees.

“The university used to collect fees on behalf of the student association and allocate a certain amount to the production of the magazine,” she says.

“My time, the graphic designer’s time, the printing of the magazine and the upkeep of the website were all a part of this.”

Another former editor Analiese Jackson says she is incredibly proud of how far the magazine came in the 16 months she was there.

“Prior to taking over the editor’s position, Satellite hadn’t had an editor and it was being put together entirely by the general manager and the student executive.

“After my tenure, we ended up with a tight-knit group of contributors, many of whom I’m still in contact with today, and a 32 page magazine which published a wide range of content, whether it be sensible, sentimental, or silly.”

Despite difficulties recruiting new writers, Jackson says problems were few and far between.

“The only issue I ran into was when I published a scathing piece about the Ferguson Bar displaying some particularly sexist advertising, which the bar’s owners weren’t too stoked about, considering that they often advertised in our magazine.

“But I will always stand by my decision to publish the articles … if I hadn’t, I would’ve compromised my own beliefs and even now I’d rather have a few people grumpy at me than keep the peace and not stand up for what I believe in.”

It was hard to stomach the impending death of a growing magazine which has been around for 16 years.

But the reasons behind its demise made sense.

OFF CAMPUS: THE NAME SAYS IT

When you think of the Extramural Students’ Association you may think of recent sagas – a certain president leaving the metaphorical building, and possibly the country, with freshly-cut plaits between her legs - but things within the association were not always so grim.

EXMSS was once all butterflies and rainbows with its very own full colour magazine Off Campus running from 1995 until 2011.

But the introduction of VSM meant the association’s print version of Off Campus was lost in the process.

According to the EXMSS official website, the magazine was an independent source of news and information about Massey and tertiary education generally.

The free magazine was a forum for ideas and opinions distributed to all extramural students, as well

as the news media, MPs, public libraries, Massey staff, and members of the university council.

Former EXMSS president of five years, Ralph Springett, in charge during the VSM changeover, says Massey refused to provide any money, even for an online publication, Instead, any media funding would be streamlined into what was the first national student magazine, MASSIVE Magazine.

While the organisation attempted to create an online form of Off Campus, it became more of a newsletter because there was no money to support journalistic content, Springett says.

Instead, Off Campus was largely written by the EXMSS executive. ‘‘I thought it was a real loss to the EXMSS community. It was really really disappointing.’’

A print version was considered less economically viable. ‘‘That sort of luxury [for media funding] was not deemed appropriate anymore.’’

In general, Springett found VSM and the politics surrounding it to be unsavoury.

Despite thousands and thousands of submissions against VSM the government effectively ignored the majority to ensure the support of a right wing agenda, he says.

It was pretty obvious from the beginning VSM was going to happen. ‘‘Basically the emphasis of control and power changed hands from the association and students in general to the institution [Massey].’’

The student organisation had really lost its footing in all respects.

“VSM was never about reducing risk for students or increasing student support services, it was about the disenfranchisement of the last of the unions and the increased focus of running universities like a business.

“There comes a point, however, when you can only tighten your belt so much until you start losing capacity and capability to provide essential student services.’’

Former Off Campus editor, Murray Kirk, who became the website developer when the magazine was redistributed online says the online format was never really going to work.

This was largely because of its lack of journalistic independence combined with the mighty task of having to establish a new, loyal online readership.

Off Campus essentially became a mouthpiece for the president, he says. ‘‘I am not saying an online edition was not ever going to work - you only have to see every student known to man around any university in the country and they have their heads glued to their cellphones. ‘‘And what is to say the death of print might not lead to a wonderful future of online content?’’

But VSM was a blow to the EXMSS community and which suddenly lost their voice, he says.

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30

Trials and tribulations of the online version aside, the last of the ‘‘online newsletters’’ was in 2013, the result of the scandal involving earning excesses of extramural president Jeanette ‘‘JV’’ Chapman.

Since the scandal, Murray Kirk says he was hopeful about the performance of the new EXMSS executive.

He understood the issues had been sorted but its brand and credibility needed a revamp.

He says he would be surprised to see a reintroduction of the magazine in the near future. ‘‘Before the hideous events of last year, EXMSS was perhaps one of the strongest associations in the country, even despite VSM.’’ EXMSS had a huge amount of support and huge membership base, he says. ‘‘I don’t think that same support would happen now. I don’t know, perhaps it is just a sign of the times where people have and continue to turn away from student associations. It is still a bit of a shame, really, though.’’

This year’s EXMSS co-president Tiri Porter says the new executive is yet to decide whether to reintroduce the magazine that once stole the hearts of many with its ‘‘forum for ideas and opinions’’. It still exists, however, a dormant volcano in the depths of web archives.

MAGNETO

The forerunner of today’s Wellington-based MASSIVE was Magneto, a fun, award-winning Massey Wellington students’ magazine.

Magneto was similar to MASSIVE in the sense that it had a strong mix of hard news, humour, culture and arts, and lifestyle. It did, after all, have MASSIVE’s first editor who saw through its last year and transition to MASSIVE: New Zealand’s first national student publication.

Magneto was a small newspaper birthed within the Wellington Polytechnic Student’s Association in about 1993, before the Polytechnic was absorbed

by Massey University in 1999. It began its humble beginnings in small newspaper print, but there was nothing small about its message.

An editorial from Tom Broadhead in October 7 1996 begins with a discussion on voluntary euthanasia,

Massivemagazine.org.nz

a topic that reappeared in MASSIVE and other student media just last year, in a shocking tone that only student magazines can get away with. “Bob Dent died a few weeks back and I was glad,” the editorial read. “Actually I was more than glad, I was immensely satisfied that this man was finally dead.”

In Magneto’s time, the newspaper print was eventually replaced by a magazine of fairly high quality paper stock which was distributed monthly around the campus, Wellington city areas and local suburbs.

Magneto went on to become a three-time winner of the Aotearoa Student Press Awards Best Small Publication in 2008, 2009, and 2010.

Massey University’s journalism programme head Grant Hannis says the magazine had many successes during its time.

“The biggest success I remember was when Magneto ran the pieces towards the end of 2003 about the person who’d been stealing money from the association.

“It was a great investigation, covering the court case, written by one of our then students, Adrian Bathgate.”

Bathgate subsequently worked at Telecommunications Review, Dompost Business and Reuters, he said.

“Another good memory was how Matt Shand and, latterly, his ad manager, fixed the magazine’s finances by finding lots of advertising revenue, putting it on a sound footing for probably the first time ever.”

But Matt Shand and Adrian Bathgate weren’t the only Massey students-turned-talented journalists who wrote for Magneto.

Campbell Live reporter and former Massey journalism graduate student Lachlan Forsyth also wrote for the magazine. He says it was a madcap little mag that somehow persisted for longer than it should have.

“If Magneto was a dog, it’d be a scrappy little mongrel, with sticky-up ears and mangy fur, constantly gnawing on the furniture and yapping at the other, larger dogs.

“A loveable little rogue that’d leave stains on the carpet, but which you couldn’t help but have a soft spot for. It was almost entirely volunteer labour scribbled out by sleep-deprived journo students in

between our assignments and shorthand revision and writing for ‘real’ newspapers.”

Forsyth says writing for Magneto was always a welcome chance to write something irreverent, irrelevant, and irresponsible.

He says he misses the mad dog.

“Did anyone read it? God knows. What was the circulation? 200? 1000?”

Adding to the funny memories of Magneto, Dr Hannis says that back in the day, the journalism team used to proof the galleys of the magazine.

“In one issue we found tons of terrible errors, which we carefully recorded and corrected. Only then did the magazine’s manager think to tell us that the mag was running a competition that month, in which errors had been deliberately put in the magazine for contestants to find!

“I almost demanded we get the first prize.”

Magneto’s last editor Matt Shand says he felt he had a lot of editorial independence. “I remember with pride the first article I wrote that attacked Massey and the ruckus it caused in the student accommodation.

“It may be history now but it was a big deal and it got me offside with the administration, but I felt I was doing my job.

“Early on we took on the students’ association over the election processes and that also caused a bit of a stir amongst the association circles.”

After that, the big challenge had been taking away the control of student media from the students’ associations.

“While this seemed an odd move for them to do, it was part of the strength of the publication,” he says. “The off-set for that was that coverage needed to adhere to journalistic tenants – to be fair, accurate, and balanced. The formality of this arrangement went a long way to cement Magneto’s place in the Wellington campus and we were given a lot more leash to play with when covering topics.

“For the most part, students’ associations are good and honest but, every now and again, they need a tug of the leash. Being able to tug that leash is a good position to be in.”

All in all, it was a magazine where the readers and the writers were often one and the same.

Continued on page 32.

32

Continued from page 30.

It didn’t matter whether it was a dog filled with errors or an award winning magazine; it was Massey University’s Wellington students, right down to the bone.

With its loss, aspiring writers keen to take on the big wide world, lose the chance to first practise on the speck that is Massey at Wellington.

MASSIVE: ONE MAG TO RULE THEM ALL

MASSIVE Magazine. It was coined as the only national student publication in New Zealand when editor Matt Shand and designer Cameron Cornelius took their Magneto expertise and looked ahead to begin a magazine designed to cater to all Massey students.

The first issue of hit the stands in Albany, Manawatu and Wellington, as well as online, in February 2012.

Shand knew that Massey student media would have to undertake some pretty big changes.

“Being a student editor, I was privy to some conversations and knew that there was change on the wind when it came to student media. VSM was a certainty, and no amount of protesting associations was going to change the government’s mind about that. It seemed that student publications were on the chopping block.

“There were three student publications at the time of Magneto. Chaff was losing immeasurable sums of money given its weekly format and Satellite was also suffering.”

While these pubs were great, Shand says, this meant a huge double up on the wage bill and printing costs that MASSIVE helped to alleviate.

“It became clear that the students’ associations would not be able to wear those losses, nor would the university pay for them. With that in mind I set about laying the groundwork for MASSIVE. “What I wanted MASSIVE to be was not a student publication, but THE student publication in New Zealand. It had to be big, bold, courageous and fun.”

Shand says the magazine looked a “bit odd” to critics of student media.

“It wasn’t so ‘student-y’ but I wore that with a badge of honour. The articles were longer, more in-depth

Massivemagazine.org.nz

and well researched. That was what I was going for with the publication. The transitions were many and difficult. Having three campuses to cover made things very difficult.

“The first year was always going to be a juggling act of trial and error and, in all honesty, there were plenty of errors to go around. As time went on and we got the help of the campus reporters, things started to get better and each edition got stronger as the year went by.”

Continuing student media at Massey was important, Shand says.

“Student media is an integral part of university life.

For a writer it is often the first chance to be published, to first run your hand over the ink on the page and think ‘yes, I wrote that.’ For students, many think it’s just a bit of fun or a lecture distraction, but there is more to it than that.

“The student media should embody the campus life or spirit. It also acts to keep those SA’s and the administration online. Student media needs to be in the hands of students, honest, hardworking soon-tobe journalists looking for their first break on the scene.

“It should service its writers, future editors, designers and, of course, its readers. While it may have a tenuous history, it is getting better.”

The framework has continued for MASSIVE since Shand’s departure, and the need to have wellresearched, leading student journalism will continue to be a priority.

But not at the expense of other written genres - thanks to columns such as Guru, who won Best Humour at the ASPA awards in 2013.

Shand says the creation of MASSIVE was seen by many as the loss of the other mastheads.

“Losing those names was a big deal for Massey and a sign of the tightening times. I hope that their legacy will live on through MASSIVE.”

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