What's it like to a Student Leader?

Reflections from our 2025 AUSA President, Gabriel Boyd.

Leadership is an oxymoron; it means you’re both the most powerful person in the room, and yet you sit to serve your constituents, the power dynamic doing a backflip. 

A day in the life of a student leader in UOA

AUSA is an incredibly weird place, often home to the most idealistic executives who run to fight for the students every single day. Alongside CV builders, these two groups need to figure out how to work in harmony to better the lives of a diverse body of 50,000.

The best metric for judging student leaders is tangible results for students. Excuses are easy to come by in this role, and oftentimes they’re valid. But ultimately, AUSA spends student money every day - on paying the executive and staff and handling operational matters. There has to be something to show for it. While executives often get bogged down in internal affairs that need to be resolved to allow the association to function, it’s their responsibility to bring everyone along for the journey as best they can, and once those matters are sorted, keep working for the students. The cycle is tireless, but the wins should keep morale afloat.

A huge thank you to the AUSA transport working group (Kalana Piramanage, Matthew Lee, and Gabriel Boyd) and our friends at @autstudentassociation 💙🩵 and of course, thank you to everyone who signed the petition - we couldn’t have done this without you!

It’s amazing what we can achieve when we come together as students 🫡

With that in mind, news of our team’s biggest win of 2025 went live the last weekend we were in the office - in a joint campaign alongside AUT, by lobbying local government and UoA constantly, we successfully doubled the student discount on all public transport. This success came from working as a team and treating the University and local authorities as allies, not roadblocks. Students constantly lamented the cost of transport as their biggest obstacle to enjoying the on-campus experience. And our team listened and delivered to alleviate that strain, something which I’m endlessly proud of. 

Throughout my campaign for AUSA, I made loud promises, as did my executive team in their elections. I promised to revive Shadows with live music, publish as much as I legally could publicly to maximize transparency, make food on campus more affordable, and much more, which was dismissed as overly optimistic. Looking back, we achieved just about all of these objectives. 

But not everything went so smoothly. During my tenure at AUSA, I learned that the creation and sharing of sexually explicit deepfakes in New Zealand is not a crime. My WRO and I met with MP Laura McClure to discuss her Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill and how we can raise awareness of this horrific legislative gap. Long story short, this was one of the few campaigns we led that didn’t take off. I shoulder this blame. We should’ve fought harder and louder to right this glaring wrong; I’m still working towards that, meeting with academics in Auckland and joining similar advocacy circles in Australia to keep pushing for the justice that deepfake victims deserve.

I’d also like to give some advice to future student leaders:

"People don’t care about who you are, any petty drama you’re wrapped up in, or fancy committees you sit on. They want to see their lives improved. These students put you in charge, and you need to repay the favor. It’s that simple."

Ciao guys :)

After AUSA, I spent some time in Argentina to refine my Spanish, step back from everything, and reflect. As I contemplate next steps, the whirlwind that was 2025 continues to influence the decisions I make. I worked my ass off not only to serve the students but also to make AUSA as fun and accessible for everyone as possible. Thank you all for standing behind me in my work, and if you decide to run for any upcoming AUSA elections, make sure you buy some heart health medication: you’ll need it.