Week 6, Semester 1, 2026

I wish a happy Easter and Pesach next week to all those who celebrate, and I also hope for a restful mid-
semester break for all students! March has been a busy month for myself and the SRC, but we have
some good outcomes to show for it. 

Our 2026 influenza vaccination program was launched last week and already over 50% of spots have
been filled! We are thrilled to see that students are taking steps to look after their health and their
community, and that the SRC’s new vaccination scheme is popular. Students have already expressed
great appreciation for the vaccinations being free, open to international students, and accessible across
three USyd campuses. Check out our Instagram posts for more information and the sign-up link! 

This past weekend, the SRC took part in various community and activist events necessary to respond to
current problems of our world and to fight for young people’s lives to be better. This included the letter-
writing event and fundraiser for a student going on the next Global Sumud Flotilla, Trans Day of Visibility,
the Palm Sunday Rally for refugees and against war, and Yom Al-Ard (Palestinian Land Day). I was
pleased to have chaired the Palm Sunday rally where I was able to talk to the experiences of young
people in a broken world, and to specific issues like the recent graduate visa fee hike which leaves
international students treated even more like cash-cows and a burden. 

There are lots of things coming up after the break – make sure to stay up to date with Honi and our new
SRC newsletter, which you can sign up to via our website. 

In solidarity,
Grace

Week 5, Semester 1, 2026

Welcome to Week 5! 

This is the fourth year in a row that the Autonomous Collective Against Racism and SRC have hosted Israeli Apartheid Week on campus, which I am very proud to have been a part of since 2024. From 21–30 March 2026 there will be events and stalls focused on the global theme of “Palestine Frees Us All,” looking more specifically at our local USyd context about boycotts and divestments at universities, and also coinciding with the launch of ACAR Honi Soit this Wednesday! Check out the full program on our Instagram.

Last week, I spent a lot of time doing the back end side of the President role – going to the bank, going through the audit of our 2025 expenditure, brainstorming with staff in the March committee meeting, tying up some loose ends of our SRC Enterprise Agreement, and working on our 2025 SSAF Acquittal. It’s not so glamorous, but very important. 

I also went to the March Senate meeting with student leaders from the USU, SUPRA and Sydney Uni Sport to answer questions from the Senate fellows about our organisations, our achievements, and improving the student experience. I made the case for increasing support of our SRC Legal department and particularly emphasising that students need safe and affordable student housing provided by the University. After a few months of me bringing this up at every possible meeting with the University Executive, they have indicated that an announcement about the future of International House will be out soon. The SRC and students must be part of these conversations to make sure that the housing the University provides is both the right quality and quantity and provides safety and community for students, not solely a bed to sleep on and a roof over their head. I also gave some input into the University’s AI Strategic Direction and its ethical responsibilities, which I will speak more about soon. 

Our vaccination dates and sign-ups will hopefully be out by the time you are reading this. Make sure to register soon and keep an eye out for a human-sized syringe costume floating around campus in coming weeks…

Also, be sure to check out and submit your expression of interest for Students 4 BDS on page 22. Students are mobilising around apartheid divestment campaigns against the USU, and it’s an opportunity for new and experienced activists alike to get involved.

In solidarity,
Grace

Week 4, Semester 1, 2026

Last week saw the Nationwide Student Strike for Palestine, which was a huge success! I dedicated some time to flyering and talking to students, trying to create an SRC all-in building day, and importantly creating an infographic with FAQs about protest and this rally so that all students felt informed and empowered to go. 

Over in Brisbane/Meanjin, two students were arrested over the phrase “from the river to the sea” after the Queensland government passed new legislation banning it. This is abhorrent and a cruel reminder of the political reality that we are in and fighting against.

This cannot be our new normal, and we need more students involved through the SRC and Students for Palestine. We are stronger together.

In the background, are some important tasks and campaigns: 

• Working on drafting and collaborating on long overdue policies for the SRC 
• Fine-tuning the vaccination scheme sign up form and promotional materials
• Working with ISOs on launching and organising our SRC document translation service 
• Working with caseworkers and Safer Communities on feedback and strengthening new university sexual harm and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention policy and procedures
• Working on 2025 SSAF Acquittal to account for all of our spending
• Continued work with On the House to install two period product dispensers on campus  
• Preparing to present and answer questions at the March Senate meeting about ‘student experience’ and the amazing work the SRC does

I raised some important student issues in recent committees:

• Long wait times for Business and Engineering faculty academic integrity cases from 2025 which creates issues for re-enrolment 
• The changes needed from university leadership to implement and advance the Disability and Inclusion Action Plan
• The future of International House and University-owned accommodation 
• The over-enrolment of students and use of non-classroom spaces

There’s lots happening, make sure to keep up to date and involved!

Thank you. 

Week 3, Semester 1, 2026

Welcome to Week 3! Last week saw the SUPRA x SRC x Student Life ‘Welcome Fair’ in the Great Hall which was a great success and offered a model of orientation activities that are student-led, more intimate, and less corporatised. We will work to bring this back in Semester 2 for you! We also had our March SRC meeting for councillors and office-bearers. The coverage of this by Honi Soit will be out soon and the minutes on our website ASAP.

This week, importantly, is the NATIONWIDE STUDENT STRIKE FOR PALESTINE! Join us on Eastern Avenue at 1pm on Wednesday 11 March before we march to Town Hall to meet up with other university student contingents. Our peers in Gaza have no universities left, and it is our duty to fight for them and to fight against the complicity of our own university. 

A current challenge I am navigating with the SRC is political freedoms on campus and restrictive university policies. We have long decried the Campus Access Policy 2024 and ‘five key policies’ implemented in 2025. We now see how they are being enforced to stifle and restrict student organising. An important protest against the war on Iran was told it was ‘unacceptable’ because they notified the University half a day late about it, despite the University admitting they were aware due to online and physical posters. A planned stall for this past Monday to hand out SRC tote bags and build the student strike was automatically rejected since it was not submitted for approval a week in advance. The University should not be deeming – arbitrarily, at that – what is ‘acceptable’ or ‘approved’ based on policies brought in after the 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment to quell dissent. 

You can, and should, get involved with the campaigns to fight these injustices through our student-run SRC collectives. Check out our website and social media for more details about how to get involved and updates on these existential issues threatening all that the SRC does and stands for. 

In Solidarity, 
Grace

Week 2, Semester 1, 2026

Although it is Week 2, welcome activities are still continuing and I encourage you to check them out to find all the resources you need and all the ways to get involved with campus life and organising. This week, the SRC took part in the Welcome Fair in the Great Hall put on by SUPRA, and hopefully you will see us handing out more of our 2026 SRC tote bags! 

Despite all the fun of the start of a new semester, there are unfortunately ever-more problems in our society that are intimately affecting students.
That is why the SRC must be a political space, and why we need students to get involved. Israel and the US’ illegal attack on Iran has caused the deaths of many school children and continues to wreak havoc and fear across the Middle East, during the month of Ramadan at that. 

The first world leader to speak up in support of this imperialist aggression was our own, Anthony Albanese, from the so-called ‘socialist left’ of the Australian Labor Party. 

This same Labor Party continues to crackdown on protest and free speech, which has made its way onto our university campuses and manifested in intimidatory surveillance and unfair restriction of Palestine-related activities.  

All of the challenges that students face – housing, cost-of-living, crushing international student fees and HECs debts, institutional racism and bad university governance – are political and tied up with these larger issues. 

You can, and should, get involved with the campaigns to fight these injustices through our student-run SRC collectives. Check out our website and social media for more details about how to get involved. 

On a lighter note, I am writing this report while watching the AFC Women’s Asia Cup. Up the Tillies.
- Grace

Week 1, Semester 1, 2026

Welcome to, or back to, university! My name is Grace Street and I am the President of the SRC, your undergraduate student union. This is just a short weekly report, please find others with lots more detail on our SRC website and Instagram!

It has been a pleasure for me to present or to host SRC stalls at so many welcome events, including the Scholarships, International Students, Gadigal Centre, ADP, Engineering, and the Con Welcomes for new students. Make sure to get one of our beautiful new SRC tote bags for this year which were designed by one of our USyd students, Krystal Dallinger-Simpson, with the inclusion of Gadigal language from Aunty Nadeena Dixon. 
So far, this year has required a lot of organising and political actions around the undemocratic anti-protest laws rushed through by NSW Premier Chris Minns. The SRC has supported these actions, including for the third year in a row running a ‘cool-down station’ at the beginning of the Invasion Day march. Two weeks ago we saw the amazing people-powered protest against Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who has been found to have incited genocide, across the continent. Sydney’s protest was itself peaceful and legal, but the kettling and lack of exits from police made it dangerous and led to violence. 

As part of our ongoing campaign around sexual and gender-based violence on campus as well as the elitism and sexism of the Residential Colleges, WoCo hosted its annual ‘Abolish the Colleges’ protest on Friday which I was very proud to speak at. Students for Palestine held their first meet & greet and rally for the year, ahead of the next National Student Strike on 11 March 2026. 

Make sure to sign up to our new SRC newsletter!

In solidarity,
Grace

December 2025

Happy holidays and happy new year to all! This is Grace – your SRC President for 2026. I’m very honoured to be in this role following our big election in September 2025, and am very excited for the year ahead. 

The SRC doesn’t normally do reports outside of the university semesters but it’s something I wanted to pursue since I have now been the President for almost a month and so much happens during the holiday period that can otherwise be missed or unaccounted for – as you will see below! The SRC is the undergraduate student union at USyd and also has a larger role to play in our larger society and communities, so you should know what we’re getting up to.

The first month of my term really ended up only being three (big) weeks before the break and mostly taken up by our successful SRC Induction Week and the National Union of Students (NUS) National Conference in regional Victoria, but here are some of the things I can update you on for now. 

The most important and pressing thing, of course, has been responding to the mass shooting of a Jewish holiday event in Bondi on Sunday 14 December. I worked with other SRC Office-Bearers to develop a statement to offer our condolences to the victims and to firmly condemn this act of antisemitic hatred and violence. We shared information and resources about planned vigils and support services, including for affected students who were still yet to sit exams and submit final assignments. 

Unfortunately, what should have been a time for mourning and caring for our communities has been used as an excuse to push through anti-protest laws in NSW and to implement more recommendations from Jillian Segal’s report. This already has had severe consequences for free speech and academic freedom, the right to protest, and the human responsibility to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Universities like ours will suffer under the implementation of recommendations such as the adoption of the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism, issuing "report cards,” and the threatened reduction of funding found to be in breach of the new standards. 

Even more cynically, the Albanese government and governor general Sam Mostyn think that inviting the genocidal Israeli President Isaac Herzog is appropriate and something that will promote ‘social cohesion’. As put succinctly by APAN, “President Herzog is not a symbolic or ceremonial figure. As Israel’s head of state throughout its genocidal assault on Gaza, he has made public statements widely condemned as genocidal intent, including asserting that an ‘entire nation’ bears responsibility and that ‘there are no innocent civilians in Gaza’”.

The road ahead looks long, but it has brought together many people and groups to fight for their rights. We need more people to get involved, to show up to important events like the Invasion Day protest on January 26, and to keep an eye out for information around the planned visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

On the academic and wellbeing side of things, I attended my first committee meetings of my term – the Education & Studies Committee and Academic Board – where I spoke to:

• The importance of fixing the Special Consideration and other systems before even entertaining the idea of reducing 5-day simple extensions;

• Crucial points from our caseworkers about a necessary review of the Appeals Panel and how long it’s taking to process complaints while leaving students in limbo, and about collaboration to increase awareness of our SRC services and to work to combat the prevalence of third-party companies helping students with appeals;

• The idea of adding ‘low attendance’ as a risk-indicator in the Support for Students Policy, due to an increasing number of students facing Absent Fails despite completing all of the coursework due to a lack of awareness or reminders about course attendance requirements.

In the SRC, we had a great week of induction events and training sessions put together by our staff. There was near-perfect attendance of Office Bearers and Honi Soit to the general induction day that got us largely set up for the year in terms of Welcome Week plans, schedules for autonomous editions of Honi Soit, and rough timelines for collective weeks. 

In preparation for Welcome Week and other welcome events, most things are already underway and we hope you’re getting excited. I have been focused on a few key items, events, and connections such as:

• A fresh new batch of our famous custom gel pens, with our contact details and new logo;

• Commissioning a new design for our 2026 SRC tote bags by one of our USyd students;

• Confirming attendance for the scholarship and international student welcomes in early February;

• Confirming the SRC + Honi Soit hub and seven stalls for our SRC collectives for the USU Welcome Fest from February 18 - 20 February;

• Booking in an SRC, Honi Soit, and SRC Casework & Legal stalls with SUPRA for the ‘Welcome Fair’ on Tuesday 3 March in the Great Hall;

• Promoting the pitch forms for our annual SRC publications created for and by students;

• Talking with the Department of Education’s Gender-Based Violence regulator and the National Student Ombudsman about attending the aforementioned event;

• Communication with the Gadigal Centre about the SRC attending and supporting some of their welcome events. 

There are a number of other projects going on in the background to support students, such as:

• The Canteen Working Group and its plans for a new canteen with cheap meals on campus, in addition to spreading meal options more around campus(es), as they are currently confined to the South end of the Camperdown campus; 

• Speaking to Australian Vaccination Services about our vaccination scheme for 2026, given the preliminary green-light of my application for the SRC to offer $35,000 worth of influenza vaccinations to undergraduate students;

• The NUS National Conference was a tiring week but fruitful in terms of important motions regarding Palestine, the USyd Residential Colleges, and other campaigns that the 2026 NUS will seek to collaborate with us on.

There’s more to report on but I will spare you the details for now while most projects are still underway or yet to be fully approved, but hopefully that means I’ll be back with a full report for January – see you then!

In solidarity,

Grace