Welcome to the University of Auckland

Kia Ora, Bula Vinaka, Malo e lelei, Talofa Lava and a very warm pacific greetings to you all! 

Welcome to the University of Auckland and welcome to this first edition of Craccum Magazine! 

My name is George and I am immensely humbled to be your Student President for this year at AUSA, the Auckland University Students’ Association. AUSA is the place that has your back – we’re here to represent you and your interests to the University, we’re there for you in times of need with our welfare and advocacy support services and we’re here to ensure you have a great time throughout the year because Uni isn’t all about studying… its about building community and making some life-long mates as well. This year, the AUSA Team is exceptionally proud to be bringing you the biggest Orientation Concert AUSA and the University of Auckland have ever put on: Party in the Spark. This is a shameless plug but this IS the Concert of the Year. With Mako Road, Drax Project and Peking Duk – it is the ultimate welcome to UoA. 

As President, it is my job to ensure that your Students’ Association is working for you. Through this column, I hope to be able to share what’s happening with AUSA and what hard mahi is being done by our team in the name of building student community and making this University the best it can be for you. 

This first week is “O Week” and it is the most exciting week of the year for our students because AUSA has jam packed everything it can into each day to make it amazing. My strong words of advice are to just go out and enjoy it all – sign up to the new clubs down in the Clubs Expo, participate in the Talent Quest for O Week this year (we’re giving away a $1000 Prezzy Card to the winner!) and make sure you get yourself a cold jug at Shadows Bar, proudly owned by AUSA. And, as I told a young first year who said they were worried about going to Party in the Spark because of an 8am lecture they had the next morning… lectures are recorded at this University so don’t stress if you’re a bit “tired” to go to class the next day. PS – lecture recordings were adopted by the University are years of AUSA’s lobbying… how good is that!

Anyway, my biggest advice is just to make the absolute most of this first O Week and just get amongst it. 

The last thing I wanted to say is that this is an exceptionally exciting year. At a University level we have a new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dawn Freshwater, arriving on campus in the middle of March and the University is about to embark on another Strategic Plan to guide it for the next 7-8 years. On a National level, as I’m sure you know, we have the General Elections and a referendum on the legalisation of recreational cannabis. Our job at AUSA is to make sure that we take advantage of that change for the better – better support for our students while studying, amazing events to blow off steam and meet people in the new Shadows Bar (proudly owned by AUSA, of course) and a stronger student voice so that the University and the next Government listen to what we – as students and as the next generation – want. 

My job at AUSA is to serve you so if you ever have any ideas of how to make this University even better for us, or want to get involved with AUSA, then flick me an email at president@ausa.org.nz. I’m also always up for a yarn if you’re ever at Shadows too. 

Yours always, 

George 

Your Student President