Investigation Confirms Save Our Clubs Concerns: Students “May never have been told” About VUWSA Proposal

Press Release – Save Our Clubs VUW

An investigation by Victoria University of Wellington’s student magazine Salient has confirmed the central concerns raised by the Save Our Clubs campaign, about a proposal to transfer student club administration from the University to the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) had the campaign not launched.

The investigation, authored by Editor-in-Chief Phoebe Robertson, concludes that it “remains unclear when, or if, students would have been formally notified about the proposal had the Save Our Clubs campaign not brought it into wider attention.”

The investigation also independently confirmed a number of points. The full proposal has not been publicly released; Salient requested it and VUWSA declined. No financial modelling, budget breakdown, or cost projections for the proposal are publicly available. VUWSA confirmed to Salient that it is not currently undertaking formal consultation with clubs on the proposed change in administration. Clubs have not been publicly consulted on a potential transfer of administration since 2018.

Polling conducted by Salient found that 95 percent of students polled said VUWSA should be more transparent about the proposal, 86 percent said they do not understand what is going on with the proposal, and 18 percent had already seen material from the Save Our Clubs campaign.

Arie Joe, Spokesperson for Save Our Clubs, said the Salient investigation validates concerns the campaign has raised since its launch in March.

“Salient has now done the work that VUWSA and the University should have done themselves. Its findings confirm there is a formal proposal underway, with significant implications for clubs, and that it is being developed behind closed doors without consultation,” Arie Joe said.

“The most important single line in the entire report is Salient’s own observation that clubs may never have been told about this proposal had Save Our Clubs not launched. That is an extraordinary conclusion for a student publication to reach about its own students’ association. It should be a wake up call to every member of VUWSA.”

Arie Joe emphasised that the campaign is not opposed to VUWSA as an organisation.

“Save Our Clubs is not against VUWSA. VUWSA plays an important role in student advocacy and representation, and that role matters. What we oppose is this specific proposal. VUWSA says it is ‘for students, by students’, but a student association that genuinely lived by that principle would have consulted clubs before designing a proposal, not after.”

“VUWSA is spending considerable time and resources on a closed-door restructure most students have not even heard of, and which has already been rejected multiple times. At what point does it stop pushing this proposal and start focusing on the issues students actually care about?”

“Students deserve better than a proposal they have to find out about from an opposition campaign.”

Save Our Clubs launched in late March 2026 in response to discussions between VUWSA and Victoria University of Wellington concerning the transfer of administration of non-sports clubs and societies from University Recreation Wellington (UniRec) to VUWSA.

The current proposal would see non-sports clubs and societies affiliate with VUWSA as their primary administrative body, while sports clubs would remain under UniRec. Full details of the proposal have not been publicly released.

The Save Our Clubs campaign opposes the transfer and is calling for any proposal to be subject to formal public consultation with clubs and, in the event of any outsourcing of club administration, an open competitive tender process.

ENDS

Media contact: [email protected]