Retailers call for toga ban

OUSA never has automatically paid for damage done during protests, for exactly the reason above - some people would go nuts if they thought they wouldn't be liable for the damage and that OUSA would pick up the tab. Each case is judged on its merits.
In this case there's almost nothing OUSA could have done to predict or stop what happened. The idiots - both students and non-students - who escalated it from a slightly messy fun parade into the stupidity it became should be liable. And should not have OUSA cover for them.
The problems were started by non-participants throwing an unpredictably large amount of nasty stuff at the parade. There was nothing OUSA could have done to predict this. If someone dumped a bucket of unmentionables on me during a parade, I (and most other people) would throw whatever I could find back at them. There was nothing OUSA could have reasonably done to stop this once it started.
They gave it a good try mind: If you see the coverage you'll see exec and events staff forcibly taking eggs off intoxicated bystanders - which is well above their job descriptions. Also they were cleaning the street until the early hours of the morning.
But equally important in this case in deciding who pays, I can not see any reason why the idiots who cracked windows shouldn't face the consequences of their own actions?
As you know OUSA goes to great lengths to represent its members, but representation does not mean paying for member's stupid actions.

Oh absolutely mate, I agree that a degree of personal responsibility should be exercised. OUSAs main job now is to discuss how they can salvage students' reputations from this and on the other hand provide students a decent toga event for O week.
OUSA in the past has taken financial responsibility for student stupidity before, ie, when students cause a little damage during protests. I'm not saying they should in this instance, despite some of the simularities but it is food for thought. How far will OUSA go to represent their members?

Yes, OUSA should indeed be taking some responsibility when their events wrong - even though the problems with the Toga parade were not caused by OUSA's organisation and were beyond their control.
But this does not mean OUSA should be taking financial responsibility for the stupidity of some members' behavior and thus letting those individuals of the hook.
Indeed if they did this would lead to worse behavior issues, as it allows disrespectful individuals to act as they please - without having to worry about the financial consequences. And that's just asking for trouble...

I totally agree that it should be banned. Let's have a poll and see how the results turn out
Serena Weatherall

Students will be students and these acts are commonplace outside the main street of Dunedin. The problem is that putting student hijinks into a public area like George Street is always going to ask for trouble.
As for blaming the student association, its a tough call. But Baxter you have it wrong about individuals being responsible and not OUSA. OUSA is the representative of all students at the University whether they like it or not - so they should be taking an active interest in student activities and taking collective responsibility for when it goes wrong. :)

While there's no excusing the behaviour and that students played a significant role, and I can understand the anger of retailers et al. But the facts need to be calmly examined before wild allegations and threats are tossed about.

Some salient facts seem to be neglected:

• A large amount of the problems were initiated by onlookers, not by the students on the parade. Many of these onlookers were not students.
• I'd also be more than a little annoyed if people threw buckets of various bodily fluids on me during a parade. And I daresay thus somewhat badly behaved.
• Not all students were involved. Indeed many on the parade were surprised and frighted by the attack.
• It was not the organisers who sent masses of students to the event an hour early.
• Organisers for any event can not be liable for people who unexpectedly crash the event and cause havoc.
• Officials from students' associations were cleaning up the mess until the early hours of the morning, despite the majority of it not coming from their parade goers.

So in response to the retailers requests:

Firstly, students' associations can't be liable for the actions of individual idiots. That would simply open the flood gates for more idiots to act as they pleased at such events and simply expect someone else to pay the bill. Simply, the idiots who cracked windows should indeed be responsible, and pay for them themselves and face any appropriate charges.

Secondly, retailers are right though to call for an end to the parade. The parade is not tradition and would not really be missed. While the Toga Party is an old OU tradition, the parade is only a relatively recent addition created, perhaps ironically now, so students could travel in an orderly fashion to the gig's new venue in the city centre (at the behest of the DCC I might point out). Now this gig is no longer in the city centre it is probably largely pointless.

While I doubt circumstance of a cancelled sports day and a a botch up with the times by halls is likely to happen again on the same day, the event now risks growing it's own notoriety like the Undy 500, so ending it in its current format probably is a good idea.

But spouting off and blaming students in general probably isn't.