WOM*N'S LEADERSHIP IN THE UNION AND BEYOND

Hiya there!

I wrote this blog post on the 3^rd of October- exactly three months since I introduced myself to you via this very blog. Since then, I have been busying myself pouring over facts and figures, researching the Union's history, and talking to as many people as possible regarding wom*n’s involvement and leadership within the Union.

It seems to be that wom*n’s leadership is discussed a lot these days. Companies, charities and political parties are all eager to look like they’re doing something for wom*n. Yet it doesn’t seem to be making much of an impact on younger wom*n; the wom*n who need this encouragement most.

A recent study conducted by the children’s charity Plan found that 1% of Australian girls between 14 and 25 want to go into politics. 49% of the same group think that sexism affects the career path they choose, and half believe that sexist attitudes in Australia are actually increasing.

So why don’t wom*n want to get out there, lead the country and change the world? And since university is a microcosm of the real world, surely we have a duty to change this. To make sure that anybody, of any gender identity feels like they can study what they want, and pursue a career they can be passionate about or even just have fun in whatever hobbies they choose? 

We’re not doing too badly. Wom*n’s participation in the Union has gone from strength to strength over the past few years. Over half of our 11-strong Student Board identify as wom*n, and we have our fourth wom*n-identifying President in a row. Not so long ago, this would have been unthinkable.

The reason that we can be so proud of having so many great wom*n at the top is undoubtedly because of strategies such as Affirmative Action (commonly referred to as AA). AA has been in place in the Board of Director elections since 2007 and our provisions require that 2 out of every 5 candidates elected in an even-ending year, and 3 out of 6 in an odd-ending year be wom*n-identifying. Additionally, half of all editing teams (BULL magazine and Hermes) and all committees (Clubs and Societies and Debates) must be wom*n.

For further info on our AA policy, including when and why it was implemented, please see here: http://usu.edu.au/About-Us/Side-Callouts/About-Us.aspx

Two years ago, these policies were reviewed in what became a landmark of recent Union history: the Affirmative Action (AA) Review. In over 40 pages it handed down 17 recommendations targeted at how we can improve wom*n’s participation in every level of the Union. Amongst other things, it suggested that we implement AA in the Model Constitution of Clubs and Societies. Yet two years on, this still hasn’t been implemented.

So that’s why this Wednesday, 8^th of October, I’m hosting a members’ forum to gather feedback on both broad and specific issues relating to wom*n’s participation and leadership within the University of Sydney community. I want to find out what has changed since 2012, if anything.
I want to hear what you think about wom*n in the arts, clubs and societies, student leadership, representation, what issues we should be addressing to create change and how we communicate our strategies to the broader student community. And the only way I can truly know the state of the Union is to ask YOU.

For the Facebook event, see here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1506167239631134/

The discussion paper, 25 pages of my feminist heart and soul on paper in ink form, is available here:  http://bit.ly/1rJWKYAs

The forum will be held in two parts; autonomous and non-autonomous. The autonomous session will be held at 5pm in The Wom*n’s Room, Level One of Manning House. It is open to all those whom identify as, or whom have lived experience as a wom*n. All who feel they meet that criteria are welcome and the Union does not believe in gender-policing. 

The non-autonomous session will begin at 6.15pm in the McCallum Cullen Room, Holme Building.

For more information please do not hesitate to contact me on k.bullen@usu.edu.au

As usual, I will also be available to chat in the Wom*n’s Room during my consultation hours on Wednesday between 2-4pm.

For more information on the Plan study mentioned earlier, see here: http://www.plan.org.au/Media/Media-Releases/20141001-Growing-sexism-forcing-girls-women-away-from-life-as-leaders-new-survey.aspx

KATE BULLEN

WOM*N'S PORTFOLIO HOLDER - BOARD DIRECTOR

HOW DOES ONE DEVIATE? - VERGE FESTIVAL 2014

Is it how we express the intricacies that define our individuality? Is it embracing the thrilling, indescribable rush you feel as you step out from the crowd? Or is it simply rejecting the accepted norm or standard?

The USU wants to see every student depart from the established course during the biggest arts festival on any University campus – Verge is finally here and it’s going to blow you away.

Kate is excited to DEVIATE!

A LightHaus Opening Party that lets students decorate themselves and each other with neon paint. Australia’s greatest bogan folktale explodes onto stage in ‘Schapelle! The Musical’.

The campus is transformed into a zombie apocalypse for Zedtown: Darkness Falls. Game of Thrones Trivia. The Great USyd Cake-Off. A makeshift arcade. Drag on Campus. Silent Discos.

The list is endless. Our Verge Directors have managed to assemble a jam-packed two weeks that will leave every student making some difficult choices. Forget my degree – even if I fail this semester I couldn’t live with myself if I missed a chance to Lip-Sync for my Life in Manning!

2014 Verge Directors, Kate Spira and Thomas Murphy

 Toby Brennan, a former USU President ran for Board promising to provide Sydney University with its very own arts and culture festival. Now in its twelfth year, Verge has dwarfed expectations and is our most keenly anticipated event for very good reason. I still remember the massive party dome next to the quad last years Directors created, which kept campus going into the wee hours. 

At the end of the day, this festival is all about celebrating the incredible creative arts community we have fostered on campus. As Verge director Thomas explains: “We wanted to ‘deviate’ in terms of the way people think about the arts on campus and that’s why we have encouraged more original student art.”

Our blonde Directors are excited!

At the very least I eagerly await my chance to heckle fellow Board Director/recent campaigning opponent Alisha Aitken-Radburn as she makes her questionable debut as Rene Lawrence.

Please join me and remember to deviate,

LIAM CARRIGAN

BOARD DIRECTOR

WHY WE VALUE STUDENT UNIONISM (AND YOU SHOULD TOO)

This week, the University of Sydney Union passed an important milestone – our largest number of members since the introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU), we are now a community of 16,500 strong. We are a community who attend over 2,000 different events each year, join an average of 3.7 clubs per person and in 2013 saved a total of $471,918 through on-campus discounts alone.

Our ACCESS card casuals

It is difficult, though, as a student in 2014 to conceive of the University of Sydney community as it would have been just eight years ago, prior to the abolition of Compulsory Student Unionism (CSU). Back then, the Union had the financial means to provide 200 additional events per year, dedicated faculty common spaces, more regular publications, and more support to creative and cultural pursuits on campus. 

For many of you, the history lesson will be familiar – in 2006 the Howard Government introduced legislation to ban compulsory membership to student organisations around the country through VSU. At many Universities, student unions ceased operations or were absorbed by University administration – decreasing available services and reducing student control over the services which remained.

In many ways, the worst impacts of VSU on the University of Sydney Union were avoided through the introduction of the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) in October 2011. Under the new regime, universities were able to charge a fee to be allocated to a specified range of student services – many of you probably know it as the bizarre second FEE-HELP form you have to fill in, or the nagging reminders from the University to pay.

The SSAF allows the Union to foster student talents

The SSAF was not, nor has it ever been, intended as a total saviour for student organisations. Each year, the various student organisations on this campus must enter heated negotiations to apply the SSAF funds to the most expansive and most inclusive picture of the student experience conceivable. And that isn’t an easy feat.

In that context, then, calls from two Federal Liberal Party backbenchers this week for the abolition of the SSAF are worrying in light of the Union’s efforts to provide an increasingly more relevant and expansive student experience.

It is tempting to view this issue of student unionism as a squarely partisan debate – of fiscal conservatives waging an ideological war against profligate leftist student Unionists. Indeed, much of the political discourse regarding the SSAF reads like a student politics playbook of the 1970s and 1980s. One can’t help but get the feeling that the grown up student politicians draw some sick satisfaction from reliving the glory days of bitter rivalries on the University of Sydney front lawns. But their nostalgia couldn’t be further from the reality of the experience of students who are today the beneficiaries of the compulsory services fee. Indeed, our student community has a different meaning for the student who seeks out social networks and an inclusive community, for the student who looks to extra-curricular leadership experience as an indispensable necessity in their future career, or for the struggling student who turns to their campus community for welfare and support.

Re O-Day 2014 - an opportunity to join our Clubs & Societies Program

Opponents of compulsory student unionism will claim that those benefits are distinctly individual – and ought properly be subsidised by those to whom they accrue.  One of the Members of Parliament intending to introduce legislation this year to repeal the SSAF has contended that a justification for the Bill is to allow students to “choose the services they want.” The reality, of course, is no real choice at all. Presently, without the resources provided through the SSAF, we would be realistically unable to continue to provide services at their current level. And those decisions – about which clubs don’t get funding next year; which performances no longer get support; which commercial outlets are unviable – are not ones that we ever wish to make. That is the reality of VSU – far from individuals having the agency to define and participate in the student experience they desire, the costs associated with sustaining these critical programs will render them realistically unviable. Worryingly, too, support services for students who experience socio-economic disadvantage don’t fit into the crude market-based calculation of the student experience.

The services of the Union are not, and should never be, valued purely in economic terms. If you asked me to justify, in a strict financial sense, a USU outlet at the Conservatorium of Music, a society based on a sport created in a fantasy novel, a festival dedicated to student art and culture, or a grants system for students wishing to undertake humanitarian work that they are unable to personally finance – I’ll be honest, I would struggle. The Union often supports programs and services based on their contribution to a holistic student experience, not their financial return. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. There is plenty of time for penny-pinching when drab investment banking stalls at careers fairs become an everyday reality – but that certainly isn’t the ethos with which we approach supporting our student community.

The SSAF helps us provide campus spaces, used by many students

Beyond that, every student today has benefitted from the contributions of students prior – who have funded, worked within, refined and developed an infrastructure of student services which may today provide for a growing campus of 52,000 strong. Whatever agency students may have not to join clubs and societies, to never read a student publication, and to avoid all on-campus food and drink services – we cannot escape the contributions of previous students to developing an inclusive and expansive campus; to working with the University to improve student welfare, course and assessment policies and standards; and growing our campus community. Exercising ‘agency’ to avoid financially contributing to that culture is to reap rewards without giving back.

But the Board doesn’t intend to sit around complaining about it either.  We were vindicated this year when a reduction in the price of the ACCESS card increased memberships by more than 12% (a very pleasant surprise). Many of the current Board of Directors were elected on platforms of making the ACCESS card truly accessible to all – in a universal, free format. We remain committed to working towards that ideal. We value the support provided by our 16,500 strong membership to the continuation of this program. 

We look forward to growing it with you into the future,

TIM MATTHEWS

BOARD DIRECTOR