Student representatives on the University of Otago council have questioned the motives behind continuing the campus-wide alcohol ban after the Rugby World Cup.
New vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne has moved quickly to make her mark at the university and her recommendation to implement an alcohol on campus statute was unanimously adopted at her first council meeting in charge.
Council student representative Jonathan Rowe asked whether a booze ban, introduced by the Dunedin City Council for the Rugby World Cup, had been used by the university as an opportunity to promote a wider agenda against alcohol.
The statute did not have an end date and it was unclear whether it would extend indefinitely, Mr Rowe said.
"Has there been long-standing concerns about alcohol on campus, or has the World Cup been the chance for the university to bring this in?" Prof Hayne said it was a combination of both factors.
She admitted there had been "long-standing concerns" about the consumption of alcohol on campus grounds, especially when it concerned the congregation of groups of people.
The implementation of the campus-wide liquor ban followed a measure first recommended by the university's alcohol issues task force - a policy review group she had chaired under the leadership of former vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg.
"I was incredibly surprised it was allowed in the first place," she said in relation to concerns about "open bottles" on campus.
The city council had asked the university to implement its World Cup liquor ban on campus, but the intention was for it "to be a permanent state of affairs", she told council members.
