Blogs • Josh Pemberton (Blog Scholar 2009)

The university year has finally come to an end; with exams concluding on Saturday. As per usual my blogging activity has been inversely proportional to the number of exams I have had to study for, hence my online silence in the couple of months. I write this, my last Selwyn blog, from Wellington. I left Selwyn almost a week ago and imagine that by now it will be completely deserted - save for a few staff members, a large quantity of luggage in storage for next year, and perhaps the odd left over gnome.

To be completely honest I have no idea how many people read this blog – for all I know I could be writing to myself – nor who my average reader is. If anyone on this page is in their last year of school and perusing the Selwyn website to try to get an idea of what next year has in store – good luck for 2010. I could wax lyrical about what next year has in store and throw in some Hollywood-worthy clichés about friendship, new experiences and so on, but to do so would be to suggest that the Selwyn experience is reducible to words. And quite frankly, it isn’t.

Invariably, some of those who leave Selwyn find it hard to move on and come to terms with the fact that they are no longer residents of the College. However that doesn’t mean that one’s involvement in the Selwyn community ends as soon as one leaves the warm corridors of Whitehead and Sargood and moves into a cold, slightly damp and inevitably overpriced flat elsewhere in North Dunedin. The idea of being a “Selwynite for Life” continues to find relevance amongst those who no longer live at 560 Castle St. Those of us leaving Selwyn this year will spend time in 2010 coaching Selwyn’s sports and cultural teams, teaching the haka and waiata, visiting friends who returned for a second year, or in my case, earning the minimum wage by serving food in the dining hall. I recently visited my brother’s Wellington flat where Selwynites from 2001 and 2002 were still interested in how events against Knox had gone, whether the secret societies they had started in Selwyn still exist, whether Maureen was still cleaning rooms in Whitehead, and so on.

Quite frankly I’m looking forward to a holiday and soaking up some sun and Nelson, but by late February I know it’ll be time to head back down south to Dunedin. I look forward to seeing how the College evolves over the coming years from a distance rather than from inside it. I look forward to visiting these pages in the years to come - hopefully the blog scholars of 2010 will provide us with some online insight into the mood and goings-on within Selwyn, as James, Teriana and myself have sought to do this year.

As Tom Kuperus has mentioned in his most recent blog, it is indeed exams (again!). Accordingly the focus of most Selwynites has shifted away from finishing assignments and spending late nights at the Captain Cook Tavern, towards getting up early and hitting the books at the library.

That isn't to say there hasn't been the odd extra-curricular activity going on. Last Wednesday was the annual High Tea, where the entire College plus a number of distinguished guests were treated to a delicious three course meal and some entertaining speeches in the dining room. Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin was in attendance, speaking (and singing) to us about his experiences at university. In addition there were speeches by the incoming and outgoing student presidents, and a tribute by Dr Clark to the Selwyn Welfare Team. The formal part of the evening was followed by live music in our common room, and a fairly late night for most.

A number of members of the Selwyn community have also been involved in helping organise and promote the Dunedin 350 Spring Food Festival. The Festival is an extravaganza being held alongside the traditional Dunedin Farmer's Market this Saturday, and serves as a show of support by the 350.org movement to call world leaders into action regarding climate change, as well as an opportunity for locals to enjoy live music, participate in free workshops and sample local food. Any Dunedinites are more than welcome to come along - and those reading from other parts of the country can find their local event here.

In a recent blog Dr Clark paid credit to two Selwyn residents, Jessica Jonggowisastro and Rick Parry, for their recent success in their respective sporting fields. I believe a third name should be added to that list - Callum Bailey. Callum recently competed in the men's National Hockey League for Southern, helping his team to a creditable sixth placing and scoring several important goals along the way. Earlier in the year Callum was selected for the Junior Black Sticks and took part in the recent world cup, helping the kiwi team to a fourth placed finish. At the lower end of the hockey spectrum, Callum also captained Selwyn against Knox last Thursday - however even with his experience and skill we went down 4-2, one of the very few sports fixtures we've lost this year. Callum also captained the Selwyn cricket team to a convincing win in first semester. Certainly a name to watch in the future!

The Whitehead building in Selwyn may be old, but the oldest part of the college is actually a pear tree. The tree is located in the quadrangle, adjacent to the tennis court, although of course it was there before either the quad or the court existed. One of the long-standing legends in Selwnyn is that by the time the pear tree blossoms, you must have already started studying for end of year exams... or else you'll fail. As I write this the tree has well and truly blossomed, and indeed most of the blossom replaced by new spring leaves. However myself, and I'd guess most people in Selwyn, most definitely have not started exam prep. Every time I look out my window I'm confronted with the sight of the tree, a continual reminder that I probably need to start doing some work. In addition, my exam timetable arrived a few days ago - and my first one is in 22 days. So I think now might be the time to pay heed to the legend of the pear tree, and get into the books.

I've represented Selwyn in a few sporting and cultural events over the last two years. However as the end of my second year has approached I was conscious that the boys football was going to be the last competition where I pulled on the well worn Selwyn shirt and competed against the heathen Knoxie. We had a pretty strong side this year with nearly all the players in the squad having represented their school's 1st XI, and a competent coaching unit in Mitch Parr (Selwyn 2007) and former SCSA President Tom Kuperus (Selwyn 2007-8). We also felt that our training had been pretty sufficient. It was particularly heartening to see Knox having their initial trials for their team at Logan Park, when we already had over a month of training under our belt.

Our side was led by George Milne, who has had an outstanding season playing for South Island club champions Dunedin Technical. We knew that we had to come out firing as a slow start had cost us the match against College House earlier in the semester, and we did just that, with a chance on goal within the first thirty seconds.

It is no exaggeration to say that we dominated the entire match, eventually destroying the opposition 7-0. Vice-captain Evan Jones bagged four goals, and both Andy Barrowclough and George Dooley were also on target. This was despite our goalkeeper Cam Burns being concussed fifteen minutes in, and some parochial support from the Knoxy fans. It's never a bad thing to get a bit of stick from the crowd, and in a way it helps lift your game. I found it pretty funny that some of the insults thrown my way were to do with this blog - one Knoxie informed me from the sideline that they didn't think much of my writing. Personally I'm just flattered to learn that this person has been on the Selwyn website, reading what I have to say!

The girls team also had a good win, 4-0. So needless to say it was a great day and the post match 'Court Session' was pretty enjoyable - I couldn't think of a better last event to represent the college in.

On another note, elections for the Selwyn College Students Association Committee 2010 have just concluded after a lengthy eight hours of speeches and voting. Head over to James Wright's blog to check out the results.

In the weekend just gone, one of the highlights of the Selwyn calendar took place - the annual 21ster's Ball. In years gone by, residents would stay at Selwyn for several years (my great-uncle, George Rolleston, stayed for six!) and 21ster's was a formal ball held to honour those turning twenty-one. In more recent years the norm has been to stay at Selwyn for only one or two years, so obviously not as many people reach this age while still at the College. However the title remains, and the ball (one of two we have each year at Selwyn) is by far the most formal and in my opinion, the best night of the year.

This year the ball was held at Larnach Castle, a stunning venue which was kept a secret until we had all boarded the buses to take us there. Full credit must go to Georgie Kevany and the rest of the SCSA Committee for organising the event which was an unqualified success. We enjoyed a classy meal, speeches from the Warden and SCSA President, presentations to the two 21sters (of which I was one) and live music from a Christchurch-based band. Once the ball ended the night had only just begun, with a $600 bar tab awaiting Selwynites at 10Bar in the Octagon.

The next morning we awoke to beautiful weather and a gourmet champagne breakfast, care of the Selwyn catering staff. We were allowed to drink in the College's quadrangle and most residents spent the day lying in the grass or on couches, recounting the night's events and generally chilling out, still dressed in the previous night's finery. A portable swimming pool appeared from somewhere and was immediately put to good use.

It was a very quiet College by about nine o'clock - there was a collective sense of exhaustion and everyone was pretty much ready to get into bed by that point, if they hadn't already. 'Quad Day' as it is known was a great end to a succesful weekend, and my only regret is that I won't still be in the College to experience it in 2010. Fingers crossed for a fine day for Selwynites again next year!

On a side note; elections for the 2010 SCSA Committee are taking place on Saturday. Campaigning has begun, and James Wright will have his take of things on his blog later on tonight at http://selwyn.ac.nz/blog/james

No doubt any reader of this post will be familiar with a whole lot of negative publicity regarding the disorderly student behaviour in the weekend associated with the Undie 500. The Undie is an annual car rally organised by Canterbury University's ENSOC, where cars are traditionally purchased for less than $500, decorated, and driven down to Dunedin by students (via a lengthy pub crawl) for a weekend of partying and catching up with mates.

The first time I heard of the trouble associated with the Undie was in 2007. I was travelling in Europe and came across news of arrests, bottle throwing and student riots on an international news website. I remember being slightly confused at the time as I thought that the students were protesting something (in the mould of Springbok tour or Vietnam protests) and couldn't work out what that something was. However it turns out there is nothing actually being protested, which leads to the question - why is there rioting which requires the police to forcibly intervene?

On Friday night I wandered down Castle St at about midnight to check out what was going on. There were several hundred students gathered there drinking, and although no trouble was being caused, there were also a large number of police present. There also seemed to be a tangible expectation that things would eventually end up the way they have in the past couple of years, with arrests and student versus police conflict. In my view this expectation of trouble on both sides is self-fulfilling, and as such is a large part of the problem. Students were there because police were there, and police were there because students were there. Press coverage of the events is invariable negative, portrays the situation as militant and therefore contributes to the same events occuring over and over. In an article on stuff.co.nz, student crowds are referred to as 'mobs', the area of flats in North Dunedin as a 'student stronghold', and there is a suggestion from the mayor Peter Chin that Canterbury students 'trash their own city instead'. With these expectations in place, as soon as crowd numbers become to large it is hard for the police to continue to stand aside, especially when students bait them by lighting couches on fire in the street and throwing the odd bottle. It's worth pointing out I have only ever seen a burning couch in Dunedin on Undie weekend, which I think shows that it is also a case of fulfillment of a pre-conceived expectation of what the night should entail, rather than normal student behaviour.

When the crowd began to chant "scarfies on the piss" on Friday night I went home in disgust, and would like to reassure readers that people involved in such antics aren't an accurate representation of the wider student population. The riot police later stepped in (I could hear their megaphones as I lay in bed) and from that point, with liberal use of batons and pepper spray on anyone who doesn't get off the street and inside a flat fast enough - the police are suddenly perceived as opponents and are resented even more.

So as soon as force is used the game is up and the whole event descends into chaos. The challenge for ENSOC, our own OUSA, police officers and local authorities has been to prevent things from getting to that stage. Suggestions of a concert to give students something to do were nearly made a reality but, if Canterbury students and OUSA President Ed Darlow are to be believed, fell through due to Chin's insistence on putting his head in the sand and refusing to find a solution.

At the end of the day, the mayor can say he wants Undie 500 banned all he likes, but nothing in the law can prevent motorists travelling from Christchurch to Dunedin.  It is up to all parties involved to address the underlying issues and, in my view, to remove the self-fulfilling expectation that there will be trouble. Otago University has an excellent academic reputation, particularly as a research institution, and it is time that events such as those over the weekend stopped bringing this into jeopardy.