Sorry to those that got a post by email with no story at the weekend – I tried to change the font but mucked up the code. Hopefully it should be fixed now. If not, I’ll call in the experts.

1. MIT’s Great Scholarship Story A 19 year old-man turned up to MIT with a 19 year old scholarship certificate recently. It turns out he was given it as a newborn as part of MIT’s 21st birthday celebrations in 1991. Great story – you should read it.
2. Whitireia’s Missing  Students Assn $$ I wrote a post on Saturday about an alleged $750,000 going missing from the Whitireia Independent Students’ Association – the post is interesting, but there are some good comments, including from one person who is obviously an insider and has shared more info. The post was based on this Dominion Post story, and there was also a TV3 story. It’s a mess and the story will go on for many months.
3. Microsoft Partnership Canterbury Uni has signed a major partnership deal with Microsoft - looks like a good relationship is developing.
4. PM and Minister Visits The PM opened EIT’s Trade Training Centre on Friday. Anne Tolley, Minister of Education, visited NorthTec and congratulated Youth Guarantee students on their work.
5. Health Research Otago Uni research shows that people are living longer, but better-off people are increasing lifespan at a faster rate than those with low incomes. A related lobbying-focused release argues that banning tobacco sales would help to close the gap between Maori and non-Maori lifespans.
6. Car Crash A CPIT student died in a car crash last Thursday and it seems that other students may have been involved in the crash too.
7. Bacon WelTec hosted the NZ bacon competition on Friday, but also apparently got a protest as well. I know one of the judges, who was very much looking forward to the bacon.
8. Preventing Abuse Lesley Elliott, the mother of Sophie Elliott, who was murdered by a nutter who was also her tutor at the University of Otago, thinks that the Uni’s proposed new policy on staff:student relationships has not gone far enough. Lesley Elliott is also setting up the Sophie Elliott Foundation for Young Women to help save young women from abuse – good on her.
9. Short Bits SIT student Natalie Wiegersma is heading off to the Commonwealth Games. Gisborne students have been checking out traditional Maori games. Some Maori tertiary educators have warned that performance funding will scare providers off enrolling Maori students. Some TWOA students from Marlborough are going to participate in a Nelson attempt to have the biggest haka ever. Otago Poly sports turf students are keen to get their hands on the new stadium’s turf. Student parties in Riccarton, Chch, are getting out of control according to the police. NMIT chefs have some chickpea recipes. OUSA has named its top supervisors.
10. Paperless Council Otago Poly is taking its Council paperless, with no more printed agendas and papers.