By Eliza Croft, Taz Hudson and Skanda Panditharatne
Elections for the Postgraduate and Research Students’ Association (PARSA) concluded today. Both major tickets – Vision for ANUSA and Empower ANUSA – ran on broadly similar policy platforms. Vision ultimately swept President, Vice-President, and 17 of the other 25 positions on the Postgraduate Representative Committee (PRC).
Zyl Hovenga-Wauchope (Vision) won President 496 votes to 403, with running mate Sahar Latheef, winning out against Michel Wilson and Stephan Modest, from Empower, respectively. Hovenga-Wauchope was also elected after preferences to the University Council as the postgraduate representative. The University Council governs ANU, making policy and appointing the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor.
Vision has won 8 out of 11 Portfolio Officer positions, while Empower won two. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer position received no nominations. The successful candidate for Portfolio Officer positions are as follows:
- Coursework: Rittwick Visen (Vision)
- Disabilities: Peter Park (Empower)
- Queer: Ruixin (Alex) Yang (Vision)
- Education: Zoe Tulip (Vision)
- Environment: Lilu Moala (Vision)
- Social: Veli Buti (Vision)
- Women’s: Felippa (Pippa) Amanta (Vision)
- International Students: Yuan Chai (Vision)
- Equity: Bernard Cielo II (Vision)
- Higher Degree Research: Mita Anggaryani (Empower)
Vision won 9 of the 14 College Officer positions, with Empower winning five. Due to the requirement to have one Officer each from Higher Degree Research (HDR) and Coursework, several positions were elected unopposed, which are marked with an asterisk below. Two College of Science (HDR) representatives were elected as no Coursework candidate ran. The successful candidates for College Officer were:
- CAP – Coursework: Milena Soares (Vision)
- CAP – HDR: Andree Surianta (Vision)*
- CBE – Coursework: Yaowen Cai (Empower)
- CBE – HDR: Yingnan Shi (Vision)*
- CECS – Coursework: Roc Chen (Vision)
- CECS – HDR: Ankita Gagrani (Vision)
- CoS – HDR: Andrew Almonte (Vision)*
- CoS – HDR: Jessica Hargreaves (Empower)*
- CHM – Coursework: Emily Sisson (Empower)
- CHM – HDR: Rebecca Lawrence (Empower)*
- CASS – Coursework: Conrad Maclean (Empower)*
- CASS – HDR: Katie Cox (Vision)*
- CoL – Coursework: Chris Skoglund (Vision)
- CoL – HDR: Kate Falconer (Vision)*
Five candidates were elected unopposed to the PARSA Board. There are eight positions on the Board, so three will be filled through a casual vacancy process. 2019 will be the first year of the PARSA Board’s existence as a separate entity from the PRC, after significant changes to the Association’s structure. The Board will be the governing body of PARSA, as opposed to the PRC which will have an operational purpose. Current President Alyssa Shaw was one of those elected to the Board. She will be working with Chris Wilson, who resigned his position as PARSA General Secretary amid controversy earlier this year. Those elected unopposed were:
- Alyssa Shaw
- Chris Wilson
- Julian Widdup
- Binota Dhamai
- Leonard Low
All elected representatives will begin their roles in six weeks’ time.
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