University of Western Australia Student Guild

The UWA Student Guild is the official student representative body at the University of Western Australia, representing the interests of students to the university, government and the wider community, as well as providing services to students. The Guild's published mission is to be Western Australia's leading campus student representative organisation.

Background

The UWA Student Guild is the premier student representative body at the University of Western Australia. The vision of the UWA Student Guild is to be Australia's leading campus student representative organisation.

The Guild provides a number of services, and is instrumental in promoting and sustaining student life on campus. The Guild runs a number of activities including Prosh, Orientation Day (O-Day), End of Semester Shows and other major campus events. Guild Departments and Subsidiary Councils run other events, such as Multicultural Week and Spring Feast (run by the International Student Services department), Club Carnival (run by the Societies Council) and the PAC Pop-Up series of performances (run by the Public Affairs Council).

The Guild also supports and assists a network of more than 100 affiliated clubs and societies on campus, catering to a very wide range of interests (religious, theatrical, cultural etc.). The Guild also runs the majority catering outlets on campus, including the Tavern, as well as a second-hand bookshop and a volunteering centre. The Guild's Student Centre provides one-on-one academic advocacy, as well as financial counselling and interest-free loans.

Guild Council is the overall governing body of the Guild and consists of 20 voting members democratically elected at the annual Guild elections. The current Guild President is Lizzy O'Shea, who took office on 1 December 2014.

Former Guild Presidents include notable figures such as former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, former federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley and former Health Minister and Attorney General of Western Australia Jim McGinty.^[1]

Annual elections

Student representatives are elected to their positions by students in annual elections held in September. Elections are conducted by the Western Australian Electoral Commission. Both independent and party candidates run in the elections, with the historical bias leaning towards grouped members becoming elected. Elected office bearers take office as of 1 December in the year they are elected.

The 2013 Elections took place from 22 to 25 September 2014, and were for the 102nd Guild Council. Five parties contested the 2014 elections: S.T.A.R., Liberty, Left Action, Dave Party and The Students' Alliance, as well as a number of independents.^[2]

Missing Money

In May 2014 the Guild hired audit and tax firm BDO to investigate financial irregularities in the Guild, which found about $870,000 had been misappropriated from the Guild's account.^[3]

Based on the initial findings of that investigation, a staff member was dismissed for serious misconduct. In early 2015 the Managing Director Wayne Howells was also asked to leave his post.

Guild structure

The Guild is administered by a council of student representatives elected for one-year terms at the annual elections. There are twenty voting members of council, and several more non-voting members. Members may hold a voting and a non-voting role concurrently. Unlike some other campus unions, there is no financial compensation for student representatives, with the exception of the President who works at the Guild full-time during his/her term. The following list shows the Councillors and Officer Bearers elected at the 2014 Guild Elections (with the exception of the Vice President, Chair and Secretary of the Guild who were elected at the first Council meeting on December 1, 2014):^[4]

References