Student protest at Parliament
Students from Victoria University marched to Parliament today to protest fee increases and demand better access to student allowances.
There were some funny, “typical slack student” aspects to the march - namely that they did it in a recess week when no MPs are around, and that they arrived so late after the planned time that Nandor (who was going to meet them in lieu of Tertiary Education Spokesperson Metiria) had to leave to catch a plane before they arrived.
Still, there were a good number in attendance, and Keith was able to hop on the megaphone and talk about the Greens’ tertiary education policies, which were very well received by the vocal crowd. No other MPs showed up to address the protesters.
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March 13th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
bit of a shame all those protesting students are so crap at making banners.
they all have
(a) crap slogans
(b) crap colours
(c) crap nearly-illegible typography
raise your game please kids eh?
spend more time thinking about how your message is received
March 14th, 2006 at 1:40 am
Stuey:
Postitive reinforcement is needed here!
Some people did the organising, banners were made, and students came to the protest. That is more than many of the “current generation” would do.
Hopefully those who came enjoyed the experience, will talk about it, and come another time … bringing their friends!
March 14th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
on the other hand maybe some of those who came were so embarrassed by the protest that they will never come again and will tell their friends not to bother
March 15th, 2006 at 1:07 am
true!
March 15th, 2006 at 11:33 am
The slogans are crap because the slogans are wrong.
March 16th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Actually, there was only a small amount of resources available, both of materials & people, so don’t criticise that which you can’t be bothered being involved in.
Orientation was 2 weeks of very busy work for VUWSA, as for any student association around the country, and I know for certain that VUWSA pres Nick Kelly was pretty close to a good 3-day lie-down when the march took place.
Grateful thanks to Nandor, for trying, and Keith, for adressing the crowd, also to NZUSA co-pres’ and past pres’ who were in attendance. Greens were amongst the students marching, and not all are under 25!
Watch this space, Vic students will be paying 10% more for Arts & post-grad courses from mid-year, if TEC approves the Vice-Chancellor’s proposal, so there will be more protests. Allowances will be an issue again this year, too, due to changes in the age-testing criteria.