Pulp Interviews: Swapnik Sanagavarapu, 2021 SRC President

By Jossie Warnant 

This year’s most unusual SRC election season saw Swapnik Sanagavarapu (Grassroots) gain the support of multiple campus factions to become the provisionally elected president and succeed fellow Grassroots member Liam Donohoe. This marks the first time a Grassroots president was elected for the second time in a row, meaning it is likely that Sanagavarapu’s presidency will resemble a continuation of the work of his predecessor. 

In his 2021 presidency, Sanagavarapu plans to place a strong focus on continuing the SRC’s fight against the University’s implementation of cuts to courses and staffing as well as fee hikes. He says that “we are facing an unprecedented attack on higher education” and wants “to do a lot of things over the next year to continue to fight.” This will include supporting staff and student strikes and articulating the concerns of students at university management meetings.

Sanagavarapu also plans to make improving SRC services a key priority, saying that “perhaps the most important thing with the SRC is being an institution that's for students when they are in their most dire circumstances and in desperate material need.” Specifically he wants to make SRC services more accommodating of students' unique circumstances during the pandemic and implement policies that were not possible in 2020 due to a lack of contestable funding. He wants to transition casework services completely online, create an after hours option for casework and legal services and hire a dedicated sexual assault lawyer. 

Sanagavarapu also wants to enhance SRC communications, which will mostly consist of starting an SRC email newsletter. While the president’s report is already published weekly in Honi Soit, Sanagavarapu says that a newsletter will “cut out the middleman” by allowing students to get news directly from the SRC. He also wants to improve the SRC website and expand the SRC’s presence on social media, especially WeChat, to reach out to students who may not otherwise be involved with the SRC. 

“A fundamentally guiding principle of mine is that students will, at least to some degree, share a common interest. And it's the job of the SRC to express and articulate that interest. And so I think there will always be people who are de-politicised and disengaged from the SRC. But I want to do my best to reach out to those people.”

Sanagavarapu also seeks to continue the SRC’s tradition of being an institution that stands up for the rights for international students. He supports the campaign for international student Opal cards, wants the government to extend JobKeeper to international students and will campaign to make the University more accommodating to the academic needs of international students, especially those not currently located in Australia. 

Sanagavarapu is a highly experienced candidate who is currently a councillor and General Executive member and has worked as an Ethnocultural Officer. This experience, he says, is the reason that students should trust him, despite the fact that he was not democratically elected. 

“As far as me personally, I think I've had a pretty good record, as someone who was an activist and kind of on the bureaucratic side of the SRC”.

This experience has seen him highly involved with managing the SRC’s mutual aid program, an initiative he is keen to formalise and expand. The program has involved the SRC delivering necessities like food and toiletries to students who desperately need them. He wants to institute a university food bank programme that will run simultaneously with the existing mutual aid initiative and sees potential to work with the University of Sydney Union (USU) by using established outlets and supply chains as “conduits” for these initiatives. 

He also wants to push USU leadership in “a more radical direction towards education activism”. To him this means turning the USU into an “institution that advocates for the rights of students” by being more vocal on social media, voicing concerns to university management and encouraging USU Board Directors to endorse and participate in activism to go “beyond lip service for these causes and participate in a more material way”.

Grassroots has a strong focus on environmental activism, which will be a key focus of Sanagavarapu’s presidency. He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that the “energy of the Fossil Free campaign and environmental movement generally has been suspended” but that he seeks to “articulate this demand for fossil fuel divestment within the education campaign more broadly”. 

Sanagavarapu said that USyd’s commitment to inquire into its investment portfolio, rather than divesting from fossil fuels completely was “inadequate”. 

“The University just said that they would inquire into it. I don't really know what there is to inquire into other than the fact that investing in fossil fuels is probably just a bad thing.” 

Sanagavarapu’s election has come in a year in which so many students are struggling. This means the SRC will play a vital role in supporting and advocating for students. 

“I want to fight for a good university. A university that supports students, that provides equitable and accessible education, that doesn’t impose unnecessary stresses on students that compound what they're going through,” he says. 

Whilst it’s unusual to see the SRC president declared prior to the SRC election, Sanagavarapu has outlined a clear vision to support students in what will be a challenging 12 months.