Otago University Students' Association president Logan Edgar faced a barrage of shaving cream pies as part of a local effort by students involved in a countrywide publicity campaign against voluntary student membership. .
Mr Edgar donned a suit, alternated between wearing face masks of Mr Key and Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce, and spent two hours in medieval style stocks being pelted with pies from passers-by.
The publicity stunt is the latest by Mr Edgar and the OUSA executive, who have been at the forefront of student protests against a move from Act New Zealand and National to pass a contentious Bill.
A complaint against the use of dairy products forced a last-minute pie ingredient switch, from whipped cream to shaving cream, Mr Edgar said.
New Zealand Union of Students' Associations co-president Max Hardy said students at tertiary institutes around the country had taken part in a "day of action" to highlight opposition to the proposed Bill, which is due back before Parliament in two weeks.
University of Otago health nutrition student Kaajal Nadan said she had thrown a pie at the student president as one way of protesting against voluntary membership.
"I've taken part in the other recent protests and this is another way of raising awareness about the issue," she said.
Act on Campus Otago deputy president Kim Hannah watched as student after student pelted Mr Edgar with pies.
She disagreed with the OUSA's protests against voluntary membership and how her student membership fees were being used to pay for Mr Edgar's "antics".
"I'm sick and tired of OUSA acting as a partisan political body while masquerading as being representative of students ... the second the OUSA logo and funding comes into play, they need to play neutral, and that protest was nothing of the sort" she said.
Mr Edgar said OUSA had a mandate from a student general meeting in 2009 to "actively oppose" the change to voluntary membership.
OUSA was against voluntary membership because of its detrimental effects and not because the association was "a hotbed of left-wing politics" as Ms Hannah claimed.
