Students to thrash out $22,000 orientation loss

Press, 23 July 1986, Page 11

Students to thrash out $22,000 orientation loss

University of Canterbury students will next week discuss an investigation into a loss of $22,000 shown by this year’s orientation programme, held in February. According to the Students’ Association's acting president, Mr Grant Mangin, the programme has broken even in previous years.

The most recent loss was four years ago when there was a loss of about $5OOO, Mr Mangin said. Orientation losses were not uncommon, he said. Both Massey and Victoria universities had shown losses of about $20,000 in the last two years. A 13-page report on this year’s loss will be discussed at a meeting of the Student Representative Council on July 30.

, It has taken a subcommittee of the association’s executive four months to compile the report.

A copy was not available to “The Press” but Mr Mangin said there had been no misappropriation of funds. Lack of accountability had been a major factor contributing to the $22,000 loss. Expenditure during the week in which the programme was run had not been sufficiently controlled, he said. Mr Mangin said there had been a number of problems. Ticket sales had been down and fewer students had participated. He said suitable records had not been kept on sales of items such as Tshirts, posters, and tickets, and the relationship between the controllers and the executive could be improved. Next year’s orientation would probably be restructured. It might be run over two week-ends, instead of during the week, and the type of activities offered would

be changed. The orientation controllers could not be reached by “The Press” yesterday. In an issue of the university newspaper, "Canta,” published yesterday, one of the two controllers of this year’s programme, Mr Greg Marshall, acknowledged that the loss was a problem but said that the controllers had acted in good faith and honesty. The fault lay with all of the parties involved, he said. “It can be seen that the lack of help from the executive and the president, coupled with their inexperience (the controllers), hindered the smooth running of orientation," Mr Marshall said. Many of the activities had been experimental and no guidelines existed. The lack of guideance from the executive was a major cause, he said.