Racing With The Reps: May Student Council Meeting Recap
WORDS BY JESSICA ROWE.
Well, the Timekeepers were ready as The Starter called Council members to the starting line and declared the meeting open. On your marks, get set, go!
The first minutes of the race were, of course, filled with reports from each member. Around the first corner of the track athletes moved like they’ve never moved before; moved a motion, that is, which finally afforded Empire Times virtual access to Student Council meetings! The crowd cheered. The Queer Officer expressed his pride for this big win, explaining that he is passionate about transparency and glad that the Council is following through.
This statement was merely a runner’s stretch as the Queer Officer continued to speed ahead with maximum velocity. In fine form, they condemned the University and FUSA for the way that complaints surrounding the treatment of gender diverse people were handled. The Queer Officer referred to a post uploaded to Overheard which highlighted the incredibly outdated section on the University’s website that contained a list of inappropriate terms and fed into expired rhetoric about the LGBTQIA+ community, which General Councillor Lachlan White pointed out had been picked up and turned into a story by The Advertiser.
The Queer Officer explained that when he had previously created a document for the University to update the Queer safety section of the site, he was ghosted and the site was never changed, despite the University having the work completed for 12 months.
After 2 years of being on the Student Council our Queer Officer explains that he still experience deadnaming both within FUSA and on the University system. Sprinting across to the inside lane, the Queer Officer made an emotional plea for action.
The fastest thing on this track, however, appeared to be the AGM Q&A set to be only 5 minutes on the 25th of May from 12pm-1pm. Will the council really be able to increase transparency and involve the student community in such a record time?! Absolute speed demons. But don’t worry, Student Representation and Development Officer Fletcher O’Leary claims he will “filter out the shit-posts.”
There is perhaps something to be said about the turn-out on the tracks this fine evening, as the Mature-Age Students Officer was able to garner the responses of 200 Mature Age Students for her survey which indicated the need for a pop-up mature-age student space in the hub. And in what I think is in very FUSA fashion, I will declare the race, a draw!
Translation
Words by Tahlia Dilberovic
Editor's Note: A special thank you to Editor Jess for filling in for me at the April Student Council meeting, and compliments to her for her well-written account, in which she employed the technical approach so brilliantly that a FUSA staff member insisted it was ghost-written! So, while FUSA don their detective hats and begin tracking our IPs to prove who REALLY wrote the third recap, join us once more as we return for the fourth Student Council Meeting, this time with a twist – we’re virtual, baby!
The 4th Student Council Meeting of 2022 opened at 6:37pm on the 11th of May. As usual, it opened with names, pronouns, and roles. In attendance was the Student President, the General-Secretary, the Education Officer, the Mature Aged Students Officer, the Post-Graduate Students Officer, the Women’s Officer, the Queer Officer, the Social Activities Officer, and the Environment Officer were present, alongside General Councillors Clayton, Jones, Kabiri, Tynan and White.
The Disability Officer, the International Students Officer, the First Nations Student Officer, and the Welfare Officer were all absent. Notably, this marks the 5th meeting in which the Disability Officer has not been present.
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted by the Council, and the Student President provided an update on First Nations matters, as the First Nations Student Officer was on personal leave. Executive decisions were ratified.
The Women’s Officer provided a verbal report and discussed updating the Women’s Room decal to be ‘more inclusive’. The Officer also reported that they had undertaken training in areas that she would not name as they ‘may be triggering’. Empire Times assumes that these trainings relate to Recognising and Responding to Disclosures training, as they also received a last-minute invitation to this session after undisclosed Student Council members did not attend.
General Councillors Tynan and White also provided verbal reports, after which all verbal reports were accepted by the Student Council.
The affiliations of clubs (Flinders University Undead Poet (and Writers) Society and Flinders University Arts Student Association) were moved on bloc and passed.
The Environment Officer, and ET Liaison, then moved a motion to ‘make it official’, providing Empire Times Editors with the title of Official Guests to Student Council meetings, which would entitle the Editors to formal notice of meetings, access to motions and access to the agenda prior to the meeting (if you have been following along, this was revoked in the 2nd Student Council meeting), and allow for virtual attendance. Empire Times would like to extend its thanks to the ET Liaison, and General Councillor White who initially introduced a motion to this effect, for supporting our fight for greater transparency and accessibility. It took six months, but we got there folks!
Moving along, attention turned to the Mature Aged Students Officer, who spoke to the importance of introducing a formalised way of providing feedback to FUSA staff members – a much needed motion that will hopefully go a long way in improving the sustainability of our student association.
The Queer Officer then provided some much-needed context for a discussion that occurred on Overheard a few weeks ago regarding transphobic university policies and conduct. He stated that he had several meetings with the former Pride Ally network about the list of slurs published on the University’s website and claimed that he had created an alternate document with language replacements that was never uploaded.
The Queer Officer continued onto their second motion of the night, which discussed dead-naming, stating that ‘social transition is enough’. Councillor Jones spoke to their own experiences with this at Flinders University, and the Queer Officer asked, ‘how are we meant to make things better for the outside, when it's still horrible on the inside?’. The Queer Officer’s supporting report indicates that this criticism extends to their experiences as part of Student Council.
The floor returned to the Mature Aged Students Officer who discussed the need for a pop-up mature aged students' space in the hub, after her survey garnered 200 responses.
Attention then shifted to the Post-Graduate Students Officer who discussed financial grants for post-grad students, speaking to the exploitation, and criminally low stipends, many students face. She suggests a survey to further engage with the student body and their needs.
The audio cut out for a second, and when we resumed, Councillor Tynan was speaking to the creation of a native garden in the space near McHugh’s. Councillor Kabiri referred to a mysterious ‘session we had before the meeting’ and mentioned the need for more First Nations input into the plan. The Student President addressed this concern and offered her support to the gardens, stating that Yungorrendi would be consulted. The Environment Officer endorsed the idea.
We then moved onto matters for discussion. The Post-Graduate Student Officer expressed the stance that the university is not doing enough to safeguard mental health. She indicated plans to compel lecturers to become mental health first aid qualified, despite the Dean of Post-Graduate Studies indicating that such a proposal would not receive widespread support amongst overworked staff (in a precarious field, outside the scope of their employment). The Post-Graduate Student Officer pushed on regardless, and suggested a campaign along the lines of ‘have you checked your students are ok?’. The General-Secretary, and prior holder of the position, stated that she struggled to get the former Dean to acknowledge there was a mental health crisis taking place among post-graduate students.
The General Secretary then spoke to the issue of placement costs for paramedic students. An incredibly timely topic. If you are interested in hearing from some of Flinders’ paramedic students, see our article ‘A Consultation with Flinders’ Paramedics’ in Issue 2 of Empire Times.
We then moved onto matters for noting. The Student President noted that National Reconciliation Week is on the horizon and provided an account of the 1996 Referendum before asking that Student Council do further research on this and related matters.
Attention then turned to the matter of the Annual General Meeting taking place on the 25th of May. We cannot empathise enough how important it is that you attend this, folks. An AGM gives you a chance to learn what your student association is up to, and speak to your student reps. There will also be free food and giveaways.
Quite notably, at this AGM constitutional amendments will be taking place, with a newly proposed Student Council position being voted on. Make sure you have an active say in the future of your organisation. ET will see you there!
The Queer Officer raised a final concern with the proposed Q&A portion of the AGM. He questioned why Student Council were not consulted before this portion was advertised and who would facilitate it. The Student Representation and Development Officer, Fletcher O’Leary, explained that it will only be five minutes long (Yay for active student involvement!) and will be facilitated by himself, who will also choose which questions get to be asked (yay for transparency!).
The meeting concluded with a discussion around future team-building events for Student Council and closed at 8:06pm. Contrary to Editor Jess’s speedy analogy, this is actually the longest Student Council Meeting yet, folks!
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2022.