Blogs • The President 2008

With the final exams well underway the first groups of residents have left for the year.  While some are destined to return and become the custodians of our customs and traditions for 2009, the majority of us are set to begin life outside the walls as exies lining Castle, Dundas and Leith Street, just a stone throw from the College.  But just what will being a Selwyn exie in 2009 entail?

The bonds developed and the experiences shared at Selwyn means everyone who sung the Waiata and chanted the Haka this year will be very eager to remain involved in the Selwyn community as much as possible in future years, despite the fact they don't live at the College.  At the same time the current residents will be looking to use the large pool of exies and their variety of skills and resources to ensure their events run smoothly.

An increasing number of exies are travelling to Auckland in January and joining the barbeque roadshow where Selwynites of all backgrounds meet up and welcome the next years group in their home town.  If you've accepted a place in Selwyn next year I strongly advise you attend your local barbecue, they're lots of fun and not to be missed!  Details will be sent out over the next couple of months.   

The first official interaction will be the inaugural Haka/Waiata performance at the opening service prior to Orientation Week where the exies will invite the freshers into the College.  



After that throughout O Week there will be a number of occasions where exies are involved in the Selwyn programme through flat parties and other events leading up to the Orientation Ball at the weekend where both current and former residents from the year before socialise together in a formal setting.

Straight after the initial festivities end it'll be time for the exies to begin coaching the first teams for Cameron Shield and Nevill Cup, with cricket (one of the events we have won most consistently in recent years) generally held in the fourth or fifth week.  Throughout the year the most skillful and knowledgeable ex residents will take great pride in offering their time to coach, support and manage Selwynites in the various teams to ensure they are as prepared as possible to take on the foe from Opoho.  In some cases this coaching commitment will exceed 50 hours work, but that won't seem like much to the exies, they'll love every moment getting to know the freshers of 2009 and helping to ensure Cam stays down here and Nev is retrieved from his temporary home.

A number of exies attend every event, with the rugby against Knox generally attracting ex resident supporters from at least 5 generations in significant numbers!

At some stage during the first term there will be an exies barbeque held in Selwyn creating another opportunity for different generations of Selwynites to share stories and celebrate the ongoing spirit of New Zealand's finest hall.  Additionally the Students' Association will arrange a function or two for exies in Dunedin during the year as a chance to catch up as a group.

As ReO Week roles around the local flats will again be in demand for various social activities, and the exies and freshers will be ready to party together as best mates from all the time they've spent together through the year.

At various times through the year the Students' Association Committee will keep all the local exies up to date through a newsletter prepared by the Vice-President Sofara Aiono.  This includes details on recent Cam and Nev results, the times and dates of upcoming events, and reports on the progress and success of other traditions and events.

Finally when Selwynites finally graduate the College invites them back for a morning tea and an opportunity to show family around their old Dunedin home, completing the cycle of going from being a nervous 18 year old fresher, to an over-confident exie, and then finally a grounded, skillful, and knowledgeable alumnus of New Zealand's oldest University and second oldest residential College ready to become one of the brightest minds running our world.  

Although we all leave Selwyn it never leaves us.

 

Once a Selwynite, always a Selwynite.

Labels: Alumni, College Life

With the SCSA elections held last Saturday the College is in a transition phase of inducting the new Committee into their role as the custodians of our precious Students' Association.  The newly elected Committee is:

President: Tom English

Vice-President: Sofara Aiono

Treasurer: Nick Hornstein

Internal Affairs: William Sams

Sports: Freya Morrison

Cultural: Leah Carroll

Social: Georgie Kevany

 

They are already busy making arrangements for the annual High Tea this coming Wednesday, and starting to throw ideas around for the barbeque tour and Orientation Week of 2009.  They'll become very busy people, contributing tirelessly to the success of the year, and learning a lot about group organisation.  

While it's impossible to list everything the Committee does, in limited detail these guys will be responsible for organising Selwyn teams for the Cameron Shield and Nevill Cup, managing nearly $40,000 of students' money, planning two balls and numerous hops (Selwyn parties), making arrangements for busy and exciting Orientation Week and ReOrientation Week programmes, maintaining our core traditions such as the famous ballet, Haka, Waiata, and ANZAC concert, producing the annual record, representing the student group to the College management team and Board of Governors, running social sports teams including our DKDs rugby squad, hosting College House for the Warden's Cup and making arrangements for teams to travel to Christchurch to compete for the Principal's Cup, helping to organise a series of special and unique church services,  and provide Selwyn College merchandise for residents to purchase along with a number of one off events through the year such as Race Day, Citrus Trials, and with a bit of luck, new for 2009, the Selwyn Golf Classic.  All this while studying full time!!  

There's no doubt they'll be another great Committee and a great asset to the College.  I wish them the best of luck for 2009 and look forward to seeing their work in action!

If your in year 13 or you've been away on a gap year and are planning to come down to Dunedin to study in 2009 there's no doubt you will have considered staying in a Residential College.  Having been down here for two years now, I've got to know a bit about each of them, and picked up on some of their less obvious strengths and weaknesses.  Although they may appear very similar in the University of Otago publications the reality is there are some pretty significant differences you may not realise until you're on the inside and well into your first year - by then it'll be too late if you made the wrong decision!

In terms of selecting a College I'd be foolish to try and tell you where to go or to pretend there is a best and worst College, but I can provide you with an honest run down on some of my thoughts and you may find that helpful.  Read up as much as you can on them, talk to as many people as possible, and take your time with the decision - it's a pretty important one.

One of the things you should consider is the size of the Hall.  The advantage of a big hall is you can keep to yourself and remain quite anonymous if you wish, or conversely you have the opportunity to really put your name out and make friends with a huge number of people.  On the other hand a smaller hall (<250 people) will have more of a family feel, you'll soon learn every body's name and they'll know yours.  The value of this shouldn't be underestimated, it's great being able to have a proper conversation with anyone who walks in the door.  You may be concerned that there will be fewer opportunities or facilities in a smaller Hall but I don't believe this to be true, using Selwyn as an example, we have as many tutorials as the other halls (if not more), we have far more social activities than any other and our facilities are on an equal par in virtually every respect.    

Another important factor you may wish to consider is the location of the hall.  In Dunedin everybody walks everywhere, there's very little parking around campus and most things are pretty close anyway.  That said if you aren't someone who wants to spend 20 or 30 minutes walking to class each morning (especially if you're considering first year health sciences where you'll probably have 8am lectures!) then you probably want to think more about the closer halls.  Selwyn, Unicol and St Margarets all sit on Campus, Cumberland, Studholme, Hayward, Carrington, Arana and CityCol are all within a reasonable 5 minute walk but the likes of Aquinas Salmond and Knox are a little further afield.

There is a lot of variation in the atmosphere of the halls too, which is particularly hard to appreciate when you're reading up in the guides.  St. Margarets is the self-confessed quieter hall, generally it's students are very diligent and academically minded.  If you're looking for somewhere that will offer you the best support with your studies this may well the the choice for you but at the same time that quieter approach may not work for you if your looking forward to the occasional loud night of celebration.  CityCol has a different room arrangement to other halls where they are set up in pods in contrast to the more common corridor approach in nearly every other College.  I've heard this tends to create fairly tight, but small social groups, but has the advantage of being similar to a flat easing the transition from the hall to independent accommodation later on.  Carrington has a very tidy and relaxed feel to it, and from my limited experiences there it seems they tend to pick up a combination of the rugby jocks and some very hard workers.  To me Studholme, Salmond, Cumberland and Hayward are very similar in terms of their set up and atmosphere, each attracts a range of typical Otago University students from around the country.  While all the friends I have had go through these halls have had a great time it would seem that they are pretty focused on providing the basic requirements of a hall at a good price and are aimed at pleasing as many different groups of student as possible.

Unicol and Arana are easily the biggest two, and with that the residents get a real feel of being part of the University.  While both have new and modern facilities Arana is much more popular, and I understand it attracts the most applicants of any hall every year.  My mum went there and she turned out ok so it can't be too bad!

Selwyn and Knox (and St. Margarets to a degree) are built around very strong traditions consistent with the early origins of these establishments.  This has a significant impact on the way the hall is run, and how much influence the College has on your personal development and education.  These are the halls that people tend to return to for a second year, and they have the most active students' associations.  The traditions won't suit everyone, but if you really want to be a part of a College where you are going to put a lot in, but become part of something that is more than just a roof over your head and 3 meals a day then these are probably a good choice.  These halls have been pretty popular in recent years and your guaranteed to be in good company with clever and successful students.

It's important to think about the way the hall selection process works when you are filling out the application form.  The halls are all given the applications from the people who put their hall as the first choice.  they then make offers to enough students to fill the College, and pass the remaining forms back to the accommodation office who then pass them onto the next hall on your list that isn't already full.  If you don't get into your first choice hall and your second and third choices are some of the more popular ones you may well find you end up getting into your 4th or 5th choice .  While I'm not able to say which halls will be the most popular ones for this exercise it would be wise to ask around.

Finally don't worry about what your friends are doing, once you get down here you'll make a whole new group, and it can be good to know people in other halls so you get to meet even more people!

If you have any questions or points about things I haven't discussed here, particularly about Selwyn College from a students perspective, feel free to email me at kupth222@student.otago.ac.nz or alternatively leave a comment on this page and I'll let you know more.

Tom

After a busy few weeks the College is on holiday, although quite a few have opted to stay in Dunedin to make the most of the quieter College to study for final exams in just over 7 weeks.  As we've reached crunch stage in our sporting and cultural competitions I'll just bring you up to speed so any news over the next few weeks doesn't come as too much of a surprise! 

Before we get into that I'll touch briefly on the College House Sporting Exchange, held over the 15th-17th of August in Christchurch.  While I wasn't able to attend because of my hockey team's semi final in Dunedin I was told that it was a great weekend in all respects apart from the results of the games.  Unfortunately College House were able to win 6-3 overall, but our athletes were contempt, approaching this exchange as more of a social meeting than our equivalent with Knox. 

Speaking of which, in the Nevill Cup things still aren't looking too hopeful.  Down 10-50 we need to win all of the remaining events; Big and Small Choir, Dance and Shakespeare in order to retain the Cup.  Although this isn't impossible the Choir events have always been Knox's strength so we are clearly fighting an uphill battle. 

The Cameron Shield has been a little more eventful over the last few weeks of term; Rugby, Netball, Cross Country and Volleyball have all been completed. 



Volleyball was a particularly tight affair, the girls game held first resulted in a Selwyn victory in four sets, but the boys match went to the fifth, with the Selwyn lads eventually coming out on top by 3 points.  Between the games we were entertained by an aerobics/cheer-leading routine performed by the Selwyn What Squad.  In secret this group practised their performance for a couple of weeks, and then revealed their work to a surprised and receptive Selwyn crowd - just another secret tradition hidden in Selwyn's walls. 

The Cross Country was run on what must have been the only fine Sunday morning in August.  Starting at Selwyn we always had the advantage as we could get more people out of bed in time for the 11am start!  The honours were shared, Knox taking the girls event while Selwyn ran strong to claim the boys section. 

Last Monday Netball was held at the Edgar Center, with Selwyn quickly establishing their dominance racing out to an 8-2 lead.  Complacency may have got the better of the girls as Knox crept back into the game, but late in the fourth quater when scores were tied a crucial intercept secured the victory for the Maroon and Golds. 

Finally the annual Somerville Shield Rugby Match between Selwyn and Knox was held.  After dominating for seven years, and then loosing 16-3 in frustrating fashion last year the Selwyn camp was fizzing for the match.  13 weeks of preparation and two practice games were setting the boys up in a strong position for what was tipped to be the big revenge match.  Due to the heavy rain the game was shifted from it's home at the Alhambra Rugby Club to the Opoho fields, a shift towards Knox territory, and away from the familiarity of the Selwyn practice ground.  The boys ran out to a strong crowd of current and ex residents including Dicon Sim, the Chairman of the Selwyn College Board of Governors, ready to represent the Selwyn College of 2008. 

  

Knox drew first blood early in the game with a penalty, answered by a penalty for Selwyn from first five Sam McLernon.   The soggy conditions suited 10 man rugby, and both sides certainly looked to keep it in close as much as possible.  When the Selwyn backs were offered the ball they showed plenty of enterprise but failed to make effective line breaks.  Following another penalty Knox went into the break with a 6-3 lead.




After the break Selwyn began to dominate more often than not at the break down, and looked to be putting some pressure on the Knox forwards, however against the run of play a clearing kick was charged down, and a Knoxie toed ahead and collected the ball to secure the only try of the match.  Following a successful conversion from the sideline Knox took a 13-3 lead into the final quater of the game.  Selwyn desperately attacked only to find themselves frustratingly short of territory and Knox managed to hold on for a well earned 13-3 victory, crushing the Selwyn team and it's loyal supporters.

The 2008 Selwyn Rugby Team was (in jersey order): Devon Latoa, Willie Allan (captain), Sofara Aiono, James Harty, Simon Luke (vice captain), Sam Lawson, Jamie Callahan, David Gawith, Tom English, Sam McLernon, Hamish Spear, Willy Sams, Devlin Elliott, Peter Trebilcock, James Hackett.  Reserves: Hugo Webb, Fengyang Lei, Colin Haa, Pat Dowle, Tom Kuperus, Dominic Jones, Sean Conway.

After the game the College was understandably subdued, and slid uneventfully into the mid-semester break.  There is always the overall Cameron Shield situation to consider, a win in the rugby would have secured it for the year.  However, a win in either billiards, hockey, or both men's and women's soccer will be enough to ensure the Rev. Dr. Andrew Cameron's memorial shield is hanging in the Brother's Hall for Knox's Centenary year in 2009.

Hopefully we'll know when the first of those events, soccer, is competed for on the 11th of September.

Ever since some of my first days at Selwyn I have been excited by the prospect of pranks, both internally involving other Selwynites, and with our foe at Opoho and our friends in Christchurch at College House.  We've heard great stories - the front entranceway being bricked over, horses being lead up to Top Floor Whitehead, Pigs being left on Knox's front lawn, and numerous flag missions, whether they are true or not is for you to verify!

It must be something to do with our age goup, or maybe the living arrangement where we are all in such close proximity.  Perhaps it's a desperate attempt to avoid growing up and hanging onto that last peice of irresponsible childhood.  Either way it's great fun, and generally speaking very harmless fun at that.

During my time at Selwyn a number of particularly clever pranks have been executed.  Last year at College House apon returning home from town a few of the Selwyn boys took it on themselves to decorate a mature tree in the CH quad with rather amusing consequences.  As the College woke on the Sunday morning they were in disbelief as to how someone managed to aquire so many items (including a large cage of recycling, a fridge, a bicycle, a garage door, and many others), and place them so delicately in the tree without anyone hearing.  Those responsible were so discrete that even now I am not sure who was involved, or just when they did it, but I have my suspicions.

This year has already had some impressive stunts, in the first term a group of boys went up to Knox and planted a substantial tree on the front lawn leading to the main entrance way.  It was executed thoughtfully, with the lawn cut out and place carefully beside the tree so after a couple of days of admiration the Knox ground staff were able to remove the tree and replace the grass.  Both the Knox victims and the Selwyn audience recieved it well.

April fools day saw the Warden's van lifted into the quad, cups of water placed on the stairs so nobody could get down from Whitehead, and an impressively large string spiders web made in Cats.    



In the College at the moment the Quiz Masters (QMs) are taking flight, and organising a new stunt on almost a nightly basis.  They are a secret society, chosen by the QMs of the year group before them, who organise a series of publicity acts leading up to an annual quiz where they are revealed to the College.  Having been extremely successful so far throughout their history they look to be a tradition set to stand the test of time at Selwyn.  This years group are about to be revealed at the quiz tonight, but they have already executed some fairly amusing manouvres.  On Sunday night they brought a significant amount of snow into Selwyn which they used to build a snowman on the front steps.  On Monday night they brought two sheep in and set them up in the quad to be discovered in the morning (the farmer was in on the prank and now has his sheep back).  It's fair to say they're making the College a fairly interesting place to live at the moment.  

I'm sure pranks are here to stay, particularly with the inception of new award donated by Rob and Anwyn Walker at High Tea last year to acknowledge the most daring and constructive prank.  Rob's award is a replica of one of the Selwyn oars which now sits in the Brothers' Hall.  I understand was originally competed for between College House and Selwyn, and I believe it symbolises a great mission to retrieve the oar during an exchange while Rob was at Selwyn.  

I look foward to hearing of similar pranks and stunts for many years to come! 

Tom

Labels: College Life

Following our three events last week the Nevill Cup situation has deteriorated significantly, and the Cameron Shield remains delicately balanced. 

Monday night featured the Open Drama contest held at Union Hall where we performed a piece titled "Murder at Club Fishnet".  The Selwyn camp felt well prepared thanks to the work of our three coaches Lucy Smith, Kiri Aikman and Lloyd Burr, and were confident of a victory after the Knoxies asked for the event to be postponed less than a week before the scheduled date.  

Due to venue bookings this wasn't possible and we went ahead, with both the Selwyn and Knox peices performed to a noteably high standard.  Unfortunately the judges saw the event differently to the Selwyn camp and Knox was announced the winners, leaving those of us organising the Nevill Cup campaign worried about our overall position half-way through the competition.

The squash competition was held on the 31st of July, our girls team was successful 3 games to 2, but unfortunately the boys lost 1 game to four.  One of our Senior Residents (SR - the equivalent of an RA) Will Costelo was the sole male victor, it's great to see the SRs getting into our Cam and Nev events.  Throughout this year we have been working alongside our Knox equivalents to amend the constitutions for both the Cup and Shield and one of the more challenging discussions we've had was over what eligibility constraints we should have on competitors.  The status quo states any permanent resident of a College who is a full time student may participate.  Both the Knox College Students' Club Executive, and our own Selwyn College Students' Association Committee agreed that it would be beneficial to elaborate on this rule to prevent significantly older members of either College dominating events in the future, so the focus remains on the undergraduate students.  In saying that we are adamant that our SRs should still be able to compete as they contribute on a student level in many other areas of College life, and the only real difference to the majority of students is an extra level of responsibility.  The difficulty with this is Knox don't have an equivalent position to our SRs, meaning they may suffer a competitive disadvantage if we excluded their older welfare staff.  At this stage the eligibility debate is ongoing as both the Executive and Committee consider just what role SRs, Subwardens, Submasters, tutors, etc should have in future Cameron Shield and Nevill Cup events.

Our final event for last week was the Nevill Cup band competition held at ReFuel.  Again the Knox effort was deemed to be marginally superior to our own, although members of both Colleges mutually agreed the standard was exceptionally high and could have easily gone either way.

The Selwyn band performed an impressive original song, written by lead singer Sam Wevers (above).  Keep an eye on that name, he is a particularly talented musician.  That result leaves us in a rather tough position overall in the cup at 10-50 in Knox's favour.  With both Big and Small Choir (traditionally strong events for Knox), Dance and Shakespeare to come we will do very well indeed to defend the Cup from here!

On Tuesday we held our annual ex residents gathering at The Gardens Tavern.  These nights are aimed at alumni still studying in Dunedin (referred to as exies) and are extremely popular, attracting several hundred people.  It's reassuring to see a good turn out at events like this and ex residents supporting at our Selwyn/Knox events indicating there is still a lot of interest in the College from those remaining in Dunedin.  The Committee is interested in organising other exie events so any suggestions on what could be successful would be welcomed!

Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) elections are coming up between the 11th and 14th of August and two ex residents are running for positions.  Lloyd Burr is running for General Rep, and Ed Darlow for President.  Both are exeptionally affable men who have, and will continue to contribute unselfishly to the College and I'm sure the Selwyn Community will be getting right behind their campaigns.  I personally offer both candidates my full support and wish them the best of luck.

Keep an eye out for updates on the Volleyball, Cross Country, ANZAC concert and a wrap up of the 2008 Selwyn Ballet.

Tom

Labels: College Life, Sports and Cultural

Welcome to our new site, I hope to use this blog to keep you updated on student activities within and around the College, feel free to let me know of anything you would like to know more about, or if you have any specific questions I would be more than happy to answer to the best of my knowledge!  

Just for a quick update on where we are with The Cameron Shield and Nevill Cup, we're currently 5 points ahead in the sporting competition, and trailing 10-30 in the cultural equivalent.  We're about to enter a very busy period with Open Drama, Squash, Band, Volley Ball, Cross Country and Billiards scheduled to happen over the next two weeks.  Additionally we have the ANZAC concert this coming Sunday and the College House exchange in just under three weeks!   

I'll keep you up to date with as much of the College activities as possible so keep an eye out if you want to know what's been happening. 

Tom  

Labels: College Life, Sports and Cultural