By CATHY ARONSON
HAMILTON - Waikato University's student union faces bank foreclosure two years after it became the first in the country to introduce voluntary membership.
Foreclosure would make it the first university union to close.
Waikato has been running at a loss since it ended compulsory membership in 1998, a year before the National-led Government made university union memberships voluntary unless students voted otherwise.
Union vice-president Mecina Stanbury said that if Waikato students did not vote back compulsory membership at the end of the year, the union would have to sell its assets to pay off a $295,000 loan.
Union accountant Kerryn Dunlop said that without the money from compulsory membership fees, the union had lost more than $300,000 in the past two years and expected to lose a further $145,000 this year.
It had enough equity to last only another year before being declared bankrupt.
National Bank spokeswoman Cynthia Brophy said the bank would not consider foreclosure until all other avenues had been explored.
"We will look at the solution that is in the interest of both parties. We don't go down that path lightly."
Ms Stanbury said Waikato University's student services had been contracted out so that the union could not earn revenue like Auckland University's student union, the only other university with voluntary membership.
Since becoming voluntary in 1998,Waikato's assets had been "cannibalised" and its student voice had become "impotent," she said.
The union had had to sell its radio station, TV station and four buildings just to stay afloat. It had only six buildings left and needed to get a second mortgage to pay off debts.
"We have been on a slippery slide downhill since we became voluntary and this will be a do-or-die vote. It will be a very sad day if we become the only university to lose its student voice," she said.
NZ University Students Association co-president Sam Huggard said Waikato's problem started with past union executives who were "right-wing, free-market advocates."
"Other university unions have used Waikato as a good case study of the extreme ramifications of voluntary membership."
He said students had to pay someone for services but it was better to choose an autonomous student voice rather than university bureaucracy.
Student body faces doom as cash runs out
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