Blogs • The President 2009

The curious thing about extremely busy times is that they seem to pass before you can catch you breath and make note of it all...or write a blog! I will be publishing an installment of Blogs to cover the events of the past 5 or so weeks. What better time to write than in my 1 week holiday, and what better place to start than with the Knox Selwyn Rugby match.

10-7

The scoreline in favour of Selwyn, after a great game full of drama and good rugby. This game is about the closest you can get to a tradtional 1st XV derby match outside of school, and is a great reminder of our proud glory days at our respective colleges. Most players in the team had played 1st XV at their school, and the standard of rugby was no excellent and definitely not social. The girls love it too!

It was held on the last Thursday of term, a fitting end to an intense week that also involved a convincing victory by the Netball team over Knox.

There is something special about pulling on an old-school style, heavy, long-sleeve Jersey inscribed with the names and victors of the past Selwyn victories and the lucky wearers. After a 3 month build up and a close loss to College House, the Selwyn boys were amping for a go at the Knoxies especially after last years Frustrating 12-3 loss, which involved a charge down try.

Selwyn scored first with a slick back move to open affairs, but were hamstrung when classy 1st 5 Ben "from Gore" Adams went off with a crippling leg injury. The game then settled and we conceded a try to Knox in the 2nd half. Alarm bells went off when despite being dominant Selwyn conceded the lead and were down 7-5 with 10 minutes to go. After grunting our way up field, 1st 5 Willy Sams popped a drop goal in a perfect pocket kick, but the ref called over after confusion with North Grounds mini-size posts. However with 5 minutes to go, Selwyn barged over after multiple phases in the corner and the rest, is history.

It is testament to the opportunites available to all in Selwyn that the 2 tries scored were both by a soccer goalie playing his 1st every rugby game of rugby. It was a great way to end the semester and left everyone feeling great about being a Selwynite, as well as the 300 or so supporters who turned up and lined the grounds.

Like Pembo, I will attribute my late post to the busy goings-on of ReO Week!

This week is celebrated all over Otago, and within Selwyn the Committee organizes a week of social and re-orientation events to get people back into the swing of Dunedin and Selwyn life, and, well, reorientate them. This year there were many great events, and we were even lucky enough to be visited by the new flu craze which spread through the Campus like wildfire. Being in close proximity to 170 other students in a hall appears to be very conducive to catching their sicknesses funnily enough.

With a new semester comes new papers, a few new additions to the college and a few farewells.

We recently farewelled a well-loved Selwynite who is now onto brighter and better things, on a very prestigious scholarship to the National University of Singapore. This is an awesome achievement and just reward for a guy who embodies the slogan "Work hard, play hard", as do many Selwynites.

We have a very special semester coming up. Personally most of my vivid memories come from the events of the 2nd semester last year. To name a few are the Selwyn Ski Trip, the 21sters Ball, Quiz Night, the Anzac Concert and the Selwyn v Knox Rugby match for the Sommerville Shield. These won't mean a lot if you don't know what they are, but they are for many people the defining moments and memories of the year.

I'm personally getting into the swing of a few new papers, and after a harrowing semester of accounting can't wait to kick on and get stuck into law for the 100% exams at the end of the year. Good times, heres hoping for a sweet last semester to my Selwyn career.

I guess I better mention the Snow, being the most exciting thing to happen in the past few weeks- it was a joyous sight to see the Auckland freshers who had never been snowed on frolicking around, taking photos, and revelling in the lack of oprressive humidity.

A common theme in all of the blogs lately is exams and study; funnily enough this is what we come to Uni for! Since the end of semester, there has been a notable quieting of external "scarfie" behaviour, as everyone has settled into a solid study period for the year... Not to say there aren't those who reward each little bit of study with a healthy facebook session or night off; equally there are those who won't have done anything apart from study, eat and sleep for the last month or so. Castle St outside my window has never been quieter on a Thursday or Saturday!

 These are the two sides of University life in Dunedin; epitomising the "work hard, play hard" cliche. This phrase is a very succint summary of the Uni way of life, and especially the Selwyn way of life. We have a plethora of activities and social events throughout the semester to allow us to play hard, especially combined with the close proximity to The Gardens Tavern (Gardies), but when it comes to crunch time the College knuckles down and log up many hours of bookwork.

Depending on the course, this is a continuing feature of the year for those who have to work throughout the semester. For others,  the first semester exams are their first experience at having to really work hard at Uni; the realization that you have to direct your own learning and there are no teachers spooning you exactly what you need to know 6 hours a day is a hard but valuable lesson.

Personally I have been lucky to only have 3 exams due to having a full year law paper, so my schedule has been pretty sweet and my last exam tommorow will come on the back of a 1 week drinks-break since my last, so no excuses!

Today is noteable for the fact that as I type this, the very last Health Science's exam for the semester is underway-PHSI 191, MMmm. This is a truly challenging course, being the competitive year for Medicine, Dentistry and Physio. No doubt there will be celebrations just after lunch at about 1PM today... The Health Sci candidates from Selwyn have been going nuts the past month, many for the whole semester. Us BCommer's are truly empathetic to their cause, and look forward to seeing the result of a semester and 100's of hours of work released this afternoon.

The Neville Cup is competed for between Selwyn and our old foes Knox College every year.

It is a completely cultural competition in which points are awarded for victory in each event, with the highest aggregate winning the "Nev" at the end of the year. The Neville Cup is a big deal at Selwyn with the competition akin to the unique spirit found only at secondary school . Along with the Cameron shield,victory is indicative of a successful year for the College!

The Neville cup was kicked off this year with Theatresports, and Selwyn continued their unbeaten run over the past 2 years to win convincingly in a hilarious and brilliant acting performance by Josh Pemberton, Nick Millward, Emma Gattey, Jack Montgomerie and Georgey Dooley. The team won against both College House and Knox last year, and have continued that fine form into this year... the start of a huge streak?

Debating has also been held and the moot this year was "This house supports the banning of all forms of alcohol advertising"- obviously a big point of contention in Dunedin, and this wasn't lost on the debaters! The Selwyn team of Jack Montgomerie, Ben Paterson and leader Matt Dodd put on an awesome display and impressed all of us; I personally (with as little bias as possible) thought that we had won the debate, but the judges saw otherwise and Knox won. Matt "the Doddfather" deserves a special mention, being the 4th debate he has represented Selwyn with and spoke and led brilliantly, and Jack Montgomerie for his firearms metaphor of "binge shooting".

Check back for regular updates on the Neville Cup, and of course the Cameron shield which will be coming shortly! At 15-15 it actually couldn't be closer.

The Haka and Waiata, after a few intense months of training and vigilant practise, have been presented within the College. The men and women of Selwyn put hours of sweat and hardwork into learning and fine tuning these two special representations of our College... Trust me, the windows of the common room steam up after a good practise!

 It is due to the huge respect we have for the Maori culture and traditions of not only Selwyn "Te Whare O Herewini", but of Aotearoa, that this is such a big deal for the college. The boys presented a rousing haka to the women of our college,  after a spiritual preparation in the Chapel.

It's an intense and spine-tingling experience. Long, slow, precise and ferocious; in my experience of watching many boys schools hakas, I am yet to have seen a college perform with quite the same passion or feeling. It is a truly unique facet of Selwyn College. With a rigid selection process of not only the leaders of the haka, but the lines themselves, every Selwynite is eager and proud to be apart of something greater than himself. Congratulations must be given to the boys selected to lead, with Jesse Waipara selected as the Sub-Kaea and Nick Morgan given the supreme honour of Kaea, again after a long selection process... For the duration of the haka, the Kaea is in complete command of the boys of the college, and being selected is indicative of their mana and the respect for them.

The girls then presented a beautiful waiata the following night, and even though many of them told me they were worried they wouldn't be able to match the haka, they were wrong!

Us boys were truly blown away by the lovely warmth and beauty that the girls exuded when singing the waiata, and it brought tears to more than a few eyes. We boys hadn't seen that side of the girls before! They were led fantastically by Joanna Lealiifano as Sub-kaea, and Ayla Jenkins as kaea. The girls of the college really lit up the quad that night and their radiance was there for all to see, which is a tribute to the leaders and all their hard work; I don't think its something many of us will forget.

The haka and waiata presentations are special nights,  a once in a lifetime experience. It is a turning point for a new group of people thrown together, to become Selwynites who claim ownership of the place and the family within it;

For each of us the haka and waiata is a very personal expression of a piece of New Zealands unique culture, a piece of the place you live and all the traditions that go with it, and a tribute to the special people within.

Every year Selwyn and College House of Christchurch have two exchanges, a cultural in the first semester and a sporting in the second. Each college takes it in turn to host one of these each year, and so on Friday the 27th of March, Selwyn loaded into buses with spirits and luggage weights booming, for a weekend at the impressive College House. The Principal's Cup is competed for over the following 5 events; Debating, Theatresports, Choral singing, band and Instrumental. A certain number of Selwnyites are billeted within College House, and the others make themselves at home in their new friends places around Christchurch. The competition was of an amazing standard this year, which was obvious to anyone watching and also to the judges and it was a true testament to the abilities of everyone in each event that 3 events came to a result by a difference of 1 point! Unfortunately, Selwyn was on the wrong side of this 1 point each time but we were no less proud by every performers showing. College House won the Debating, Choral, Band and Instrumental and Selwyn continued its unbeaten Theatresports team run from last year.

On Saturday evening, Selwyn was also treated to a formal meal in the College House dining hall- I was lucky enough to sit at the High Table and admire a fine mid-dinner performance by College House students outside the wall size windows whilst we ate, and wear academic robes lent by them to me, which is a College House tradition for dinner. I couldn't stop thinking "Harry Potter, Harry Potter".

After this we celebrated a pretty fantastic weekend together with a party at the Foundry, a fine local establishment, whilst the bands battled it out on stage. College House is a very similar demographic of people from around the country to Selwyn, so I'm sure many aquaintances were made that will last for a while- at least till the next exchange in second semester!

I must mention Leah Carrell, the Selwyn Cultural Representative, who put a huge amount of work into this weekend and made it all possible- it certainly makes my job easier knowing that someone is taking responsibility and making things happen, and she really rose to the occasion. I really got to ride the haunches of her hard work the whole weekend.

All in all, a hugely successful weekend from both Colleges perspective.

The buses departed on Sunday morning, full of Selwynites less than eager for the 6 hours bus drive.! Unfortunately for me I was staying up another day for the Kings of Leon so missed the bus ride, but I was proud of the College this weekend and proud to be a part of this exchange.

Oh, and a special shout out must be made to Niels Yuan- who played the Moonlight Sonata's 3rd movement for piano for the Instrumental competition.

We told you so!

 You're my boy Niels, you're my boy.

As the title may suggest, Selwyn College and the new members of the fold are now right back in the thick of the scarfie lifestyle. The year started off for the returners of 2009, as well as many exies, with the BBQ tour of NZ which is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated events in the calendar before O-Week even starts.

The rough idea is that the SCSA committee organizes a BBQ in each major venue, or where an ex-resident is handy to host one, between Auckland and Selwyn College in Dunedin. The first years are then invited from each prospective area to come along to these meet and greet do's, and get a bit of a taste of the Selwyn lifestyle and meet the people they are to spend the next pivotal year of their life with. They were a rip-roaring success- returners and exies provide the service of their presence and good spirits to the freshers, and conveniently enjoy an 8 day trip down our beautiful country. This years itinerary included 2 days spent in the Malborough sounds at Sport's Representative Freya Morrison's bach, which was enjoyed by all the roadie crew and provided a MUCH needed rest after 4 consecutive North Island BBQ's. Then from Picton, the crew slogged down to Christchurch, Timaru, and finally to home sweet home at 560 Castle.

O-Week was another great success, with a rousing powhiri from the Selwynites of 2008 to welcome both the first years and their parents; added to this duty it was also the last haka that the boys of 2008 were to do together, so personally it meant a lot to me and it was pretty evident by the power of this haka. O-Week was enjoyed by everyone with odd sleeping hours, parties, tradition, initiation to the university, and even for a few lucky health sci's an English diagnostic test.

The first year out of College is a huge year, the change is more dramatic than any progression through secondary school- to be fair any hostel in Dunedin will treat each person on their own merits, and you can have a fantastic experience even if you don't make your first choice. A lot of my friends have told me a lot about their awesome 2008 after initial disappointment at missing out on their preferred hostel, but Selwyn is most definitely the best place to be immersed in another culture; another way of life.

People often ask Selwynites why they would return to the hostel, why do they think Selwyn is so good? It's hard to answer, because it's not in the facts, the size of the rooms, the food or the quality of the services; there is just a special energy at a place where some of the most talented young Kiwi's come together and are free to explore a most unique culture within a culture. The tradition, the years of previous Selwynites, and the legends that come with it. This is the life blood of the place.

We are now settling into a semblance of order with class having started, and Nevill Cup and Cameron Shield teams forming. Keep checking back for a regular update on the state and life of the college, but better yet come visit if you ever have opportunity and experience it for yourself. With a sweet bunch of new Selwynites, the college is in good stead for 2009.