Students Against Cuts @ VUW

Students Against Cuts (SAC) held a demonstration on the morning of 26th June, against the 229+ redundancies planned at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington.

Following a rally outside the university’s Hunter Building, students entered a meeting of the University Council in session, to support Victoria University staff speaking to Council for the Tertiary Education Union and to demand a student voice also be heard. A SAC speaker interrupted the council at the close of its public session to issue a speech, while other students held banners and placards from the viewing stands.

“Students Against Cuts came into the meeting today to say what we’ve been saying since the day these redundancies were announced.” SAC spokesperson Patrick Biss said. “No cuts at our university are acceptable. It’s the responsibility of the Administration here to stand beside the union and the student body, and insist that the government needs to foot the bill for this crisis in education that has been created by years of underfunding from it.”

Students Against Cuts is a group based at Victoria University of Wellington, but they are also seeking to draw attention to the situation in education around the country. As well as Victoria, Otago University, Auckland University of Technology, and Massey University are all facing job cuts this year. “Universities around the country are facing mass cuts”, Biss said. “At the same time, our secondary and primary schools are seeing cuts to funding in real terms. Our education system is already in crisis – ask any teacher or lecturer. What we are facing, as students, is having to live in a society which no longer values education.”

The 26th June University Council meeting officially opened a period of consultation on the cuts proposed, with a final plan to be produced this August. “Students Against Cuts will be taking full opportunity of this window for consultation”, Biss said. “And what better way to begin that process than by insisting that our voices be heard right from the very beginning.”

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