THE START OF THINGS
OUSA was formed in 1890 by – wouldn’t you know it? – debating students. It was not formed so much because students needed representation and advocacy, as now, but so some order and control could be imposed on the unruly students.
Things had gotten so bad that professors refused to attend graduation ceremonies as they were near riots of students cutting loose. For a few years in the 1890s, graduations were stopped altogether. People who complain about student behaviour today would have lived in a state of constant disgust in the 1880s!
Student levy in 1890 was a shilling.

Annual General Meetings meetings were, again, a little rowdier than equivalent Student General Meetings (SGMs) today. Here’s an excerpt from Sam Elworthy’s history of OUSA (from which the content for this page has been taken), Ritual Songs of Defiance:
“Noisy male students, and occasionally some of the women, packed out the chemistry room and created havoc. In 1903, for example, some students hurled currants and other food and shouted interjections from the back of the room, while the serious senior men attempted to move constitutional movements at the front. A group of law students then turned off the gas, plunging the room into darkness… The Review [the forerunner of Critic] reported ‘the evening’s proceedings… were never monotonous’.
In general, though, the Executive themselves were of the stuffy, more conservative sort.

While 1890s OUSA set about bringing order to students, there were also benefits to be had. In 1891, OUSA took over the Review and the Debating Society and subscriptions to/ membership of these was charged as part of the OUSA levy.
The small dingy room that was used as a student common room (where constant vandalism by students was a problem) was replaced by two larger more comfortable rooms – one for the ladies and one for the men. In 1904, this was replaced by the first ever Student Union building. The building had a large hall, an executive meeting room, men’s and women’s common rooms, dressing rooms and a buffet. It was called the Allen Hall. You may know it in its present incarnation, as a theatre.

THE PROBLEM OF WOMEN
Women were able to enter University from the start in 1871, but the first women did not do so until ten years later. Emily Siedeberg – the first female medical graduate – entered University in 1891 (despite six of the nine male staff opposing her application) and would have pieces of meat thrown at her by her fellow students. The first female graduate was Caroline Freeman, graduating with a BA in 1885.

In OUSA, women were permitted to form a faculty in the same way as other faculties represented on the Executive – but they could only be represented by men. A Miss Polson had this overturned at an SGM in 1894, but the first woman didn’t make it onto the OUSA Executive until 1902.

In 1910, the Ladies Cloakroom was receiving the journal of the English suffragists and women were making their feelings on the subject known in debates – hissing at the male speakers and (on one occasion) giving “an unrequested performance on a pair of castanets”.

In 1914, the first woman elected by general ballot – Dorothea Tucker – was elected onto the Executive as a senior Vice President of the Association.
It wasn't until 1983 the first women OUSA President was elected - Phyllis Comerford.

THE BIG ISSUES OF THEIR TIME
In 1909 a motion was passed at an OUSA AGM by 110 votes to 72 that no liquor be permitted at any function controlled by OUSA or one of its affiliated clubs. Its affiliated clubs at that time included other student faculties – such as the medical, mining and dental faculties – were counted as affiliated clubs. Most of these faculties, such as the Med School, largely ignored this dictum from above, as did everybody associated with the annual Capping concert and the President himself. There was talk for a while of forming a second Students’ Association – one for men only (presumably so they could drink), but it didn’t eventuate.

World Wars One and Two had, as you might expect, a massive effect on the student body. In 1914, the Review encouraged students to join up, accusing those who didn't of cowardice. By 1917, in satisfaction, the Review noted that nobody was left at University who should be at the war. The largest effect of the Second World War, entered by New Zealand in September 1939, was to quell the growing political radicalism that (one might argue) the first world war had set off. According to Sam Elworthy, in 1940 Critic "...asserted that the University should not be "a hide-out for shirkers and pacifists..." Political pages were replaced with social pages and drinking was once again the biggest student occupation bar none.

Capping Shows and the Capping Magazine were ongoing issues. In 1938, a motion was carried by the Student Council to allow women to take part in Capping Shows (it was all blokes, just like Shakespeare in its time...). However, nothing happened in practice. In 1946, 150 women signed a petition demanding their inclusion. The men wanted to protect the women from the riotous and drunken offstage behaviour of the actors. On the last night of the Capping Concert that year, they polled the audience on the concert format - 85% voted in favour of the all-male cast. In 1947, the women staged a 'revue' as part of Capping. They were in. The Capping Magazine became a major issue in the 1980s. In fact, it was standing on an anti-capping magazine platform that saw Phyllis Comerford elected to the OUSA Presidency. A particularly offensive cover depicted a cartoon of a miniature clocktower building between a woman's legs, under the title Thrust. Graffiti on its advertising posters said "this is violent rape". A motion was put to the Student Representative Council to have the magazine disestablished. Instead it was heavily censored (to the point it eventually disappeared completely), and eyes were turned to the drunken loutish behaviour at Capping. To see how successful that particular campaign was, you'll have to help out with a capping concert and find out for yourself!

OUSA Life Members (pdf)
OUSA Executive Members (to come later in year)