As you know the student society fee is compulsory. For EXMSS this is $40. You can be exempted by conscientious objection (where you pay the fees to charity and forgo the services) or by hardship (where you are still able to use the services). This is imbedded in the Education Act. In my view this allows for representation on campus and provides a set of services that the university would not normally provide. (Independent advocacy, scholarship, local support, social community, contact course services, events.) As an extramural student you may not use these services every year but you will always benefit from the representation. The President of EXMSS is involved in many of the decisions made at Massey from academic through to policy and services. As students it is vital that your perspective is included in this decision making process.
Currently at select committee, the Freedom of Association Bill intends to make EXMSS membership something you will have to actively seek. The fee will not be able to be placed on you student loan. Membership will drop dramatically partly because new student will not understand the benefits of membership. There will be others who do not join because they feel they do not use the services and do not need the insurance of having independent support. The past and future improvements brought about by constant professional engagement with the university are not something the average student would consider.
Having an independent person you can contact about your major being axed will disappear; you will have to deal with Massey yourself. With partial membership your representative on campus will no longer have a valid voice. Decisions about who would be encouraged/discouraged to enroll at Massey will no longer be influenced by extramural students through a ‘voice on campus’. Service levies would rise unopposed and they would quickly outstrip the student society’s levy. And you would still not get the shuttle Service EXMSS supplies, or the independent advocacy, or the representation. Just as National would like it the Universities would be self governing, required to make a profit as set by government and would be encouraged to make education available to those who are young and likely to pass. No second chancers, they are too risky.
Hi Ralph
I read on scoop the Top 10 reasons for misrepresentations by students’ associations.
I would be interested in your responses for these ‘reasons’?
Hi Extramural Buddy?
How accurate or relevant do you think these are? (www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0909/S00092.htm )
These are simply examples of misrepresentations from ACT on Campus.
NZUSA is about protecting the rights of students. NZUSA believes that without universal membership the representational work of student bodies would be compromised along with the loss of essential services. Ideally NZUSA could just get on with it but is now forced to advocate for the continued voice of students because ACT sees fit to attack the student voice on campus. Bad one ACT.
Misrepresentations by ACT in the Top 10 list: Student Associations do not oppose free trade, Student Associations do not oppose increases in Tertiary Funding, NZUSA endorses and will make comment on a multitude of things including specific policies of political parties (it is what they do), student associations raise fees for valid reasons at an annual general meeting – there is a vote by students (unlike the institutions), the reward was a joke and did it’s job well (ACT bringing it up here is a joke) and finally VUWSA: Bad one VUWSA, you won’t ever see EXMSS behaving that way.
Extramural Buddy, check out what I have been doing for students recently on http://exmss.org/presidentsblog/2009/09/21/latest-submissions-to-massey/
Have you had the chance to use the free EXMSS SuperShuttle? It now runs year around and to all campuses. If you can’t afford to go to a contact course then why not apply for an EXMSS Hardship Grant? Soon the EXMSS 2010 scholarship round begins, including the Trade to Tertiary Scholarship which is funded by my Council fees that I have donated. You are welcome to apply if you are seeking a change in career.
I can see both sides of the argument here. EXMSS is the only voice that we extramural students have and it does a lot of work for us in getting our concerns heard, and holding Massey accountable to us. For that reason alone I would join.
However, as someone who has been a student of Massey since 2004, and has been overseas for all of that barring the past couple of months (and will be overseas again soon) I can also understand the argument about services because I have never really used them, except for buying a book and the helpdesk at a contact course – I only made it to this contact course because I was going to be in the area anyway and won’t be going again because I can’t afford to fly from Australia to NZ just for contact courses. The only other time I have asked EXMSS for help was when I tried to get a list of the fellow students in one of my papers so that I could have someone to talk to about it, and that went nowhere – My email got passed around between several people and then I finally got a reply saying someone would send me the list…and never heard from anyone again. Having said that, I am not not knocking EXMSS, as I said I think it is absolutely necessary as we need that voice, and I appreciate the work EXMSS does in that respect and the for the many people it does help a lot, but for those of us who do not need that help, or cannot access the services, it can be a struggle to see how EXMSS is relevant to us.
For example, as an overseas student, I’m not interested in the services offered on campus because I simply cannot afford to go there. Even when I was there I didn’t use the shuttle bus because it is for people going directly to/from the campus to the airport/wherever whereas I wasn’t, I arrived a couple of days early to my accommodation and likewise left a couple of days later. The same goes for events because being overseas, I will never be able to make it to any of them. I think the scholarships are great for those who can get them and am happy to fund them, however I don’t qualify for any of them, so again it’s not really relevant to me. The same goes for the hardship assistance. I find Massey very easy to deal with and quick to reply in regards to questions about majors, regulations etc so I have no problems dealing with them myself. As far as advocacy goes, I have only relatively recently discovered that I could complain to EXMSS about late return of assignments etc which I think could be useful but I would like to know what complaining to EXMSS about things like this will actually achieve over emailing/calling said tutor myself and saying “where’s my assignment?” I read the magazine but I think it’s a complete waste of money posting it to me in Australia when I could download it from the EXMSS website and that money could be better spent elsewhere.
Let me reiterate – I’m not knocking EXMSS, it has a lot to offer and we need someone to stand up for us, but at the same time I can see how people would think it was not relevant. For me, personally, I don’t really mind so much that a lot of the services on offer really aren’t relevant to me (although I wish there was a graduation dinner in Australia!) I know that plenty of other people use them and the advocacy that EXMSS does for extramural students as a whole is worth it. To me, EXMSS is not about buying services, it is about funding a voice for us, as you said “As an extramural student you may not use these services every year but you will always benefit from the representation.” If it becomes voluntary, I will join, and I don’t mind paying. It’s not the EXMSS fee I have a beef with, it’s the overseas exam fees – don’t get me started on that. As someone who studies pretty much full time, it ends up being well over $1000 per year extra I have to borrow just to sit the exams. Anyway, back on topic…
I am for universal EXMSS membership. I understand why we need EXMSS, but I also understand why students already struggling with the economic climate and the rise in fees will want to know what they are going to get out of it by joining EXMSS if it becomes voluntary. I think EXMSS needs to make a lot of noise about the “behind the scenes” stuff it does, so that people are aware of what “representation” actually means and see that EXMSS is working for everybody, and why we need them to keep working for us. For example, I just got a copy of the 2010 Extramural Handbook as my Mum is enrolling next year, and EXMSS barely gets a mention, wedged in between the library and the computer requirements. Surely it deserves a bigger mention than that? And since this handbook is sent to new enrolling students, a decent article on EXMSS and what it does/the services it offers would (I think) really help to “win people over” if EXMSS membership being voluntary does become a reality.
The contention that services and access will cease due the chnages to the Act that make membership to the Association optional is misleading. the majority of organisations in our Country have to attract their membership through continual communication with existing members and new potential members. These issues are faced by advocate organisations every day. The Student Associations premise that representation can only occur through mandatory membership is an anachronism that is not aligned to our current representation norms. I support the Student Association and all of the work it undertakes and benefits (even though I live outside of an area where shuttles etc operate). I just do not support mandatory membership as it is a disencentive to provide customer (student) perceived value.
Ralph, perhaps it would help if you could outline EXMSS’s role in advocating the extramural voice in regards to Massey University’s Student Service Fee?
Tiri, As you are aware the Student Services Fee increases 100% for 2010. We discussed the rise with Massey and they had good reasons for doing this: improved services was the focus. We said that that was fine but what are the services going to be, how many students willl they reach and will the students be told?
We then offered our views, based on students feedback, and negotiated for a few things that were missing from Massey’s planned ‘new’ services. Free phone to lecturers for extramurals, an improved hardship grant that has more flexability to tackle financial barriers such as textbooks and contact course travel, the ability to have your returned assignment independantly reviewed and of course we supported the Massey initiatives which include more contact and support for those who are struggling and more regional seminars. The results of our engagement will be confirmed early in 2010. I will blog about it then.