UOA moves to axe Craccum budget by 22% in 2026, ranking them worst in New Zealand for Student Media funding

Well, it looks like we're cooked, or rather, 2026's Editorial Team will be.

Today, The University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau launched their Compulsory Student Services Fee (CSSF) consultation, revealing their proposed allocation of the money collected from everyone's compulsory student fees.

Yk how most papers are worth 15 points, but some are 30 and some 7.5 or some other value? Well, those points aren't arbitrary. They dictate how much money the Uni will collect from you (aka your Student Loan).

In 2026, they will charge $9.56 per point. Which means if you're taking 120 points, they will charge you $1,147.20 in fees. Btw, this is going up $38.4 per student from what you're being charged right now.

All up, they plan to collect about $48.1 million from us in 2026. And what do they do with it? This...

There's a lot to unpack here, but see that tiny orange sliver marked Media? That's us. We're allocated 0.4% of the fees you pay the university. (And UOA Scientific, shout out!). Here's how that $125k allocated to Media is going to be broken down.

Before 2025, UOA used to give Craccum over $150k, which was topped up by AUSA. But in 2025, together with UOA's cuts and AUSA's top-up disappearing, has effectively halved Craccum's funding.

This is why we're only putting out 10 print issues in 2025 instead of our usual 24 per annum (which has been the standard since 1969). This is why we can only hire 6 paid staff positions instead of 2024's 14 paid positions. This is why our dedicated Te Ao Māori and Pasifika Editors were not offered as paid positions in 2025.

On top of that, UOA wants to axe a further 22% of Craccum's funding...

$33,000 is a lot of money. If we were given an additional 33k of funding, we could pay for 6 more print issues or offer 6 more paid positions (10 hours weekly at minimum wage). Instead, the University proposes to take this away from you. Fewer opportunities for young journalists at UOA. Craccum stands will be empty for months at a time.

It's not just about money. It's about ethics. In 2024, about ~90% of the content Craccum put out, it paid its creators to make! In 2025, with a Thanos-snapped budget, ~90% of our content is made by volunteers. Unpaid student labour! This is an increasingly unethical proposition to make in a cost-of-living crisis in a city as unaffordable to live in as Auckland.

What will happen in 2026? UOA students will be paying for the privilege of volunteering at their student magazine run by a skeleton crew of maybe even just 1 or 2 editors??? At this rate, will Craccum even live to see its centenary in 2027? We might even have to start renting out the Craccum office just to get by.

UOA constantly brags about its rankings, best in NZ for this or that. Well, for funding their Student Media, the University of Auckland is the lowest-ranked University in Aotearoa, New Zealand! Here's the Craccum Official Student Media Funding Rankings:

1st - 5% at The University of Canterbury

2nd - 4% at The University of Waikato

3rd - 2.1% at Victoria University of Wellington

4th - 2% at Otago University

5th - 2% at Massey University

6th - 1% at AUT

7th - 0.4% at The University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau

I guess UOA is the top ranking for least valuing student voice? I don't believe them when they cut our budget like this and then claim they value "a strong student voice". Do you? Our voice is being strangled!

When we emailed the University for comment about the budget cuts and what could be done about them, they said that the only way we students can do anything about them is by filling in the CSSF 2026 consultation survey, which is open for just the next 10 days.

So if you care about Craccum, see Student Journalism as an important contribution to UOA's student culture and want to do your part to preserve this taonga, then please fill in a response to the CSSF survey urging the University to reverse the proposed budget cuts and increase funding to Craccum.

SAY NO TO CRACCUM'S BUDGET BEING CUT HERE

Submissions close Sunday, 24th August!

Please repost and share the message with others! Urge your friends to fill in the survey too. There's something in it for you too, if you enter, you go in the draw to win 1 of 20 x $100 Prezzy Cards.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE YOU CAN DO TO HELP SAVE CRACCUM!

Craccum doesn't have a seat at the table where these budget decisions are made. We weren't consulted about any of these cuts, and we can't make submissions regarding our own budget. AUSA has complete control of our finances. But you know who can help us? The Student Consultative Group (SCG)

I've made an easy spam link so you can email everyone on the SCG to urge them to reverse the Craccum budget cuts and restore funding to the pre-2025 level ($150k).

Click here to use Gmail to spam the SCG

Here is the auto-generated email content if you need to copy and paste:

Mailing List

j.tomov@auckland.ac.nz,
b.fedrizzi@auckland.ac.nz,
b.mosely@auckland.ac.nz,
c.fletcher@auckland.ac.nz,
d.hayward@auckland.ac.nz,
jodie.peterson@auckland.ac.nz,
j.culley@auckland.ac.nz,
president@ausa.org.nz,
pgevp@ausa.org.nz,
ugevp@ausa.org.nz,
envp@ausa.org.nz,
welfare@ausa.org.nz,
fovp@ausa.org.nz,
pgso@ausa.org.nz,
iso@ausa.org.nz,
mso@ausa.org.nz,
piso@ausa.org.nz,
christine.quinn@auckland.ac.nz,
w.verschaeren@auckland.ac.nz,
v.watson@auckland.ac.nz,
int-questions@auckland.ac.nz,
katlego.molibeli@auckland.ac.nz,
kate.sommers@auckland.ac.nz,
wairemana.phillips@auckland.ac.nz

Subject: Request to Restore Craccum Funding in 2026 CSSF Allocation

Body:

Kia ora Student Consultative Group,

I’m writing to oppose the proposal to reduce Craccum’s 2026 allocation to $117k and to request that it be restored to at least $150k.

Craccum currently receives just 0.4% of the CSSF, even as the levy will rise to $9.56 per point (about $1,147 for a full‑time student). In 2025, cuts halved our operating funding — dropping output from 24 to 10 print issues and reducing paid student roles from 14 to 6, including the loss of dedicated Te Ao Māori and Pasifika editors.

The proposed further 22% cut would remove another $33k — the equivalent of six more print issues or six 10‑hour paid student roles — at a time when demand remains high and pick‑up rates are near 100%.

Craccum is a 98‑year‑old taonga, central to student voice, accountability, and campus culture. This modest restoration in funding is a small share of the ~$48.1m CSSF but would have an outsized impact on student journalism, representation, and training opportunities.

Thank you for considering this request.

Your Name

Student ID

Feel free to make your own custom email btw, but I just thought this would be convenient for you to use as a template 🙂 Thank you for your support!