Students chalk the Manawatū campus for Open Day

As potential students toured the Palmerston North campus on Wednesday, chalk on concrete and buildings screamed, “Do not study at Massey”.  

This comes after over 200 courses and staff members have been cut from Massey University since 2023.  

In addition, students are yet to see the university answer their call to take a stance on Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians. Massive revealed in June that the Massey University Foundation has invested $7,105 in Israeli Government Bonds. 

While some of the chalk was left alone, Massive saw that some had been scrubbed away.  

However, the events team placed whiteboards around campus which acknowledged the chalking and allowed the use of free speech. 

One chalk quote took a jab at vice chancellor Jan Thomas by pointing at a drain saying, “Jan’s house”, and another pointed at a rubbish bin and said “Massey”.  

Multiple whiteboards said, “The university has chosen to leave this messaging in place as we value ourselves as an institution that encourages freedom of speech and supports students and staff to think and express themselves freely.” 

The message continued, “Massey reserves the right to remove protest art that causes a health and safety risk, damages property, or causes environmental harm.” 

The Student Action Collective (SAC) led the chalk protesting the night before Open Day.

In a statement they said, “We feel Massey is using PR to spin the reality of the student experience.” 

They felt the university was more dedicated to image than education quality.  

“The whiteboard was a pretty creative and tactical maneuver — whether it was because they simply didn’t have time to wash all of the chalk off or because they wanted to avoid embarrassing themselves”. 

SAC said the university had previously embarrassed itself when at last year's Open Day, students were trespassed for chalking “save our papers” and other slogans around campus.  

“It is dishonest of Massey to say they encourage students and staff to express themselves freely when they have done everything they can to ensure students and staff have as difficult a time as possible being heard about their concerns for the university outside of Open Day.”  

The collective may have been referring to when pro-Palestine protest art was covered in June and was met with student outrage.