Distance students call for SGM to enforce code of conduct against co-presidents

An emergency special general meeting (SGM) of Massey@Distance (M@D) has been called by distance students to discuss the conduct and performance of the current co-presidents. 

A conditional code of conduct will be presented at the meeting for co-presidents to sign. Alongside this will be an open letter of resignation of the presidents, and the meeting will immediately go to a vote of dismissal for the co-presidents if they refuse to sign the code of conduct. In the case of dismissal, the next highest-ranking board member would be appointed as acting president. Since there’s currently only one other board member left following the resignation of the rest of their board members, it’s likely that spot would go to Upper North Island Representative Sean Cardiff, who wasn’t formally elected by students but rather won the seat after David McNab declined the spot after winning the election.  

The open letter was put forward by five students, three who work within the association or volunteer for M@D and two otherwise engaged students. According to the M@D constitution, an emergency SGM can be called by a notice in writing copied in an email to all members of the Board of Directors and supported by at least five financial members, either Student or Associate. Essentially, any five distance students can call for an SGM at any given time.  

Distance Co-Presidents’ Jacalyn Clare and Jax Watt say they have not been given a copy of the conditional code of conduct, but M@D recently voted in a new code of conduct only a few weeks ago. Previously there had been no board-approved policies when they took the position of co-presidents. 

“This is part of the large complex issues related to three board members resigning after they received a disciplinary email about their practices within the association not reflecting the constitution, laws of the land, or standard practice. It is an ongoing serious matter within the association,” they say. 

The co-presidents say that despite the ongoing issues, they have the full support of the other three Massey student associations, as well as the New Zealand University Students’ Association and Massey University. 

“This support from five separate external parties, telling us that not only are we correct in the approaches we are taking but, as they have all stated to us, that they feel the actions being taken against us are unfair and unfounded.” 

They say that since becoming co-presidents, they have made many changes to bring the association back into compliance and standard practice. “We have introduced a new board of directors onboarding process and introduced an association code of conduct. We are now working on a financial policy for the association and a sexual harm policy.”

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30pm on 19 May and has forced the postponement of another SGM which was originally scheduled in May by the M@D board.