Behind the office walls of a student association melt down

Massey's student association is the first to have several resignations, complaints of a toxic culture, a manager suspended, complete loss of funding, and miraculous refunding all in the span of six months. What went wrong? Sammy Carter investigates.  

An unheard-of event in New Zealand student history, a student association is defunded, Facebook fights ensue, staff leave in droves, two sides fight like Romeo and Juliet — But was it for the love of students or their own egos?  

The national student association for Massey, Te Tira Ahu Pae, is funded by students to provide services like clubs, events, advocacy, and media like Massive. But despite being ‘independent’ from the university, when things got too rogue big brother stepped in.  

Right now, elections and appointments have begun for new representatives. But just a few months ago in October, Te Tira Ahu Pae was getting hacked.  

Upon asking both parties — Massey University and Te Tira Ahu Pae — for interviews about what went wrong and how it was made right, I'm rejected and instead sent written statements.  

Back in August, very little was in the public eye. However, a 210-page OIA obtained by students reveals email exchanges between university and Te Tira Ahu Pae staff from August to October.  

In August, the university accused the board of lacking transparency with students, and inaccurate record keeping among other things. Massey asked board members to “step down from their board positions and allow an interim emergency governance committee to be established”. However, the board denied the allegations and refused to step down.  

Massey wanted to tell students what was happening in September, however, the association strongly requested they not.  

A student rep even threatened taking legal action, stating, “The allegations made in your email to the student representatives appear to have not been thoroughly investigated ... If these claims were to be passed on to the student body in their current state, I would have no doubt that the association would be considering legal action regarding defamation.” 

While names are redacted in the emails, job titles are not. One particular email appears to be from the chair of the board, who was, and still is, general president Hennessey Wilson.  

The email addresses complaints made against Wilson — those of which included his own board members describing his behaviour as ‘appalling’ and an abuse of power.  

The email states a hefty promise: "I understand there are concerning allegations and if these complaints are found to have any merit whatsoever I will immediately step down as chair." 

As Wilson remains president and chair of the Board today, Massive asked if there was any merit to the allegations.  

While he did not answer this question, he says, “Following the events of 2024 we acknowledge that our current representation structure is not fit for purpose.”  

“In the meantime, we will be running elections under our current structure to ensure we can continue to provide independent student voice”. 

Back in October, the association cancelled their elections. In a statement they admitted, “Regrettably we have struggled to keep the student body informed as we have navigated the issues of this year, choosing rather to update the students only when we had come to conclusions or ensured all of our ‘ducks were in a row’.”  

Just ten days later on October 18th, an email to Te Tira Ahu Pae staff (including us at Massive) announced that the university would not be entering into a funding agreement for 2025. This was news to us.  

Students were notified that same day, but they didn't have much of a reaction. Particularly compared to those working within Te Tira Ahu Pae.  

Association reps and staff began using the Massey Confessions Facebook page as their battle ground. They fired shots at each other behind a curtain of anonymity, calling themselves ‘rep mole’, ‘ex rep with all the secrets’, and ‘pissed off ex-staff-member'.  

Two weeks after the announcement, student rep Micah Geringer spoke to Radio New Zealand in a live interview, saying Massey was taking away independent student advocacy.  

Geringer was asked: “Do you feel like you’re being almost silenced?”  

“Yeah. Yeah, I’d say that,” he responded.  

Geringer told RNZ the association would not be cooperating with the takeover — suggesting it would try and fund itself. 

The association then created a petition against the defunding, but with 542 signatures it didn’t seem to have much impact.  

That’s not to say Massey students can’t put up a fight when they want to. In comparison, a petition last year to stop the university using online supervised exams got over double the signatures, sitting at 1,219.  

In November, Massey tried to execute their plan to hire association staff to run services under university management, but Te Tira Ahu Pae was not down.  

Tere McGonagle-Daily, deputy vice chancellor tells Massive that the association did not cooperate.  

He says, “Some fixed term positions had ended and we approached those staff about working for the university. We also spoke with permanent staff and Te Tira Ahu Pae management about our desire for a managed transition process, but no agreement was reached on this matter.” 

This attitude worked in Te Tira Ahu Pae’s favour, as it seemingly forced the university to negotiate a funding agreement. But not without conditions.  

A Massey staff member would become the manager of Te Tira Ahu Pae. McGonagle-Daily says, “A Massey University staff member has been seconded to the role of acting general manager of Te Tira Ahu Pae for a fixed period to support the provision of services to students. He has previously been a General Manager for MAWSA and is very familiar with the management of student associations.”   

The man he describes is James Collings, who was previously Massey’s transition and support manager. Ten years ago, he was the manager of MAWSA, the Wellington student association prior to amalgamation.  

The parties also agreed that a ‘caretaker’ board would be in place until elections are done. And likely by the end of this year, a ‘student representation restructuring working group’ will build a new representation model.  

Massive’s line of questioning to Massey often referred to the defunding as a ‘takeover’, however, McGonagle-Daily rejects this title. “Massey did not propose to ‘take over’ Te Tira Ahu Pae. They are a separate entity to the university. There was never any suggestion of taking over Te Tira Ahu Pae assets or staff.”  

With elections started, Massive asked McGonagle-Daily: Has the university gained confidence in Te Tira Ahu Pae governance?  

While his statement does not provide a clear answer, he says, "Massey University remains committed to supporting effective student representation and ensuring services for students continue without disruption.” 

And as we move onto an undisruptive 2025, how can we learn from this whole fiasco?  

On one hand, did Massey bungle the whole thing? On the other hand, did we have a bad bunch of reps that took things down a dark path?  

With the elections bringing through a new group of student reps, hopefully this unheard-of event doesn't become a tale as old as time.