Proposed legislation to introduce voluntary membership of tertiary students' associations could damage Dunedin's tertiary education industry, Otago University Students' Association president Harriet Geoghegan said yesterday.
As part of a National Day of Action over voluntary student membership issues, the Otago association held a debate at noon on the issue at the University Union's main common room.
Ms Geoghegan, Hana Nyhof and Victoria Nicholson, the latter an association representative on the University Council, spoke against proposed voluntary student membership legislation.
Another debating team, Ross Calverley, Edward Greig, and Kurt Purdon supported voluntary membership.
Much of the campus was also covered with posters opposing the mooted changes.
The windows of association offices were also symbolically blacked out to symbolise a potential loss of student services, if the proposed legislation was passed.
In another symbolic gesture, the association also offered itself for sale on an internet site.
Ms Geoghegan said in an interview the Otago association significantly added to the attraction of student life and culture on campus, including its running of orientation social programmes.
Voluntary membership legislation threatened to damage the association and could make the Otago campus less attractive to prospective domestic students from elsewhere in the country, and to overseas students, harming the city's education industry.
If Otago University decided to take over providing services offered by the Otago association, this could divert money from other educational needs, she said.
Mr Calverley, a first-year student, supported freedom of choice but said he would remain an association member even if the proposed legislation was passed.
Public submissions on Sir Roger Douglas' Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill close on March 31.