$40k for 4-page booze study

Vanessa Reddy. Photo / Otago Daily Times

A Student Association staffer received more than $40,000 funding to spend a year travelling the world researching student drinking habits - then delivered a four-and-a-half page report on her findings.

One of her key recommendations was that the university schedule more Friday morning lectures, to dissuade students from getting boozed on Thursdays.

Otago University Students Association events manager Vanessa Reddy spent most of 2009 on her tour of dozens of US universities, to develop a 40-point drinking plan.

Prompted by high-profile problems with student drunkenness in Dunedin, the university, city council and students' association all chipped in towards Reddy's costs, according to student magazine Critic. The association also paid Reddy five hours' wages a week so she could help her temporary replacement from afar.

Chris Laing, the Otago regional president of Act on campus and a Dunedin ratepayer, said the trip appeared to be a waste of money.

"It seems we have organisations that say 'we're going to be sending people on a $40,000 trip overseas to do sweet f*** all," he said.

Act finance spokesman Sir Roger Douglas, whose private member's bill to end compulsory student unionism is before a parliamentary select committee, was not surprised by the trip.

"We have a problem in this country with the level of public expenditure," he said.

"When it's your money you'd be cautious, but local governments and universities are spending someone else's money," he said.

A leaked copy of Reddy's report contains recommendations, including more lectures on Fridays, tidy houses, and higher alcohol prices.

Reddy did not return calls this week. But students' association president Harriet Geoghegan said the trip was part of staff development. "It's not an outrageous amount of money," she said.

Geoghegan said Reddy had planned to study at the University of Maryland and write an academic paper on student drinking: "But she had a working visa, rather than an education visa, so that never happened."

She said the association would not lobby for more classes on Friday mornings. "Of the 40 suggestions we've had from Vanessa, some are ripped from other campuses, and others we might want to actually apply."

An Otago University spokes-woman said the university had set up an alcohol taskforce. "Vanessa Reddy's input from her US trip will be considered by the taskforce, and recommendations may be implemented." The spokeswoman refused to say whether she thought the trip was value for money.

Meanwhile, Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin said he had nothing to do with the council funding for Reddy's trip and that Reddy herself acknowledged some of her recommendations were "off the planet". However, he said the trip had some value.