Students Plan Liaison With Bookshops

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31129, 4 August 1966, Page 12

Students Plan Liaison With Bookshops

A constitutional amendment that a bookshop liaison committee be formed, was passed at the half-yearly meeting of the Canterbury University Students’ Association last evening.

The committee will meet at least three times a year and report to the association’s annual meeting on bookshops run by booksellers to the university. It will investigate all complaints of staff and students as to the running of Hie bookshops and determine whether service has been satisfactory.

Putting the motion, the executive vice-president (Mr P. L. Harper) said an investigation had been made by the Student Affairs Committee which found that the system of lists of required books being supplied to the bookseller was good in theory, but in practice there fas sometimes lack of liaison between the university and the supplier. Mr Harper said the executive recommended that the present booksellers be given the right to lease the text-

book shop at Ham when their present leases expired. Some persons wanted the accounts of the present suppliers examined and wanted to know how an equitable rent for the bookshop at Ham would be decided. Mr D. Botherway said the present supplier was the only firm with a big enough turnover to give a 10 per cent discount, price limits were fixed, and that as long as students were getting a “fair deal” they should not be concerned with profits made by the book suppliers. Debating Union A motion was passed that a debating union be formed to help in the exchange of ideas and enable student opinion to be known. Putting the motion, Mr P. W. Rosier said this would be the first such union in New Zealand. It would function as a voice for students. A motion that a clause of the constitution be amended to permit first-term students to vote in executive elections was carried.