Massey University Students' Association publications

This is a collection of the newspapers, magazines and informational publications published by the Massey University Students' Association (MUSA) and its predecessor, the Massey Agricultural College Students' Association (MACOSA). 

Some of the main publications are:

The Bleat (1931-1968)

This publication was initially called The Bleat. It started out being the college yearbook and provided an overview of student life and achievement at the college for the year that had passed. In later years, the character of Bleat (as it became known) changed and it became solely a literary magazine.

Chaff (1934-2011)

This student newspaper was created by the Massey Agricultural College Students' Association in 1934 and published regularly to bring news to the students. During World War Two the name of the newspaper was altered for a time to the Horse's Neck.

After university status was attained in 1964, Chaff continued to serve as the mouthpiece of the Massey University Students' Association. When the university established campuses in Auckland and Wellington in the 1990s, Chaff remained the newspaper of Manawatū campus students while each of the other campuses published their own student publication.

In 2012 the three campuses' student publications joined forces and were replaced by the university-wide or cross-campus student publication, Massive.

Masskerade (1938-1985)

Massey's capping or rag magazine, Masskerade, was first published by the students' association in 1938. Sales of the magazine were introduced during capping parade, Procesh, in 1939 to bolster the funds raised for charity. Masskerade initially consisted of the programme of events (such as the revue), with pages of jokes on either side of the programme.

As time progressed, the magazine became increasingly explicit, challenging the boundaries of social norms. This trend reached its zenith in the late 1960s to early 1970s - the 1969 issue of Masskerade, for example, was declared indecent in the hands of those under 16 years.

In subsequent years the contents of the magazine was toned down, somewhat. Publication of Masskerade ceased in 1985 and the last Procesh was held in 1988.

Orientation handbook (1950s-present)

This handbook provided a guide to events during orientation and information on services offered by the students' association and also general information on student life at Massey University and about Palmerston North. Our holdings range from 1953 to 2009, but are incomplete.

From 1992 the guide was occasionally split into two publications – an orientation programme that provided information on the events, and a handbook for first year students that provided information on MUSA and university life. Occasionally these were combined again into a single publication (for example in 1995 and 2005).

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