Cost Cutting: VC says we need to cut back on our international reputation

Vice-Chancellor has rejected our sponsorship bid for Australs. He is not even going to partially sponsor our trip. Which basically means we won't be able to send a team to represent New Zealand. It seems bizarre that not even $100 is available for an opportunity that would enhance the University's standing internationally (especially sinch such opportunities are few and far between). Yet the uni is able to practically give away scholarships to 450 students (I mean A & B bursary? Come on..since when did anyone NOT get an A or B bursary??) but...there you go.

I'm noticing a trend. "The VC is cutting back", "everything's reverted to central control including budgeting for paperclips", and the list goes on.

Is it just me, or has his cost-cutting fetish gone too far? Just look at all the arts papers that are suddenly 'not being offered in 2005'. I'm betting that it's not because the papers are useless or unpopular. It's because someone's been snipping FASS's pursestrings.

Classes that previously had tutors and tutorials now don't have any at all. ECON317 (Economics, Law, and Policy) is a notable example. The departments were cash-strapped before he arrived. They don't need a VC to make them poorer.

A good way of getting over the fact we might not be representing NZ (until the current VC dies some kind of unnatural death) is by reading Nick Whalley's account of World Universities Debating Tournament. Nostalgia is the best form of therapy :)

Fav Quote from his piece:
"[the shocking state of our hotel] gave us a lovely appreciation of the friendly Malaysian way of life including heaps of side stalls, countless cellphone shops, enormous shiny buildings, giant cockroaches, big rats, small cats, haggling taxi drivers-"