"Student Activism Still Alive at Victoria." Newly formed student activist group Reclaim Vic are set to host their first public speaker event this Wednesday at 2pm. The Victoria University student led group formed in response to the increasing corporatisation of the tertiary sector. "We believe that education should be an equitable and accessible public good, and are concerned about the ongoing corporatization and commodification of our post-secondary institutions, said spokesperson Joshua James. "Education is not a consumer product." The group in particular opposes ongoing maximum fee rises, reduced access to loans and allowances, ongoing cuts to courses and staff, restrictions on academic freedoms and exclusion of students at high level university decisions. The public event entitled "Neoliberalism and the University" will feature a number of guest speakers, including Sandra Grey, Teresia Teaiwa, John Dennison, Fleur Fitzsimons and a soap box style open mic. It is to take place in the newly refurbished Hub, a space which currently does not allow student events. "The majority of the hub was funded by students", spokesperson Joshua James said. "The fact that it is run as a commercial space, and that outside of VUWSA, students are effectively barred from holding meetings here is ridiculous. We believe we have a right to meet and talk openly at our own campus about issues that affect us as students." The event is to be held at the Hub, at Wellington's Kelburn campus at 2pm this Wednesday 23rd July.
about the role of the university in neoliberalism this Hub was paid for by student money millions of dollars of student money has gone into this Hub and one of our things is actually that we need to bring our discussions as students whether they're Whimsical or serious or a bit of both into this place the university and the critic and conscience of society really great to be here back in a place where I was once trespassed for protesting Joel was kicked off University Ian was also kicked out for filming what he's doing now um so you know this university has a pretty Draconian record under the University's current rules and regulations we're not allowed to be here today you're not allowed to hold student demonstrations here with the exception of vous who is allowed to um no student groups or clubs are allowed to use this Central Area you're allowed to use a small section of the foyer on the second floor like a hallway if you book it and if you're a registered Club if you're not it costs three grand to use a hallway we don't have three grand so we're doing it here um as well as that yeah there's an effective ban on most student lead events or meetings here and it's governed by a lot of other restrictions you're not allowed to sell or give away free food inside the Hub because this conflicts commercial interests we think this is a bit since the Hub is student funded you should be able to do what you want so hence free food um you're also not allowed to post notices or posters anywhere inside the central part of the Hub any groups who do are threatened with cleanup costs apparently sell tape is a health and safety issue uh some other restrictions are a bit unclear but um various groups like generation Zero have had trouble with handing out flyers beside a giant BL dinosaur they were us to leave so no dinosaurs uh in effect we think the Central Social space of this campus is being run along similar grounds to a shopping mall yeah um and there's something very wrong with us I think it shouldn't be a shopping mall it should be a space where we feel comfortable coming and and sharing and being able to talk about these issues um it was paid by a majority of funding from V so it's student funded um and the rest from of course student fees and taxpayer funding as students of the University this should be our space It should be serving our needs and not the business interests of those who pay rent um so despite being declined permission to hold our meeting here today we've decided to go ahead with it we think it's really really important that we can reclaim this area as a space for students um a space to talk and freely and openly to meet and and discuss issues that are important to us um and to hold events and promote events this space has got so much potential um to be full of life and vibrancy we need to take back public tery education grant recently wrote that he sees this as a public Civic University we give yourselves a round of applause this is the public Civic University in action this is what a public Civic University looks like Can't Stand By and Watch University be marketized commercialized consumerized and all those things that are dismantling good quality education it is time to reclaim Victoria New Zealand's public Civic University let's live by that slogan and make sure we lead the way in pushing back against all that makes education a marketable product rather than something for the public good it's absolutely critical that staff and students unite in the constant battle to reclaim the university there's a constant battle between managerialism corporatism and public good education and I think you've got to keep fighting the fight fighting the casualization of University Workforce anyone who wants to be involved can Contracting out to the cleaners and so on that's a really precarious low wage industry that they've created there our next event we're going to try and team up with some students in Christ Church and the reclaim UA group they've called like a nationwide day of student action and they're proposing putting forth a nationwide statement and S of Demands as well as like each individual campus putting forth their own specific demands we want to be super Democratic so we're going to have a meeting next Wednesday just to help develop the demands sort of in a democratic way part of our job is actually to step up and be that critic and conscience of society