Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association

WUSA

University of Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association
Student Control of Student Affairs!
Founded	1960s
Publication	Tertangala
Affiliations	National Union of Students
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.

Background

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. 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.

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.

The University of Wollongong student body has long held the reputation of being one of "the most left-wing campuses in the country". It is no coincidence that the flag of the Australian Communist Party was flown on the University's Foundation Day.

The 1997 WUSA Council

The WUSA Council elected for the 1997 term included a number of left-wing student activists, who later became notable community leaders and policy makers. With Carol Berry serving as WUSA President, the "Dream Team" ran for election on an anarchist-left platform, defeating their opponents the Labor students and Democratic Socialist Party activists with 85% of the primary vote. The mandate of their victory ensured an explosion of student activism on campus and a record number of campaigns run by WUSA. The radicalism of the University of Wollongong student body in 1997 had a national political reputation, with the result that the WUSA executive came under the scrutiny of Australian secret service agents posted to campus to monitor their activities.

National Anti-VSU Campaign

During 1999, UOW and other NSW students stormed NSW Liberal Party Head Quarters on a National Day of Action called by the National Union of Students and demanded an end to proposed VSU legislation. The legislation was withdrawn, but introduced again and passed in 2006 when the Coalition Government secured the support of Family First Senator Steve Fielding in the Australian Senate.

Aboriginal Tent Faculty

In protest against the axing of the Aboriginal Health Course, the SRC and the Education Action Collective convened and ran a campaign with local aboriginal, academic and student support, involving frequent protests and NUS NSW state-wide support. This resulted in the University Council overturning the Vice Chancellor's decision to drop the course. The Vice-Chancellor subsequently agreed to funding for a new Aboriginal Education Centre, which now overlooks the McKinnon lawn, the former site of the Tent Faculty. The term "Tent Faculty" was chosen as a symbolic gesture of solidarity with the Aboriginal tent embassies present across Australia, wherever indigenous people are struggling for the recognition of their rights - the most prominent being the national Aboriginal Tent Embassy erected in Canberra.

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 and international news . The 2006 WUSA Council was noted for the increase in anti-Howard Government student activism on campus.

The WUSA Council

The 2009 Election

The 2009 WUSA election was contested by three tickets: 'FRESH' (Liberal and Labor students), 'REAL STUDENTS' (Independents), and 'CATALYST' (the broad-left).

The election results were initially declared to favour REAL STUDENTS, giving all but a few positions to the ticket. However, successful appeals were launched by both FRESH and CATALYST against REAL STUDENTS, alleging that the ticket had engaged in improper conduct during the election campaign. The election appeals committee controversially overturned the original result, with most WUSA Council positions going to FRESH.

Current WUSA Council

Position	Name	Ticket
President	Chris Monnox	FRESH
Honorary Secretary	Joshua Rees	FRESH
Honorary Treasurer	Lars Hardgreaves-Stevenson	FRESH
Disabilities Representative	Tamara Hughes	CATALYST
Education Campaigns Coordinator	Jessica Epps	FRESH
Environment Representative	Patrick Harrison	CATALYST
Ethno-Cultural Representative	Bede Crasnich	FRESH
Events Coordinator	VACANT	NA
External Students Representative	Peter Davidoff	FRESH
Indigenous Representative	Nadia Neal	UNALIGNED
International Students Representative	Marcus Lim	FRESH
Mature Age Students Representative	Nicholas Dugonics	CATALYST
Queer Co-Representatives	Stefanie Greenshields Pip Jones	CATALYST
Social Justice Representative	William Nemesh	FRESH
Tertangala Coordinator	Charly Lindsay	UNALIGNED
Welfare Coordinator	Olga Stoytchilina	FRESH
Womyn's Co-Representatives	Tara Hunt Sara Howson	FRESH
General Representative	Warren Hudson	FRESH
General Representative	Jessica Di Blasio	CATALYST
General Representative	Ian Murray	FRESH
General Representative	Kirrily Piper	CATALYST
General Representative	Sam Almaliki	UNALIGNED

Past WUSA Presidents

Year	Name
1994	Peter Knox
1995	Jo Kowalczyk
1996	Laura Wilson
1997	Carol Berry
1998	Erin Cahill
1999	Kane Gleeson
2000	Nadine Torney
2001	John Finlayson
2002	Amanda Craig
2003	Michael Szafraniec
2004	Michael Szafraniec*, Ben Jones
2005	Ben Coughlin
2006	Jess Moore
2007	Elizabeth Larbalestier
2008	Chris Pettett*, Brendan Cook
2009	Hailey Sutton
2010	Chris Monnox

[* = resigned/removed]