Epic O-Week despite “practically zero budget”

A water slide, free stuff, sumo wrestling, inflatable basketball hoops, and live music made for a sick O-Week at the Manawatū campus.  

Despite Massey’s recent budget cuts due to an estimated $41 million deficit for 2024, O-Week continued over the past two weeks. 

Bachelor of Business director, Angela Feekery, said budget cuts had affected their O-Week, saying they were unable to put on more events or activities. 

“But the goodwill of the staff have made the events somewhat good, considering that there is practically zero budget this O-Week”. 

She was impressed by student engagement at the Business Ignite event, saying around double the amount of those who RSVP'd showed up.  

“Students were really interactive, engaging, connecting with each other and learning.” 

Carnival Day on Tuesday saw students trying all the activities provided, including inflatable basketball hoops, inflatable darts and sumo wrestling.  

Caption: Sumo wrestling at the Manawatū campus carnival. Photo / Izza Atif

Accounting student, Danielle Brown said this year’s O-Week was much more fun than last years and had more fun stalls. 

Another student expressed their excitement for the water slide that was over at the Oval and was thankful they brought extra clothes.    

Fresher Science student, Kezia Toga said her favourite thing about O-Week was all the free stuff. 

Live music played at the Carnival by two local bands, Side-Quest and Car Crash Emy, introduced by Manawatū’s Radio Control. 

First year Jono Boyd said the campus tours and labs were intriguing and met various people that were in his classes.  

Wendy Carr, general manager of the student association (Te Tira Ahu Pae) said, “I felt the students really enjoyed their O-Week, especially since we got far more staff involved.”  

Ronica Sami, student development coordinator said, “Students were engaged, there were more events than last year, I could not keep myself away from the pizza.”