Students angry at not being consulted about impending staff cuts at the University of Otago were among those who gathered yesterday to make their feelings loud and clear.
About 400 protesters marched through the university chanting and waving signs, and held their own unofficial vote on a situation they said had not been democratic.
It was an attention-grabbing debut for the Protect Otago Action Group (POAG), a group of staff, students and community members concerned about the damage cuts would cause.
This follows the university’s April announcement that it faced a $60 million budget deficit and potentially "several hundred staff" would be cut.
Student Ronan Thompson (20) said as an arts student, he was worried the cuts would affect the courses offered in his chosen major, history.
Even those unlikely to be directly impacted were unhappy with the situation.
"Students are pretty angry.
"I think everyone’s got friends with small majors or minors that might be cut."
His message was simple: "Stop the cuts".
He had emailed senior management, but received no explanation.
"I am affected by these cuts—I want to study German for my minor."
A proposal to slash the languages and cultures department threatened this.
The university confirmed the proposal was endorsed by the senate yesterday, but said no final decision had yet been made.
A computer science student, he hoped to do a PhD in Switzerland in future, and knowledge of the German language would have been useful, Mr Li said.
Aby Sterling (21) said cuts would impact the European studies department — her minor subject area — and staff would lose their jobs.
It was not fair to anyone, and she was "not going to stand for it".
Community member Sue Maturin said she was protesting because as a major institution, what went on at the university was important to Dunedin.
Tertiary Education Union branch president Craig Marshall was among those who addressed the crowd during the protest.
One goal was to pressure the Government to boost university funding, which had lagged behind inflation for more than a decade so that its value had fallen 20%, he said.
University management needed to value staff and students more.
"Staff and students do not get to make the decisions as to how the university ought to be organised — that needs to change."
"We have a dysfunctional university."
POAG community representative Tyler West said he was "very happy" with the turnout, especially given the group had only formed a few weeks ago.
The cuts were sold as a cost-cutting measure, but it was important to focus on the people whose jobs, education and communities they would impact.
"The top brass, and successive governments as well, have been dead set on treating tertiary education as a service paid for by individual consumers."
It was just the start for POAG, with more events to take place in semester two, he said.
Asked whether staff and students should have been consulted about whether cuts should be made, a university spokesman defended the opportunities for staff input.
"Staff have been asked for ideas on how to save money at several staff forums in the past couple of years when our financial situation was raised," the spokesman said.
