Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association

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WUSA

University of Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association
Student Control of Student Affairs!
Country	Australia
Affiliation	NUS
Office location	Building 11, Wollongong Campus
Website	http://wusa.uow.edu.au

The University of Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association (known as WUSA, formerly "University of Wollongong Students Association" and its governing body, the "Students' Representative Council") is the representative organisation for students at the University of Wollongong. The Association is an unincorporated body that has departments that work within the University to achieve practical outcomes for students, as well as ensuring that both the University and federal government of Australia are held to account regarding the management of student issues. WUSA also provides advocacy and welfare services for students on campus.

WUSA is affiliated to the National Union of Students (Australia) and has participated in national campaigns including the fight against upfront course fees, Voluntary Student Unionism and the struggle to reinstate free Higher Education in Australia. WUSA has also called upon the national body and other student organistaions to support its local causes in the past. In a city like Wollongong, notorious for pollution and other heavy industry-related health problems, WUSA has always been at the forefront of campus environmentalism in Australia.

The Association provides funding to student collectives that are designed to promote both student and wider social issues. These include education, queer rights, women's rights, anti-racism initiatives, media production, and environmentalism. The Students' Association also publishes the student magazine Tertangala.

[edit] Activist history

Over more than 34 years, WUSA has co-ordinated many student protests and political campaigns. In 1995, 2000 University of Wollongong students occupied the campus Administration building to protest the introduction of degree fees. In 1997 students and SRC representatives again participated in an occupation, this time at the University of Technology Sydney campus in a successful campaign to prevent the introduction of full fee degrees at that institution. WUSA students and staff also participated in the campaign to prevent the introduction of full fee degrees at the University of Western Sydney in 1998.

In 2006 the WUSA President, Jess Moore, received a phone call from police, informing her that she was under investigation for her activism on campus. The investigation made national ^[1] and international news ^[2].

The University of Wollongong student body has long held the reputation of being "the most left-wing campus in the country". It is no coincidence that the flag of the Australian Communist Party was flown on the University's Foundation Day.

[edit] National Anti-VSU Campaign

During 1999 UOW and other NSW students stormed NSW Liberal Party Head Quarters on a National Day of Action called by the National Union of Students and demanded an end to proposed VSU legislation. The legislation was withdrawn, but introduced again and passed in 2006 when the Coalition Government secured the support of Family First Senator Stephen Fielding in the Australian Senate.

[edit] Aboriginal Tent Faculty

In protest against the axing of the Aboriginal Health Course, the SRC and the Education Action Collective convened and ran a campaign with local aboriginal, academic and student support, involving frequent protests and NUS NSW state-wide support. This resulted in the University Council overturning the Vice Chancellor's decision to drop the course. The Vice-Chancellor subsequently agreed to funding for a new Aboriginal Education Centre, which now overlooks the McKinnon lawn, the former site of the Tent Faculty. The term "Tent Faculty" was chosen as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with the Aboriginal tent embassies present across Australia, wherever indigenous people are struggling for the recognition of their rights - the most prominent being the national Aboriginal Tent Embassy erected in Canberra.

[edit] Queer Space

In 1998 the first temporary Queer Space had been agreed to in negotiations with the campus' first elected Sexuality Officer, the Vice Chancellor and the UniCentre General Manager, opening for use in 1999. The space was later closed and relocated after the demolition of the UniBar building. The new site was deemed inappropriate by the Allsorts Queer Collective (the university club for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender and queer students on campus) and a new campaign was launched by Media Officer Annaleise Constable during 2004-5. This campaign progressed from collecting signatures in petitions to an occupation of University space - queer students claimed a room as a symbolic Queer Space and refused to leave that room until their demands for a new, and more appropriate, queer space were met.^[3] In 2005 the Faculty of Arts offered Allsorts space on the ground floor of Building 19 to serve as the new Queer Space.

[edit] Council Elections

The WUSA Council consists of 15 Office Bearers and 14 General Representatives, all elected in annual elections. The Indigenous Students' Representative is elected by the autonomous Indigenous Collective.

[edit] The 1997 Election

The WUSA council elected in 1996 for the 1997 term included a number of left-wing student activists, who later became notable community leaders and policy makers. Under the leadership of Carol Berry, who served as President, the "Dream Team" ran for election on an anarchist-left platform, defeating their opponents, the Labor students and Democratic Socialist Party activists, with 85% of the primary vote. The mandate of their victory ensured an explosion of student activism on campus, and a record number of campaigns run by WUSA.

The radicalism of the University of Wollongong student body under Berry's Presidency had a national political reputation, with the result that the WUSA executive came under the scrutiny of Australian secret service agents posted to campus to monitor their activities. The activists of the Dream Team have since pursued influential positions in Australian public life. Phil Hutcheon, the Activities Officer of the 1997 WUSA Executive, is now the Vice President and London CEO of Modular Recordings, the label responsible for Wolfmother.

[edit] The 2006 Elections

In the 2006 WUSA elections, the broad-left/activist ticket Grassroots won a majority of the Office Bearer positions on the WUSA Council and several General Representative positions ^[4], while the presidency was won by the SCORE ticket.

[edit] The 2007 Elections

The 2007 WUSA elections saw the 'DIVERSITY' ticket win the positions of President, Secretary, Treasurer, and nine other positions. The 'Ignite' ticket achieved the election of twelve representatives. Of the remaining three positions, two were elected from the 'International Students Group', one from 'Engineers 4 WUSA' and one from the BALLS ticket. The Indigenous Representative was autonomously elected by students from Woolyungah Indigenous Centre.

The 2007 WUSA election was notable for the diverse range of student interests represented and a growth in the number of candidates who stood for election, despite expectations of decline as a result of VSU.

[edit] The 2008 Council

At the May 6th 2008 Annual General Meeting, a motion was passed by the constitutionally required 2/3rds majority to remove Chris Pettett from the position of WUSA President. ^[5]

[edit] Current Council Representatives

[edit] Past WUSA Presidents

Right to left: Deputy Vice-Chancellor Peter Robinson, WUSA President Kane Gleeson, conservative columnist Piers Akerman, Simon Zulian. May 1999. Picture by Ken Robinson - Illawarra Mercury.

• 1994 Peter Knox
• 1995 Jo Kowalczyk
• 1996 Laura Wilson
• 1997 Carol Berry
• 1998 Erin Cahill
• 1999 Kane Gleeson
• 2000 Nadine Torney
• 2001 John Finlayson
• 2002 Amanda Craig
• 2003 Michael Szafraniec
• 2004 Michael Szafraniec#, Ben Jones
• 2005 Ben Coughlin
• 2006 Jess Moore
• 2007 Elizabeth Larbalestier
• 2008 Chris Pettett+

(# = resigned, + = dismissed, @ = acting/interim)

[edit] National Union of Students

[edit] Notes