Blogs • The President 2008
A Selwynite for life
Posted by Tom Kuperus on Sunday, October 26, 2008
/ 0 Comments
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.
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
The Lighter Side of Life
Posted by Tom Kuperus on Saturday, August 16, 2008
/ 0 Comments
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
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
Open Drama, Squash and Band
Posted by Tom Kuperus on Saturday, August 9, 2008
/ 1 Comments
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
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!
Posted by Tom Kuperus on Monday, July 28, 2008
/ 0 Comments
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