Gone are the days of sitting at the back of a GoBus, just past midnight, surrounded by other half drunk students dressed in some kind of sexualised get-up (I’m talking Toga bikinis and old school uniforms Britney spears style). The excitement of O-week is widespread across all whare wānanga in Aotearoa, as are the headaches and regret the week after.
I was going to kōrero about how this year looks like it will be multiple O-Week’s, with O standing for our old mate Omicron rather than Orientation. But I feel that I am more disappointed with the lack of information we’ve had about literally anything this semester. Like “Hello! Trying to finish a degree here! Any help would be mīharo”.
The lack of an O-week means nothing if Studylink doesn’t confirm my student loan until May, or the university doesn’t approve my papers. The lack of an O-week also means nothing if my whole flat is isolating for a month and the university hasn’t outlined a clear path towards studying online. And it’s not like we pay upwards of $8000 for the joy of sleepless nights, deadlines, and the so called “university experience”. All I’m asking for is some clarity.
Will I be able to get my degree this year? Will my friends and I still be able to have a hīkoi around campus and string yarns up in the whare pukapuka? What about our overpriced sushi ,at Bongo’s? Girl needs her kai man!
The thing with being a COVID student, is that the uni life we grew up hearing about will probably never happen for us. We have had to adjust to, for lack of a better term, a new normal. So my piece of advice for all you newbies and alumni, is to hold your friends close, and think beyond the societal expectations of what university is supposed to be like. It’s up to us to create a university experience worth remembering.
So yeah, I’m not angry, just disappointed at the lack of support, clarity, and communication. I can live without a 5 day bender, sleazy dudes at the outback, and spending my course related costs on Cruisers, Sals and blue Powerade. I will survive (i think) without my WSU goodie bag and free Burgerfuel fries (#Spon). I will, however, struggle if the university doesn’t sort out my papers by the end of the week, my landlord decides to put my rent up, and/or i can’t get my degree this year and end up scooping ice creams at minimum wage for the foreseeable future.
Ultimately, to summarise the random collection of thoughts I have typed up on my phone during my pathetic excuse of a lunch break, is that O-week not happening is not worth you complaining about.
Instead, try channelling your energy into something more, like getting the whare wānanga to stop cutting arts funding, or to improve how we tautoko our beautiful takatapui and indigenous students, or actually communicate with us about our studies more than 2 weeks before semester starts, or even something as stupid as getting the marketing students to stop thinking that everyone wants to sleep with them (newsflash: we don’t!).
That’s all. Ngā mihi.
