VUWSA, alongside every other students’ association, operates under what is known as the advocacy model of political organising. The executive chooses an issue, often with little input from the wider student body, and then campaigns on it mainly by trying to raise awareness through open letters, meetings with politicians, and organising protests which are not widely attended.

This model has failed.

If we want to achieve real gains for students and workers we will need a change of tactics. We will need to build student power and heal the divide between the VUWSA executive and the student body.
This can be achieved in several ways: by involving students in the creation of a student manifesto for the general election; by working with the tertiary education union to unionise students employed by the university; by building a deeper understanding of the institutions we are challenging and using channels such as the academic board and university council to push for change; and by building meaningful coalitions with community groups facing similar struggles.

These are by no means new methods. They are being practiced by students themselves and we have seen a growing appetite for student-led change over the past year.

At the University of Canterbury, Students for Justice in Palestine initiated a motion to the Academic Board calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, alongside organising an encampment on campus. More recently, at OUSA, students called a Special General Meeting to ensure BDS would be implemented after the executive overruled the results of a referendum. And last year, students at the University of Auckland organised a rent strike to oppose steep increases in hall accommodation costs.

Students are ready to fight for meaningful change. It’s time the students’ associations did as well.