University of Melbourne Student Union

Meeting of the Students’ Council

Agenda

12 PM, 24.3.2015

Meeting 10

Location: Training Room 1 1. Procedural Matters 1.1 Election of Chair 1.2 Acknowledgement of Indigenous Owners 1.3 Attendance 1.4 Apologies Stephen Smith (Clubs & Societies) Claire Pollock (Clubs & Societies) 1.5 Proxies Patrick Dollard to Justine Rudock Ben Fourniotis to Stephen Mitas 1.6 Adoption of Agenda 2. Confirmation of Previous Minutes 3. Matters Arising from the Minutes 4. Correspondence Letter of appeal from the Turkish Association 5. Office Bearers’ Reports 6. General Manager’s Report 7. Other Reports 8. Operational Business 9. Motions on Notice 9.1 C&S Regulations 9.2 Constitutional Working Group 9.3 UMSU Radio Expenditure 10. Motions Without Notice 11. Other Business 12. Next Meeting 13. Close

4. Correspondence Disaffiliation appeal from Turkish Association – attached separately

5. Office Bearer Reports

President

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Rachel Withers President

To Students’ Council 10/15 24/03/2015

Key activities:

University Engagement Strategy I met with Professor Richard James, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Rebecca Starling, Senior Engagement Analyst and Margot Eden Advisor, Social Compact to discuss the University’s new engagement strategy, both in terms of on campus engagement and engagement with the wider community. I asked that they try to frame their strategy around those who are not getting involved for whatever reason, rather than those keen students who were always going to find a way to get involved. We discussed ideas around better promoting engagement, through recognition programs, further use of the portal, making use of lecturers and lecture slides to promote co-curricular engagement as well as the timing of Experience Matters fortnight in Semester 2. I also suggested that were we to run “What is UMSU?” sessions again next O-Week under the title of “How to get the most out of your time here”, that we might co-host this with the university, in order to have greater impact (many students might be more interested in attending an info session co-hosted by the University and the Student Union).

National Day of Action As you are hopefully all away, the HERR bill was voted down in the Senate in Week 3, thanks to the hard work and lobbying of many people. Week 4’s NDA will be focused on continuing to reject the idea of deregulation (Pyne having already come out saying its coming back) as well as protesting cuts to research and course funding. I have been speaking to some of the large clubs about getting a few people down to the NDA to represent those clubs, who otherwise would not usually attend an NDA.

Farmers Market We have continued our strong presence out at the Farmers Market, and students continue to associate the fantastic event with us- win. I sat out there in Week 2 (with thanks to Education Officers for assisting me when I had a meeting) and Week 3 it was shared between Clubs & Societies and UMSU International.

AV@Melb Organisational Changes AV@ Melbourne is undergoing a restructure, in order to hopefully improve its efficiency and scalability. I have met with various departments that are going to be affected by these changes along with Justin and Corey, a representative from the NTEU. We also held a whole of organisation information session about the process. This process is going to be difficult, and we appreciate everyone’s respectful input.

Student Precinct After meeting with Margaret Sheil and Steve Brown last week about the Precinct and our issues around the project, it was disappointing to see Steve not invited to a Friday 20th March meeting (which I was invited to with only three days’ notice, despite the event being created over a month prior). I requested that Steve be invited. I will report back to council on the content of this meeting.

Welcome email After agreeing verbally and in writing to send an email from myself to all students (and a separate one from GSA President Steve) since November, the university changed its mind on sending out a whole student email from UMSU after receiving my copy. They cited the university’s Student Communications Procedure as the main reason for this, which states that content must be business critical for a whole university broadcast. I have suggested this protocol be amended and pointed out the importance of a message like this, but the current compromise is a brief email to students co- signed by the Provost, Steve and I, encouraging students to get involved and pointing them in the direction of our extended welcomes on our respective websites. This has been incredibly disappointing but hopefully this message still enlightens many students.

Colleges Following on from the visit to the Intercollegiate Council, I emailed all the college presidents a form to arrange times for me to come and speak at their colleges. The college presidents have been very receptive to this idea. We are also arranging for an UMSU rep from each college, hopefully an outgoing personality of the individual college, to be the messenger who spruiks our events each week.

Social Media I am now an admin on the main University of Melbourne Student Union facebook page (after many requests). This has meant I have been able to post about things such as the defeat of deregulation in the senate, even outside of business hours. I feel this is a massive improvement for our social media content capacity.

UMSU Mentoring Network Mentors and mentees have now been matched up, with lots of first meet ups and coffees being held around campus over the last 2 weeks. It’s amazing to see this plan finally become a reality! I took my one of my own mentors to visit the Media Officers- she liked Farrago and didn’t realise it was entirely put together by students but will hopefully be getting a little more involved now!

Host Program Certificates I signed about 500. No biggie.

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Colleges I will have visited a few colleges and will report back

General Secretary

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Hana Dalton General Secretary

To Students’ Council 10/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

Defeat of Fee Deregulation in the Senate It was wonderful to hear on Tuesday of the second defeat of university deregulation in the Senate. The fact that this policy went from a little-known feature of the 2014 Federal Budget to one of Liberals’ most unpopular policies, with about at 80% disapproval rating, is a testament to the hard work of students, education activists and student organisations such as UMSU and NUS over the past 10 months. I believe that student rallies and demonstrations, as well as lobbying and media appearances by student organisations were the driving forces behind the popular disapproval of the policy, which ultimately led the crossbenchers to withhold their support for the measure. All those involved must be congratulated for their efforts. However, Education Minister Christopher Pyne intends to reintroduce the bill into the Senate, and Universities still face large funding cuts, so it is as important as ever as a student body to continue these actions. I have been and will continue to work with other UMSU Departments to help promote and build the NDA on March 25th.

UMSU Annual General Meeting I have been in discussions with the General Manager and Entertainment Co-ordinator Tony Ennis about setting a date for the AGM, at a time which is most conducive to reaching quorum. At this point, the AGM is likely to be held prior to the weekly Tuesday band in North Court, on May 5th (week 9). This is subject to change and will be confirmed at a later date.

Management Liability Insurance I have discussed the possibility of purchasing Management Liability insurance with the General Manager, and have been in contact with Presidents and Secretaries of other student unions to f ind out whether it is commonplace for student unions to have this insurance.

Student Reference Group On Wednesday 11th of March, Rachel and I attended the first meeting of the year of the Student Reference Group, which is a group of students convened by the University to discuss and obtain student input on university issues. The meeting focused on informing the Reference Group about the new student precinct, including the vision and the limitations. A number of concerns were raised, including the concern that the new Precinct would not have enough space to fit all of the facilities that are contained in Union House. This was acknowledged as the case, and it was suggested to the student members that some of these facilities could be designated space outside the Student Precinct in other areas of the University, which, while perhaps necessary, in my view defeats the purpose of a ‘one stop’ student precinct as is the aim of this project. I will continue to work constructively in this group towards an acceptable arrangement for UMSU in the new Student Precinct. At the meeting, a number of other concerns were also raised, such as issues this year with timetabling and class registration.

Regular tasks The role of General Secretary involves many regular administrative tasks, such as updating the UMSU website with minutes, agendas and committee meeting times, sending out notice for committee meetings and dealing with resignations from committees, which I have been doing regularly.

Activities

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of James Baker and Hayden Michaelides Activities Officers

To Students’ Council 10/15 24/3/2015

Key activities:

SoUP: The nnual Start of Uni Party has been quoted as the best SoUP that Tony Ennis (Entertainment) has seen. We sold out of tickets, and this was due to a combination of selling through the O-Week stalls and through the info desk. The event was held on the 11th of March. Everybody seemed to enjoy the night, and the changes that were made to the set up were appreciated by all the people who have been asked.

Cocktail Party Cocktail party will occur on the night of the 24th of March. Tickets are still selling, and this is being done through the Info desk at Union House, as well as another ticket sales event of Monday the 24th, during the free BBQ. Drink deals are still being finalised, as well as the canapes, however we have guaranteed $10 cocktails, which is cheaper than at previous cocktail parties.

Progress on assigned actions from last report:

Finalise cocktail plans and sell tickets: Since last report we have began the sale of tickets for cocktail party. We have decided on a capacity of 500 so that the venue won’t be too crowded with people in their formal attire. Drink deals have not been finalised as of yet VERDICT: Ongoing

Improve awareness of Monday and Tuesday BBQs: Since last report we have started creating independent events for the free Monday and Tuesday BBQ’s, and so far these events have been getting a good amount of exposure. However, the last Monday BBQ was a bit more subdued. We will continue to monitor this as we go. VERDICT: Ongoing

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Begin preparations for Trivia 1: Trivia 1 is set to go ahead in the Grand Buffet Hall during week 5. In order to get this up and going, we need to begin work on this, setting up the event, organising the trivia questions, etc.

Clubs & Societies

Creative Arts

Education (Academic Affairs)

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Nellie Montague and Shanley Price Education (Academic Affairs) Officers

To Students’ Council 10/15 24/03/2015

Key Activities

SRN Student Representative Network applications closed on the 6th March and we have had lots of great responses. Interviews have been held and students have been placed on boards within the University, students have taken part in governance training run by UMSU Advocacy. We are looking forward to supporting students to discuss and have a say in issues that will affect students.

Lecture Recording We’ve been hearing from lots of students that their lectures are not being recorded and have a template email on our facebook page for students to send to their lecturers highlighting the importance of recording and reminding them of the Academic Board Policy that states that lectures can only not be recorded for ‘sound reasons’. We are in discussion with academics at the university to work out what the next steps are to ensure lectures are recorded.

Student Centres Lots of issues arising with student centres, as BIP continues to make its presence felt. We are setting up an information gathering form for the UMSU Education facebook page so we can get some data on how students are feeling the affects of the changes and use the information to talk to academics and staff.

NDA

We have been building for the NDA with a stall on the 19th March with free cupcakes and our pens, as well as our new flyers with information about the new proposed higher education changes. We will be having a collective meeting on Tuesday to paint banners and signs for the NDA and we will be holding a BBQ at 12 on Wednesday before marching down to the city to join everyone else.

Education (Public Affairs)

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Conor Serong Education (Public Affairs) Officer

To Students’ Council 10/15 24/03/2015

Key activities:

National Day of Action: Wednesday 25 March, the National Union of Students has organise d a National Day of Action to protest fee deregulation by the Federal Government. UMSU will be sending a contingent down to the state library on this day to join with students from around the state in protest. UniMelb students will be meeting at 12pm on South Lawn on this day where we will hold a pre-rally free BBQ with sausages and veggie burgers before beginning our march. Promotion for this event has occurred in the form of flyers and posters, as well as social media, website and word-of-mouth advertising.

UMSU Says No to Deregulation As per the previous Report, these posters and flyers have been distributed around Union House and to students at events involving the Education Department. The aim has been to provide general information about fee deregulation to students, as well as making it clear that UMSU as a whole broadly opposes the proposed higher education reforms.

Education Collective Our second Education Collective was held on Thursday 12 March, with a broad range of education issues discussed and actions proposed. In particular, a range of tactics for a campaign around the Business Improvement Plan and its negative impact upon students were raised. Further collaboration with the NTEU on this and other issues was proposed and widely agreed upon.

Education Department Stall On Thursday 19 March, the Education Department held a stall to promote the 25 March NDA, as well as the various functions of the Department more broadly. To encourage student attendance, we purchased cupcakes to give out to interested students, as well as distributing our UMSU Education pens and CounterCourse handbooks which have proven to be popular thus far.

Deregulation voted down in the Senate While the Senate voted down the HERR bill for the second time, Christopher Pyne and other Government MPs have declared they are determined to reintroduce these reforms. As such, our campaign opposing deregulation and funding cuts will continue, as well as pushing for greater base funding and a better student income support system. These goals are in line with NUS’ Demand a Better Future campaign. This segment of our campaign has seen a new set of posters and flyers designed and distributed.

Environment

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Lauren Englefield and Daniel Sullivan Environment Office Bearers

To Students’ Council 10/15 24/03/2015

Key activities:

O-Week: We ran a very successful info stall on the Carnival Day, promoting the department’s regular activities, the Fossil Free Melbourne Uni divestment campaign and a new app aiming to reduce food waste which was brought to us by a Masters of Environment student. We hope to continue liaising with and endorsing both of these groups throughout the year. We also ran a welcome picnic on the Thursday and a stall promoting the bike co-op at the sports carnival day on the Friday. The picnic was a great collaboration with the Melbourne Uni Community Garden group and attracted many prospective collective members from a range of year levels.

Melbourne Uni Farmers Market Launch: We organised an UMSU branded stall at the inaugural Melbourne Uni Farmers Market on Wednesday 4th March. We had ‘Bike n’ Blend’ smoothie bikes in for smoothie giveaways to students and promotional material for the Environment Department and UMSU more generally.

Regular events: We ran our first Play With your Food, Bike co-op (with breakfast), and Environment Collective meeting in Week 1 and kicked off our Thursday activity series with a screening of ‘Mining the Truth’, followed by an informal discussion that was facilitated by one of its makers. All events ran very smoothly and were well attended and have continued that way since, with a core group emerging. We are currently in the process of finalising the semester one schedule for our Thursday activity series and better promoting it. We have also been updating our bike co-op equipment and play with your food materials inventory to ensure we can continue to provide these services successfully.

Earth hour We will be hosting an Earth Hour event in North Court from 5.30pm on Thursday 26th March (global day Saturday 28th) and have spent much of our time planning this in the last couple of weeks. There will be a market style set-up similar to last year’s Earth Hour event and an outdoor film screening. We hope to incorporate this year’s ‘food and farming’ theme as much as possible through the food and drinks we serve, the stalls we host and the entertainment we provide.

Toolangi State Forest Along with a few enthusiastic collective members, we have started making arrangements for some organised tours and cycle tours to Toolangi State Forest so participants can learn more about the Great Forest National Park campaign.

Disabilities

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Sasha Chong and Susannah Gordon Disabilities Officers

To Students’ Council 10/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

Eating Disorders Workshop: A 4 workshop on how to help someone struggling with disordered eating. The Eating Disorders Victoria workshop has been booked in for week 6. There will be two sessions over two days – very limited places will be available and we will begin advertising soon.

Mary and Max Film Screening: A screening of the film Mary and Max at Union House Theatre. We will be screening this during week 4, followed by food and drinks.

Anxiety Support Group Training: Training for facilitators of Anxiety Support Group. We have found three people to undertake training for Anxiety Support Group and have emailed ARCVic to book their places.

Imitation Game Screening: Screening of The Imitation Game for Neurodiversity Collective. This has been paid for and will happen this Friday at Nova cinema

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Campaigns Our major campaigns on trigger warnings for classes and Auslan as a diploma. We are still in the early planning stages for these campaigns, and are aiming to get things in motion quite soon.

SMART recovery group: Training for facilitators and setting up a substance abuse/recovery support group. Training has already been paid for; we are waiting for the next round of training sessions to train our facilitators, after which we will establish regular support group meetings.

Indigenous

University of Melbourne Student Union Report of Tyson Holloway-Clarke Indigenous Officer

To Students’ Council 10/15 24/03/2015

Key activities:

The Indig Games team is growing in size everyday and we are on track to not only double the size of the team from last year but we are also closing in on securing funding so all the students can go with no out of pocket expense. We have also begun assigning sporting captains and a leadership team within the squad as to delegate some of the responsibility for the team and allowing the Indigenous Office to focus on the logistic and financial side of the team.

There has been a developing collaboration between the Creative Arts department and the Indigenous department both in preparation for our events in week 12 but also coming up in MUDFEST in second semester. The Union House Theatre Artistic director has also been involved in developing projects and has been a key facilitator. Watch this space for reports on movie screenings, visual art displays and performances.

Our first large social event for the year was also held on the 20/03/15, after time of writing this report. In the lead up engagement has been good and I believe the evening will be a success.

Media

University of Melbourne Student Union Report of Madeleine Cleeve Gerkens, Martin Ditmann, Lynley Eavis & Simon Farley Media Officers

To Students’ Council 10/15 24/03/2015

Edition 2 Has gone to the printers! Once again, we’re really proud of all our fantastic writing and graphics contributors. Once again, we have many people having their voice in print for the first time – which is fantastic!

The Fodder A lot of the technical issues with the more fixed radio panelling have been smoothed out, making us ready to start training hosting a lot of shows. Our radio managers report that we have 17 shows ready to go to air so far, with over 40 people involved! Yay! Once we get these to air, we’ll be doing a lot of high-profile promotion ;) Our video teams have now progressed and are getting ready to put out their first pieces very soon – stay tuned.

Media Collective and Wordplay Both events were a very energetically attended. We held our first Media Collective – the first in around a year and half, and the most well-attended in years. The main focus was on what people thought of Farrago – everything was up for discussion. We had a lot of great feedback. Most loved the magazine, but also had some great suggestions for what can be done to make it better. Our first Wordplay readings night was also a big success, with some really fantastic readings. What was really heartening to see was many people stepping up and doing their own readings after hearing a few others – for many, this was their first readings night or their first time reading a certain piece. We’re really glad to be part of helping give people a platform to both perform and hear creative writing, and to help people’s confidence in their amazing creativity.

Queer

Welfare

Wom*n’s

VCA

9. Motions on Notice

9.1 C&S Regulation Changes

Motion: To adopt the proposed changes to the C&S Regulations as recommended unanimously to the Students’ Council by the C&S Committee on Wednesday 11 March.

Mover: Seconder:

9.2 Constitutional Working Group

Preamble: Students’ Councillors, Office Bearers and other students have expressed concerns to me about issues in the UMSU Constitution and ideas for other changes. These issues and ideas include inconsistencies in formatting and grammar, and the possible inclusion of an Ethnocultural Department or similar. Establishing a Constitutional Working Group is an important way of airing and discussing these concerns and ideas in a constructive environment, with a view to proposing changes to the Constitution if and where the Working Group sees fit. The Working Group would meet regularly, with meeting details posted on the website, and would be open to all students.

Motion: That Students’ Council directs the General Secretary to establish a Constitutional Working Group, to meet fortnightly, with meeting details posted on the Secretariat page of the UMSU Website.

Mover: Hana Dalton Seconder: Rachel Withers

9.3 UMSU Radio Expenditure

Motion: To approve up to $150 from Budget line UMSU Radio to Budget line C&S Special Projects for the costs related to the Fodder’s attendance at the Clubs Carnival.

Mover: Bren Carruthers Seconder: Rachel Withers

University of Melbourne Student Union

Meeting of the Students’ Council

UNCONFIRMED Minutes

12 PM, 12.3.2015

Meeting 9

Location: Private Dining Room Meeting opened at 12:26pm by Rachel Withers 1. Procedural Matters 1.7 Election of Chair Motion 1: That Rachel Withers be elected Chair Mover: Rachel Withers Seconder: Conor Serong CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT 1.8 Acknowledgement of Indigenous Owners So acknowledged 1.9 Attendance OBs: Hana Dalton (Secretary), Sasha Chong (Disabilities), Andrea Bozic (Queer), Lynley Eavis (Media), Maddy Cleeve Gerkens (Media), Simon Farley (Media), Lloyd Rowse (Queer), Martin Ditmann (Media), James Bashford (Welfare), Rachel Withers (President), Conor Serong (Education Public), Allison Ballantyne (Wom*ns), Claire Pollock (Clubs) Students’ Councillors: Destan Dikbas, Steven Connolly, Stephen Mitas, Benjamin Fourniotis, Lachlan McCall, Danielle Bagnato, Itsi Weinstock, Sarah Xia, Karly Banks, Glenn Davis Other: 1.10 Apologies Stephen Smith (Clubs & Societies) Hayden Michaelides (Activities) Lucy Curtis (Wom*n’s) Feifei Liao 1.11 Proxies Ezgi Bridger to Sarah Xia Patrick Dollard to Itsi Weinstock Jakob von der Lippe to Danielle Bagnato 1.12 Adoption of Agenda Motion 2: To adopt the agenda as presented Mover: Rachel Withers (Chair) CARRIED 2. Confirmation of Previous Minutes Motion 3: To confirm the previous minutes as a true and accurate record, adding Patrick Clearwater to the attendance list (as he didn’t sign the book but was present) Mover: Rachel Withers (Chair) CARRIED 3. Matters Arising from the Minutes None 4. Correspondence Letter from the Uni regarding the Farmers Market Acknowledged 5. Office Bearers’ Reports

President

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Rachel Withers President

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

Presidents Summit Attended the National Union of Students Presidents Summit in Sydney. See report attached.

FSA I signed off on the UMSU-MUSUL Facilities and Services Agreement on behalf of Students Council. This agreement has been in the works since 2013, and is now in effect (as of March 1). Many thanks to my predecessors Kara and Declan, to Justin and to Phoebe for their unwavering efforts over the course of this process.

UMSU Mentoring Network The UMSU Mentoring Network has made huge progress over the last few weeks. 250 volunteer mentors have been trained over 5 training sessions, and there have been over 300 mentee sign ups. For those who didn’t see the Speed Networking event in Grand Buffet Hall on Monday, we had a huge crowd over the 2 hours and lots of wonderful chats in a great environment going on. Mentees should be receiving their mentors by the end of the week. Congratulations to the directors Vicky, Kalvin and Michael for all their hard work.

O-Week O-Week was an amazing success and the whole organisation should be incredibly proud. Carnival Day was massive and flawless, thanks to Evie and her team.

I had a lot of rewarding conversations with new students all week about UMSU, what it stands for and what it does. I created a different presentation to the stock standard “here are our services” slides, trying to emphasise the importance of UMSU, which was presented in every Faculty Welcome (thanks to Hana and Nellie for helping me be in multiple places at once).

This year we introduced two new events to the regular program: a recurring UMSU Info session on Wednesday afternoon and a Meet Your Student Reps social event on the Thursday afternoon. While I can acknowledge that most of the students on Thursday only showed up for free pizza, we still managed to get some great dialogue going about UMSU and how to get involved.

I put a lot of work into making sure the website was presentable for O-Week, especially getting the Events Calendar linked up to the main website (on the homepage even!). If there are any other usability issues with the website let me know so I can bring these to Comms.

Farmers Market The Melbourne Farmers Market (refer to letter in previous agendas) was ultimately unable to secure University Square, but took place on Union Lawns, which was a huge improvement for us. UMSU’s stall was incredibly popular and a fantastic promotional opportunity, many thanks to the Environment Officers for organising this! We will be back out on Union Lawns every Wednesday 10-3 for the rest of semester with councils approval.

Student Precinct There have been no movements on the actual project, however Steve Brown (President of the GSA) and I are opening up as many conversations within the university as we can to emphasise how importance this process is (and how disastrous it could be if it goes wrong) We met with the tutor of the Student Precinct Design Masters studio (pre-semester) and showed him around the proposed student precinct. I also attended the first class of the studio, and gave a presentation about UMSU and the importance of a student space, followed by a tour of Union House. These students are not party to the actual project, however we are encouraging them to be as creative and ambitious as they like in designing the space, in the hope that some of their ambitious creative ideas might be able to be incorporated into the project. This week I met with Margaret Sheil (Provost) as well as Steve Brown (GSA President and University Council) and Declan McGonigle (Uni Council) to express our concerns over the real-time project and its lack of direction and student input.

Welcome email Margaret Sheil has agreed to send out a whole of university email on my behalf, however there is currently some confusion within her office over who knows how to do this. They are trying to do so by the end of the week.

Intercollegiate Council On Sunday night Hana and I attended the first ICC of 2015 to talk about UMSU and express our desire to break down some of the division between college life and everyday student life. The college presidents seemed very receptive to our message, and to the idea of UMSU coming to speak at their colleges at some point throughout semester.

Social Media I have requested permission from the UMSU Communications Department to be an admin of the main UMSU Facebook page. I requested this earlier in the year to which they said no, however it is becoming quite painful having to send an email rather than just post things myself. I will let council know the outcome of this.

List of action points to be completed by next report:

All student email Once the university figures it out

Colleges Times to attend college dinners arranged

President Summit Report From the 28th-30th January, Hana and I attended the National Union of Students Presidents’ Summit at the University of Sydney.

This proved a valuable opportunity to network with other student union presidents from around the country, and share both our frustrations and successes.

A great deal of discussion was held around the governments attempted changes to higher education (this came up in almost every session).

One of the most interesting things for me to come out of this conference was our comparative lack of revenue outside of SSAF- we are very lucky in terms of the SSAF deal we get from the university (in fact ours appears to be one of the best, if not the best, in the country), but unique in our dependence on it.

I ask that students council please approve my motion to be reimbursed for this conference, and regret that I was unable to present this motion prior to the fact due to a lack of quorum.

DAY 1

The first day featured a National Presidents Report, in which NUS president Rose Steele explained the way in which they are dealing with the issues that came out of the National Conference, and working on their financial reporting issues. Rose is working hard on the serious issues she has inherited, and is committed to improving the NUS.

We also had a General Secretary Report from Tom Nock who wants to make the NUS more open and transparent and wants affiliates to be more involved. He committed to posting minutes, policy, and their policy platform online once they have a website again. Tom acknowledged the challenges, but told us he is confident we will be able to overcome them

We heard other National Office Bearer Reports over the course of the summit- if anyone would like to discuss these in detail with me please make a time to come see me.

We received a run down on the history of the National Student Unionism in Australia (there have been a few incarnations of the NUS since 1926) as well as the current structure.

DAY 2

Day 2 saw the start of Campus President Reports, in which presidents reported to the group and we learnt about some of the very different union structures and programs going around the country. These were very informative and we might look at introducing some of these to UMSU.

We had a speaker from Trades Hall talk to us about some of the different and interesting ways to run campaigns and engage people. This was followed by a discussion/idea sharing as a group of some different fun stunts including but not limited to: Facebook forums such as Stalker Space, Monopoly money, banners on buildings, getting people in group and writing personal stories and submitting to MPs, Dunking machines, Balloons, Junk bands, Vuvuzelas, Petting zoos.

We discussed the new NUS website, and were invited to give feedback on what this website should contain. We compared what sort of content should be for the website (including a Campaign Tool Kit) and what sort should be for the Facebook page. The NUS will be using Nation Builder, an accessible platform which will apparently be easy to update, easy for lots of people to upload content, compared to the old website.

One of the most useful aspects of the conference was the media training we received from a current and a former journalist. This training included advice on putting out media releases, how to answer interview questions, and how to get journalists interested in what you are trying to say.

We also heard from the NTEU about some of the issues they will be focusing on this year, including the high rate of new jobs that are casual in universities (1 in 2). They also offered useful insights into fee deregulation and unions in general.

DAY 3

Day 3 included a SSAF Workshop, in which we compared funding agreements with our respective universities. UMSU has one of the best, if not the best, SSAF agreements in the country. However most other unions are non-reliant on their university SSAF allocation, and have their own sources of income and commercial outlets (especially a bar/café). An UMSU-controlled bar/café/multi-purpose space is something I will be campaigning hard for in the new Student Precinct (have already flagged this in our space requests docs).

Day 3 also saw further National Office Bearer Reports as well as campus president reports.

Sadly not all presidents ended up reporting due to time constraints in the schedule, but a lot of information was still shared during breaks and over conference dinner.

General Secretary

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Hana Dalton General Secretary

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

O-Week O-Week was an extremely busy week for all UMSU Departments, and I congratulate everyone on their contributions and hard work. Rachel and I had the opportunity to chat to students on Carnival Day (Tuesday 24/2) about the Union in general. It was great to see so many students enthusiastic about what we do and keen to get involved. We also made presentations at faculty welcome sessions on the Wednesday. The ‘What is UMSU?’ information sessions were well-attended, and despite a few technical difficulties, went really well. This is perhaps something future office bearers should consider continuing, especially as more faculties move to providing course introductions online.

UMSU Intl I met with the Education and Welfare Vice Presidents of UMSU Intl last week, along with James Bashford, to discuss the relationship between UMSU departments/office bearers and UMSU Intl for the year. We discussed the need for greater communication and collaboration where possible. We also discussed the issue of the social segregation that often occurs between local and international students, which can be particularly isolating for international students. Thus, we have begun the initial stages of planning for an event, likely to be in Week 6, designed to facilitate and encourage social interaction and friendship between local and international students. The event will likely be in the form of a games day/afternoon.

Intercollegiate Council Rachel and I met with the Intercollegiate Council on March 8th, following a preliminary meeting with their executive last year, to talk about how we can work together into the future. The Council expressed the view that college students at times should look outside the ‘college bubble’, and that UMSU provides many services and extra-curricular activities that college students may like to access or get involved in, but often don’t know much about. Rachel and I made a short presentation about what UMSU can offer college students in particular, and we are hoping to visit each college at some point in the next few weeks to speak to each college at a dinner or similar event.

NUS Presidents’ Summit Rachel and I attended the National Union of Students Presidents’ Summit at the University of Sydney on the 28th-30th January. The summit was an opportunity to meet student union presidents, vice- presidents and secretaries from around the country, as well as the NUS national office bearers. It was useful to get insights into the structures of different student unions, as well as how they undertake certain processes, such as SSAF negotiations, which will occur this year for us. At the Summit, the NUS office bearers outlined their plans for the year, and the direction of the Union as a whole. We were also able to participate in skills-based workshops such as media training, and had the opportunity to discuss strategies for the ‘Demand a Better Future’ education campaign.

Activities

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of James Baker and Hayden Michaelides Activities Officers

To Students’ Council/Committee 9/15 12/3/15

Key activities:

An Evening Out at Luna Park: The Evening Out at Luna Park event was a roaring success. We exceeded expectations with ticket sales, and the event seemed to go very favourably, with many students having enjoyed the event. One area of concern, however, was the lines for the rides, and perhaps next year the event should have less people, maybe without Monash. The after party for the event was a disappointment, however, as not many people were interested in coming. This could have been due to a multitude of reasons, however the main ones would have to be the price (we made it free after it was apparent no one wanted to pay for entry), the lack of advertising (a mistake on our part) and the fact that many people would not want to drink/stay out that late after a long week. From those that attended, the general vibe was that of an enjoyable event, however

Start of Uni Party: Tickets have sold out for SoUP, and it looks like it is going to be a big one. The last of the preparation is being done, however at the time of writing this report, it hasn't happened yet, although that will change by the time of the council.

Tuesday BBQs: The Tuesday BBQs and bands kicked off with a bang last week, with Art vs Science coming to North Court and bringing the house down. The advertising and awareness for the event wasn't as good as we had hoped, however we are moving to rectify this by utilising facebook events and comms to increase our reach to let students know about who we have coming in, as if they know about it, they are likely to come to the big acts we have coming. The next few acts are: The Smith Street Band (week 2), The Beards (week 3) and a range of comics from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (week 4)

Monday BBQs: Compared to the Tuesday BBQs, the Monday ones are more subdued and relaxed, with the focus being on having a good setting to come and get a bit of food and talk to your mates. We are alternating between North Court and the lawns west of the 1888 building. These will last until week 5, when the poetry slam competition will be held, then finish for the semester

Cocktail Party: Preparations are well underway for our cocktail party, with both a venue and date finalised. It will be held on Thursday the 26th of March (week 4) at The Savoy Tavern, on the corner of Bourke and Spencer streets. We are trying to make this event much more cocktail focused than previous cocktail parties, as many of those attending tend to get their free drinks, then switch to beer/cider/wine as they are on a student budget. We plan to do this by negotiating with the venue to lower the price of drinks and possibly subsidising a part of the cost on the night if we need to.

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Finalise cocktail plans and sell tickets: Cocktail party is 2 weeks away, so we have to do this or it won't be a thing. Advertising is the key here, as it is with all our events. The venue can hold a maximum of 650 people, so we'll have to decide on the number of tickets to make sure it's not too crowded

Improve awareness for Monday and Tuesday BBQs: We want as many people as possible to know about these events, so we're working on increasing our presence through facebook events, word of mouth, etc

Clubs & Societies

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of

Claire Pollock & Stephen Smith Clubs & Societies Officers

To Students’ Council 12/03/15

O-Week: The O-Week Clubs Expo was an outstanding success, with only a few minor complications over the two days. The event went over budget, thus we are looking at a number of options for next ye ar to lower this cost; including not having performances and changing venue.

Carnival: Our next ‘big thing’ is the Clubs Carnival – the date has been set for Thursday 26th March on Concrete Lawns. Expressions of interest for clubs to attend were sent out last week and closed on the 10th March. We have chosen not to have marquees as to save money.

Collective: A Clubs Collective has been scheduled for Tuesday of weeks 3, 6 and 9. We have sent out correspondence to all clubs encouraging attendance, plus we are advertising it on our notice board in the Food Court.

Safety in Clubs: The Safety in Clubs Working Group has met twice so far and established a framework for our project. We are aiming to develop processes to compliment the current University Grievance processes to make it more user-friendly for clubs and individuals involved in a dispute. This will involve better information about to how to report and respond to incidents in clubs, how to access appropriate services on and off campus, and a framework for staff and student representatives to respond to reports to ensure consistency and appropriate referrals.

Camp Welfare Workshops: Claire has been working in liaison with Safer Community to deliver a number of Camp Welfare Workshops to students involved in club orientation camps in the role as a camp leader. It has had a very positive feedback from all those that have attended and we are looking at developing the initiative into a more general welfare workshop later on in the year.

Creative Arts

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Bonnie Leigh- Dodds and Isabella Vadiveloo Creative Arts Officers

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/3/2015

Key activities:

O week: We had a busy o week attending the Parkville carnival and VCA stalls. We also directed and co- ordinated a number of roving performers for the Parkville campus.

Mudfest: We have secured mentors for ourselves and our production manager. We are currently working on a time line and site maps and are in discussions with building services regarding liquor licencing and permits.

Other activities: We have curated an exciting semester of workshops and seminars and are currently confirming the involvement of teaching artists. We will be continuing the popular life drawing classes from last year, running a series of “how to” seminars and performance nights as well as hula hooping and AUSLAN classes and establishing a new choir.

Progress on assigned actions from last report:

The activities from last report have either been successfully completed: - O week rovers - Job descriptions for Mudfest - The launching of the grant applications - Approval of budget by committee

Or are ongoing: - Hiring workshop leaders - Mudfest budget - Above water and PEST

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Mudfest We aim to have our timeline, map and draft budget completed and approved my our mentors and Mudfest advisory group We also aim to have submitted for our liquor license and have the concrete lawn area secured as a hub venue.

Education (Academic Affairs)

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Nellie Montague and Shanley Price Education (Academic Affairs) Officers

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/3/2015

O-Week Tuesday we had our EdDept stall and took Glyn and Pyne for a spin on our spinning wheel of deregulation, we had some great discussions about fee dereg and how the proposed changes will negatively affect students. We also handed out lots of our a-maze-ing pens!

Wednesday we headed down to the VCA to talk about what the EdDept does, we met lots of great people and shared the UMSU love.

SRN Student Representative Network applications closed on the 6th March and we have had lots of great responses. Interviews will be held soon, after which students will take part in governance training run by UMSU Advocacy and be placed on a board within the University. We are looking forward to supporting students to discuss and have a say in issues that will affect students.

Lecture Recording We’ve also been hearing from lots of students about their lectures not being recorded and have a template email on our facebook page for students to send to their lecturers highlighting the importance of recording and reminding them of the Academic Board Policy that states that lectures can only not be recorded for ‘sounds reasons’. We are in discussion with academics at the university to work out what the next steps are to ensure lectures are recorded.

Student Centres Lots of issues arising with student centres, as BIP continues to make its presence felt. There is a information gathering form on the UMSU Education facebook page so we can get some data on how students are feeling the affects of the changes and use the information to talk to academics and staff.

Education (Public Affairs)

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Conor Serong Education (Public Affairs) Officer

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

O Week: We ran a department stall on the Tuesday of O-Week, featuring a spinning wheel stunt regarding deregulation. During this stunt, we gave away chocolates and our new UMSU Education maze pens, as well as signing up students to our Collective. We also took part in the Meet Your Reps evening, where we spoke to several particularly interested students about how to get involved with our campaigns and other activities.

CounterCourse: 1,500 CounterCourse Handbooks arrived during O-Week and have been added to the Communications distribution list. Accordingly, they can now be found in reading stands all over campus. We also distributed many manually at our O-Week stall and the Meet Your Reps afternoon. Feedback has been very positive.

National Day of Action: Wednesday 25 March, the National Union of Students has organise d a National Day of Action to protest fee deregulation by the Federal Government. UMSU will be sending a contingent down to the state library on this day to join with students from around the state in protest. UniMelb students will be meeting at 12pm on South Lawn on this day where we will hold a pre-rally event such as possibly a BBQ before beginning our march. Promotion for this event has occurred in the form of flyers and posters, as well as social media and website advertising.

UMSU Says No to Deregulation These posters and flyers have been distributed around Union House and to students at events throughout O-Week. The aim has been to provide general information about fee deregulation to students, as well as making it clear that UMSU as a whole broadly opposed the proposed higher education reforms.

Fee Deregulation webpage Following on from the above activity, a new webpage has been established at http://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/feederegulation with general information about deregulation, as well as information about the campaign opposing the reforms, including information about the 25 March NDA.

Social Media The Education Department has been attempting to increase our social media presence throughout O-Week and early into Semester One. This has been moderately successful so far, resulting in almost 100 new Facebook “likes” on our page, as well as a number of new members to our Collective’s Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/umsueducationcollective). We have also updated our profile pictures and banners on both Facebook and Twitter to include our new Department logos.

Education Collective Our first Collective was held on Thursday 19 February, where discussion primarily focused on O- Week activities and the fee deregulation campaign. Our next Collective is scheduled for Thursday 12 March, where we anticipate a broad range of new members will get involved.

Environment

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Daniel Sullivan and Lauren Englefield Environment Officer Bearers

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

O-Week:

We ran a very successful info stall on the Carnival Day, promoting the department’s regular activities, the Fossil Free Melbourne Uni divestment campaign and a new app aiming to reduce food waste which was brought to us by a Masters of Environment student. We hope to continue liaising with and endorsing both of these groups throughout the year. We also ran a welcome picnic on the Thursday and a stall promoting the bike co-op at the sports carnival day on the Friday. The picnic was a great collaboration with the Melbourne Uni Community Garden group and attracted many prospective collective members from a range of year levels.

Melbourne Uni Farmers Market Launch:

We organised an UMSU branded stall at the inaugural Melbourne Uni Farmers Market on Wednesday 4th March. We had ‘Bike n’ Blend’ smoothie bikes in for smoothie giveaways to students and promotional material for the Environment Department and UMSU more generally.

Regular events:

We ran our first Play With your Food, Bike co-op (with breakfast), and Environment Collective meeting in Week 1 and kicked off our Thursday activity series with a screening of ‘Mining the Truth’, followed by an informal discussion that was facilitated by one of its makers. All events ran very smoothly and were well attended. We are currently in the process of finalising the semester one schedule for our Thursday activity series and better promoting it.

Earth hour

We will be hosting an Earth Hour event in North Court from 5.30pm on Thursday 26th March (global day Saturday 28th) and will spend much of our time planning this in the coming weeks. There will be a market style set-up similar to last year’s Earth Hour event and possibly a film screening. We hope to incorporate this year’s ‘food and farming’ theme as much as possible through the food and drinks we serve, the stalls we host and the entertainment we provide.

Toolangi State Forest

Along with a few enthusiastic collective members, we have started making arrangements for some organised tours and cycle tours to Toolangi State Forest so participants can learn more about the Great Forest National Park campaign.

Disabilities

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Sasha Chong and Susannah Gordon Disabilities Officers

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

Disability Department Video Campaign: A series of short videos to portray the reality of having a disability at university. All filming for two out of three videos has been completed, and the film makers are currently in the process of editing. The third video still needs to be filmed.

Eating Disorders Workshop: A 4 workshop on how to help someone struggling with disordered eating. The Eating Disorders Victoria workshop has been booked in for week 6. There will be two sessions over two days – very limited places will be available and we will begin advertising soon.

Film Screening: A screening of the film Mary and Max at Union House Theatre. We will be screening this during week 4, followed by food and drinks.

Anxiety Support Group Training: Training for facilitators of Anxiety Support Group. As currently only Sasha holds a qualification for facilitation, we are organising with ARCVic (Anxiety Recovery Centre) to train 3-4 more people so Anxiety Support Group can run every week, instead of fortnightly.

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Campaigns Our major campaigns on trigger warnings for classes and Auslan as a diploma. We are still in the early planning stages for these campaigns, and are aiming to get things in motion quite soon.

SMART recovery group: Training for facilitators and setting up a substance abuse/recovery support group. Training has already been paid for; we are waiting for the next round of training sessions to train our facilitators, after which we will establish regular support group meetings.

Indigenous

University of Melbourne Student Union Report of Tyson Holloway-Clarke Indigenous Officer

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

Key activities:

Organisation for our key projects this semester is well underway with the Indig. Uni Games coming along well with soft confirmations on funding from the University and Murrup Barak. With over 30 expressions of interest collected in the first day the goal of having 3 teams of 12 represent the University is well looking like a reality.

Repairing the relationship between the student body and Murrup Barak is also on it’s way but still must move slowly. This was partially initiated through meetings with the new associate director and their soft confirmation of support for the games.

Arts projects are also well underway with support from the Wilin Centre at Southbank and the Union House Theatre Artistic Directors Office. Look out for promotional material coming soon!

Finally on the 20th of March UMSU is hosting the first Indigenous social event for the year featuring a live music act. If you are Indigenous come down to Systems Gardens at 6pm to mingle with the new members of your mob!

Progress on assigned actions from last report:

OWeek reading tent. The reading tent went well with a good amount of students coming in to read and have a discussion. As a tester for a larger tent in week 12 it looks like its doable and poised to succeed.

Media

University of Melbourne Student Union Report of Madeleine Cleeve Gerkens, Martin Ditmann, Lynley Eavis & Simon Farley Media Officers

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

Edition 1 Farrago Edition 1 ran out in around three days, despite us ordering 5,250 copies! That’s even more than last year’s large run. We want a Farrago that reaches out to all, with a large and diverse spectrum of both readers and contributors. We had 65 contributors to this issue, with many people being published for the first time. We’re really proud of giving so many students opportunities to contribute. We’re also proud to have feature ground-breaking writing and graphics on many subjects that have been under-represented. We’re also incredibly grateful to all our amazing contributors, and the people who helped us distribute and promote it during O-Week. Thus, we were really happy with the success of Edition 1. Feel free tell us your thoughts too - what you liked and what you thought could be better! Launch Party and further launches and events Our launch party in System Gardens was a massive success, with by far the biggest turnout for a Farrago event we and past editors have seen. We’re focussed on making our launches really accessible, and thus bringing a sense of community to the Media Office. We had a great mix of people – from new Edition 1 contributors to long-time Farragoers to new and old readers of Farrago and listeners of The Fodder. Thank you to all the OBs and Councillors who came. We’re now looking towards more on-campus events, including Media Collective meetings (they’re back), Wordplay and our 90th birthday party. Edition 2 Is now being prepared, and should be going to the printers on Monday. #gethype The Fodder We’ve now delivered what’s been sought for many years and have a student radio station at this university! Our radio managers are working very hard with all our contributors to help them develop great shows, with a big chunk of shows slated to come on board in the next three weeks. They’re also working on making sure our technology works well and have gotten a range of playlists ready. Thank you to them, and to you, and to all our collective – we’re really proud of this and really grateful. Our new video channel is also slated to come on board soon. We’re hoping to have Australia’s largest student video channel by the end of the year, with a range of good, regular, funny, moving and well-planned clips. Online We have one of the highest page counts of Australian student magazines and we produce more pages of content than almost everyone else. However, we also have one of the highest contribution rates – maybe even the highest – in Australia. It’s generally around 130%-160% of magazine capacity. So it follows, then, that we’ve really ramped up the amount of online-exclusive content we’re publishing, with a large amount of articles being published online. This prepares us for the new Farrago website that we’re developing – another thing that’s been sought for a while. Queer

University of Melbourne Student Union Report of Andrea Bozic & Lloyd Rouse Queer Officers

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/03/2015

O-Week BBQ Picnic Our first event for the year was a huge success. We had around 60-70 students attend our BBQ Picnic and the general atmosphere and vibes were overall positive, with students not feeling unwelcome and neglected. Many of the students who attended have gone on to attend other events and regularly visit the Queer Space.

Free Lunch with the Queer Bunch. The free lunch in the queer space had more people turning up to it in week one than in most weeks last year. First years are meeting each other as well as some of the older queer students.

Queer Thursdays – Board Game Night Despite concerns that Board Games will not be a hugely popular and attendance will not be optimal, this event was a huge success. Around 20 students attended this event, and were incredibly keen to engage in the not so mainstream board games provided. Future Queer Thursdays will feature Movie Screenings, a LAN café event, as well as a mini-party with a night out afterwards.

Pride Prom Planning has begun for Pride Prom, scheduled for Week 9. This event will be the premier event for Semester 1 and will hopefully be well attended.

Community Building Our emphasis on the year, particularly first semester, is on building and invigorating a sense of community within the Queer Department. This is fostered by ensuring the Queer Space has an inviting and welcoming atmosphere, with maintaining a presence in the QS from the Office Bearers a key to achieving this. This not only has increased attendance to events but also has made the QS consistently occupied by students.

Planning and promotion for Rad, Sex and Consent Week Rad sex and consent week is a sex education week in week 7 that has a focus on consensual, healthy and safe sex and relationships. This year we are working with the Umsu International, Welfare, Disabilities and Indigenous departments to diversify the range, and increase the numbers of students engaged in the week. We are also liaising with Monash, RMIT and Swinburne for cross promotion of the workshops as well as opening and closing night events. Promotion of this week has already started. A secondary debriefing room is being organised with volunteer students and staff facilitating discussion and access to health services if need be.

O-week Stall Our O-week stall involved giving out bags full of resources for queer students at both the Parkville and the VCA campuses. The bags were snapped up at Parkville’s O-week stall and this was used to introduce students to some of the services and faculties provided by the queer department and by the university. VCA students seemed hesitant to walk up to the crowded stalls so the queer Officer on duty engaged queer students and started many deeper discussions about what was available for the queer students.

ACON Education The Queer Officers went to Sydney to access training on queer issues that is not available in Victoria. The training involved issues such as HIV prevention and stigma, safe sex for ladies who play with ladies, Trans and genderqueer issues as well as advocacy.

Safety in Clubs Working Group One of the queer officers is involved with the Safety in Clubs Working Group to ensure that queer students are protected by Clubs protocols.

Queer Space Protocol A protocol has been written up and submitted for the queer space so that staff and students who do not identify as queer but who may need to access the space due to their occupational responsibilities, have an approved way to access the queer space and the people inside it.

Welfare

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of James Bashford Welfare Officer

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/3/2015

The Welfare Department has had a fantastic start to semester, though with at least 5 events a week in an office normally shared by two people it has been very busy. My O-Week stall saw over 100 people sign up to register their interest in becoming a volunteer for the department and extremely high interest in the free fitness classes offered. Our first volunteer collective meeting last week laid the groundwork for what should be a great semester with a great group of volunteers from different backgrounds and plenty of ideas.

Breakfasts So far two breakfasts have been held serving over 250 students each week. This is reportedly much higher than last year since the location has been moved to South Court attracting a lot more passing traffic. Some issues were had last week with the delivery order to Coles with the delivery initially cancelled, forcing us to pick it up. It also contained mouldy bread. An issue of greater concern is the high cost of running this program, particularly with higher demand. Between BBQ hire and purchase of food, the BBQ costs at least $350-400 per week which for the whole year will bring the cost to as much as $9,600, almost half of the department budget. This is a significant reason why the Welfare Department comes close to exhausting its budget most years, while other departments often have large surpluses. Given that this year I plan on expanding much of the work the Welfare Department does with new programmes such as emergency food packs, this will likely mean that I will have to approach council for greater funding this year or be forced to cut programmes.

Emergency Food Packs While last year there was an attempt at starting up a food bank, any initiative such as this is limited by the lack of storage space available to the department at present. In the meantime, I have now created the first emergency packs which will be available to students in case of emergency situations such as domestic violence, homelessness, unemployment or general financial issues. Each pack currently costs around $10 though I’ve been getting advice from La Trobe Student Union’s Welfare Officers on how to minimise costs (theirs typically cost $6 a pack). The first packs were made last week and have also received input from my collective. They contain long life staples like rice, oats, fruit cups, baked beans, tea, tuna and long life milk as well as health and hygiene items like soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, condoms and pads. Despite the packs only being available for about a week with minimal promotion, I have already given one to a student who approached me for help.

In addition, several other students have approached me for assistance with food, which has come from a small food bank I am maintaining, the first of which was before O-Week. Last week, thanks to one of Coles’ mistakes being in our favour, we also had fresh veggies which were given out to several students after promoting it through social media. This is indicative of the serious need for such assistance programmes to exist and be funded by our union.

Fitness Classes Fitness classes are as usual in high demand. This has unfortunately created a very large and time consuming task of administering sign ups, not helped by issues with the sign up forms last week. Students have responded extremely well to the classes and the instructors, though some have not attended despite signing up. There was an issue with room bookings for last week’s Zumba class which resulted in some tension between the Zumba instructor (provided by Melbourne University Sport) and security. This issue has been addressed and room bookings have been checked to prevent any future issues.

Wom*n’s

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Allison Ballantyne and Lucy Curtis Wom*n’s Officers

To Students’ Council 9/15 12/3/15

Key activities:

Orientation Week: Our department received a fantastic response during O-week: we successfully handed out 900 Wom*n’s Department show bags and hosted a picnic in the Wom*n’s Room which was very well - attended.

Women’s Mentoring Network: WMN is underway, with the first networking night coming up in week 3 on Tuesday, March 17. The program has had around 50 mentors and 115 mentees sign up. We are running two training sessions for mentors this week, including presentations by Safer Community and UMSU Legal and Advocacy. We are currently creating mentor groups. We are also sourcing speakers for future networking nights.

Rad Sex and Consent Week: We have had multiple meetings with other departments and representatives from the MSA concerning Rad Sex and Consent week (week 7, semester one). We are currently sourcing people to run workshops during the week around 3 major themes: healthy relationships, consent and safe sex. We are aiming to create a week which will appeal to a broad range of students, as well as those already involved in UMSU’s autonomous departments. We are planning an opening film night and a closing event. We are also working on cross-campus promotional material for the event.

Regular Events: Our regular events began last week, and all four were quite well-attended. The department is receiving interest from both first-years and other students.

International Women’s Day Film Night: This Tuesday March 10, we are running a film night to celebrate International Women’s Day. The screening of Belle (2013) will take place in the Rowden White Library at 5pm. We will also centre our discussion during Wom*n’s Collective around International Women’s Day.

Social media and website: We have been working on creating cohesive branding and advertising for our department through new posters, new graphics for our Facebook page and by posting all of our events on our website/Facebook page. We have also been attempting to use Facebook to generate more interest in the department.

Budget expenditure since last report:

Meeting Date Description Amount Line-Item Comments no. 01/15 20/2/2015 Department O- $2,362.80 Orientation week showbags Expenses O-week picnic $100 Orientation food Expenses O-week zine $450 Orientation Expenses Wom*n’s $100 Special Collective food events and weeks 1 + 2 projects Queer and $80 Special Questioning QTs events and food weeks 1 + 2 projects Femme $0 Special Passed $20 but did not Afternoons food events and need weeks 1 +2 projects Blog domain $18 Blog domain Reimbursed Stephanie name Kilpatrick for renewal of umsuwomyns.com domain name Women’s $200 Special Networking Night events and 1 – food and gifts projects for speakers

Office Bearer Reports 20/1 – 19/2 2015

President

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Rachel Withers President

To Students’ Council 20/01/2015

Key activities:

Introductory meetings with university: Throughout late last year, I held meetings with various individuals in the university to discuss 2015 and the ways in which UMSU and the university can work together including Glyn Davis (VC) and Margaret Shiel (Provost), Elizabeth Capp (Directors Students and Equity), Dan Persaud (Director Wellbeing) and Paul Duldig (new head of University Services). Margaret Shiel has agreed to send out a welcome email to all students from myself, which is going to be one damn good email.

Induction: Organised Office Bearer Induction with Goldie, which was a great success. I included a new session with Sally Coates, formerly of the university’s Safer Community Program and now head of Campus Community (and who has been a great friend to Clubs & Societies), to run a wonderful session on welfare and teambuilding. As a group we established our own non-binding Code of Conduct for 2015.

Isegoria: I met with the head of a team of Computing & Information systems students working on an app called Isegoria, aimed at improving student engagement. The app would use students’ university login details, and features a news tab, an events tab, a photos tab, a tab about the make up of UMSU and a tab about elections (not online voting at this stage, although something he is interested in discussing a few years down the track). He is intending for the platform to be shared between UMSU, the GSA and the university, and he is intending to either have the university pay for it and to provide us with it for free if the university refuses. The GSA have provided the team with a letter of support, as have the City of Melbourne Council and the Minister for Innovation. I have provided my personal recommendation as president of UMSU, but council may of course opt not to be involved with it.

O-Week: This year we are introducing two new events to the regular program: a recurring UMSU Info session on Wednesday afternoon (to be held in and a Meet Your Student Reps social event on the Thursday afternoon. The usual O-Week events are well into the planning stages, and O-Week looks to be a great week again. Since late last year, I have been making sure all UMSU events will be promoted on university channels, and currently all our major events are featured on the university’s official Orientation website. I have also been in talks with individual faculties about securing UMSU a small window in faculty welcome sessions.

Colleges: Hana and I met with members of the Intercollegiate Council to discuss the gap between college students and the rest of the student community, and the ways in which we can get students living at college more engaged in UMSU. I will be writing to all the presidents of colleges and attending college dinners over the first few weeks of semester.

Student Precinct: I have attended two meetings in regard to the Student Precinct, with very little progress. The uni is currently compiling a template at UMSU’s instance in which to collate information about the different services that will be sharing the space in the Swanston/Grattan corner. I will keep council up to date on these throughout the year.

University Policy Improvement: Hana, Justin and I met with the university to make suggestions to their new Enrolment Policy and Special Consideration Policies, including removing specific restrictive examples of what cannot be considered for special consideration.

International fees: I have been approached by an international student who has concerns over the way in which their total fees are uncertain at the commencement of their degree (ie: an offer with the upcoming year’s fee and an indication of the total cost, subject to massive change). I have been looking into other countries and campaigns that have abolished this uncertainty around international fees, and I am currently researching the levels of awareness of the issue within the Melbourne University community. The same issues applies to non CSP places.

UMSU Mentoring Network: The UMSU Mentoring Network is a new initiative aimed at connecting students with a experienced mentor from within the student body. I spoke to several university staff members late last year and it has the university’s strong support. I applied for an Equity Innovation Grant for the program, which I was delighted to receive. I have since hired three Directors for the program, and they now have office space on level 4. Please make Vicky, Kalvin and Michael welcome.

List of action points to be completed by next report:

NUS Presidents Summit: Next week Hana and I will be attending the NUS Presidents Summit in Sydney. I will report back to council on the summit.

General Secretary

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Hana Dalton General Secretary

To Students’ Council 22/01/2015

Key activities:

Committees As Departments continue planning for the year ahead, I have been working with Office Bearers to prepare for their first few Committee meetings. I plan to attend the first meeting of each Department’s Committee where possible and appropriate to assist OBs with any questions or concerns about process and meeting procedure.

NUS Affiliation Myself and the UMSU President met with the President and General Secretary of the National Union of Students to discuss our needs and expectations as a 2015 affiliate organisation. We discussed the importance of transparency and accountability on the part of NUS, as well as ways in which NUS can provide information and support to us where necessary throughout the year, such as support in negotiations with the University.

Communications I have been one of many Office Bearers involved in working with the UMSU Communications Department to finalise O Week publications. I have also participated in discussions with the Media Officers and UMSU staff around the potential for a Farrago website.

Other Business:

It has been great to see the Office Bearer team approach the beginning of the year with such enthusiasm and hard work, and with a commitment to ensuring collaboration between departments. I am very much looking forward to seeing what we can come up with throughout the year.

Activities

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of James Baker and Hayden Michaelides Activities Officers

To Students’ Council 3/2/2015

Key activities:

O-Week: For O-Week, bottle openers were finalised from last years budget, so that we are able to give them out at our stall during the Tuesday UMSU carnival. Flyers have also been organised which display information for the upcoming events; Luna Park and SoUP. These will be handed out at our stall in conjunction with some of the bigger faculty clubs in their showbags.

Evening out at Luna Park:

The evening out at Luna Park is an event in which we have booked Luna Park out for 3 hours, with MSA Activities. This is going to be between 4pm and 7pm of Friday the 27th of February. This is going to be a dry event. $20 for tickets, which can be bought from the Info Desk from the 24th of February.

SoUP:

The annual Start of Uni Party has also began organisation. The posters have been completed, and this will be a party in North court on the 11th of March. There will be a DJ, cheap drinks, lasers, and dancing. Tickets will cost $10, and will be on sale from the Info Desk as of the 24th of February.

Tuesday BBQ’s:

For the Tuesday BBQ’s that are run in North Court, we have been able to help Tony decide which bands to approach to play. Acts that we have locked in so far include: Art vs Science, the Beards, Smith Street band, Sammy J and Randy, and much more! These have been decided with communication between students and the departments.

Clubs & Societies

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of

Claire Pollock & Stephen Smith Clubs & Societies Officers

To Students’ Council 22/01/15

Clubs Guide:

The C&S Department publishes its annual Clubs Guide to distribute at O-Week and throughout the year. We have spent the last two weeks compiling the descriptions and contact information for our 208 affiliated clubs and societies, as well as interested theatre groups. The Club Guide is currently being designed by the Communications and Marketing Division to be signed off in the next week.

Safety in Clubs:

We have initiated a Working Group on Safety in Clubs in collaboration with the Wom*n’s, Queer, Indigenous, Disabilities, and Welfare departments, as well as Sally Coates and Alanna from UMSU Advocacy. This group will be working to develop a Safety in Clubs protocol to develop consistent measures in which UMSU as an organisation responds to incidents that may occur. This reduces the burdens placed on individuals in departments who may be told information to protect them, and to ensure that those students receive appropriate referrals.

Small-campuses affiliation:

We will be looking to develop new regulations with alternative requirements for students at non- Parkville campuses to affiliate student groups. This will make it easier for non-Parkville students to have access to our departments, and to ensure that there is a vibrant culture on these campuses. Stephen met with the President of the Burnley Postgraduate Association on Wednesday to discuss this and will be meeting with other student groups from Burnley and Southbank in the coming weeks.

Camp Welfare Training:

Claire is working with Sally Coates to deliver welfare training to clubs who run camps to ensure that appropriate guidance is provided to students on camps. This involves having Camp Welfare Officers, and other measures to ensure that safety is paramount.

Events

The Clubs Expo will run on the Thursday and Friday of O-Week. We will be running the C&S Collective throughout Semester, and the Clubs Carnival will return!

Creative Arts

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Bonnie Leigh- Dodds and Isabella Vadiveloo Creative Arts Officer

To Students’ Council 1/11 22/1/2015

Key activities:

Making our office livable: We have done so much cleaning. A week of cleaning. This is probably our biggest single achievement to date. It’s not very exciting but we’re very happy with ourselves.

O week: We are working with UHT to get some roving performers to work at O week. The costumes have been sourced and comms have approved the hiring of 5 performers.

Mudfest: We have set the dates for mudfest and hired our production manager and access manager. The next couple of weeks will see us writing up other job descriptions, and drafting a budget.

Other activities: We have developed a budget for non Mudfest spending that is yet to be approved by our council. Once this happens we can start hiring workshop leaders and advertising grants.

We have also begun the initial planning for the Creative Arts departments involvement n both Above Water and the PEST student theatre forum.

Progress on assigned actions from last report:

N/A

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Budget Approval/ Committee meeting: It has proved more difficult than initially thought to organise a committee meeting. We assume this will be achieved by next student council meeting. Once we have our semester one spending approved we will be able to advertise our grants and start organising workshops through the department. This should also be completed before next meeting.

Education (Academic Affairs)

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Nellie Montague and Shanley Price Education (Academic Affairs) Office Bearers

To Students’ Council 17/02/2015

Key Activities

Countercourse We have recently finished the Countercourse Handbook which provides an alternative to the University Handbook as a place for students to read reviews of subjects written by students who have actually done them. Hard copies will be available during O-Week and also see umsu.unimelb.edu.au/countercourse/ for the cumulative online version.

SRN We are running the Student Representative Network (SRN) again this year. Applications are open now until the 6th of March. The SRN is a chance to get involved in the decisions that affect students at Uni. Student representatives will be placed on a committee within the University and will receive Governance Training which is being run by Advocacy and will hopefully have the Provost and possible the President of Academic Board speaking to students. This is a great program and we are getting lots of support from the Uni which is great. The GSA has also been invited, as have any student reps faculties appoint.

Campaigns We have had a number of students talking to us about issues; lectures not recorded, student centres crazy busy, resit rules being restrictive etc. Currently in the process of gathering information and experiences from students and working out the best way to discuss these issues with the University.

Academic Misconduct Meetings A number of OBs have sat on Academic Misconduct Committees and we are currently looking into training more OBs so we can always have a student available.

Education (Public Affairs)

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Conor Serong Education (Public Affairs) Officer

To Students’ Council 19/02/2015

Key activities:

Countercourse: Same details as Education Academic, book submitted today 19/02/2015 after some delays with approval. We hope to have an express run ready for the Tuesday of O-Week, with the main run being completed as soon as practicable following that. We had intended for the entire run to be ready, however the Communications department seems to have deprioritised our project, despite us being ready well in advance of deadlines.

National Day of Action: Wednesday 25 March, the National Union of Students has organise d a National Day of Action to protest fee deregulation by the Federal Government. UMSU will be sending a contingent down to the state library on this day to join with students from around the state in protest. Promotion for this NDA will occur during O-Week and throughout the first few weeks of semester.

UMSU Says No to Deregulation A run of UMSU-specific anti-deregulation posters has been designed and will be distributed as soon as practicable. These promote a new information page I have created on the UMSU website about fee deregulation, and will be used in conjunction with NDA promotional materials.

Academic Misconduct Meetings As with Education Academic, I have sat on a committee involving several claims of student academic misconduct. This week, I also underwent a training session alongside other OBs to better equip us to deal with these matters as they arise.

O Week Next week is Orientation Week. The Education Public stall on Tuesday 24 February will feature a “Spin the Wheel” stunt, where students will spin a wheel to see how much their course will cost if their fees are deregulated. The wheel for this stunt will be hired pending approval by the Education Committee. The National Union of Students has organised another stunt to be conducted on our campus on this day, which will feature a “kissing booth” comprising a life-sized Christopher Pyne cutout. Students will “kiss deregulation goodbye” by kissing Pyne, using the hashtag “#pashpyne” to promote social media engagement. This secondary stunt will not be the priority of this department, however cooperation will occur as required.

Environment

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Lauren Englefield and Daniel Sullivan Environment Office Bearers

To Students’ Council 22/01/2015

Key activities:

O-week preparations: We are planning an info stall, welcome picnic in the Melbourne Uni Community Garden and a stall promoting the bike co-op in o-week. We will be involving Sustainable Campus, the Fossil Free Melbourne Uni campaign group and the community garden group to engage students with groups whose activities are more specific to their interests and to demonstrate the breadth of the department’s initiatives. We will also take part in the UMSU meet & greet (your representatives) session in o-week with the hope to introduce new students to the environment collective. We will finish off the week by joining the Critical Mass bike ride from the State Library on Friday 27th February.

Regular activities: We are planning and making logistical arrangements for the return of weekly Bike Co-ops, Play With Your Food dinners, collective meetings and a workshop and discussion group series. This series will be brainstormed amongst an open collective meeting (of mostly older year students) in February. We hope to finalise topics so that we are able to promote it accurately at our o-week events. Rationale

Sustainable Campus collaborations: Plans are being made to work with Sustainable Campus on quarterly ride-to-uni breakfasts and an Earth Hour event on March 26th. Beyond raising awareness of climate change and its urgency, we hope the Earth Hour event, with its broad and recognisable reach, will also engage new collective members who may have missed us amongst other o-week activities. Likewise, we hope the ride-to- uni breakfasts will also allow us to promote the bike co-op further.

Farmers market launch: We will be involved, along with other UMSU representatives and Sustainable Campus, with the launch of the regular Farmers Market in Uni Square. The launch will be on Wednesday 4th March (week one of semester) and we have so far made tentative plans to incorporate the bike and blend smoothie bikes at our UMSU stall. Other ideas from Students Council are most welcome.

Other activities: We have made tentative plans, with Monash University’s student union environment representatives, to host a cycle tour to Toolangi State Forest in March. This will also be accessible via public transport for students unable to partake in the cycling section. We hope to make this something of an excursion where students can learn about –and become involved in– the current campaign in the Great Forest National Park.

This week, we will begin making plans to collaborate with the Creative Arts Department on an energy efficient theatre workshop/ workshop series.

We have also been working on a tentative budget based on the projected departmental budget that we hope to have passed at this Students Council meeting. This will be discussed at our first committee meeting in mid- February (exact date TBA).

Disabilities

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Sasha Chong and Susannah Gordon Disabilities Officers

To Students’ Council 22/01/2015

Key activities:

Disability Department Video Campaign: A series of short videos to portray the reality of having a disability at university. Last year our predecessors Jess and Sarina got the ball rolling for the production of a series of videos with a lighthearted feel giving information about what resources are available for students with disabilities. We have contracted a director and a videographer and have gotten in touch with people willing to be interviewed for the first set of videos hopefully being released by the start of term.

Eating Disorders Workshop: A 4 workshop on how to help someone struggling with disordered eating. We have been in touch with Eating Disorders Victoria to arrange a workshop possibly in week six for anybody who wants to learn more about supporting friends and family who have or may have disordered eating. This workshop was paid for with the 2014 budget, but unfortunately wasn’t arranged in time before the year’s close. We are hoping to split the 4 hours into two 2 hour days.

Access tour: A tour of the University’s for people with access issues. To be run in week 1, we aim to give a tour to familiarise students with the campus paying special attention to areas of difficult access and how to get around them. This includes making note of where footpaths are, ramps, hearing loops, and quiet spaces etc. After this tour we plan on having a small welcome back party that will be a dry event, similar to the kid’s party picnic in 2014.

Anxiety Support Group Training: Training for facilitators of Anxiety Support Group. As currently only Sasha holds a qualification for facilitation, we are organising with ARCVic (Anxiety Recovery Centre) to train 3-4 more people so Anxiety Support Group can run every week, instead of fortnightly.

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Rad Sex and Consent Week: We are going to meet up with the wom*ns and queer officers of Melbourne and Monash to discuss ideas for Rad Sex and Consent Week. Our current plan is to have three workshops: a sexy sign language class (run by our dear Deaf friend, Beth), a workshop on disability and sexuality, and a workshop for navigating relationships and mental illness (run by Susannah).

Indigenous

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Tyson Holloway-Clarke Indigenous Department

To Students’ Council 22/01/2015

Key activities: Developing Key Objectives for the Year 5 Key Areas for the Year This year the Indigenous Department is focusing on 5 key areas; 1. Repairing student relationships with Murrup Barak 2. Providing student support and opportunities 3. Organising the National Tertiary Indigenous Games team for UniMelb 4. Organising Reconciliation Week in Week 12 5. Creating meaningful indigenous content for the student body to consume.

Progress is moving slowly but plans are in place for points 2 through 5 with meetings being scheduled to begin taking action on these points. Repairing the relationship between MB and the student body will be slightly different then the others.

Each key area will have it’s own working group consisting of myself and Indigenous Committee members and any other volunteers.

O•Week This year the Indigenous Department is keeping things basic for O•Week engagement with collaboration between the colleges, Murrup Barak and the BA/SCX program so students know from the get go what UMSU can do for them and the opportunities available within the Indigenous Department. There are plans to create some posters for the key events for the year and have them ready for display in key locations around campus during O•Week but engaging with the students will really start with the first collective Tuesday Week 1, detailing all the cool plans for the year.

Media

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Maddy Cleeve Gerkens, Martin Ditmann, Lynley Eavis and Simon Farley Media Office

To Students’ Council 1/11 22/01/15

Key activities:

Recruitment: We received over 200 applications for various positions within the Media Department – this is probably a record. We were able to give some 130 of these formal positions. There is an unprecedented level of diversity within the collective with regard to degree, campus, ethnocultural background, experience, political beliefs, and age. We have several new ‘teams’, including one for reviews and another for campus reporting. Everyone seems super keen, as are we.

The Fodder: We’re launching an online radio station! See our motion.

Edition 1: Submissions for Edition 1 of Farrago are now open; the deadline is February 1. We’ve already commissioned many promising articles. We’ve revised many aspects of layout, branding, and our style guide.

Events: We have begun planning all of the events: Media Collective (it’s back!), Wordplay (spoken word nights), our classic launch parties (please come), and the 90th birthday party of Farrago, to occur during the inaugural Media Week (Week 5).

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Action#1: Be ‘on track’ to launch The Fodder and Edition 1 by O-Week.

Action #2: Be legends.

Queer

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Andrea Bozic and Lloyd Rouse Queer Officer Bearers

To Students’ Council 22/01/2015

Key activities:

Planning for the year We are beginning to work on the budget while also taking into account event planning for the year. We have an initial meeting for Rad sex and consent week After council.

Planning for O-week This involves creating goodie bags to give out to queer students, finding a safe space for first years to meet others like themselves and revising and printing the First Year Queer Survival Guide as outlined below.

Revision of the First Year Queer Survival Guide An up to date welcome and collection of resources for first year queer students aimed at engaging queer students at the university, growing the queer collective and offering basic information and contacts to help first years survive the upcoming year.

Contacting outside Queer organisations in order to network We aim to facilitate future interactions with outside groups by contacting them and

Progress on assigned actions from last report:

None. This is the first report.

List of action points to be completed by next report:

Action#1: Finish Budget and year planning.

Action #2: Have O-week completely prepared for.

Budget expenditure since last report:

There has been no spending so far.

Recommendations

We wish to work with the Activities office to run a Pride Prom later this year.

Welfare

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of James Bashford Welfare Officer

To Students’ Council/Committee 1/15 22/1/2015

In the past 3 weeks since moving into the office, I’ve been busy setting up for a busy year ahead. The Welfare Department begins the year with little in the way of assets. Despite only being purchased last year, two of the department’s banners have been torn at the top and are no longer useable unless repaired, while no records or files have been left from the previous office bearer. Nonetheless I have been lucky to receive advice and support from previous Welfare Officer Lindsey Motteram as well as Seb Horey who was Welfare Officer at La Trobe Student Union. The office has also quickly amassed several boxes of kitchenware from other departments and the university which will be able to be offered to students living out of home as part of a new service this year.

This year the Welfare Department will once again run Stress Less Week (run as Wellness Week last year) in conjunction with the University’s Wellness@Melbourne program. This has been set for week 10 of Semester 1 from May 11th – 15th, and is also planned for week 10 of semester 2. I have already met with Danielle from Wellness@Melbourne to begin planning this week as well as discussing other initiatives where we can work together this year. I’ll also be encouraging other UMSU departments as well as clubs and societies to come on board and participate in what should be a fantastic week.

Another key project for this year will be establishing the household goods service which will offer household items like kitchenware to students living out of home as well as appliances like vacuum cleaners which can be borrowed. I plan to also establish a food bank as part of this service. The key challenge for this will be finding storage space in Union House which will be easily accessible for students in a way that protects their privacy, as well as the costs involved in setting it up.

This year will also see the department continue the successful free weekly breakfasts and fitness classes while other events currently in planning include:  A barbeque in conjunction with Wellness@Melbourne promoting Vichealth’s “No Excuse Needed” campaign.  Tea and coffee stalls at libraries during the exam period.  Campaigns to improve access to concession cards.  Campaigns against GP copayments and attacks on Medicare.

In the next few weeks I will continue to meet with University departments to introduce and familiarise myself with them while preparing for the department’s O-Week Stall. Additionally, the first Welfare Committee Meeting is planned for next week where we will set the department’s budget for the year.

Wom*n’s

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Allison Ballantyne and Lucy Curtis Wom*n’s Officers

To Students’ Council 22/1/15

Key activities:

Wom*n’s Room Maintenance: We spent a couple of days during our first week cleaning and re- organising the Wom*n’s Room and its book collection.

Department logo: Currently working with the Communications team to create a new logo for the Wom*n’s Department which will be used across all our promotional material.

O-Week: We’ve been finding resources and free stuff for our Wom*n’s Department O-Week showbags, and we’re in the process of having department stickers and printed canvas bags designed. We are also writing and seeking submissions for the Wom*n’s Department Zine, which will be included in our O-Week showbags.

Rad Sex and Consent Week: Organisation of Rad Sex and Consent Week (week 7 of semester one) has begun. We are working with the Queer Officers and with the MSA’s Queer and Women’s Officers to create a cross-campus event.

Regular events: We have almost finished scheduling our regular events and are aiming to publicise the times and days by the end of this week.

Women’s Mentoring Network: We have started looking into dates for our Women’s Mentoring Night. We are planning to put up the registration form for mentors and mentees and begin advertising the program this week. We are also going to start contacting potential speakers for our Women’s Mentoring Nights this week.

VCA

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Van T Rudd Campus Coordinator Dept of the VCA

To Students’ Council 22/1/2015

Key activities:

Academic Advice Day For Academic advice day at the VCA, we have organised through the VCA’s External Relations to have VCASA information included in the VCA information pack for new and returning students. The information on our leaflet outlines the VCASA’s achievements so far and what we are planning for 2015.

O-Week The main day for O-week at the VCA is Wed 25th Feb, where we are organising a VCSA stall with union information for students. There will also be a stand- up comic and BBQ during the lunchtime period. We are also collaborating with VCA music students in building a night of entertainment at Lionel’s Bar which will include several VCA bands and affordable drinks.

Education Campaign Due to the ongoing cuts and plans for uni deregulation by the government we have already starte d to build the Student National Day of Action, scheduled for March 25th. We’ll be having a stall with VCASA information plus entertaining students at lunch time with a VCA band outside the café on a large outdoor stage. There’ll also be a free BBQ with drinks to satisfy student hunger as they listen to and watch the band.

VCA Student Association Art Grants Building off the success of last year’s grants round, we’ve already started planning the next round for 2015. Students will be offered a much smoother process once applications are successful and the money is passed on to them. They will be able to focus more upon their given projects and exhibitions.

Yoga We are in the process of re-running the popular yoga classes at the VCA which will be running Tuesdays and Wednesdays in semester 1.

University of Melbourne Student Union

Report of Van T Rudd VCA Dept Campus Coordinator

To Students’ Council 17/02/2015

Activities

O-Week The main day for O-week at the VCA is Wed 25th Feb, where we are organising a VCSA stall with union information for students. There will also be a stand- up comic and BBQ during the lunchtime period. We are also collaborating with VCA music students in building a night of entertainment at Lionel’s Bar which will include several VCA bands and affordable drinks.

We are lending our BBQ to other departments for their post o-week events and we are starting to get organised for the National Day of Action against the budget cuts.

One thing that has slowed us down is an administrative annoyance. We allocated more photocopying to our last year’s budget so we could use it in the lead up to O-week this year. Such paying forward should be fairly straight forward, in the same way collectives often buy materials i n one year, knowing they will be useful in the next. Having this photocopy budget taken from us has put us behind in terms of printing our o-week material and putting up posters for our O-week party.

Motion 4: To accept all OBs reports en bloc Mover: Rachel Withers (Chair) CARRIED

6. General Manager’s Report Postponed 7. Other Reports None 8. Operational Business 2015 Operations Sub-Committee – Returning Officer’s Report Fiona Sanders sent notice to Hana Dalton that the Operations Sub Committee was elected unopposed. The members of Operations Sub Committee are Sarah Xia, Lachlan Gell, Danielle Bagnato, Itsi Weinstock and Karly Banks Motion 5: To accept the Returning Officers’ Report Mover: Hana Dalton Seconder: Rachel Withers CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT 9. Motions on Notice 9.1 Presidents’ Summit Motion 6: to move up to $500 from budget line Conferences to reimburse Rachel Withers for conference registration fees and travel costs for the NUS Presidents' Summit (report to be presented at council) Moved: Rachel Withers Seconded: Hana Dalton CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT

Discussion surrounding passing money after an event has run. Request from Council that large expenditures be noted before the event not after.

Motion: That Students’ Council approve up to $200 from budget line Whole of Union to purchase two EpiPens for whole organisational use (including: VCESS, Destination Melbourne, Camps, etc.) The C&S Committee will also purchase two additional EpiPens for clubs to use. Moved: Clare Pollock Seconded:

Motion: To pass $878.08 out of Whole of Union budget line for hire and delivery of Smoothie Bikes for Farmers Market Launch on March 4th 2015 Moved: Rachel Withers Seconded

Preamble: This weekly event provides a welcoming and chill atmosphere for queer students to meet others as well as indulge in some food and beverages. Unfortunately due to some committee members being unable to attend meetings, and unwilling to respond, a budget and funds are unable to be passed to run this event. Motion: To reimburse Andrea Bozic $150 per week for Pizza supplied in Week 1 and 2 Free Lunch. To use $150 from the Special Projects and Events line to pay for Weeks 2 and 3 of Free Lunch with the Queer Bunch, all from the Queer budget line Moved: Lloyd Rouse Seconded: Andrea Bozic

Motion 7: To pass the above motions relating to EpiPens, Smoothie Bikes, Queer Dept Expenditure en bloc Mover: Rachel Withers CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT

9.5 Motion 8: To thank Evie, Frankie and the rest of the events team for their tireless effort and long hours put into making O-Week 2015 such an amazing success. Moved: Rachel Withers Seconded: Hana Dalton CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT

10 Motions Without Notice 10.1 Wom*n’s Expenditure – Food for Wom*n’s Collective Motion 9: To pass $100 for food for Wom*n's Collective for weeks 3 and 4 from the Wom*n's Department budget line Special Events and Projects and to pass $80 for food for Queer and Questioning QTs for weeks 3 and 4 from the Wom*n's Department budget line Special Events and Projects. Moved: Hana Dalton Seconded: Allie Ballantyne CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT

10. 2 Protest Abbott in Melbourne Preamble: Prime Minister Tony Abbott will in Melbourne this Friday the 13th for an event at the National Gallery of Victoria. In response, the National Union of Students is organising a protest.

This is an important opportunity to mobilise students to oppose the government's ongoing attacks on higher education ahead of the upcoming National Day of Action, as well as to oppose the host of other attacks the government is engaged in.

This visit to Melbourne comes just after Abbott announced his intention to cut servi ces to remote Indigenous communities on the grounds that Indigenous people living on their land is a 'lifestyle choice'; and condemned the president of the Human Rights Commission for holding an inquiry into children in detention. Motion: 1. That UMSU endorses the protest against Abbott to be held outside the NGV at 5:30 on Friday 13 March. 2. That the UMSU facebook page advertises the protest. 3. That UMSU office bearers promote the protest through their departments. Mover: Lia Vassiliadis Seconded: Hana Dalton

Steven Connolly suggest an amendment, so the motion reads Motion: 1. That UMSU endorses the protest against Abbott to be held outside the NGV at 5:30 on Friday 13 March. 2. That the UMSU facebook page advertises the protest. 3. To encourage UMSU OBs if they wish to support the protest through their departments. This is not amenable to the mover. Discussion surrounding the amendment, and the appropriateness of autonomous departments being directed by the motion. Discussion regarding the tone of the motion, and the accessibility issues of rallies.

Speaking list exhausts, so amendment is voted on fist Motion 10: That part 3 of the motion read “to encourage UMSU OBs if they wish to support the protest through their departments.” Mover: Stephen Connolly Seconder: Rachel Withers CARRIED

Preamble: Prime Minister Tony Abbott will in Melbourne this Friday the 13th for an event at the National Gallery of Victoria. In response, the National Union of Students is organising a protest.

This is an important opportunity to mobilise students to oppose the government's ongoing attacks on higher education ahead of the upcoming National Day of Action, as well as to oppose the host of other attacks the government is engaged in.

This visit to Melbourne comes just after Abbott announced his intention to cut services to remote Indigenous communities on the grounds that Indigenous people living on their land is a 'lifestyle choice'; and condemned the president of the Human Rights Commission for holding an inquiry into children in detention. Motion 11 1. That UMSU endorses the protest against Abbott to be held outside the NGV at 5:30 on Friday 13 March. 2. That the UMSU facebook page advertises the protest. 3. to encourage UMSU OBs if they wish to support the protest through their departments. Mover: Lia Vassiliadis Seconded: Hana Dalton CARRIED 3 Abstentions 9 Other Business Queer Expenditure Motion 12: to pass $150 from the Queer Special Projects and Events budget line for the purchase of a DVD, drinks and snacks for a movie night Mover: Lloyd Rowse Seconder: Andrea Bozic CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT Wom*ns Expenditure Motion 13: That Allie Ballantyne be reimbursed $16 from the Wom*ns Special Projects and Events budget line for the purchase of the DVD screened at the IWD event. Mover: Allie Ballantyne Seconder: Rachel Withers CARRIED WITHOUT DISSENT 10 General Managers Report – Justin Baré Justin gave a brief report to Council, detailing -the signing of the Facilities and Services Agreement with MUSUL - MUSUL’s SiiP -the AV@Melbourne Change Management Process. - OHS - There have been a few OHS incidents, but nothing indicative of systematic issues and nothing hugely significant. - Volunteering Review – waiting for updates to the report. 11 Next Meeting 24th March at 12 noon 12 Close Meeting closed at 1:18pm