Adelaide Student Politics

All from memory, hence dodgy

I'm reminded, I never did post saying what happened with the AUES (Adelaide University Engineering Society) in the end. The last clubs council saw the issue settled, for now.

Clubs Association (CA) Womens Officer Ursula Menz opened the issue, very vaguely. She referred to my article, which had been published in On Dit the day before. I was very annoyed that 'Tits out for the Boys' got dragged into it, as the CA was meant to conduct its own investigation. Matt Taylor (Clubs Association President) quickly cut Ursula off and said the issue before council was only the giving away of free t-shirts in O'Week to girls who changed in front of AUES members, and the poster which had been recently put up. He outlined three courses of action which he wanted Council to decide between, being namely disaffiliation, downgrading the AUES to associate affiliation, or putting the club on notice. Fourth (not doing anything about it) and fifth (passing the issue on to the higher body, namely the AUU) options were also possible, but not explicitly stated by Matt.

A long, convoluted discussion followed. Charges that CA Executive members had chanted 'tits out for the boys' at O'Week muddied the whole thing, as did persistent though refuted attempts to lessen the gravity of the behaviour of the AUES. Perhaps this was unavoidable, as asking council to only focus on the two incidents outlined by Matt was never going to work in such a charged atmosphere (the council was very well attended by AUES members).

Eventually, Kevin Chan (AUES Exec member, I'm not sure what his exact position is) takes the floor. He begins his talk by appologising for all actions done by the AUES, which he unequivocally describes as unacceptable. He says they have taken a number of steps to address the issue, including the institution of Tim Hickson into the newly created position of Grievance Officer.

Lavinia Emmett-Grey (AUU President) thanks Kevin for his appology, saying that in all her years of dealing with the AUES she has never heard anyone say sorry, and that this means something. Council decides to put the AUES on notice, and requires monthly updates on their progress in tackling the issue.