'Cash-Strapped' M@Wsa Splurges On Fm Station

'Cash-Strapped' M@Wsa Splurges On Fm Station

Just over a month after being bailed out by a $180,000 loan from Massey University to overcome financial difficulties, M@WSA, the compulsory student association at Massey University Wellington, has found enough money to set up an FM radio station, Student Choice said today.

Massey University at Wellington Students Association (M@WSA) is funded through a compulsory levy on all Massey Wellington students which costs them over $350,000 a year, Student Choice spokesman Clint Heine said.

In March this year compulsory M@WSA received a loan from Massey University to overcome cash flow problems caused by fraud of over $100,000. Massey University registrar Adrienne Cleland justified the $180,000 loan on the grounds that it would help M@WSA overcome its "present difficulties".

Yet despite its supposed financial difficulties, this week M@WSA, along with funding from Massey University itself, launched an FM radio station on 107.4FM.

Heine said the launch of the radio station raises a number of important questions. "If M@WSA has enough money to get into the expensive business of broadcasting, why did it need a loan from Massey University? How much is the radio station budgeted to cost? And why is Massey University using taxpayer and student money to fund a radio station that has nothing to do with its core business of teaching and research?"

"Massey University council needs to explain if it knew about the expenditure on the radio station when it decided to lend M@WSA $180,000. And how can Massey University complain about a lack of taxpayer funding when it has enough money to make a large loan to a student group with substantial guaranteed income, plus fund a non-essential radio station?" Heine asked.

Both Massey University and M@WSA are obviously flush with cash taken from long-suffering students and taxpayers, Heine said.

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