Keegan Wells: Students' Association president on party safety measures

A Coroner says the death of 19 year old Otago University student Sophia Crestani was a preventable tragedy.

She died at an overcrowded flat party on Dundas Street five years ago. 

Coroner Heather Mackenzie is recommending students take better safety measures at large parties. 

Otago University Students' Association president, Keegan Wells, joins Jack Tame with more. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dame and the Courna says the death of nineteen year
old Otago University student Sophia Christani was a preventable tragedy.
She died at an overcrowded flat party on Dundas Street
five years ago, and Corona Heathen Mackenzie's recommending that students
take better safety meets at large parties, while acknowledging the
tenants of the flat known as the manor, took some steps,

(00:21):
just not enough. Ultimately, Otigo University Students Association President Keegan
Wells is with us kelta, should I have it going
very well? Thank you? How much has changed since twenty
nineteen in terms of the safety of students at parties?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I would argue almost everything has changed. I have a
decently unique experience because I was a student back in
twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen, and then the whole world
basically flipped on us during COVID, and we see a
different world that students live in in terms of safety
measures and in terms of size of parties and everything

(00:58):
along those lines.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
One of the coroner's recommendations is that students hosting large
parties should register and monitor numbers on the night. Would
students actually do that.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Students already do that good. One party Register was set
up in twenty eighteen in christ Church and students have
been registering their parties since then. I'm not going to
say that all parties are registered, because that's certainly not
the case. But I think we see a growing attitude
towards compliance. I guess that of students want their fellow

(01:34):
partygoers to be said, because at the end of the day,
they are their friends.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah. The coroner is also suggesting that the Students Association
like better into great information about being safe at parties,
the risks of intoxification, how to safely host parties, and
student orientation and flooding resources. Have you already been doing that?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Maybe not specifically those points, but we have all been
in the business of harm reduction and advocacy for better
times for students, because at the end of the day,
if a party is more safe and everybody's a bit
more informed, it'll be more fun.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah. But do students have an appetite for the safety
message when they're in the middle of O week and
they are looking to party.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Probably not at the forefront of their mind. I would
say there's like ways around it. It's more of a
marketing exercise, right of If you tell a student, hey,
you should probably register your party, they might say why.
But if you say, hey, if you rester your party,
you know, at the end of the year, you get
free pizza and you they're sick, you know. So it's

(02:42):
kind of about the way you frame these messages or giving.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Them the right and end of us. Bose, thanks for
your time, Kegan. That is Kegan Wells, the Otigo University
Students Association president, is just such such a sad story, that,
isn't it before six o'clock on news talks. He'd be
a really interesting message from the Retirement Commissioner who is
trying to encourage housing developers to look at some smaller options.
Of course, so much of housing these days, including high

(03:06):
density housing, is around the three bedroom, four bedroom, even
if it's high density stuff, so townhouses that kind of thing.
But she says we need many more one and two
bedroom houses, especially as our population ages, so that people
who are getting into the latter stages of their life
and are looking to downsize actually have better options than
are currently available. So we're going to catch up with
her very shortly. Next up, though, is the two Billboard

(03:28):
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