Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association

The Campaigns team is an indispensable part of the Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Throughout the association’s long and vibrant history of social and political activism, the Campaigns Officer and Campaigns Coordinator have been responsible for much of the frontline work in ensuring students have easy access to information regarding issues that affect them and promoting relevant action.

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History

The Campaigns team is the part of the association responsible for promoting discussion and action around public issues and issues affecting students as citizens. Historically this has meant many things. The written history of VUWSA, A Radical Tradition by Stephen Hamilton, details VUWSA’s involvement in the major progressive social movements of the 20th Century. The invasions of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and other wars of aggression by the United States and its allies generated mass demonstrations in New Zealand as in the rest of the world, and VUWSA played a central role in organising student resistance to the conflicts, particularly against New Zealand involvement. VUWSA also played an important role in the 1981 Springbok tour with Victoria University students participating heavily in demonstrations against the tour. Government domestic policy has also led to Victoria University taking to the streets. The right-wing Employment Contracts Act of 1991 saw students publicly demonstrating alongside trade unions and labour organisations, while students also played a pivotal role in passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Act of 1986.

Naturally, the most heated campaigns VUWSA has been involved with and often spearheaded have been campaigns against the introduction of user-pays tertiary education in the early 1990s and campaigns for greater government funding of tertiary education. Throughout the ‘90s, as student tuition fees began to skyrocket and students became shackled by debt, the student protest movement in New Zealand reached its height. Elaborate publicity stunts, mass street demonstrations, occupations, violent clashes with police, and the general organisation of students in resistance to the government initiative defined the decade for students of Victoria University.

In every one of these campaigns, the Campaigns team has been responsible for much of the on-the-ground work in organising student participation. This has included promoting discussion through hosting student meetings and forums, disseminating information through leaflets and posters, speaking to lecture theatres and utilizing student media, and coordinating action by mounting protest campaigns, hosting events, and coming up with fresh ideas to retain student interest in campaigns.

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Today

Today the Campaigns team strives to maintain the radical tradition of the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association. The golden era of student activism that came into being with the introduction of user-pays education may have passed, but the Campaigns Team strives to ensure that VUWSA has the framework in place to organise students should the student body demand organisation. The Campaigns team also assists other Executive member portfolios within the association. The Queer Officer and Women’s Rights Officer will sometimes utilize the resources of the Campaigns team to promote events and assist with campaigns, and this is another important aspect of the Campaigns team’s role.

If you are a student, whether you are alone or you belong to a student group, and you feel strongly about an issue, be it a public issue or an issue relating to the student community, you are encouraged to approach the Campaigns Officer at VUWSA. This Executive Officer is the go-to person for students wanting to take action on issues affecting them. The Campaigns team have the resources and the enthusiasm to serve students. There are many reasons for students to feel a certain level of animosity towards the system. If students want to get active about it, the Campaigns team is always willing to help.