November 2024 SRC Wrap-Up
As the academic year begins to come to a close, with students scrambling to their few remaining lectures and preparing to cram for their final exams, you would think we would find a similarly stressed energy in this month’s SRC meeting. Beyond the usual anxieties that plague every university student, these representatives are faced with the looming date of their handover to the 2025 Council, and, with many of the most vocal Office Bearers retiring from Student Politics next year, must try and pass whatever motions they can to secure the futures of their tickets, the SRC, and the student body.
But, far from the arguments and accusations we’ve come to expect from our impassioned councillors, our last meeting of the 2024 Student Representative Council featured three of the most unanimously agreed-upon motions of the last year, and peaceful goodbyes and thank-yous from all sides of the political spectrum.
Our first motion of the night, moved by Left Action’s Brendan Tate, condemned the University’s lack of action on the ongoing cost of living crisis and called for an affordable, not-for-profit canteen to support students. Providing a variety of nutritious and substantial meals at a maximum price of $5, and capping other on-campus meal options at $10, would start to bring UNSW in line with its international counterparts, Councillor Tate explained. This motion was seconded by Environment Officer Gina Elias, who quoted statistics showing the scale of the cost of living crisis, and affirmed that, in a time of record profits for the University, and with inflation continuing to rise, the basic needs of students must be met. General Secretary Paige Sedgwick, speaking across party lines, thanked Tate for putting up the motion and agreed it was not an unrealistic demand of the University. The motion passed unanimously. This is an early execution of the promises to students that helped Tate win the seat of Welfare Officer in the 2025 SRC, and his motion committed the Welfare and Education Collectives to continue to push for these changes in the next academic year.
Councillor Jamie Tyers moved the second motion of the evening, which called for the SRC to oppose the recent wave of staff and course cuts at Australian universities in apprehension of similar cuts at UNSW. Tyers cited 11 universities across the country who, at the time of the motion’s submission, had unveiled staff cuts and course mergers and cuts, including ANU, Wollongong University, UTS, and USYD. He condemned this as a “massive attack” on staff rights, and indicative of the “dire conditions” in the university sector, hidden under the excuse of the international students caps introduced by the Federal government. Proxying for Ethnocultural Officer Diya Sengupta, upcoming 2025 Queer Officer Alyss Cachia expressed her wholehearted endorsement, affirming that the support of the staff was fundamental to the functioning of the university, and that “staff can’t be taken for all they’re worth and given nothing”. Councillor Lachlan Magrath continued this support by turning focus to the Vice-Chancellors of universities across Australia, whose working conditions, and wages, are in a far better state than those of the staff they employ. Magrath asserted that these cuts would continue to widen the gap between staff, who can’t keep up with the cost of living crisis, and the Vice-Chancellors, who have consistently given themselves raises since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his right of reply, Tyers echoed the classically Left Action sentiment of the SRC playing an activist role in opposing these cuts, and President Michael Rahme agreed with the need for “more boots on the ground”. Once again, the motion passed unanimously.
Our final motion of the night concerned an issue that has been at the heart of much of the SRC’s decisions over the last few months. Left Action’s Lachlan Magrath came forward to ask the SRC to oppose the increase in student fees for International Students, which would see course unit fees for international students rise by 7%, for an increase of almost $4000 per year. Magrath once again condemned the Vice-Chancellors, who have “shifted the burden” for the “terrible state of education” onto international students, instead of taking responsibility for budgeting shortfalls. He made clear his opposition to a university run by corporations that “do not give a damn about students” and “do not give a damn about education”, and encouraged other Councillors and Office Bearers to do the same. Tyers spoke in favour of the motion, criticising a university model that “treats international students like cash cows”, and supported the principle that universities should be focused on education, not lining the pockets of executive management. Kuehlmann further suggested that the Australian government should cut fossil fuel subsidies to fund free education for domestic and international students alike. For the third time tonight, the motion passed unanimously.
The time typically dedicated to Office Bearers’ reports was, instead, dedicated to goodbyes from outgoing members of the SRC tonight. Sedgwick began, saying: “Hopefully this is my last meeting for… The rest of my life.”, and acknowledged Kuehlmann and Elias, who had served on the SRC for the same amount of time as Sedgwick, “Whilst we all disagree on a wide range of things, at the end of the day we’re all representing the students who elected us.” Kuehlmann and Elias echoed this sentiment – with Elias cracking her knuckles upon entering the scene, to the amusement of Noise spectators – and celebrated the “historic turn-out” in both election numbers, and in the number of Left Action members elected to SRC in 2025.
Indigenous Officer Brydie Zorz took her time to call attention to the cancellation of the Queensland Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry, recognising the difficult times faced by Indigenous people in Queensland, as they are, “being used as a political football”, and for UNSW students with connections there, it is a “pretty shit time to be honest”. Returning as Indigenous Officer in 2025, she concluded with a “catch you guys next year”. Queer Officer Rebecca Blundell chimed in, “While I didn’t have much to say, it was very entertaining”, with Co-Officer Pepsi, who had also first joined the SRC at the same time as Sedgwick, adding, “Paige forgot me… She forgot [Michael] too.” Paddington Domestic Officer Edward Zhong, who is also returning to his position next year, faced some confusion as to how he should hand-over to himself, and was corrected by Rahme, “Edward, you don’t have to write a piece of paper [to handover] to yourself.”
Rahme himself closed the evening with a thank-you to all of the members of the 2024 SRC, stating, warmly, “I appreciate it so much and I am incredibly grateful, thank you for allowing me to work with you.” Like Sedgwick, Kuehlmann, Elias, Pepsi, and other vocal members, Rahme is not returning for the 2025 SRC. “I am done. I have no choice.” Rahme then concluded, “They’re forcing me out.” He added, jokingly.
I, too, am done. I, too, have no choice. They’re forcing me out.
I’m not joking.
SATIRE
Note from the Noise Editors:
Unfortunately, this will be the last SRC coverage from Alice Thompson. Recent information has come to light implicating her in a heist at Gamamari’s offices, during which she was seen stealing their notes from the September meeting. Thompson has therefore been forcibly removed from any coverage regarding the SRC and locked in the basement of our offices, from where she will continue to write for Noise. Don’t worry, we’ll keep her fed and watered, and we’ll have a shiny new SRC meeting correspondent lined up and ready to go for next year!
