Recap: June USU Board Meeting (26/6/2020)
Nicolette Petra reports.
With all Board Directors present and on time, today’s Board meeting kicked off over Zoom at 1:03pm (and was then reopened at 1:04 as President Connor Wherrett relocated his agenda on his laptop).
Apologies were made by Liliana Tai, who would have to depart the meeting early but would try to stick around a little longer than expected.
Then we moved to the motions. There were 3 motions needing to be covered in the meeting, all concerning amendments to USU Regulations that were contradictory with Articles in the USU Constitution.
Wherrett gave some background information about the amendments, stating, “The Regulations aim to clarify the Constitution,” and “The Regulations aren’t changing an existing position, they are simply clarifying it.”
Wherrett stated that in his President’s Report at the end of the meeting he would recommend that in the next Annual General Meeting agenda there be “robust debate, voting and clarification of members’ opinions” regarding whether Senate Appointed Directors should have voting rights in the USU’s Executive Elections.
Incoming Vice President Nick Forbutt agreed, stating “As an executive member going into the next year, it is something we need frank conversation about. We need to centre the conversation more on the university and the university’s influence because that should be at the heart of everything we do.”
Senate Appointed Director, Marie Leech was also in “absolutely support the open discussion.”
Outgoing Honorary Secretary Decheng Sun moved the motion which was seconded by Jane and passed.
The second amendment was to Regulation 2.4.2 concerning the chairing of the Debating Committee. For the first time, no Board Director is part of the committee, meaning the Regulation needed to amended to enable anyone to chair the committee. This was also passed.
At 1:18pm, the Board moved in-camera (meaning Pulp could not watch) to discuss the third amendment. It was at this point I started chewing my way through a packet of pistachios, half of which I had demolished by the time the Board returned at 2pm.
Upon returning, we moved to Other Decisions in which the Board made a motion concerning the Morrison government’s cuts to higher education fees (read in full at the bottom of this article). In the motion, read by Forbutt, the USU Board called on students and staff to “fight to protect our rights and freedoms to access an education that is affordable, high quality and multidisciplinary.” It listed a number of ways to achieve this, including protesting. For some, this may be ironic considering that there was a protest today at Town Hall about this very issue yet, not enough Directors were in favour of moving the meeting to another date so that those wanting to stand against the university fee increases could attend.
With that said, Honorary Treasurer Maya Eswaran agreed with the motion, advising the new board that “it’s extremely important to take up this fight as universities are often among the hardest hit” in these times and that staying on top of this issue “will be critical in the coming months.”
Sun also drew attention to the importance of needing to “stand united as students” against the cuts, citing that current media coverage of the issue has pitted students against each other: “In media coverage they’re saying things like international students are paying $40,000 per year so domestic students shouldn’t complain about fee increases, but the problem is the government is creating division between the students - between Arts and STEM and between domestic and international students.”
He also “strongly [recommended that the Board] post content on WeChat to encourage international students to stand with our domestic classmates.”
Wherrett echoed the sentiment, thanking the faculties outside the Arts and Humanities, namely the Engineering society, for their statements against the cuts.
The CEO and Secretary Reports saw Jess Reed recommend that “the format of future reports be made less retrospective and more forward-looking” and that “reporting on future planning and strategy rather than discussing what happened in the last 8 weeks” be prioritised.
There was also discussion throughout the meeting about whether the USU would return to traditional elections or take up online alternatives. Forbutt, who was elected Vice President at the beginning of this month, cited the sunset clause which outlines that online elections will only last until the end of 2020, and also reiterated the issues with online elections, including their undemocratic nature, security concerns, and speaking to echo chambers.
Conversely, in his President’s Report Wherrett advised the incoming Board to use the alternatives available to them, including online options: “People who created the union 100 years ago had to meet in a room and talk - we have online, we have options we need to consider.”
The Finance and IT Report expectedly included that it’s been a “difficult time” as a result of the pandemic. The USU has heavily relied on Job Keeper, which the Report stated is “largely out of [the USU’s] control.”
The Finance Report also advised that the Board give approval to sell shares come September should this be necessary. Outgoing Vice President Lachlan Finch voiced his opposition to the idea, recommending that selling shares be “a very last resort considering volatility of stock market” and advising that a “Finance Committee meeting would be great to discuss the relative cost and benefits of selling shares if we need to.”
Nick Rigby, who sits on the Finance Committee, took up the gauntlet, stating that he would chat to Dane Luo about organising a meeting as soon as possible.
Senate Appointed Director, Jane Drummond, also stated that she expected that the USU hasn’t “spent anywhere near what we approved in the budget in February.”
For those students who did not get the chance to graduate in person, the Operations Report stated that the USU is working to bring graduations back to life in semester 2. Already, there has been an estimated 100 graduation bookings by international students.
Director of Sales, Marketing and Membership, Tania Moroko also reported that despite the move online due to the pandemic, USU membership numbers have continued to rise (though slower than usual) breaking the 31,000 mark.
In the Programs Report, it was made known that C&S is becoming more interactive online, with students now able to search up clubs and societies and that a quiz will be available soon so that students can get a vibe for which clubs and societies they might like to be part of.
On the home stretch, the four Executive Directors made their final reports and I polished off my last few pistachios.
Sun’s parting words included that being vocal and noisy is an important part of being heard as students; that the USU Board is the most diverse it has ever been in its 140 year history; and that Pulp’s current team has been the best yet.
Eswaran recommended the Finance Committee meet more regularly; that the Committee make strategic decisions rather than educated guesses; that Finance Reports be made more transparent and accessible via social media in the coming year; and that the USU’s reserves not be used as a “piggy bank.” She also gave the general reflection that the Board cannot be apolitical and that it should reflect the voting patterns of young people, the majority of which in the last election voted for the Labor Party, with more voting for Greens than the Liberal Party.
Finch left his position with the recommendation that, having learnt from COVID-19, USU Board meetings should increase in regularity so nothing is lost through the governance process; committees be expanded; and communications with the chairs of those committees be increased, especially where they are independent chairs.
In true Wherrett style, the outgoing President opened his final Report with a quote: “You can satisfy some of the people all of the time, you can satisfy all of the people some of the time, but you can never satisfy all the people all the time,” and made the addition “...but at least you can make them laugh.”
In his parting recommendations, Wherrett advised that the incoming USU Executive be given access to the USU’s socials as they are the elected voice of the student body. Wherrett voiced his concern that over the past year he has often felt staff haven’t known what students are thinking and that the USU’s socials have often emphasised sponsorships rather than focussed on what students are doing.
He also stated that Appendices 1 of the Regulations regarding Directors’ duties to campaign was outdated and that in 2020, the USU has an obligation to defend SSAF and campaign against cuts.
Wherrett’s last words to the incoming Board were to keep its independence and the students at the helm as it figures out what exactly its “grand purpose” is as a not-for-profit organisation.
Incoming President, Irene Ma had the final say, congratulating the outgoing Board, staff and her predecessor on a great many achievements including free USU membership, the inclusion of a multilingual Pulp editor and reviewing reserve policies.
And with that, the meeting closed at 3:28pm and the Zoom call emptied as quickly as my pistachio packet.
The next USU Board meeting is on Friday 31 July 2020.
USU’s Statement on Higher Education Cuts:
As the largest student organisation in the country, and one that values students' interests, the USU has a principled obligation to speak out about the Federal Government’s attacks on tertiary education.
On June 19, the Morrison Government announced a huge overhaul to tertiary education. The Education Minister, Dan Tehan, plans to double the price of Arts, Communication and Humanities degrees, costing students approximately $45,000 for a three year degree (an increase of 113%). Law, Economics, Management and Commerce degrees will also face fee hikes of 28% - now costing students $14,500 a year. The government plans to decrease the fees for STEM courses. Yet, the total funding of STEM education will go down as the slight increase in government contributions will fail to match massive falls in student contributions. These funding shortfalls will perpetuate a decline in the standards of students’ education with increased class sizes as a result of cuts to staff and resources. This policy is fundamentally bad for all students.
These cuts would have a demonstrably adverse impact on the University community for years to come. Firstly, they would create the conditions for fee increases into the future, which speaks to a broader trend of privatisation and deregulation proposed recently. This is deeply concerning considering similar models in the US illustrate the deep flaws of privatised higher education in perpetuating and surmounting inequality and elitism.
Secondly, it will solidify cost as an insurmountable barrier when highschoolers are deciding what to study, or even whether to study at university. This will particularly hurt students from financially disadvantaged families and backgrounds.
Thirdly, the attack on humanities subjects in particular undermines the essential critical thinking skills taught by humanities degrees. History and the arts are essential for thriving modern communities. This targeted attack also promotes the misguided idea that education should only ever be vocational, and moreover, that humanities could never meaningfully contribute to a vocation. Yet with the rise of AI and automation, it has never been more important for these complex skills to be taught to inform the emerging workforce.
These policies are being pushed through by politicians who benefited from free education. Now they want students to shoulder the burden for funding at a time when youth unemployment is above 16% and students look to education for meaningful direction in their lives.
These policies also come at a time when the Government has repeatedly denied stimulus to the higher education sector. Universities have been hit among the hardest by this pandemic and it is the government's responsibility to protect the higher education sector.
Universities are the institutions within our civil society that provide citizens with the skills to question, challenge and hold power to account. Students and staff must fight to protect our rights and freedoms to access an education that is affordable, high quality and multidisciplinary.
As such, the University of Sydney Union Board:
Calls on students to campaign against these fee hikes in its forms, and urges everyone to attend relevant protests where it is safe to do so.
Commits to fighting for fully-funded free education and opposing user pays models which prioritise particular disciplines or degrees.
Commits to joining the campaign to pressure the Federal Government to protect higher education through targeted stimulus.
Commits to posting information about the cuts and the efforts to oppose them via USU Social Media Channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WeChat.