This is a great video from Massey University that was filmed as during a live Radio Control interview the other morning.
The key thing is this video shows the strength of the relationships between the four students’ associations and the university senior management with the University Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey leading the discussion.
The services and events that they discuss with be lost if Voluntary Students’ Association Membership comes into force. And it is a lot of these services that students won’t realise they have lost until they have lost them.
I walked to uni this morning because it was a nice day and I am sick of not being able to get a park when driving. On the way I took a few photos of the new Library under construction at uni. It is huge. By far the largest building on campus. It is a bit of a pity that I may longer be a student by the time it is open.
The Library as seen from afar dwarfing the other buildings on the campus
The library as seen from behind.
Massey have also created a photo slideshow of progress on the building:
This one shows changes that have been made to the intersection controllers within the Traffic Simulator.
The give-way controller makes all the cars give way to all the other roads connected into the intersection with a minimum of 2.5 seconds between vehicles.
The traffic lights controller makes all the cars on the green road go at 2 second intervals and makes the others queue with a minimum wait time of 16 seconds.
The round-a-bout controller makes each car give way to the right and then go with a minimum of 3.9 seconds between each car on a road, but multiple cars from multiple roads can cross the intersection at the same time… hence the chaos on the video.
This morning I had my first lecture for the new semester.
159.734 Intelligent Systems.
The lecturer enters the room and announces that he is taking the paper because the lecturer who was meant to be taking it had moved to a different uni in Singapore and then announces how much he does not like the paper and how we know just about everything in it already.
Therefore he will be renaming the paper to 159.736 Studies in Operating Systems and we will be doing an in depth study of one operating system in particular: Google Android OS.
I just about fell off my chair when he said this. Not only do I have a brand new cellphone, one of only a handful in the world running Android, I am now doing a whole paper on it at uni. How cool is that.
At the moment there are going to be two assignments for the paper one on building a device driver under Android say something to run bluetooth. And the second assignment will be building some awesome app for the OS.
I now wonder if I can claim my new cellphone back as a course related cost. ROFLOL.
Press Release: MASSEY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION FEDERATION
Massey University dumps on International Students
From 2009 all new International Students studying at Massey University will face an immediate 6 – 7% average increase in tuition fees and ongoing annual tuition fees increases due to a removal in fee Grand-parenting for International students.
Fee Grand-parenting of tuition fees for International Students ensures that students do not face tuition fee increases throughout their course. Massey University introduced fee Grand-parenting in 2005 to give International Students stability in their finances while they study.
“The decision by the Massey University Council last Friday to remove these protections for students’ financial wellbeing will severely hurt international students” says Albany Students’ Association (ASA) President, Brad Heap. “This decision was made entirely behind closed doors; students had no knowledge of this move and the University did not consult with a single student on the changes.”
“Massey University has decided to put profits before pastoral care of students and I find this disgraceful. You would expect the University to have a social conscience and protect their students not dump fee increases on them without consulting them,”said Heap.
MUSAF is committed to ensuring that the University treats all students as individuals and does not treat its International Students as ‘cash-cows’. MUSAF will continue to work with students across Massey University’s three campuses to ensure that the University actively consults with students and in the meantime urges Massey University Council to reverse its decision.
Brad and Professor Ken Hawick – Chair/Head of Computer Science, Supervisor of Traffic Simulator Project, Lecturer for 159.331 Computer Languages and Algorithms and Lecturer for 159.235 Computer Graphics
Brad and Dr Peter Kay – Lecturer for 159.101 Programming Fundamentals, 159.102 Computer Science Fundamentals, 159.233 Computer Architecture
Well this is me at the Dome 2672m above sea level on the top of Mount Ruapehu. Behind me is the Crater Lake and behind that is Tahurangi at 2797m which is the true summit of Ruapehu (but noone ever climbs it).
This is the second time that I have summited Rupaheu the first time was in January 2004 and the two main differences between this time and last time was the lack of snow. WE HAD NONE. Not even on the summit. Last time we had snow all the way from the top of Knoll Ridge at the top of the Whakapapa Ski Field. The second difference was the amount of ash on the mountain which made the climb and descent very hard because you had to be so careful not to slip. Oh and the minor third difference was this time we got a headstart by using the chairlifts which save you 400m of climbing and 3+ hours of tramping.
This is part of the party on the summit. 12 people went from Massey Albany.
This is some of our party and a whole lot of other people at the Dome using the Dome Shelter as a wind break to stop the wind. The air temp was quite warm (a few degrees above 0) but the wind was very cold, strong and icy when it got you.
This is the Dome Shelter with the very clear warning on it about not using it unless in emergency. Something that two climbers didn’t adhere to last year and almost paid with their lives because of it when the mountain did decide to make an emergency and erupt.
This is the Crater Lake which of course is the active vent of Ruapehu and causes all the eruptions.
These two photos show the damage that is caused when the Crater Lake gets too full and a Lahar occurs.
This is Te Heuheu (2732m) with the Summit Plateau in front. On our descent we cross the Plateau and came down over the Te Hehehu Ridge which is to the left. The Plateau was full of ash that sometimes you went ankle to knee deep in.
These are groups of people walking along the Dome Ridge to the Dome.
On top of the world. Looking South. You can normally see south to Taihape, Bulls, Palmerston North etc. Of course only when there are no clouds. But look at our height above the clouds.
Looking North. You can again normally see almost to Hamilton.
Looking down the Whangaehu Glacer. This is where the Lahars generally run. You can see the Dessert Road and the Army Training Grounds beyond that.
Environmental Rep. 410 Maurice TIPENE (73.32%)
150 No Confidence (26.79%)
Total: 560
International Cultural Rep. 261 Andrijana (Ana) TRAJANOVSKA (44.46%)
235 Wajahat (Waj) KHAN (40.03%)
91 No Confidence (15.50%)
Total: 587
Mature Students’ Rep. 286 Rebekah CLIFFORD (48.47%)
151 Joy SADLER & Dean WRIGHT (25.59%)
133 No Confidence (22.54%)
Total: 590
Social Activities Rep. 314 Reuben VERGHESE (53.67%)
188 Christian STAHL (32.14%)
83 No Confidence (14.19%)
Total: 585
Women’s Welfare Rep. 432 Ashleigh GRANT (73.34%)
157 No Confidence (26.66%)
Total: 589
Notes on results:
In total 689 votes cast, however not all of these were valid for every position.
12.3% of the campus voted.
In contested positions:
Brad Heap got highest number of votes cast.
Reuben Verghese got highest winning percentage.
International Representative had the smallest winning margin (26 votes)
Brad Heap got more then double the votes of the nearest competitor
The Mature Representative position got highest number of no confidence votes
In general:
The President position got highest number of total valid votes cast
Ashleigh Grant got highest number of votes
Ashleigh Grant got highest number of no confidence votes
