Welcome to the end of week five! If you’re just barely going to make it to mid-semester break, here’s the news you might have missed this week.
ANUSA
ANUSA has voted to reaccredit with the National Union of Students, subject to the NUS meeting a number of accountability and transparency KPIs. The KPIs were ostensibly supported by seven other universities across Australia, who together provided approximately 40% of the NUS’s funding. The decision to reacreddit was made at SRC 2 on Tuesday, you can see Observer’s liveblog of the debates at SRC here.
On Thursday, the President of the University of Sydney SRC, Imogen Grant, told Honi Soit that she was unaware of being a signatory, and preferred unconditional accreditation. ANUSA President Eleanor Kay has explained that the KPIs presented to the SRC were drafts, but that she “was under the impression that all the Presidents listed were aware of the KPIs”.
Both the Secretary and Vice President of the International Students’ Department have resigned in the past week. International Officer Mina Kim has stated that these resignations were due to “personal reasons”, not any dispute.
ANUSA passed its yearly budget at the OGM on Thursday. The budget includes $175 000 for clubs, $30 000 for student assistance grants, $113 000 for O-Week, and $600 000 for salaries and wages. Until this point, ANUSA had been operating under a provisional budget, which never technically passed due to last year’s Special General Meeting being inquorate.
ANU Administration
ANU has made sexual assault, sexual harassment, and revenge porn ‘misconduct’ under changes to the Discipline Rule. This allows for the University to directly and internally penalise any student who engages in these behaviours. Complainants may now be informed of the outcome of their complaint at the ANU’s discretion.
An ANU student was removed from a promotional booklet after making statements critical of Australia’s refugee policy in her bio. Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt subsequently stated that he was “disappointed” that this occurred, while the College of Law admitted that it “made a poor call”.
Campus
Chifley library re-opened on Monday. The library had been closed since 25 February after flooding caused extensive damage.
A student protest against cuts to higher education was held at the Pop-Up on Wednesday. The protest was part of a National Day of Action organised by the NUS. Speakers included the ANUSA Indigenous Officer, the Secretary of Unions ACT, and the ACT Greens spokesperson on higher education, among others. The protest was chaired by the NUS LGBTI/Queer* officer, Kim Stern, who had been asked to leave SRC the day before due to not being an ANU student.
Clubs
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association has affiliated with the ANU Clubs Council, with only one objection, and two recorded abstentions.
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