It was the opposite of airing your dirty laundry. When Dunedin City Councillor Jo Galer beamed into this week’s council meeting from abroad, it appeared to be from a bathroom strewn with what the English would call “smalls” drying. If this was Cr Galer making a statement on transparency she has yet to share her thoughts on it. We expect she will be disappointed her earnest commentary on local government amalgamation was not what some people watching were paying attention to. In her comments she was critical of councils’ spending on hobby horses, frivolous and grandiose projects. Little did she realise she was about to become the focus of some frivolity in the form of comments about her setting. As well as the drying smalls display, as her contribution continued, a dark figure could be seen moving behind a frosted glass door behind her, prompting questions about whether there was someone locked in a shower or even someone being held hostage there. Cr Galer may be shocked this gaffe has become international news, but it could have been quickly avoided. When Cr Galer first joined the meeting, Mayor Sophie Barker suggested she might want to move her camera because her washing could be seen. Cr Galer was not bothered about it and continued, although we note in a later appearance the background seemed to have changed. As an experienced communications practitioner, we are surprised Cr Galer had not taken the precaution of blurring or changing her background. Since Cr Russell Lund was also zooming in from Scotland, was he the dark figure, and if they were both in the same place, why not use the same room? Cr Galer has previously said they are very good friends. They seem to be in lockstep when it comes to council issues, releasing joint opinion pieces and statements and appearing in advertisements together. Do they think the public would be shocked if it turns out they are travelling together? It is not the first time domesticity has been on display at a DCC meeting. In 2020 Cr David Benson-Pope was seen wielding a feather duster while wearing shorts, a situation he described as being caught with his pants down. Perhaps Cr Galer could make the most of her newfound fame by sharing her top travel laundry tips. University attendance woes Low attendance at University of Otago lectures is understandably causing some concern. It seems attendances have not bounced back since the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, a situation experienced by other universities and tertiary educators here and abroad. While an academic has described the Otago situation as a crisis, this has not been the official view of the university, even though the level of attendance for some courses is as low as 30%. It has been pointed out multiple studies link higher attendance with better marks, progression and engagement. Attending university in person must also allow for greater opportunity to meet and debate issues with peers, to share ideas and develop students’ thinking, along with their social skills. It is always easy to suggest the problem is that students not attending are simply too lazy to get out of bed, particularly on these cold mornings. While that may be the case for some, the whole picture is likely to be more complicated. As Otago University Students Association president Daniel Leamy says, illnesses, work commitments for those who are increasingly struggling to make ends meet, and the difficulty some with disabilities have physically attending are all factors. Some are blaming the drop-off in attendance on compulsory lecture recording policy, something which is to be reviewed at the beginning of next year. One of the suggestions is that there could be a requirement students attend more than 60% of their studies. This has been tried in other places for specific courses, but RNZ reports when it was tried at Victoria University it met with pushback and was dropped. This is not likely to be an easily resolved situation, but any decisions made about addressing it will need to be informed by reliable information about reasons for non-attendance.
