The last two months as SRC President have been great. This report outlines what I’ve been up to. 

Activism

Invasion Day

I attended the fantastic Invasion Day rally, and assisted the organisers with marshaling on the day. The SRC also did a significant amount of printing to go into building the rally. 

Officebearers + Collectives

I’ve been going to collective meetings where I’m available, and offering support to OBs in their roles. It’s good to see Officebearers getting ready for Welcome Week, which I hope will be an exciting affair where we can get lots of new signups! Congrats to all of the OBs and collective members who have been working hard on publications! They look amazing.

Activist Training Day

In December we ran the Activist Training Day. Thank you to Riley for their fantastic presentation on action media, and all of the Officebearers for their participation throughout the day. If you have any suggestions for further training for OBs and collective members please let me know!

Covid protest fines

Many of the fines given under Covid anti-protest laws were deemed unlawful, and have been returned to the recipients. As the SRC Education officers ran a fundraiser that indicated that any leftover money would be returned to the SRC ‘for future protests’, we have received reimbursements for this. We are currently working out the best way for this to be accessed by student activists, and will pass any policy regarding this at the next council meeting. 

Projects 

New website

The new SRC website is now live! Thank you to SRC Publications managers Amanda and Mickie for all of their work on the site. The site has all of the same important information as the old site, but includes many more functions that will be useful for OBs and students. Over the coming weeks we will be preparing OBs on how they can use the site to its full potential - uploading reports, events, and photos. 

Welcome Week

Preparation for Welcome Week is going smoothly. The General Secretaries have put a lot of work into the tote bags and ensuring everything is ready on time. I can’t wait to get more students active and involved in student unionism! I am speaking at various student welcomes, to let students know about our services and collectives.

Outreach: Newsletter + President Consultation Hours

I’m grouping these together because they’re part of my broader strategy to increase the amount of students engaged and interested in the work of their student union. I’m in the process of putting together a fortnightly newsletter, which will include a short report, featured campaigns, collective events and more. The first newsletter should be sent out in week 1. I’ve organised President Consultation Hours, when any student can drop by the office (or zoom) and raise problems, ideas or projects they’d like the SRC and its officebearers to consider. In Semester 1 these hours will be Monday 11-1 and Wednesday 3-5. I’m available by email anytime, particularly to Officebearers, but these will be times dedicated to meeting with and communicating with students. 

Foodhub

In December, the Vice Presidents and I met with the USU to discuss plans for FoodHub in 2023. We hope that the USU’s support will ensure the hub has adequate funding and resourcing, and that the SRC and SUPRA can play a role in its ongoing success. In a cost of living crisis with inadequate support from the Federal Labor government, students should not be going without food, or struggling to pay rent - and we will continue to push for change on both a federal and state level. 

Office space

I spent some time updating the office space to get ready for the year. The ‘OB room’ has now been updated to reflect the name change, and there is a sign ‘Ish Varlin room’. All OBs have signs for their desks, and the waiting room at the front of the office has updated resources and reading material. The resource space is almost functional, and certainly will be by the time semester begins. 

Base + contestable SSAF application

We have a number of projects that we will be applying for in the SSAF application happening in April. It may appear premature but I’ve started working on these applications. I met with Riki to discuss their report and what SSAF is required to fund an in person election, particularly considering inflation increases. 

Committees and meetings with the University

I’ve attended numerous committee meetings and meetings with the University so far, as a representative of Undergraduate students. In Feb there will be some of the larger committee meetings which have more student reps on them, and I’ve set up pre-committee meetings with students so that we can review the agenda and for students to feel confident speaking up from their positions.

UE Education

• We have been approved in a SSAF infrastructure request to be relocated. I am going to be in ongoing correspondence with the University over where this will be, to secure us the best possible space on campus. Ideally somewhere more accessible and not with mould issues!

Academic Board Undergraduate Studies Committee

• At the first meeting of the Undergraduate Studies Committee some relatively minor course changes were proposed. It was unfortunate to see the effects of Future FASS to units in FASS which justify a need for “sustainability” over education. 

Welcome Week Implementation

• I’ve been to a few of these. The most relevant thing to report is that the Uni is planning a big Welcome to new students on Wednesday Feb 15th, where myself and Weihong (President of SUPRA) will be introducing our student organisations - hopefully to quite a large audience which will boost numbers at our stall!

SLTCP

• I can’t remember what the full acronym means, but this is the meeting where we talk with other student organisations and the Uni about the free trainings they are offering

General SRC work

Casework Selection Committee

Unfortunately we were unable to find a suitable applicant in our first round of interviews, and over the break we have re-advertised the positions. The application closed on Monday, and we are interviewing at the moment. 

Social media intern

The executive has begun the process of getting a selection committee together to hire a social media intern.

Farewell to Lorna

Last week we said farewell to one of our amazing caseworkers, Lorna, who is on leave to work elsewhere for a year. Thank you to Lorna for all of the support and advice you’ve provided students! Best of luck in your new role.

Casework return to office

Casework and policy officers will be working from the office every Tuesday from week 1. We will continue to review this policy, and hope to ensure students are easily able to access the casework service and face to face appointments can return where suitable. 

Other things

Thank you to Tiger for covering as President while I was away for a few days. 

The Executive have been very responsive to circulars, which I greatly appreciate. We are setting a regular exec meeting time, but I don’t currently have one as I write this. 

In December I attended Natcon, and on Thursday 2nd I’m going to Melbourne for the Presidents’ Summit.

Thank you for reading! Make sure you stop by our Welcome Week stall!