Organisers vow to be better prepared in 2010

Bad weather, poor crowd turnouts and the cancellation of events have marred this year's Otago University Students Association Orientation Week, with organisers pledging to be better prepared next year.

OUSA events manager Jen Stokes said she believed the "tent city", where companies and organisations paid to set up on the union lawn to advertise their products and services, had suffered from a downturn in numbers because of the weather.

The annual college sports day, in which traditionally more than 2000 students participate, was cancelled because the grounds were sodden.

And the fresher competition, where 10 students go through a number of daunting tasks in order to win a big prize package, generally had only a small crowd watching each event.

Some events in the fresher competition also had to be cancelled because of bad weather.

Students spoken to at the university yesterday said they had enjoyed the Orientation Week events, although most admitted they had not attended many of the organised events.

The evening music events did, however, prove as popular as ever, with some blaming big nights on them missing out on the daytime action.

Bad weather was also seen by student representatives as a possible cause of the Tuesday night's toga parade descending into disorder.

OUSA president Edwin Darlow said the bad weather and cancellation of events could have been the reason for some of the pent-up energy and frustration shown by participants and bystanders.

Ms Stokes said contingency plans would be made for next year's Orientation Week to allow events to be held indoors if necessary.

• Next week, the second week of Orientation, is traditionally a quieter week as students attend their first lectures and the focus turns to night-time events.