How will the COVID-19 pandemic impact your student unions?

Pulp explores developments in the impact of COVID-19 on student unions.

The COVID-19 outbreak has had wide-ranging effects on students at the University of Sydney so far: from cancelled graduations and online classes to the University’s first COVID-19 patient. With the threat of the virus looming, it is unsurprising that USyd’s student unions, the Student Representative Council (SRC) and the University of Sydney Union (USU), are being hit hard by the pandemic. 

The SRC announced today via Facebook that it would “cease face-to-face sessions with students and implement work from home measures for all [their] staff”. This decision was made by SRC staff and the SRC executive and will be reviewed going into the future. The post ended with a call for the University to support its employees and cease in-person classes to ensure students and staff do not feel pressure to risk exposure to the virus. 

SRC President Liam Donohoe confirmed that caseworker services are still available to students who need them. He told us: “All casework and legal appointments will be conducted via the phone and ColP (Skype, FaceTime, etc.), with students able to call the normal SRC number and email the normal SRC address to schedule a time”. The number is available on the SRC website. The emergency stationary and financial loan services offered by the SRC will be put on pause, as will the authorisation of statutory declarations.

SRC Officer Bearers have scaled back many of their planned actions, with ACAR’s protest against the Modi Government’s Islamophobic Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC) recently postponed indefinitely due to health concerns. Collectives have cancelled meetings to prevent infection. 

The USU, in a press release made this afternoon, explained that the combined decrease in Student Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF) and revenue from their business operations will have a significant detrimental effect on their finances. So far, they have taken action by enhancing the hygiene measures in their campus operations, trialling work from home arrangements for staff, and have committed to offering paid leave for rostered hours that they miss within a 10 working day period due to illness or self-isolation. In the event of a campus shutdown, they will provide leave “to all casual staff who have not already accessed it”. 

The campus ban on events poses a challenge to the USU elections later this semester. The USU “is reluctantly planning to implement an online voting system” for the elections. This will undoubtedly change the campaigns, which typically involve plenty of in person campaigning. The press release said that the Union would “provide specific election updates in the upcoming days”. 

The press release also expressed the hope that the setback as “an opportunity to rebuild, refocus and reimagine what we provide to the student community’. The statement did not include details about how the clubs and societies program will adapt to the crisis, which will do little to quell concerns about the effect of the virus on campus life. 

The long-term implications of the pandemic on student unions, while yet to be fully realised, will no doubt be significant. The dip in SSAF due to lower student enrolments this year will starve student unions of their funds; they were notified last week that new projects are to be put on hold. This means that election promises, for example to hire a third SRC lawyer, will be unlikely to be met this year. Despite a significant focus from the University on student life and the student experience, campus life will be hit hard by the virus. Clubs and societies cannot continue regular meetings and campus outlets will lose revenue. Student unions will be unable to invest in campus culture. Meanwhile, many students face insecurity in employment, housing and their studies.