Week 13 - Week 14, Semester 2, 2014 First Published 1953 Volume 60, No. 14 University of NSW’s Independent Student Newspaper 2 EDITORIAL UNSW Tyree Energy Technologies Building Roof Solar Panels Image credit: Neerav Bhatt Editorial: A letter to the present and future Vice-Chancellors of UNSW Welcome to the last issue of Tharunka for 2014. Professor Hilmer has repeatedly refused to take a stand been a selfish Vice-Chancellor, and this University will In more ways than one, it’s the end of an era for on fossil fuel divestment, even as the Australian Na- not miss you. UNSW, as we bid farewell to outgoing Vice-Chancellor, tional University made international headlines with its The incoming Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Jacobs Professor Fred Hilmer, who will retire in early 2015 af- decision to stop investing in energy companies which of the University of Manchester, now has the opportu- are slowly corroding our planet. ter spending nine years in the top job at UNSW, seeing nity to show leadership in shaping a truly collaborative UNSW invests $50 million in fossil fuel stocks his salary rise above $1 million a year in the process. University that undertakes real consultation with its around the globe, $44 million of which is invested in What is remarkable about his tenure at UNSW is largest stakeholder: students. Australian equities. Universities occupy a unique role that Professor Hilmer was appointed to the role with Professor Jacobs, the tenure of your predecessor has as the progenitors of innovation and advancements in the business acumen of having been at the helm of a shown that UNSW is an institution that can weather society, and UNSW itself is a world leader in renewable major Australian company, Fairfax, during it’s slow and the strongest of mismanagement storms. energy research. Continuing to invest in fossil fuels painful demise, and yet nobody batted an eyelid at the We believe that you can do better. shows a contemptible disregard for the planet that sus- thought of giving this man control over a leading Aus- You have the chance to make UNSW the leading tains us and the research pouring out of this University tralian research university. choice of Australian students by bucking the group- proving the unsustainability of fossil fuels. What is more remarkable still is that, despite Pro- think of the Group of Eight universities, and imple- Perhaps most significantly, Professor Hilmer has ex- fessor Hilmer’s lengthy tenure at UNSW, the fate that menting real change that affects generations of stu- pended more energy than any Vice-Chancellor in Aus- dents. Fossil fuel divestment, fee deregulation and food has marked Fairfax’s gradual movement towards ir- tralia, rivalling ANU’s Ian Young, in doggedly pursuing affordability on campus are just three of the biggest relevance has not befallen this University quite so ex- a political agenda of fee deregulation in the university concerns students share regarding their future. Con- tremely. sector. While the Australian Government has only ad- sultation with the student body will easily unearth the In his time at UNSW, Professor Hilmer has presided vanced this proposition under Tony Abbott’s Prime rest. over the increased corporatisation of this University, Ministership, Professor Hilmer has been ahead of the The opportunity to shape a public institution of the spearheading the move to push smaller, cheaper food pack, spending the better part of his nine years as Vice- stature of UNSW is not one that comes around often. vendors off campus in order to allow large chain gi- Chancellor arguing for fee deregulation on every media Professor Jacobs, that opportunity is now yours. If you ants to set up shop with increasingly unaffordable food platform that will take him. choose to listen, you will have 56,000 students, and prices. The irony, UNSW students have told us to date, If Hilmer has shown a contemptible disregard for millions more Australians, behind you. If you do not, is that to afford eating at these food outlets, they are the environment through his rejection of fossil fuel your name will blend into obscurity on the long list of forced to work multiple jobs which leave them with no divestment, the same can easily be said about his con- time to have the lazy lunches with friends so artfully temptible disregard for students, who have overwhelm- Go8 Vice-Chancellors who have wasted the opportunity depicted in UNSW’s promotional material for prospec- ingly indicated time and time again that they do not to truly lead their universities in difficult times. tive students. want increases in university fees. UNSW is at a crossroads. Which path will you take? To add to his many and varied lack of achievements, Professor Hilmer, we’re calling it now: you have -Ammy, Freya & Tina AGONY IBIS 3 Dear Agony Ibis, How do I rid myself of these nightmares? How do I them personal questions in order to engage them then Something happened to me recently and I’m still stop living in fear? Will I spend the rest of my university twist the conversation to suit your purpose. Try physi- recovering from it. And when I finally fall asleep, I career fearing the one week my status as student is sud- cally blocking their path. Get some friends together see them again in my nightmares. They come for me, denly valuable? I fear I won’t be the same… at least until and cage them in. no matter what. It happens over and over and it’s al- I graduate. Alternatively, try talking to them about the SRC. ways the same. Their eyes follow me, seek me out. Begging for help and mercy. Find out why they’ve been cutting class all week to has- Their hands claw at me, shoving flyers into my hands. A. Student sle you. Do you know what the SRC does? Me neither, Their shirts surround me, like some twisted Christmas perhaps you could write back when you find out and theme. Some of them are wearing bucket hats. I fear for Dear A. Student, we could both know? But judging by how many people my life. I try to run but there is no escape. First off, remember that you are not alone. Election were out there and how hard they fought, it seems kind I wake up in a sweat and I know that it’s not election week is a stressful time for everyone and there are prob- of important. week anymore but I still see them, still feel them push- ably many out there like you, still recovering from the It’s almost as if they’re trying to get positions where ing against me. The campaigners are everywhere and I difficulty of having to change their walking routes or they make a lot of key decisions about your university can’t shake them. I scream in my sleep, “I have to get to deal with strangers desperately trying to take five min- using funding that comes from your uni fees. Maybe it class!”, “I’m not interested!”, “I’m exercising my right to utes of your time. very directly involves you? Who knows, maybe it even abstain from voting”, then finally “I ALREADY VOTED!” My best advice is to face your fears; seek out some- involves this newspaper? I kind of wish there were The first crowd moves away, satiated, but the walk- one who was in one of those t-shirts and have a talk to someone to tell me. way stretches ahead of me and I know that at least five them. Better yet, make up a flyer outlining the situation Wait. more will approach me before I can truly escape. I’ve for them and then accost them on a walkway. Follow Yours, never been this inconvenienced. them even as they do their best to shake you off. Ask Agony Ibis 4 NEWS Fewer internship places for med grads despite doctor shortage Nick Timms “Completing an internship is an es- have no choice but to go back to the US to “Right now I think for UNSW it’s usu- sential process for a graduate to work as do my internship and complete my stud- ally local students [who] get internships a doctor in Australia. If the government ies there. And then if I go back to the US, and international students don’t. That’s Approximately 240 medicine stu- is serious about correcting the ongoing I will hopefully get an internship there, how they’re separating it,” she says. dents in Australia will not be given doctor shortage, it only makes sense to which is also difficult, because since I “At [the University of] Queensland, an internship placement at the end of completely utilise the graduating Aus- studied outside the US, I might be lower they do it around academics, so it doesn’t this year despite a continuing short- tralian workforce.” on their priority list, so I’m kind of in a matter if you’re an international student age of doctors in many Australian re- The Commonwealth Medical Initia- really bad situation here.” or a local; if your academics are good gions, according to a national audit of tive, developed to help internationally Nikela has also noticed that other in- enough then you’ll get an internship. So offers by the National Medical Intern born Australian graduates complete an ternational medicine students at UNSW in Queensland there are local students Data Management Working Group. internship in Australia, promised up to might be in a similar position. who haven’t gotten internships.” Meanwhile, many areas of rural and 100 places.