Adelaide Student Politics

Before I go any further with the current affairs, it'd probably be a good idea to give some impression of the structure of the current Board. This will cover (roughly) the factions that are in place, as well as the more important offices that they hold on Board. I'll leave the more obscure ones out for now. I might write them up one night if I'm desparate to get to sleep or something.

Firstly, there is El interim Presidente, Ms Lavinia Emmett-Gray. Lavinia ran for the last election as an independent, but she's got strong ties with the Labor left, as represented in Adelaide student hackdom by Activate. A distinct possibility for President for the rest of the year.

From here, I'll go by rough factions, starting with Activate, as they house Emilio Roberts. Emilio was chosen as Vice Pres by the Board in October, and due to some weirdness in terms (apparently the President's office only rolls over as of the new year, unlike the rest of the Board, which changed in September) has actually been President this term for longer than David Wilkins was.

Rhiannon Newman, [who is in some way important in the Australian National Union of Students] is also a member of Activate. In many ways she is the leader of the faction, having conscripted most of the current Board members for the group.

Ellen Ketteridge is the head of the Student Representative Council, which is the AUU Board's political affiliate. Previously this group was the Students' Association of the University of Adelaide (the SAUA or, affectionately in most cases, the Sewer).

Finally for Activate, there is Paris Dean, who holds no official position on the Board, other than as a good person to go to if you want a debate. On fairly much anything, really.

The second faction to be covered is Pulse, officially led by David Wilkins, former President of the Board.

Simone McDonnell, the Union Activities Chair, is the next Pulse member. UAC is often considered to be one of the most important offices on the Board, as they are responsible for making sure that there's some level of 'campus culture' around the place. This includes big events like O'Week and Prosh as well as the smaller events like bar nights and live music on the lawns.

Claire Wong and Dilan Morragolle make up the last two members of the Pulse faction. Claire is another rank-and-file Board member, but Dilan is increasingly appearing more focussed on his work as President of the Overseas Students Association, to the extent that he spoke in favour of sacking David at the last meeting.

The other two 'factions' are more loose groups formed for the sake of convenience during the election, but as they tend to vote similarly, I'll still address them together. The 'internationals' are Yang Shen, Zhen Ji, Zheng Lim and Tom McDougall. I haven't had much of a chance to talk to anyone other than Tom, and as such I don't really understand much of their structure. So far all four of them have either been silent or, in the case of the last one, absent for meetings. (This may be because the last meeting was during international students' orientation week).

The fourth faction is the 'independent' faction, not to be confused with the 'indie' faction of student politics that existed at a national level. The 'indies' are Matthew Taylor, Simon LePoidevin, Alexander 'Xan' Jenner-O'Shea and Justin Kentish. Matthew Taylor is President-elect of the Clubs Association.

The eighteenth and nineteenth members of the board are both from outside the factions. Sam Kirchener is the med student who is traditionally elected to the Board. There is only ever one, but that one is practically guaranteed.

Finally, there is Michael Physick, the staff rep. Michael holds a non-voting role, and his place on Board is to ensure a level of University awareness of the Board's actions, as well as making sure that there's someone present who can clarify the university's position on issues.