how can we trust the university to care about us and treat us with dignity when every day we are reminded of how much the university and the New Zealand government, (the ministry of education and ministry of health) do not care about us. We are reminded every day that the university and the government do not care about us, when we are in our cold, damp housing, struggling to cover rent and power and buy food with student allowance and/or student living cost not being enough. We are reminded when our friends talk about not going to the doctors cuz they can’t afford it. we are reminded when our friends miss class because they have to work to cover costs. We are reminded when we are over burdened with assignments and stress taking semester long papers that used to be full year papers, charged double the cost and expected to do the work in half the time. We are reminded when we seek help and are told the Student Health counselling waiting list is 3 months long. We are reminded when our friends try to **** themselves from the stress and hopelessness of it all. We are reminded when university officials talk about us and treat us like we are lazy little ***** when we are tired and trying so hard. We are reminded when the university rai$e$ the fee$ by the maximum legal limit every year, we are so worn down that we can hardly voice our opposition. We are reminded when are told that special consideration for exams will only happen if someone dies or you are hospitalised. We are reminded when we are too depressed to function but not ‘depressed enough’ to warrant any academic leniency or support. We are reminded when Student Health costs are raised even though we already pay for student services through our student services fees. We are reminded when we spend all day (and a lot of the night too) in the library because our homes are not warm enough. We are reminded when we are given no choice, when we are condemned to decades of debt with the threat of imprisonment if we default on our loans. We are reminded when we sit in our cold flat and read the numbers of our debt that having our own healthy home is a lofty far off dream. We are reminded when they tell us university increases your income yet we know the job market is unstable and that studying out of the threat of poverty is no choice at all. We are reminded, we are shown, every day, that the university and the government do not care about us. We cannot trust them to care about us. The university shows us that this is a business and that there is no room for caring in a for-profit company.

But we the students (as well as the staff), we are what make this community great, not the power holders, not those most high up with their high incomes and net worth and assets and stock investments, it is our passion for learning and caring for each other and striving to make the world a kinder place for all, that makes this space and community of learning worthwhile. It has been said by many before me, WE ARE THE UNIVERSITY.

The institution will not give us the fair treatment, dignity and care that we need, so we must take it, we must demand it.

There cannot be business as usual because the university should not be run as a business in the first place,

we are people not machines and we are hurting.

I call on all students all staff, all people of the local and national community if you are concerned about staff cuts, course cuts, inadequate health care, poor responses to ****** violence, lack of commitment to environmental justice (no staunch stance against further offshore drilling) these issues are not separate, these concerns we feel so deeply in our heart that it burns, they are all connected because these atrocities come from the same beast of corporatised, neoliberal education run for-profit.


Let us join together against this atrocity as one!

Love leaves a mark,
Not just the small marks of love down my body,
But a mark within everything for which I am a part.
Whether she stays with me until I leave this place,
Or departs from me before I transcend,
I will always find parts of her in life’s every surrounding- every small trend.

When the rain sets in, I am reminded of her love in the Spring.
Nights spent talking over every little memory and every upcoming thing.
Fixing our hearts in our chests,
While letting luck and the unknown figure out the rest.
As the world warms around me, as the grass turns to green,
I am reminded of the desperation for her love, the only thing I’ve known to need.
I will always be reminded of the soft songs she shared,
Their melodies always find a way back into my head- and I’ll keep them there,
Because when I think of them I am reminded of her.
And once I think of her, I am reminded of the sound of her heartbeat as I lay on her chest,
While we hold each other again and remember what it’s like to invest,
In another soul so deeply and so willingly.
By the new growth of spring, I am reminded of the rebirth of a love I cannot forget.
If again I am in her absence,
I know I’ll be hollowed by a lack of passion.
For only this love has ever shown it to my heart.

For when the days grow longer and the nights get warmer, I’ll always be reminded of her love in the Summer.
When I see fireflies in the summer air,
I am reminded of soft kisses in the summer night and the smell of her hair.
I am reminded of the words we exchanged over cups of coffee,
The way we led ourselves to be happy.
When the sun sets,
I am reminded of the life she breathed into me under the covers of our beds.
I am reminded of the touch of her skin,
And of the feeling of being so in love with another, I cannot find the words on my tongue to even begin,
To explain to her the burn I have within,
To see her smile because of me,
To give her every chance I can to be happy.

And once the leaves turn to orange, I am reminded of her love in the Fall.
The first time she kissed me those years ago,
And the way we held each other close,
As the nights got shorter and the wind got colder.
I was still whispering her name and wishing for no other.
No matter where I may be,
Her name will come off my tongue and echo up and down within me.
Like the fog on the quiet autumn nights,
It rolls across me gently and I will not resist it, I will not fight.
If she looks the other way, I’ll still remember the touch of her fingers,
Locked perfectly between mine- A feeling that always crept warmth up my body and softly lingered.
I’ll always remember the way she’d make me smile,
On the nights where I otherwise may have found myself walking alone in my head for miles.
I will remember the “I love you’s” in dark parking lots and during walks under the colored trees.
I will always remember the way she cried into me,
Or the way I would look at her across the room.
She will always be a magical wonder to me.

When the world turns white, I am reminded of her love in the Winter.
As the world seems to die around me, my love for her does not.
As the air chills over, a fire in my heart for her with my every thought.
I think of the movie nights with bodies curled into one another,
Or the quiet songs I’d write in secret about her.
I am reminded of the days spent with each other in brutal weather,
And of her smile the first time we put up Christmas lights together.
I am reminded of first conversations over cups of hot chocolate,
And of the feeling of her hands in my pockets.

Love leaves a mark,
In every season and on every surface of my heart.
Everything I do reminds me of this love,
Every sound I hear and sense thereof.
I find parts of her in everything surrounding,
Every small thought and every lovely thing.
Whether she stays with me until the end of my song,
Or strays from me before I am gone,
I will find a piece of her in every moment.