Adelaide Student Politics

Since my last post, much has happened in student politicking. For a start, there's a new president.

The day after the meeting in which David's suspension was ratified, the AUU General Manager sent out an email explaining that the ratification was invalid because it needed a two-thirds majority vote. Irate board members soon explained that it got a two thirds majority and the suspension proceeded as normal. Not that I'd ever suggest that things like this were normal for the Board.

At the meeting on Thursday night, the final vote was required to decide if the Board would keep David as president or change to someone else. The basic arguments for and against read as follows:

Arguments made in favour of keeping David as president:

• The Board is not prepared for a new President
• There is no-one who can take over the role effectively
• It will damage relations with the Uni - they will not want to fund a Board that's not credible or sustainable.
• It will look bad on the Board's record
• So many of the AUU staff are new that there will be no-one left with an understanding of what to do
• The new staff need some stability from the Board
• It makes the board look incompetent and unhealthy [author's note: this is important currently, as we're leading up to the major membership drive for the year]
• The point isn't whether there were problems or not, everyone acknowledges that there were. The point is the Board's survival.
• The rest of the Board doesn't realise the work involved. David is doing a lot of work that they don't know about, and they aren't aware of the good work he does.
• He has already proved that he can do the job effectively.
• There is no-one on the current board who'd do the job better.

Arguments made in favour of having a different President:

• The board needs a leader who will communicate with them
• David does not care enough about the board (the example given was that he was not at the meeting that night)
• The decisions of the Board as a whole were not being reflected, only those of the president.
• The president was not following the directions of the Board
• The reputation of the board is not an issue, their actions are.
• The fact that there is no-one prepared to take over is an indication that there needs to be a new president - a president should communicate with their VP in a manner that makes it possible for them to take over if necessary.
• The majority of the affiliates actually support a new president.
• University funding is attached to key performance outcomes, not the identity of the president.

Eventually, Sam Kirchner made the point that further conversation (read: argument) was unlikely to change anyone's mind, and that they should just vote already. The motion put forward was carried, which meant that David Wilkins was no longer the President. The board decided that the directors who were not there that night had a right to be involved in the election of a new president, so the actual choice was postponed until after O'Week.

This meant that an interim president had to be elected to fill the role until O'Week, as Emilio was, after a month and a half, finding it taxing. Simone and Lavinia both nominated for the position. Simone ran on the platform that she knew what was going on with O'Week, but that her presence was not necessary due to the exceptional work of the O'Week directors. She argued that this meant she'd be the best person to run the Board during such an important week. Lavinia, who wrote the original letter asking David to stand down, argued that while Simone would be overstreched between O'Week and the Board, she could take care of the Board while Simone looked after O'Week. The board voted in favour of Lavinia, who is now the interim-president.

The only other business at this meeting was the fact that the Labor Party had bought a corporate stall at O'Week. On the basis that this may make the Board look like it was in the Labor Party's pocket, the Board voted to call the stall managers and revoke their stall, returning their money to them in the process. This was dually agreed on.

The most exciting thing for Board for a while is to see how O'Week goes and who'll actually help with selling memberships and the 'dunk a student politician' game.