USU Candidate Profile: Nick Rigby
Name: Nick Rigby
Studies: Arts (Politics, Political Economy) III
Faction: Running as an independent, Moderate Liberate affiliated
Colour, slogan, campaign manager: light blue, Ribgy’s Ready, Nicholas Comino and Zach Pitkethley
Nick, as President of SASS, comes to this election with a relatively high profile and level of experience. He has an admirable focus on mental health, but lacks transformative policies - he is a thoroughly status quo candidate. Disappointingly, he scored only 52% on the Pulp quiz, while the other faction-aligned domestic student candidates uniformly achieved between 80 and 90%. Despite his C&S involvement, he lacked knowledge about the process for approving clubs and societies. He could also not recall figures like the USU’s 2018 revenue, the amount paid in SSAF each semester by students, or the allocation of SSAF to USyd’s student organisations. Awkwardly, he said that Eve Wang had resigned from the Board in January, despite having attended the most recent Board meeting where she was present - the correct answer is Zimeng Ye. This lack of preparation, while continuing in a rather mediocre Libdependent tradition of poor quiz scores, was surprising for a candidate who frames himself as being ‘ready’ to be a Director.
Nick’s three favourite policies were increasing live music and student performances on campus, expanding mental health services and campaigning for improvements to the CAPS system, and re-energising campus upon the return of students. He framed these as effective ways to revive the USU after COVID, suggesting that we will need mental health services to “reconnect”. He was able to specify the USU sponsored events he would like to hold, including “coffee catch-ups, C&S nights, trivia nights”. While these could be achievable policies, the current capacity of the revenue-deprived USU to finance ideas like a USU counselling program or many C&S parties is questionable. When we asked about how to make USU events accessible to students facing long working hours, commutes and high rent, Nick answered that the USU should increase Happy Hours and offer cheaper food and drinks on campus and hold “as many events as possible”. It is likely that implementing these types of initiatives will be particularly difficult given the current state of USU finances.
On the topic of how he would address the unprecedented financial stresses facing the USU, Nick told us that he “wouldn’t cut a program in particular” but instead would look to “diversify” the USU’s cost-cutting. In terms of how he would improve revenue streams, he looked to “negotiating with external organisations” for example through sponsorships with companies which specialise in mental health. When we asked whether there are any companies that should be avoided on ethical grounds, Nick said that he would only support sponsorships where “the message was relevant to students.”
Despite being connected with campus Liberals and working on several Moderate Liberal election campaigns, Nick told us that he didn’t think the USU should be political and should prioritise serving students. He worried that making “divisive” decisions detracted from the organisation’s student focus. When asked whether the USU should advocate on political questions that affected students, like international student support from the government, Nick conceded that there was a “certain level of inevitability” to the USU engaging in politics, and that he would campaign if he believed it to be necessary. On the topic of controversial clubs and societies, Nick states that he would take all sides into consideration.
Speaking about the current issue of USU transparency, Nick acknowledged that there was an “understandable level of frustration” with the lack of information available to students, but there were definitely still decisions that should be made in camera. He suggested that there were other avenues for being more transparent, for instance live coverage of Board meetings. He told us he would not consider leaking information, instead trusting in the capacity of student media to discover and report on any problems within the USU.
When asked what kind of person he would like to be the next Vice Chancellor, his reply centred around respecting “students’ voices”, in the hope of avoiding a “disconnect” between university management and students.
Overall, Nick was generally able to clearly articulate his priorities for the Board. He emphasised an apolitical, student services oriented USU, with a focus on mental health. His platform certainly doesn’t depart much from the status quo, although it does contain some interesting policies like a USU counselling service. Perhaps the most problematic aspect of Nick’s candidature was his poor score in the quiz - it reflected patchy knowledge of the organisation and a lack of preparation compared to the other candidates.
You can view his full interview here.