Vault – March 29 1993
Controversy over cops on campus Aroused by Grant Burns
A recent proposal by the University Council to appoint a community constable on campus has been met by fierce opposition from members of the Waikato Student Union. Ratu Tibble from the WSU believes that appointing a policeman to patrol the university will lead to an increasing amount of police presence around campus.
However, Student Services Registrar, Wendy
Traditionally university campuses have been a safe haven for freedom and liberty with police only being allowed on campus in emergencies.
WSU President, John Houstoun, believes the presence of a community constable would address a range of crimes on campus with the
Some students are now concerned that having police on campus could lead to restrictions on the traditional freedom of students. Tibble even goes so far as to say that if current social trends continue, we will see police with guns on campus within the next decade.
main one being theft.
“We have students who are in favour of the decriminalisation of marijuana, they don’t like the idea,” said AUSA President Ritchie Watson.
In other parts of the country, the Auckland University Students Associations is dead against the idea of any police presence on their campus. AUSA said an agreement between the
Watson said that a constable on campus would inhibit students freedom to their political beliefs, some of which a police officer might not agree with.
Craig, disagrees with Tibble. Craig believes a campus cop would not only be beneficial, but is necessary to keep order on campus which is about the size of a small town. Craig was the one who originally proposed the idea after seeing it work at Massey University.
university and the police was reached in the 1960s and it stated that police weren’t allowed on campus grounds unless invited.
University issues former VUWSA President two-year trespass VUWSA accused of not being radical enough. “Gnarly” and “bodacious” still up for debate. Michael Oliver Victoria University has issued former VUWSA President Joel Cosgrove and Workers Party member Heleyni Pratley with a two year trespass for their part in last Monday’s protest fracas. Protesters, many from the Workers Party, pelted members of the University Council with eggs and rotten fruit after the council agreed to move its fees setting meeting to a secure location in the Kirk building. A University spokeswoman confirmed that two people who are not students at Victoria had been trespassed from the university for two years from all campuses. A memo from VUWSA Association Mark Maguire confirmed those two former students were Cosgrove and Pratley. The university spokesperson said the behaviour at the council meeting was in clear breach of university boundaries. VUWSA President Jasmine Freemantle, who attended the council meeting, said that while she voted against moving the meeting from chambers, she felt the environment had become disruptive.
“It was my hope that students in the gallery would reconsider exactly how they were portraying things and let the speakers speak. “I do firmly believe that those sorts of meetings should be made public,” she said. Confusion arose when it appeared Freemantle had abstained from voting to move the meeting. Council were briefed prior to meeting that a vote against such a resolution could be registered by saying nothing. The Workers Party released a statement saying Pratley was not responsible for throwing eggs or fruit, while Cosgrove threw a single egg which he later cleaned up. “In this case, as in others, it is clear that the University is targeting the people it sees as the leading activists organising against their slash and burn agenda,” Cosgrove said. Accusations were rife that Workers Party member Alistair Reith was responsible for throwing an orange at the back of VUWSA President Jasmine Freemantle’s head. Speaking on the VBC, Reith confirmed that he had thrown “a few eggs,” but did not recall hitting Freemantle.
“It was a bit chaotic. There were eggs flying left, right, and centre,” he said. Reith said he had no regrets and partake in similar action again. “The university bureaucrats who are paid several hundred dollars to turn up and raise our fees can afford the dry-cleaning to remove a bit of yolk off a suit.” Sam Oldham, who organised the protest but had resigned his position as VUWSA’s Campaign Officer prior to it, told the VBC that he’d become frustrated with the association’s less than “radical” approach to fee raises and advocacy in general. “The people I was pleasing I wasn’t sure I wanted to be pleasing. “VUWSA’s history is called A Radical Tradition, and VUWSA couldn’t be further from that tradition right now,” Oldham said. Freemantle disagreed with Oldham’s assessment. “There has been a more active attempt to engage with students [this year] than VUWSA has seen in the past 10 years,” she said. No details were available at the time of publication about the fate of others involved in the protest fracas. 11