Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association
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| Full name | University of Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association |
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| Native name | Student Control of Student Affairs! |
| Founded | 1960s |
| Country | Australia |
| Affiliation | National Union of Students |
| Office location | Northfields Avenue, University of Wollongong |
| Website | http://wusa.uow.edu.au/ |
The University of Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association (known as WUSA, and its governing body the WUSA Council) is the peak undergraduate student representative organisation at the University of Wollongong.
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[edit] Background
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WUSA is the UOW Student Union and as such works to fight for student interests on campus and in the broader community, keeping both the University administration and Australian governments accountable when it comes to issues affecting students. WUSA also provides advocacy and welfare services for students on campus.
WUSA is a grassroots organisation, made up of a number of issues-based student collectives. These include education, queer rights, women's rights, an anti-racism collective, a student media collective, and the environment collective. WUSA also publishes the UOW student magazine Tertangala.
WUSA is affiliated to the National Union of Students (Australia) and has participated in national campaigns including the fight against upfront course fees, Voluntary Student Unionism, and the struggle to reinstate free Higher Education in Australia. WUSA has also called upon the national body and other student organistaions to support its local causes in the past. In a city like Wollongong, notorious for pollution and other heavy industry-related health problems, WUSA has always been at the forefront of campus environmentalism in Australia.[citation needed] This has particularly been the case as Climate Change has become an increasingly important political issue to students.
The sister student organisation for WUSA is the Newcastle University Students' Association.
[edit] Activist history
Over more than 34 years, WUSA has co-ordinated many student protests and political campaigns. In 1995, 2000 University of Wollongong students occupied the campus Administration building to protest the introduction of degree fees. In 1997 students and SRC representatives again participated in an occupation, this time at the University of Technology Sydney in a successful campaign to prevent the introduction of full fee degrees at that institution. WUSA students and staff also participated in the campaign to prevent the introduction of full fee degrees at the University of Western Sydney in 1998.[citation needed]
[edit] The 2006 WUSA Council
In 2006 the WUSA President, Jess Moore, received a phone call from police, informing her that she was under investigation for her activism, on campus, around anti-war/Palestinian self-determination campaigns. The investigation made national[1] and international news.[2] The 2006 WUSA Council was noted for the increase in anti-Howard Government student activism on campus, as well as being involved in organising large rallies to protest against the 2006 Lebanon War.[citation needed].
