Greens No Supporters Of Academic Freedom

GREENS NO SUPPORTERS OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM

The Green's claim that they are protecting academic freedom is laughable, as their endorsement of forced membership of political student organisations shows that they don't understand or support the concept, Student Choice spokesman Clint Heine said today.

As supporters of compulsory membership of student associations, the Greens are opponents of academic freedom Mr Heine said. "If people have to join a political organisation before they can study, they don't have academic freedom," he said.

"Imagine if every university lecturer had to join say, the National Party, before they could work. The Greens would be in uproar, yet Nandor Tanczos and his party support a regime that forces students to join political groups as a precondition of enrolment," Mr Heine said.

"The Greens support compulsory membership because they know that the system delivers millions of unearned dollars to student politicians, many of whom are Green, Alliance and Labour party activists. Despite the pretence of the government, tertiary institutions and most of the media, these student politicians have no mandate to speak on behalf of all students," Mr Heine said.

If the Greens actually understood academic freedom they would oppose forced membership of political groups at all New Zealand's tertiary institutions Mr Heinehe said.

ENDS

For more information contact:

Clint Heine Spokesman Student Choice NZ 021 122 8544 clint@politician.com

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