|
Tuesday, 03 March 2009 10:55 |
Kevin H
After the riots on Castle Street in 2006, the Otago University decided that it had a golden opportunity to clamp down on student behavior.
This was a lot of bad press for the university. OUSA supported the administration to blame the students, rather than the police. The Code of Conduct was designed to empower the university administration to deal with undesirables, both on and off campus. While a reasonably effective protest movement and action from OUSA has meant that the university has been unable to use the code of conduct to expel any students, they were unable to stop it being introduced.
The Code was never designed “to promote the University's academic aims and sense of community, through the cultivation of mutual respect, tolerance and understanding,” as Skegg described it. Rather, the aim was to crack down on embarrassments such as conflicts between students and police, such as student protests.
The University assembled a security team labeled Campus Watch in order to enforce the code. These glorified security guards can be found on the streets on and around campus at all hours of the day and night. While ostensibly there to look out for students, they have recently shown their true colours, co-operating with the arrests of marijuana reform activists on campus. Plain clothes police officers were also involved in the operating.
The Code of Conduct should be abolished. All student and staff should democratically decide as to how the university should be run.
|
