Student Council Safari: A Recap Of The Recent Student Council Meeting
BY JESSICA ROWE.
One fine evening, editors Tahlia and Jess decided to put on their safari hats and enter the jungle that is student politics. They anticipated what they thought would be a ‘wild’ adventure, but what they were met with was a herd bound by passivity - a gathering with no sudden movements.
We met at the waterhole to observe the rare beings that are our student council office-bearers - some stayed reserved with tired eyes after a busy day of getting familiar with their new roles, others giggled and small-talked their way through the awkward pre-meeting interactions. What we assumed was an awkwardness that would only stay during the foreplay, lingered throughout the entire mating ritual. Out of all the creatures at this waterhole, it was easy to spot the rainbow fish. The one office-bearer who is not part of the Activate faction, is hard to miss, not because of any kind of opposition, but his bold accessory choices of a briefcase and cap. Let’s hope that our Unite member’s assertive presentation assists him in balancing out an all-Activate council.
In order not to disturb the office-bearers in their natural habitat, Jess goes into mum-mode and reminds Tahlia to put her phone on silent. But not even all the fretting and pandering from Jess could stop a certain office-bearer from scrolling on Instagram throughout the entirety of the meeting. Looks like this jungle isn’t interesting enough for some restless officers, despite how many times the unfamiliarity of the processes were highlighted throughout the meeting, they’d rather be up in the canopies. Perhaps they’re looking to see how full the water holes are over in Uni SA territory.
Tahlia and Jess were very surprised, and even a little coy when they found out that this was to be an interactive safari experience. Invited to introduce ourselves and our pronouns, we were happy to finally make ourselves known to the council, putting some faces to the excessive emails looming in their inboxes. ET thanks the office-bearer who swung us the vine.
It was, after-all, a rather underwhelming sightseeing adventure, a few motions were passed to move motions to confirm the moving of motions to ratify said motions. We don’t mean to make a commotion, and clearly neither do our student council, who voted unanimously on every decision without much discussion. A smart move from Unite’s brief-case-bearer as he nominated himself into an antler-butting battle with numerous other councillors, for the chance to be on a panel to select a new member after a recent resignation. But no matter how big the antlers of a brief-case-bearing boy, 20 antlers are stronger than 2, and there will be no Unite member on the panel.
The progress of one election promise was so briefly mentioned we needed our tacky zebra-print binoculars to see. We are talking about autonomous voting, the slow progress towards which ET hopes to cover and recount in issue 2 (assuming the piece doesn’t get held up any longer). The President’s vague report has left us no clearer on an actionable plan to make it happen. It was explained that the council are in correspondence with the NUS First Nations Officer to discuss “how to go about” implementing autonomous voting. We hope that these discussions lead to results by the next election.
Some news that ET was happy to hear about as a publication was that a new media assistant will be hired by FUSA. This will support our mission in increasing the transparency of the student council and help us become bigger and better as a magazine. A sprout of hope in an overworked herd at FUSA.
With new regulations that were moved in this very meeting regarding attendance, we hope that we can continue to observe our student council through a range of different lenses. For now, we’ll put our binoculars away, take off our safari hats, and start setting up camp in the FUSA office as we await our next adventure.
TRANSLATION(by Tahlia Dilberovic)
On Wednesday the 16th of February at 6:30pm, Eds Tahlia and Jess braved the staircases of the Registry building and settled in to observe our first student council meeting.
The Student President, General Secretary, Education Officer, Environment Officer, First Nations Student Officer, Social Activities Officer, Women’s Officer, Welfare Officer, and General Councillor Lachlan White were present in person, with the Mature-Age Students Officer and General Councillor Lucas Clayton joining us online
General Councillors Caitlin Fenwick, Riley Jones and Sharleen Kabiri, the Postgraduate Students Officer, the Disabilities Officer, the International Students Officer and the Queer Officer were not present. The Student Council received the resignation of a General Councillor prior to the meeting, and the general vacancy process has begun to fill this position.
The meeting began with an Acknowledgement of Country, followed by pronoun disclosure. The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted by the Student Council, and decisions ratified (the content of these previous meetings and decisions were not elaborated on).
The Student President and the First Nations Student Officer briefly discussed the progress they had made since the last meeting – notably a travel plan to visit other Flinders campuses to investigate how autonomous voting could possibly be implemented. The First Nations Student Officer also reported that they had been in discussion with the National Union of Students’ First Nations Officer to gain perspective on how other campuses approach autonomous voting. As ET understands it, Flinders’ own Indigenous Student Association (FISA) has not yet been consulted.
20 minutes into the meeting, the agenda turned towards new business, with the Women’s Officer, Education Officer, and General Councillor Lachlan White submitting verbal reports of their progress.
Following this, there was mention of a new Media Officer being hired (ET rejoiced), and the General Secretary spoke to her motion regarding the appointment of 1 Council Member to the Club Pool Funding Subcommittee. The First Nations Student Officer nominated herself and was appointed.
Attention returned to the issue of filling the role of General Councillor via a casual vacancy panel. FUSA regulations stipulate a range of representational requirements for the makeup of the panel, and in this meeting, the Student Council determined the 2 additional council members that would take part in the process. The First Nations Student Officer and General Councillor Lachlan White nominated themselves, while the Environment Officer was nominated by a fellow member. The First Nations Students Officer and the Environment Officer were appointed to said panel, following an email vote (to which one staff member quipped about the Student Council finally answering emails in a timely manner - ET laughs).
Attention then moved to a motion regarding new and improved club regulations. However, the motion was not read aloud before being voted on. The Council then moved to a motion regarding support for a wage theft campaign, followed closely by a motion regarding affordable student accommodation. Both motions passed with little discussion.
The Welfare Officer’s motion regarding the Religious Discrimination Bill generated the most discussion of the evening, with the Officer describing it as ‘yikes’, which was seconded by General Councillor Lachlan White’s condemnation of the ‘disgusting bill’.
With that, all matters for decision had been discussed, with one final matter up for noting regarding virtual attendance of meetings (which apparently had not been discussed throughout the course of the worldwide pandemic we are currently in the midst of). The notion was not read aloud, and the meeting concluded shortly after at 7:39pm. At this current time, ET has been denied access to attend the next student council meeting virtually, at the discretion of the chair.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2022.