Adelaide Student Politics

Posted 15th July

SRC elections are, like all others, less than two months out, so now seems as good a time as any to write what I know to have been going on in the SRC (up to two weeks ago anyway, when being out of the country has halted my already sketchy knowledge of the proceedings).

The activism of term 1 has long since died down, to give way to the necessary legal framework required before the next elections. Several members have, after lucklustre attendence to meetings, resigned, highlighting the difficulties of assessing suitable candidates by interview/appointment. Several vacancies exist, and as far as I am aware no steps have been taken to fill them. The silver lining to this cloud is that the lower number of members bring quorum to a more easily achievable level.

The June 1st SRC meeting saw a division take place over whether the AUU Board or the SRC should be responsible for appointing delegates to university committees. On the SRC side, General Secretary Rob Fletcher distributed a report recommending that the SRC be responsible, as this was an old SAUA duty that had been relegated to the AUU Board in the short term, and should now be returned. Non-voting but sitting SRC member (and AUU President) Lavinia Emmett-Grey argued that since the attendance of a student representative to university committees was a key performance indicator of the unions funding agreement with the university (and thus its fulfilment a requisite for the unions funding), it should be the union who should be ultimately responsible. Complicating the issue was the fact that the SRC was still not incorporated at the time. This also affected the desirability of several of the other recommendations made by Rob, such as lobbying for all students to have access to university council minutes (Lavinia was concerned about the SRC entering into formal negotiations prior to incorporation). Eventually, a motion stating the first recommendation be adopted was lost (4 for; 6 against). The second was carried.

Despite the initial aversion to the in-camera clause in the standing orders, the SRC has twice (at the meetings I’ve attended) gone in-camera in order to discuss something regarding ‘university committees’. This may have something to bear on the previous issue, but as it was in-camera it is, by definition, known only to members of the SRC.

SRC meetings were cancelled for a few weeks due to exams. That is, until July 2nd, on the last Thursday of the exam period, when a special meeting was called by SRC member Ashleigh Lustica in order to incorporate the SRC in what was argued to be the last possible chance before elections. Due to legal concerns over who can legally and practically be a ‘member’ of the SRC, incorporation has been delayed several times. Eventually a course of action was suggested whereby only the elected representatives were SRC ‘members’, but some disagreed with this, presumably fearing disenfranchisement of the wider student body. As of July 1st, several SRC members had given their apologies to this last-minute meeting, meaning it was uncertain whether quorum would be reached.

Currently, I do not know if the SRC has been incorporated yet or not. Unless it is before the elections in around two months, this will be the third year SRC representatives are (factionally as opposed to democratically) appointed by the AUU Board. The first year was unavoidable, as the SRC was created mid-year. Last year, elections were cancelled due to a legal ruling that there was no way to hold legally valid elections prior to incorporation. In order for the SRC to be respected by the student body as their legitimate representatives, it is crucial that incorporation goes ahead.

Over the past few days, several SRC members attended EdCon, NUS’s national education conference.