Equity Committee
The first SRC meeting saw deliberation on the creation of an Equity Committee as provisioned for in the SRC charter. The charter states that “the purpose of the Committee is to communicate plans between the various departments, to help plan cross-departmental events and also provide recommendations to the Councils as to motions and events.” The Committee would comprise of the Ethnic Affairs, Indigenous, International, Queer, Students with Disabilities, Welfare and Women’s Officers as well as their COFA counterparts. Further deliberation will be held at the next SRC meeting.
Creation of SER
The first meeting of the new Student Engagement & Representation Committee took place on the 10th of February after its creation last year. An internal Arc committee, it is comprised of the heads of Arc, Marketing and the various bodies that represent student interests within Arc.
Benjamin Heenan, current SER chair and Arc Board director, commented that “The Student Engagement and Representation Ad Hoc Committee (SER) brings together the heads of all our independent student bodies – SRC, PGC, SDC, COFA Council, IRC, and Tharunka. It provides these bodies a clear link to Board, while allowing a forum for discussion about current issues they face that might have universal applications across the other bodies.” The committee is also to address issues relating to accountability within the organisations.
Young Liberals in turmoil
Recent ruptures have formed in the Young Liberal presence at UNSW as factions seem to be partaking in a factional war. Since the UNSW Liberal Club disbanded in 2012, the Freedom Club and Liberalism Society have sprung up to fill the void left by their predecessor, with the potential for a third club associated with the hard right Liberal faction to be inaugurated in 2014. See page 4 for more on this story.
Student Unity elects new campus convenor
Jack Power, now entering his second year, has been elected the new convenor of the Student Unity faction on campus. The faction is the student wing of the Centre Unity faction of the NSW Labor Party. It is reported that he ran against Brendan Byron, a fourth year Media student.
At the state level, UNSW student Dorothy Rapisardi lost out to University of Sydney SRC President Jennifer Light in a ballot for state convenor of the faction. This is the first time in the last few years that anyone at UNSW has had an opportunity at gaining the position since Amber Setchell occupied the position for six months in 2010. These events come after the loss of the Student Unity ticket ‘Stand Up’ at the 2013 UNSW SRC elections.
Megadeth
In more interesting news, Megadeth, one of the seminal Thrash Metal bands of the 1980s, has cancelled both its Soundwave appearance and all Australian tour dates, including its scheduled O-Week appearance at the Roundhouse. The situation escalated into a ‘he said, she said’ argument between festival organiser AJ Maddah and Dave Mustaine over social media. Maddah claims the fault lies with Mustaine and alleges Mustaine had pushed for the removal of Jason Newsted and his band from the tour. Mustaine denies this. Maddah has since tweeted a long apology, to which Mustaine has yet to respond as we go to print.
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