Just like your grandpa who collected stamps, your neighbour who collects novelty bottle tops or your cousin who’s really into Pokémon, I have a penchant for hoarding. But one of my favourite pastimes of late has been collecting CDs. This first began as a way to expand the sparse remnants I inherited of my mum’s once-vast CD treasure-trove, and as a portable alternative to the vinyl collection I started back in high school, once I moved here for university. It’s now become something that brings me immense joy, and lets me take the time out of a busy uni schedule to unwind and enjoy the delights of music.
But starting a CD collection is more than having something to hoard. It gives you a way to support your favourite artists directly, giving your favourite musicians a much more substantial portion of the money you’ve spent to listen to them. It gives you full ownership over the music you want to listen to, not having to rely on a streaming platform to continue letting you listen to it. And, most of all, it helps reshape the way you listen to music, clearing away the clutter of the on-demand streaming format we’ve grown used to.
Direct Artist Support
One really great benefit to buying a CD is that your purchase makes a big impact on that artist. Traditionally, CD purchases provide artists with a much larger royalty rate than streaming services. For example, the amount of money an artist makes from one Spotify stream is around US$0.003, with royalty increases only really favouring extremely successful artists with large catalogues (think Taylor Swift or Beyonce). Your average indie artist likely won’t be able to make a living off of Spotify royalties alone. However, artists can typically receive around 15 percent in royalties from the physical album sales. That means if you purchase an album for $20, the artist who created that album could receive around $3 in royalties (much larger than 0.3 cents!).
Additionally, physical album sales are a large contributor to gaining recognition on music charts such as Billboard or iTunes, which can massively benefit the success of a smaller-known artist in future projects, as they’ve amassed a larger following through name recognition. CD royalties can be a huge support for smaller artists in continuing their careers, so spending the extra dollar to purchase a copy at your local music shop can be fundamental to benefitting up-and-coming musicians.
Full Ownership (and its extra benefits!)
A super important bonus of buying a CD is the fact that once you’ve paid for that CD and leave the shop, that CD is yours. You don’t have to rely on the kindness of a big corporation streaming platform to continue allowing you to listen to a certain song, or hope that platform doesn’t hike up its prices or introduce new restrictions to your listening. You can listen to your CD as much as you like until it breaks or dies (which, with good care, it won’t for a very, very, very long time). Spotify can’t break into your house and take it away at their whim. You own that copy, and that means you have unlimited listening to that music.
It also gives you a whole host of opportunities through the attached CD booklet! You now have artist-curated art, photography and behind-the-scenes information that you can peruse to your heart’s delight! No more looking up lyrics on google and hoping they’ve gotten their information correct because you have the lyrics straight from the source. Moreover, cutting up a CD booklet can give you a great source of hall-friendly wall décor or material for collaging.
For example, two of my favourite posters started as CD booklets to Carole King’s Tapestry and boygenius’ the record. A lot of artists take your walls into account when creating CD booklets, so you can frequently get exclusive posters or prints slotted into your CD case.
Active Listening
The most important aspect (in my opinion) about purchasing CDs is that it encourages you to listen to albums as a whole work (instead of littered throughout your playlist) and it encourages you to listen to it actively. Artists spend countless time curating an album to be an experience for the listener, but too often do we put it on as ‘background noise’ when we study, cook our meals, or go about our day. Though passive listening does have its benefits, like providing an extra stimulus we need to focus or giving us an energy boost to do something big; taking the time to listen to your music actively and analytically allows for a grounded listening experience, improving your skills in analysing music and developing your music taste, and giving that extra time and appreciation to the artist who has spent all their energy, creativity and passion creating this work for you to enjoy.
It helps you figure out what sounds or stylistic choices you like and don’t like and can develop your understanding of why you like or don’t like it. You learn to connect patterns between the music and lyricism that are deliberately crafted to evoke specific emotions, and you come to understand how album structure and album narratives showcase themselves between genres and time periods. Taking an example from my collection, The Who’s My Generation has a very different album structure compared to Jeff Buckley’s Grace, even though they are both debut albums from artists who would gain a large and dedicated fan base from these debuts.
If you take anything out of this article, remember this: when you need a break from an essay that just won’t write, or an exam that’s driving you crazy, grab yourself a portable CD player (shoutout to my grandpa’s Discman!), a pair of headphones, and your favourite disc. Take an hour out of your day to sit down and listen to an album. Maybe it can help you learn something new about your favourite songs, and give you the time to relax and enjoy what music has to offer.
Woroni Radio invites you to another month of performances with our October Gig Guide. Feast your eyes on the latest gigs around Canberra, almost all under $50, with gigs performed by the talented musicians in our ANU community being prioritised on each night’s events!
As always, our list is not exhaustive, and there are always new performances sprouting around Canberra, so there will still be plenty of opportunities to see your favourite artists outside our gig guide. As always, if you have a gig coming up, or want to promote your favourite local artist’s upcoming performances, please give us a shout at radio@woroni.com.au or use our Submissions Form. We’re currently accepting submissions for our November Gig Guide (closing on Sunday of Week 12 (26/10/2025)), and want your input to help us promote and amplify talented musicians in our community.
Music acts, venues, times and prices are accurate at time of writing
* = concession prices or pre-booking prices
Recurring Events
Every Monday:
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Every Tuesday:
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Every Saturday:
Wayne Kelly Trio @ Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery (6:00pm, FREE)
Week 9
Monday 29/09
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 30/09
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Thursday 02/10
Thirsty Merc @ The Baso (7pm, $56)
Friday 03/10
What the Duck?! (Growing Alder, Goese & Ducks in Trees (CJ Adams)) @ Smith’s Alternative (8pm, $10*)
Dana Hassall Duo @ Floriade (10:30am, FREE)
Joe Mungovan @ Floriade Nightfest (6:45pm, $37*)
Gig for Gaza (Sonic Reducer, Think About You, Vanishing Sound, Jorkhour) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7pm, $10)
Essence 2: A Divergence in Darkness @ The Baso (7pm, $45*)
Sunday Lemonade @ Floriade Nightfest (8:30pm, $37*)
Saturday 04/10
Josh Pyke @ Floriade Nightfest (6:30pm, $37*)
The Bures Band @ Gang Gang (7pm, $11*)
Eliza and the Delusionals @ Fun Time Pony (7pm, $34)
Essence 2: A Divergence in Darkness @ The Baso (7pm, $45*)
Rock n Roll Rampage (Missing Lincolns, Transit Dolls, Echo) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $10*)
Sunday 05/10
Dana Hassall Duo @ Floriade (10:30am, FREE)
Ella Hooper @ Floriade Nightfest (6:30pm, $37*)
Essence 2: A Divergence in Darkness @ The Baso (7pm, $45*)
The Huneez @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15*)
Week 10
Monday 06/10
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 07/10
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Dept of Rock 2025: BOTB Heat 1 @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, $10*)
Thursday 09/10
Swimming Bell @ Smith’s Alternative (6:30pm, $25*)
Degenerate (with So I says to Mabel & Earth Cadet) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (8:30pm, $10)
Lachie Gill & Reuben De Melo @ Smith’s Alternative (8:30pm, $30)
Saturday 11/10
Daysend @ The Baso (7pm, $38)
This Way Orkestra @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $25)
Acopia @ Gang Gang (8pm, $25)
Sunday 12/10
Lily B @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (4pm, $12*)
Week 11
Monday 13/10
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 14/10
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Friday 17/10
Egoism @ Landspeed Records (6pm, FREE)
PR_01 (Aurpan Kar, Mani Zuko, Zach Parnell, Mixed Signals) @ Shadows Night Club (7pm, $13)
KHAN @ The Baso (7pm, $35)
Mac the Knife @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $25*)
Saturday 18/10
Spring Sessions @ The Pussy Palace (10am, $10*)
Mouseatouille (with Melt & Vanishing Sound) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (6:30pm, $15*)
Wyndfall @ The Baso (7pm, $12)
Shaun Kirk @ Shadows Night Club (7pm, $25)
Sunday 19/10
Smith St Band @ The Baso (5pm, $56
Reliqa & Future Static @ The Baso (6pm, $30)
Week 12
Monday 20/10
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 21/10
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Thursday 23/10
Powerplant (with Shock Treatment & Spouse) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $28*)
Friday 24/10
N.D.A (Gavino, Tino, K4YDEE) @ Shadows Night Club (7pm, $13)
I Exist & No Apologies @ The Baso (7pm, $30)
Marlten (with Spinning Plates & Kicking Pigeons) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $10*)
Paul Kidney Japanese Experience (with The Sugar Beats, Fukno & Dreamlanders)
@ Pot Belly Pub (8pm, $25)
Saturday 25/10
The Pleasures @ Smith’s Alternative (4pm, $25*)
Little Quirks @ The Polo (7:30pm, $25*)
Saturday 26/10
Owen Campbell Band @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (4pm, $20*)
Exam Period
Monday 27/10
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 28/10
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Thursday 30/10
The Maes @ Smith’s Alternative (8:30pm, $25*)
Thursday 31/10
Monster Mosh @ The Baso (7pm, $20)
Gia Ransome @ The Polo (7:30pm, $15*)
Chaperone @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15*)
Woroni Radio once again invites you to find your next night out with our September Gig Guide! Here you’ll find the hottest events in Canberra for the month of September, almost all under $50 (excluding Justice Crew), with gigs performed by the talented musicians in our ANU community being put to the top of the list for each night of events!
As always, our list is not exhaustive, and we know new performances are always popping up, so there is still plenty of gigs in the works for you to explore outside our gig guide. And if you have a gig coming up, or want to promote your favourite local artist’s upcoming performances, please give us a shout at radio@woroni.com.au or use our Submissions Form. We’re currently accepting submissions for our October Gig Guide (closing on Friday of Week 8 (26/09/2025)), and want your input to help us promote and amplify talented musicians in our community.
Music acts, venues, times and prices are accurate at time of writing
* = concession prices or pre-booking prices
Recurring Events
Every Monday:
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Every Tuesday:
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Every Friday:
John Mackey Jazz Jam @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, FREE)
Every Saturday:
Wayne Kelly Trio @ Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery (6:00pm, FREE)
Mid-Semester Break
Monday 01/09
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Local Gold #8 @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, FREE)
Tuesday 02/09
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Wednesday 03/09
Giant Hammer (with Lily Morris & Dog Name) @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7pm, $10*)
Thursday 04/09
The Big BBBBB (with CJ Adams) @ Smith’s Alternative (6pm, $5)
Oliver Djurkovic Quartet @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, $15*)
Being Jane Lane (with Machine on a Break, Box Dye, Sketch Method & Salty Goodness) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $10*)
Friday 05/09
WAAX (with Machine on a Break) @ UB Hub (7pm, $40)
John Mackey Jazz Jam @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, FREE)
Vichyssoise & The Ingredients @ Blackbird (7pm, FREE)
Electrik Sanctuary @ The Baso (7pm, $40)
Rose Tattoo @ Royal Hotel Queanbeyan (7:30pm, $45)
The Femmes of Violence + The Flippers + Freedom of Choice @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15*)
BLEACH (DJ Please, rRoxymore) @ ONE22 (10pm, $20)
Saturday 06/09
Wayne Kelly Trio @ Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery (6pm, FREE)
Sunday 07/09
Jess Ribeiro @ Smith’s Alternative (4pm, $25*)
Shock Corridor @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, $15)
Monday 08/09
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 09/09
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Thursday 11/09
Pacific Avenue @ The Baso (7pm, $45)
Cauterant Zine presents Takoba @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7pm, $20*)
Sycco @ Fun Time Pony (7pm, $34)
Friday 12/09
John Mackey Jazz Jam @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, FREE)
Stiff Gins @ Smith’s Alternative (6:30pm, $35)
HNTR @ Fiction Club (10pm, $20)
C.FRIM @ ONE22 (10pm, $20*)
Saturday 13/09
Los Chavos X Capital Samba @ Smith’s Alternative (9pm, $25)
Australian Chamber Orchestra @ Llewellyn Hall (7pm, $30)
The Inadequates @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, $15*)
Brace @ The Baso (7pm, $25)
Witchskull (with Storms of Steel & Space on Fire) @ The Baso (7pm, $30)
Sunday 14/09
Moonlighting (Spit the Dummy & Ollie’s Garden) @ 131 City Walk (7pm, $15)
Brass Knuckle Brass Band @ Gang Gang (3pm, $20*)
Blood On My Hands (with Fearetical, Ends in Tragedy & Peacemaker) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (5pm, $20)
Hammerhead @ Tuggeranong Arts Centre (7pm, $38*)
Charles Maimarosia @ Smith’s Alternative (4pm, $30*)
Week 7
Monday 15/09
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 16/09
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Daniel Isherwood Trio @ Molly (7pm, FREE)
Wednesday 17/09
The Songwriting Prize 2025: Canberra Semi-Final @ Gang Gang ($20)
Thursday 18/09
Yunggabilli First Nations Open Mic @ Tuggeranong Arts Centre (5:30pm, FREE)
Friday 19/09
John Mackey Jazz Jam @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, FREE)
Jess Green @ Blackbird (7pm, FREE)
Shades and Shadows @ The Polo (7:30pm, $20)
Peter Bibley @ The Baso (7pm, $30)
Justice Crew @ Fiction Club (8pm, $54)
Saturday 20/09
ASHEN (with Anoxia & Complexant) @ The Baso (7pm, $30)
The Genevieves (with Airline and Body Shirt) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15*)
Sunday 21/09
Tiana Young @ Smith’s Alternative (4pm, $20*)
Week 8
Monday 22/09
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 23/09
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Thursday 25/09
Nightswim, Good Lightning & Bronze Age Collapse @ The Baso (TBA)
Friday 26/09
John Mackey Jazz Jam @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, FREE)
ALLY ROW @ Floriade 2025, Commonwealth Park (12:30pm, FREE)
Lakeside at 5 | In2Deep @ Tuggeranong Arts Centre (5:30pm, entry by donation)
Blackwater Bay @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $10*)
Saturday 27/09
Nebula Noise (Kilroy, Suede Effect, Pilot Buffalo, Nuta Mantis) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (TBA)
ALLY ROW @ Smith’s Alternative (6pm, $15*)
British India @ Fun Time Pony (8:30pm, $48*)
Week 9
Monday 29/09
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 30/09
Ben O’Loghlin & Micah Knight @ Highroad Dickson (5:30pm, FREE)
Woroni Radio would love to invite you to Canberra’s music scene through our August Gig Guide! Peruse our picks for the hottest events under $50 around Canberra this month, showing you how Canberra’s music scene, despite false reports, is more than thriving.
Please note this list is not exhaustive, and there’s still plenty of gigs out there for you to explore that may not have made the cut. And if you have a gig coming up, or know some frequent acts of your favourite Canberra venue, please give us a shout at radio@woroni.com.au. We’re currently accepting tips for our September Gig Guide, and want your input to help us promote and amplify talented musicians in our community.
Music acts, venues, times and prices are accurate at time of writing
* = concession prices or pre-booking prices
Recurring Events
Every Monday:
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Every Friday:
Friday Night Jazz @ Gang Gang (7pm, FREE)
Every Saturday:
Wayne Kelly Trio @ Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery (6:00pm, FREE)
Week 5
Monday 18/08
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 19/08
Stand-up Comedy @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Wednesday 20/08
Classical Capers Open Mic @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, $10)
Comedy Showcase @ Gang Gang Comedy (7pm, $25)
Thursday 21/08
Woroni X Dissent Uni Night (CJ Adams, Good Lightning, Nightswim, Hunnysuckle) @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7pm, FREE)
Kingswood @ Fun Time Pony (7pm, $39.30)
Friday 22/08
Lakeside at 5 | Harry & Imogen Duo @ Tuggeranong Arts Centre (5:30pm, Entry by donation)
Friday Night Jazz @ Gang Gang (7pm, FREE)
The Gruntled (with Dirtbag, The King Hits) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $10*)
Special K @ The RUC (8pm, FREE)
Saturday 23/08
Open Mic Night @ Cypher Brewing (6pm, FREE)
Wayne Kelly Trio @ Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery (6pm, FREE)
Cameron Jones Trio @ Smith’s Alternative (6pm, $25*)
The Mighty Hoopsnake (with Spouse and Kilroy) @ Gang Gang (6pm, $20)
Kial Malone and Benny Elder @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7pm, $10*)
Sunday 24/08
Ben Drysdale @ Dickson Taphouse (4pm, FREE)
Week 6
Monday 25/08
Open Mic Night @ Dissent Cafe and Bar (7:30pm, FREE)
Tuesday 26/08
John Mackay Project @ Smith’s Alternative (7pm, $25*)
Thursday 28/08
Splinter and Starve @ The Baso (7pm, $30)
Maggie Carty @ Smith’s Alternative (7:30pm, $20*)
Chuckle Force Comedy @ Smith’s Alternative (7:30PM, $10)
Friday 29/08
Wayne Ryder @ The RUC (8pm, FREE)
Club Sandwich Comedy 2 @ Tuggeranong Arts Centre (7:00PM, $20)
Crowns and Chaos (Theatre Cabaret) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15)
Saturday 30/08
Chimera (Femme Normale, baby hope, TBA) @ Blank – 15 Moore St (7:30pm, $15)
ANU Music Theatre Collective Open Mic @ Smith’s Alternative (6pm, $10*)
Wayne Kelly Trio @ Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery (6pm, FREE)
Flowermarket (with Kye Hallson and the E.T.s) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15*)
Sunday 31/08
Buckingham Triad Trio @ Smith’s Alternative (2pm, $15*)
Spouse, all that’s left of you, BODYSHIRT and proxy diver @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7pm, $15*)
Message from Woroni’s Head of Radio:
We here at Woroni Radio, as avid musicians and dedicated music lovers, wholeheartedly and unequivocally support our fellow students affected by the unprecedented cuts to the School of Music at ANU. Music is a fundamental part of society, integral to the progression of art, activism and public discourse. Music does not just entertain, but engages with, reflects on, and calls to action crucial issues in our communities and around the world.
As a musician myself, and a firm lover of all things music and audio, I believe that the cuts to the School of Music, and music-based courses across Australia’s universities, are a method of censorship for student artistic expression, following outdated ideas of what parts of education are ‘meaningful’ to our future.
If you are a School of Music student, an Arts student, or a casual musician studying at the ANU, we want to hear from you! In addition to this gig guide and our future gig guides this semester, Woroni Radio are pursuing further opportunities to amplify the voices and talent of our community of musicians at ANU. If you’d like to be involved, or have your voice heard across campus, reach out to us at radio@woroni.com.au.
Lots of love,
Grace
Woroni Radio welcomes you to the first Woroni Gig Guide for 2025! This guide lists most, if not all, shows happening in Canberra between now and the start of April. Originally, this was devised as a feature for the upcoming Extinction magazine, to showcase the fact that local live music is very much, in fact, not extinct. However, timelines made this impossible, so we have published it on our site so that whoever needs it can use it to its fullest extent. This list isn’t comprehensive, so if you know of any upcoming shows, feel free to let us know via emailing radio@woroni.com.
Bands, times, and prices are accurate at time of writing * = concession prices
Every Saturday
Wayne Kelly Trio @ Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery (6:00pm, FREE)
Friday 14/3
Crucial Waft (calyx, Sia Ahmed + Tom Fell & NIMBY) @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15)
Tijuana Cartel @ The Baso (7:00pm, $51)
A Commoner’s Revolt, Domesticated Incels & Ben Pegram @ The Polo (7:00pm, $15)
Saturday 15/3
Pseudo Echo @ The Baso (7:00pm, $51)
Lost Coast & Flik & Frames @ The Polo (7:30pm, $20)
The Filthy Darlings, The Shadow Ministers & The Petch Experience @ Smith’s Alternative (9:00pm, $15)
Sunday 16/3
Georgia Bennett @ The Old Canberra Inn (4:00pm, FREE)
Inez Hargaden (4:00pm, FREE)
Sam Buckingham @ Smith’s Alternative (7:00, $25*)
Tuesday 18/3
Ruthie Foster @ The Street Theatre (7:30pm, $75)
Thursday 20/3
Kim Salmon’s Smoked Salmon @ Smith’s Alternative (9:30pm, $35*)
The Brother Brothers & Isobel Rumble @ Smith’s Alternative (6:30pm, $20*)
Friday 21/3
Khan & Voodoo Acid Space Kings @ The Baso (7:00pm, $30)
Majelen & Tessa Devine @ Smith’s Alternative (6:30pm, $15*)
RAMSTONE, The Filthy Darlings & Napoleon Ice Cream @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $20)
Shivi Vachaspati Trio @ Dickson Taphouse (8:00pm, FREE)
Ziggy Alberts @ UC Refectory (7:30pm, $93)
Saturday 22/3
Blue Angel & Dr Wiedemann’s Orchestra & Black Owl Quartet @ Smith’s Alternative (3:00pm, $10*)
David McCredie @ Smith’s Alternative (6:00pm, $20*)
Eviscerate The Crown, Russian Novel, Telurian & Switch Up @ The Baso (7:00pm, $18)
FUNLAND (Tired Lion, Verge Collection, Egoism, Smartcasual, Sonic Reducer, Sunsick Daisy, Swapmeet & Archie) @ UC Hub Courtyard (4:00pm, $52)
STS Fest (Flavuh, The Engine, Nuta Mantis & Buffy) @ Dissent Bar & Cafe (7:30pm, $20)
The Sunday Estate @ The Baso (7:00pm, $23)
Zambezi Sounds @ Smith’s Alternative (9:00pm, $15)
Sunday 23/3
Chris O’Connor @ The Old Canberra Inn (4:00pm, FREE)
Comfy Gutters & Liz Caddy @ Smith’s Alternative (3:00pm, $10*)
Moondog @ Dickson Taphouse (4:00pm, FREE)
Wednesday 26/3
Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling @ Smith’s Alternative (6:30pm, $25*)
Thursday 27/3
Travis Collins @ The Baso (7:00pm, $33*)
Friday 28/3
Black Owl Quartet @ Dickson Taphouse (8:00pm, FREE)
Cardboard Cutouts & Sex With Men @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $15)
Kasey Chambers @ Canberra Theatre Centre (7:30pm, $91)
Lakeside at 5 (Rachel Thoms Trio & Aidan and Bianca) @ Tuggeranong Arts Centre (5:30pm, donation)
The Crossbenchers @ The Old Canberra Inn (7:00pm, FREE)
The Weeping Willows & Great Aunt @ Smith’s Alternative (6:30pm, $20*)
Saturday 29/3
Big Reef, Rat Boy School Excursion & Buzzcuts @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $10)
Capital Punishment (Shackles, Fat Lip, Gravitate, Highland Light, Discount Code, Step 2 Me & Minefield) @ The Baso (7:00pm, $45)
John Craigie & Kassi Valazza @ Smith’s Alternative (6:00pm, $45)
Johnny Reynolds Band @ The Old Canberra Inn (2:00pm, FREE)
La Descarga & Los Chavos @ The Polo (7:30pm, $35) Sunday 30/3 Flik @ The Old Canberra Inn (4:00pm, FREE)
Georgia Bennett @ Dickson Taphouse (4:00pm, FREE)
Tuesday 1/4
Stand Atlantic & RedHook @ The Baso (7:00pm,. $56)
Thursday 3/4
Kim Churchill @ Smith’s Alternative (9:30pm, $40)
Pierce Brothers & Flynn Gurry @ UC Hub (7:00pm, $46)
You Am I & Grace Cummings @ UC Refectory (7:00pm, $91)
Friday 4/4
Bootleg Rascal, Dante Knows & Dizzy Days @ The Baso (7:00pm, $45)
Flynn Marcus Quartet @ Dickson Taphouse (8:00pm, FREE)
We Mavericks & Two If By Sea @ Smith’s Alternative (6:30pm, $20*)
Saturday 5/4
Ess-Em, Doxxed & A Commoner’s Revolt @ Dissent Cafe & Bar (7:30pm, $20)
Lucie Thorne + Hamish Stuart @ Smith’s Alternative (4:00pm, $20*)
Sunday 6/4
Dean Haitani @ Dickson Taphouse (4:00pm, FREE)
Lewis DeLorenzo @ The Old Canberra Inn (4:00pm, FREE)
Are you struggling financially, on a low income or stressed about affording parking due to the significant increases?
If you have a Low Income Health Care Card (LIHC), you are entitled to support available from the ANU and the government. This list compiles the support services available to LIHC card holders.
A LIHC is used to prove financial struggle. It is a simple process and applications typically take about 30 days to process. Instructions on how to apply for a LIHC can be found here.
To be eligible for a LIHC you must:
Make less than $783 a week.
Be 19 or older (Under 19 eligibility is possible if you’re deemed independent or eligible for Family Tax Benefit).
Be an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident (some visas are accepted — check here).
ANU INITIATIVES
(For some reason, you must be a domestic undergrad student to access any of this. Ridiculous.)
Students can apply for ANU initiatives here. They include:
Free student life surface parking permit at ANU
$150 textbook grant a semester
$150 student support grant a semester
Free 12 months ANU Sport membership
Free Griffin Hall membership (off-campus students)
Access to Community Connect Food Relief
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES
Free Ambulances
Free public transport off-peak: on weekdays from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, after 6:00 pm, and all day on weekends and public holidays
100 per cent off the registration fees of your motor vehicle registration (roughly 50-60 per cent of the total amount)
Greater access to bulk-billed GPs
Access to Canberra Health Services Public Dental
$200 spectacles subsidy from participating optometrists
Access to concession rate co-payments for PBS scheduled medications ($7.70 instead of the usual $31.60 maximum cost)
PBS Safety Net reduced to $277 from the regular $1,694 (this is how much you pay for PBS medications). After you’ve spent $277 with a LIHC — further PBS medication is 100% free.
THIRD-PARTY INITIATIVES
Concession fares for Neuron scooters
P.S.
Services Australia will give you a physical card — it is made from paper. You can access a digital card from the Centrelink App.
Resources like the Community Connect Food Relief and Parking support are likely limited, so bear this in mind if applying without genuine need.
At any given moment in time, there are countless ripples travelling through spacetime, traversing the very fabric of our universe. These ripples are known as gravitational waves, and were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 in his general theory of relativity.
Almost a century later in 2015, direct evidence of gravitational waves was finally obtained when the Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) detectors, located in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana, USA detected the long-awaited signal.
The 0.2 second audible signal, which was described to resemble the “chirp” of a bird, was actually the product of a black hole collision. This event occurred more than 1 billion years ago. Two massive black holes merged into one, warping the fabric of spacetime and sending ripples through the universe which were eventually detected on Earth as tiny vibrations.
The successful LIGO experiment sent its own waves through the science community. The search for gravitational waves had consisted of decades of unrelenting hard work by over a thousand physicists around the globe and billions of dollars of investment, so the news was both extremely exciting and highly anticipated.
Now you might be wondering what is next for gravitational wave research. After all, the amazing detection of gravitational waves was already accomplished in 2015.
However, in reality, the exploration of gravitational waves has only just begun as researchers continue to use LIGO and a growing network of detectors around the world (e.g. LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration) to investigate the nature of our universe. In exciting news, the ANU, as part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), will play a central role in this global venture.
Last year I was lucky enough to get the chance to interview Dr Lilli Sun and Dr Jennie Wright, astrophysicists from ANU’s Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics to gain some further insight into the current field of gravitational wave research and ANU’s new LIGO remote control room.
Firstly, could you explain what a gravitational wave is in simple terms?
Jennie: A gravitational wave is a sort of stretching and squeezing of spacetime itself. When we have mass in the universe, it causes spacetime to curve, as explained in the theory of General Relativity. A gravitational wave is like a ripple instead of just a curve that stays still.
Lilli: You can also think of an analogy like a water wave – for example, dropping a stone in water and then seeing ripples spreading out. When we have something very heavy, like black holes that collide, they trigger those ripples in spacetime.
What are your specific research focuses and what are you currently working on?
Lilli: I do mostly astrophysics; using gravitational waves to study black holes, neutron stars, and even searching for dark matter. I do a lot of data analysis to see what the gravitational-wave signals tell us – e.g. whether it tells us that Einstein and his general theory of relativity is right or if there is something unexpected.
One of my projects is about searching for dark matter particles using gravitational waves – we don’t know if they exist or not, but analysing gravitational wave signatures is one possible way to look for them. I also work a bit on detectors, working with instrumentalists like Jennie.
Jennie: What I work on is somewhat related. I’m an instrumentalist as Lilli said, so I’m an experimental physicist and my job has two parts. Half of my time I spend at ANU, working on technologies that we can use to improve gravitational wave detectors of the future. We’re making them more sensitive so they can see further out into the universe and also can see a wider range of signal frequencies. And so, I work on developing technology that basically tries to distinguish things near the detector that look like gravitational wave sources, but actually aren’t – like a truck breaking near the detector, or just air moving near it.
The other part of my job is to help improve the current detectors. Since we use light in the gravitational wave detector to measure the stretching and squeezing of spacetime, we want to have as much light in there as possible. But, because mirrors and optical systems aren’t perfect, we sometimes lose quite a lot of light, so I look at those diagnostic measurements to try to figure out where we’re losing light.
Now that gravitational waves have already been detected, what is next for the field of gravitational wave research?
Lilli: There are many aspects actually: the 2015 discovery was only the beginning. The 2015 event for two black holes colliding into each other and the famous 2017 event for a two neutron star collision are very highlighted events, but now we are collecting many more of them including some special systems. The large number of detections will bring us important information of the population.
There are other types of gravitational waves. For example, we are looking for very faint gravitational waves from a single spinning neutron star. Neutron stars are not perfect spheres, so when they rotate they can generate very weak gravitational waves, which is something we are searching for. Another example is to probe dark matter using gravitational waves. So, we need more sensitive detectors and more of them in the network.
Moving onto the ANU remote control room, what exactly is a control room and how specifically would the remote control room work?
Jennie: So, a control room is usually a room you have next to a lab with an experiment in it: usually one that needs to be in either a really clean environment, or a slightly dangerous environment. So, you set all the physical parts of it up, so you can obtain electronic signals through to your control room that tell you what is happening. And then you can do all the data-taking and analysis from that control room.
In LIGO, they have the control rooms right next to the detector because they don’t want to be walking around next to the detector while it’s running, as they might introduce noise to it. They also have a whole bank of screens which decipher how each sub-system is working.
About the remote control room: whilst we don’t have a gravitational wave detector in Australia, many Australian scientists have been involved in gravitational wave detection from the start, and so this allows us to participate in improving the detector remotely. So, you can see on some of the screens here, I have a read-out of the different sub-systems and if they’re working correctly. For example, green tells us that they’re observing data and red tells us that they’re down and need to be fixed. And this is all in real time.
That’s really useful, because before we had this, we just had the little screen on our computers, and you had to try to view everything simultaneously and it was quite difficult. My colleagues and I will also occasionally do shifts when the detector is running, because we might have to call up people in other countries. If there’s an exciting gravitational wave event, we sometimes need to announce things to other astronomers, so they can point their telescopes to certain parts of the sky.
Lilli: Although it’s a ‘remote’ control room, you can still control some of the sub-systems of the detector. It’s just that we need to be very careful, especially during observation. There will be someone in charge in the real control room, and we can collaborate with them. The advantage of having the remote control room is that it makes it much easier for Australian colleagues, as we are not close to the detector, but we can read off the real-time information in a much more convenient way, on the other side of the world.
So, the detector isn’t always on all the time?
Jennie: There’s a trade-off between the physicists who work on improving it, and the astronomers who want to collect data using it. If you improve the sensitivity, you’re more likely to see really exciting events we haven’t seen before. But if you increase the time the detector is on for, you’re also more likely to see more events. So, there are sometimes periods where we’re not touching the detector for around 18 months, and periods where there is no data collection for a year, and maintenance and upgrading occurs.
From a bigger perspective, what role is Australia and ANU playing in the further research of gravitational waves?
Lilli: Australia is one of the major collaborators in the large international LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA collaboration. There is a large group here working on gravitational wave astrophysics and detector science. These days, Australian scientists also want to propose and work towards building an Australian detector in the future, which is pretty exciting.
Right now, we are also thinking about the next generation detectors – like what kind of design and technology is needed that can give us a one-order of magnitude increase in sensitivity, which can get us much deeper into the universe. Australian colleagues are working on both the existing science of gravitational waves, but also the future.
Jennie: In the past, Australia has developed sub-systems which are now used in the detector, contributing mirrors for example. Also, Lilli is in charge of the calibration group for LIGO, and that’s just an example, but we have a lot of staff in Australia who are leading some aspect of the LIGO scientific collaboration’s research. We’ve also been instrumental in the design of something called the Squeezer which is used in LIGO to improve its sensitivity, making the detectors the quantum instruments that they are.
Lilli: Regarding astrophysics and data analysis, there are quite a few large groups from different Australian universities within OzGrav working on the data being collected these days. A lot of studies are carried out in Australia, but we also work very closely with international colleagues.
What are some benefits of these large-scale projects, e.g. do they help bring countries closer together and encourage international cooperation?
Lilli: I think yes, definitely. These days, it’s getting difficult to do small narrow research projects by yourself. With projects like gravitational wave detectors, you have large instruments, and that involves many different aspects: you need to work with engineers on different sub-systems, theoretical physicists to understand how the astrophysics work, software engineers and data analysts for dealing with huge amounts of data, and also astronomers who do different kinds of follow-up observations. All these people are playing important roles, and they come from different countries, different parts of the world. Close collaboration is critical.
Jennie: I think it’s really useful to have these big projects, because any falling out between countries can get in the way. It also definitely broadened my horizons, as I’m from Scotland, which isn’t as multicultural. Without science, I definitely wouldn’t have travelled and experienced different cultures as much.
Last question, what’s your advice for students looking to get into this field or just interested in your research?
Lilli: I think there are lots of chances for students to talk to us and do small projects. If they’re really interested there are lots of ways to get into the field. We do lots of summer/winter projects and we also teach undergraduate courses, where we discuss gravitational waves at a more basic level. Many students are interested, and we have extended discussions and they come to us for small projects or Honours and end up staying for PhD.
Jennie: I think definitely the best way is just to email someone who works in the fields. Academics love students being interested in their research, otherwise they wouldn’t be working at a university and teaching. I’m really happy whenever a student asks me, and I think that’s how I got involved in the field too.
Lilli: Yes, definitely talk to academics and lecturers in the field if you’re interested.
Jennie: And I think that’s the same in all areas of science as well, people are super keen to tell you about their research, you just have to ask them.
Photograph of some of the screens in the control room.
Dr Jennie Wright (left) and Dr Lilli Sun (right) in the remote control room.
A huge thank you to Dr Lilli Sun and Dr Jennie Wright for taking the time to do an interview and for so generously sharing their knowledge.
Comments Off on Eight Years Later: Schmidt’s Legacy
On the last day of the mid-semester break, campus is quiet when we sit down with Brian Schmidt. The brown brick Chancellery building is not a hub of student activity, and as we walk over it appears a bit like ANU’s own Battersea power station. Inside, it has been done up in traditional Australian colours: rusty red, muted orange, yellow here and there, brown wood panelling, and a soft sense of beige. As we wait in the lobby, the building feels a bit empty, except for when someone walks through and jumps into the elevator.
The tranquillity is pierced, but not broken, by ANU’s departing Vice-Chancellor and Nobel laureate, Brian Schmidt. He is not loud, but passionate, and he has a lot to say on a lot of things. But most notably, he is an arm-waver. As he speaks, every concept is given a corresponding gesture. Dwelling on the aim of an inclusive community, he swings his arms out wide, and when he waves off criticism about large capital purchases, he points to where the two purchases sit, beyond the office and the gum trees outside.
In February this year, at his State of the University speech, Schmidt announced that this year would be his last in the role and that he will be returning to research and teaching. It is hard to know if Schmidt’s status as a cultural icon comes from who he is, or from his last name, which has proved endlessly punnable for ANU students.
Having spent eight years in the top full-time position at the University, he is tired of the work.
When we ask him about his pay, which is less than most other Vice-Chancellors in the country, he is clear that he would never be a Vice-Chancellor at another university, and that he did this for the ANU. Of course, he is still paid in the ballpark of $500,000. He argues there would be a “disequilibrium” if he were paid less than the people he hires, and the people he hires are paid around that much.
Schmidt is distinctly American as well. Listening to this thick accent while tall gum trees sway outside, with classic Canberra pollen in the air, feels slightly anachronistic. It extends beyond his accent though. When he speaks of his aims as Vice-Chancellor, it is about putting ANU in the same league as other word-class institutions. The first that comes to him is Harvard. When he discusses inclusion on campus, he does so in a distinctly American liberal tone: disagreeing with what may be said, but defending people’s right to say it.
As we begin to ask Schmidt about his time at the ANU, the first thing that becomes apparent is his candour.
He wants to talk about the areas where the ANU is not doing well.
We open by asking him if he is excited to return to a quieter pace of life, and he is quick to describe the job as relentless, throwing his life out of balance. There is, he says, a lot of unpleasantness to it. To explain further, he uses what sounds like a frequent anecdote: 20,000 people come to the ANU everyday, and most people work 20,000 days in their life, meaning that everyday is bound to be the best day of one person’s life and the worst day of someone else’s. And he estimates they deal with one out of ten people who are having the worst day of their life. Throughout the interview he returns to the issue of sexual assault, and it seems he sometimes has to address events like this. He admits that this includes executing the procedural fairness of the university.
The Long View
With a mammoth institution like the ANU, it is difficult to know what gives it momentum and what can push it to change course. Schmidt says his focus has always been on students, despite the expectation that as an academic he would focus on research. In his eyes, his impact has been to give the campus and the University’s research “the foundation of a vibrant student community,” including a distinctly Australian undergraduate experience. ANU, he believes, may lack the “gold plating” of Harvard, but he maintains that
“if you get a degree from ANU, it’s as good as a Harvard degree.”
Schmidt attended Harvard for his postgraduate and then taught at the ANU, so he is better placed to comment on the two universities than most. But ANU did slip this year in the Global QS rankings, suggesting that the gold plating may not be the only thing ANU is missing. Schmidt has clearly thought about this or at least had this discussion before. He rejects the methodology of rankings, like QS or Times Higher Education, arguing they don’t reflect the ANU’s mission. He says the focus should be on students’ experiences on campus, and that Quilt surveys show that ANU students have good experiences on campus, better than most other Australian universities. He also questions the methodology, asking rhetorically how something like QS can measure satisfaction better than Quilt. The value of ANU lies in breaking people out of their “high school clique” and exposing them to the diversity of Australia. Schmidt believes on-campus life and ANU scholarships and programs achieves this.
Some ANU students may reject this characterisation of the on-campus experience. ANU has one of the lowest enrollment rates for low socioeconomic students, and the interstate move for many students presents a cost barrier not often found at other major universities. On-campus rent is itself more expensive than off-campus, further alienating the people who Schmidt wants to include. But, this may also reflect the growing cost of tertiary education in Australia, as higher inflation means that HECS has now become an important, if not crippling, debt for many young people.
The government, in Schmidt’s eyes, is not doing enough to support inclusivity and diversity across the sector, but to him ANU is doing more than most,
in an area where it matters more.
When he talks about inclusion, Schmidt means more than just making students feel included. He chastises the idea that certain people should not be allowed to speak at the ANU, and he is clearly frustrated when he brings up the example of Michele Bullock’s address. Bullock, now the Reserve Bank Governor, gave an address on campus which was briefly interrupted by students who said that if unemployment had to increase to reduce inflation, Bullock’s job should be the first to go. Holding an enlarged Jobseeker application form, the students walked past the stage, yelling with a megaphone, before being escorted out. As he explains his philosophy on free speech, he echoes historian Evelyn Hall’s famous quote, often attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Schmidt’s line of thinking fits into the broader issue of free speech on university campuses across the anglophone world. In Britain, the US and here, many controversial speakers have had events brought to a standstill by students protesting. The subject matter of the speakers has ranged, from Malcolm Turnbull at the University of Sydney, to transphobic speakers and academics. Schmidt wants students to ask hard questions, not stand up and shout, or to protest outside the event. Of course, a student asking a question gets probably half a minute of airtime, someone like Bullock gets the full hour.
More Recently
Serving as Vice-Chancellor for eight years – two four year terms – Schmidt has gone round the block more than a few times. His second term, though, was dominated by COVID-19, which presented a short-term and a long-term challenge. With one of the largest on-campus populations in the country, ANU administered its own lockdown. This presented immediate issues, from food provision for students living with communal kitchens or eateries, as well as the money spent on Rapid Antigen Tests and personal protective equipment. Part of the ANU lockdown involved Senior Residents distributing food to rooms, something they were not paid for and which led to protests, especially from Burton and Garran Hall. He noted the pay freeze agreed to in early 2020 as an example of a hard decision he had to make about the University’s staff: had staff not agreed to it, he says he would have had to make 90 more staff redundant.
In the long term, COVID-19 tightened the belt of ANU, and Schmidt has found that the financial constrictions stemming from the pandemic have impacted everything they do. “It’s one thing,” he says, “just being flat, but
it’s another thing having pressure to become smaller and… it’s not an easy place to be squeezed.”
There is, for him, no easy way to make things work. With staff enterprise bargaining having concluded this year, one of the centre points of the debate was how much the ANU could afford to pay.
Schmidt, from his own description, was not a diehard unionist before he became Vice-Chancellor, he only took note of union opposition to hiring young researchers, chiefly because he was a young researcher. However, he now sees the value in having the views and values of staff represented, because otherwise “there’s no one to talk to and you can’t actually get a sensible agreement.” But, he follows this up with an admonishment of what he calls “the theatre of the strike…
call it whatever you want, it’s theatre from my perspective.”
He doesn’t see the cause for the half-day strike, which, with around 300 participants, was one of the largest protests on campus in the last few years. He claims that it didn’t matter in the end, as the bargaining ended up where he wanted it to, although he would have taken the first deal: a payrise of about 16% over five years (compared to the 18% in the final deal). He believes that on casualisation, he was offering terms that were “far more exciting” than the language “that the Melbourne union office was using.”
Key Issues
Another recurring challenge for him, and for university administration across the country, has been sexual assault and harassment (SASH). Last year, the National Student Safety Survey (NSSS) found that ANU had the second-highest rate of assault in the nation, and the highest of all Group of Eight universities. This year saw the establishment of the Student Safety and Wellbeing Committee (SSWC), which Schmidt points out is the only committee of its stature – reporting directly to ANU Council – in the country. Last year the University also established the Student Safety and Wellbeing Team to provide assistance for students and to walk them through the often quite complex processes of the University. These are two key student demands that the ANU has met, and Schmidt is now “much more comfortable” with the position and work that the University is doing on SASH.
Sexual assault in the university sector is more likely to happen the more people live on campus, and Schmidt both understands that ANU has substantial work to do, but also thinks that ANU’s on-campus nature contributes to its poor performance. However, this is not an excuse for him, and he believes it only increases the University’s responsibility. With the SSWC reporting to the Council and having both students and sexual violence experts sit on it, it is likely that ANU is entering a new era in reform around SASH. Whether the University takes up the committee’s recommendations, will be the work of the next Vice-Chancellor. Earlier this year, Woroni reported on the ANU’s failure to progress its Disability Access Plan; it remains to be seen if the University has learnt from its mistakes.
Another alleged mistake the ANU, and Schmidt personally, are often charged with is the purchase of large capital assets to be developed in the future. In 2021, he oversaw the purchase of a $17 million disused bus stop from the ACT, and this year he announced another similarly large purchase of a parking lot to build a new health sciences precinct on. Schmidt denies that the purchases are too expensive, noting that the cost of the acquisitions are amortised to be paid over a number of years and that the land will be used to realise the University’s long-term goals. He also says the purchases were a drop in the ocean compared to the pay rises the NTEU demanded.
The conversation next turned to the ANU’s involvement in AUKUS, which Schmidt denies: “It’s news to me.” Schmidt made a point not often discussed by students which is that the ANU, as the national university, ought to meet the educational needs of government policy. Hence, if there is to be a nuclear-powered submarine program, and Schmidt does not express his views on the alliance itself, then the ANU should provide the requisite education. It’s a reason which doesn’t seem to always be applied evenly at the University, which attempted to cut its Bachelor of Public Policy (BPP) last year, a degree which surely aligns to the government’s interests, even if broader society may not care. Of course, the BPP does not map onto any specific government policy, but one can imagine that if any university is to teach it, it should be the ANU, along similar lines to Schmidt’s thinking.
Education and research into nuclear energy and nuclear-powered submarines is also part of successful nuclear stewardship, Schmidt believes. This argument is a bit more familiar to students, with speakers at the student union arguing that there is a space for nuclear research. However, the controversy revolves around the conditions of any AUKUS-related scholarship that the Department of Defence offers. Will recipients be expected to work on AUKUS submarines, and what steps will be taken to ensure the education can’t be easily applied to nuclear armament? Without more details, these are moot questions, and we will have to wait until the scholarship program is formally announced.
No one person can accomplish everything, so what would Schmidt like to have achieved as Vice-Chancellor but never did? An academic overlay in on-campus residences, something he promises he’ll work on after his term, and hence tells us to stay tuned for. The second aim is more equity scholarships. The goal “is that every person who needs a scholarship in first year should get one.” ANU has a growing asset pool, and it may be that, like Harvard, Schmidt wants to fund equity scholarships from this pool. He doesn’t pull his punches though, and says the federal government could do more to fund tertiary education.
Looking Forward
On Tuesday the 26th August, ANU announced that Professor Genevieve Bell would be its 13th Vice-Chancellor. She will be the first woman in the position, and Schmidt mentioned his passion for a more equitable hiring as Vice-Chancellor. Bell, like Schmidt, comes from the ANU, however she has worked as the Director of the School of Cybernetics, a more administrative role than academic. But, her experience in computing and anthropology makes her well-poised to lead the University in the age of AI, or at least the age of paranoia around AI.
Schmidt’s advice for Bell is clear: “Get out and talk to people, talk to students, include the students in the decision making that affects them.” At the conclusion of our interview, Schmidt mentioned that he doesn’t want to be an “alien overlord” believing that Vice-Chancellors must be “a part of the community, not an alien overlord.” Schmidt can be seen around Kambri fairly frequently, including in the queue at Daily Market. Having provided the name of ANU Schmidtposting, the ANU community’s largest online community, he is in a sense, instantly recognisable, and understood to be a part of the ANU. Whether he seems like a member of the ANU community is up to the reader.
I grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, a place not many ANU students are from. Looking back on high school there, even though it wasn’t the best period in my life, it made me feel like I somewhat belonged. There was always a new club for me to join and I had a great group of friends, who never made me feel isolated for the things I found interesting. Maybe it was because of all those American college movies I had watched growing up, and all those YouTube videos I had watched in anticipation, but I believed that university would be the place where I became more confident and grew into myself. I assumed university would make me feel like I completely belonged.
I had two weeks of the ‘University experience’ before COVID-19 hit, but it was nothing like I expected. That first week of uni, I remember printing out my resume and immediately applying for every job in sight. I assumed every student was doing the same. I was sorely mistaken.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, only 40% of people in tertiary education are working part-time. I was surprised when I found out that some students at ANU have never had to work, and will not have to work throughout their entire degree, to take care of themselves. This made me feel like an imposter at ANU, acutely out of place at such a prestigious university.
My first tutorial at ANU also made me feel like I was out of place. The way tutors speak is something that still perplexes me to this day. I felt like I was sitting in a Master’s program for International Relations, not my first ever uni class. I believe lots of ANU students have felt this, as I often see it plastered all over ANU Confessions. Some lecturers do not know how to teach and they can often make the course feel inaccessible. It became even more difficult over COVID-19 when everything was online; it was even harder to learn. For example, I took a French Introduction course, thinking it would be a pretty simple class. I had taken a little French in high school and thought I would have an advantage, – I was wrong. The lecturer attempted to teach a whole year of high school French in a few weeks!
There seems to be a pervasive expectation at ANU that University is our only priority, and ANU continually fails to take into account the complex and busy lives of its students. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in 2017 – 2018, 15% of people ages 18-24 had experienced high levels of psychological distress. With the impact of COVID-19, I know that this would have increased. As a student who works part-time and suffers from psychological distress, I can attest that the help provided by ANU is minuscule. Because of this, it is so easy to feel like you do not belong, or feel out of place. That first year of university impacted how I saw myself. The thing about imposter syndrome is, everything you feel about yourself is tipped on its head. The way you perceive yourself and the people around you is completely different. You internalise it and feel like you are the only one feeling this way – as if you are the only person who is in the wrong place.
Imposter syndrome also makes you feel like you are in a constant race to keep up, and ANU reinforces that toxic narrative.
Have you ever noticed that most tutorials seem to be during the middle of the day, making it difficult to work and study at the same time? Some lecturers, even after COVID-19, still expect students to go to their lectures in-person and you may even lose participation points if you do not attend. I do not have time to go to a three-hour lecture on a Monday morning, especially when it’s a day I work. ANU perpetuates the pressure to keep up with your peers, you need to graduate when everyone else graduates, you need to get HDs, and you need to be prefect, mentally and physically
When you break them down, though, none of these goals make sense. When it comes to graduating ‘on time’, people change their degrees, I know, shocking! When you do that, you often end up extending the time you need to study before graduating. Many people also do fewer courses to work or take care of their mental health, which also extends their degrees. It feels like to finish your degree perfectly in three or four years would mean that you didn’t work, and never had a mental breakdown, ever!
Moving on to pressure to get all D’s or HDs, not all courses are the same, also shocking! Unless you have done the course already, you do not know what to expect. Your tutor might be a harsh marker and maybe the last exam is really hard for no reason. When you take a look again at these societal expectations that make everyone feel like they are doing something wrong, you realise that they do not make any sense. Many students take time off here and there, many students are working multiple jobs to afford to stay in Canberra and many students are simply trying to pass their courses and survive.
The one thing imposter syndrome has taught me was that it is easy to idealise everyone around you and look down on yourself, what is more difficult is to treat yourself with kindness and remember that this path in life is your own and no one else’s. Tertiary systems also need to look at every student as an individual and provide more financial and mental resources. While I do not believe that uni will ever get easier, especially if ANU continues to forget about the welfare of their students, I do believe that the communities students have created, such as ANU Confessions and ANU Schmidtposting will continue to bring us comfort, so we never fully feel alone.
Comments Off on Editorial | Support your teachers, support the strikes
On Thursday of Bush Week, the 27th of July, ANU staff will strike for better pay, working conditions, and to reverse the casualisation so rampant in the tertiary sector. The students of this University have an obligation to stand in solidarity with staff: we must support our teachers, we must support the strikes.
One of the most important jobs in society is educating future generations. And yet, our society pays the most socially useful jobs, some of the lowest wages, and lecturers and tutors are no different. They are underpaid, under-supported and overworked. Burdened not by our assessments, questions, and debates, but by the ever-increasing administrative work of the University. They are stretched thin, and to add insult to injury, they are screwed over by the ANU.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has brought several key demands to the bargaining table. Some have seen success, as Woroni has previously reported. But, where university management remains most intransigent is exactly where change is needed most. Our teachers deserve to be paid more, more because of how valuable their work is, more because of how difficult it is, and more because of the cost-of-living crisis that they must struggle through.
The ANU recently revised its previous paltry pay rise. Despite the overall increase this still includes an administrative pay rise from earlier this year, and ignores the pay rise due from 2022. The University has remained stubbornly opposed to giving casual employees – often fellow undergraduate and postgraduate students marking assessments and teaching tutorials – clear paths to permanent work. Casual research assistants are often paid from research funding grants, and the dilemma between claiming the full hours worked and eating into the research budget of a supposedly research-based university is real. Such casual work is rife with exploitation.
Capitalist ideology preaches the ultimate freedom of the market. The ultimate freedom of the worker is to strike for better conditions, to stand in solidarity and withhold the most valuable part of the production process: human labour. But capitalism does not practise what it preaches, and industrial action is increasingly curtailed, while corporate freedom – from profiteering to monopolisation and downright fraud – remains untouchable. In this climate, every strike reiterates the importance and power of workers, even as those workers are straw manned as “intellectual elites.” ANU staff should strike, so that they can reassert their power as the foundation of this University.
Students are familiar by now with the paradox of apparently being the customer of the University, and yet constantly having their demands rejected, their voices ignored. When we stand in solidarity with staff, we remind the University that it is not run by vice-chancellors or deputy vice-chancellors who want to cut degrees. We remind them that hardworking teachers and students are the lifeblood of this University. The relationship between the student and the teacher is the nexus of learning and education, this relationship cannot exist when teachers cannot live off their wages.
Our University’s status is slipping. We’re no longer amongst the top-ranking universities in Australia, and our research funding has fallen, driving lower revenues. Our University increasingly leans into predatory, exploitative systems of revenue generation. From dodgy financing deals leading to drastic rent-increases to prosecuting students over parking fines, it is creating a conflict between the institution and the person, whether they be student or staff. Higher pay and better support for staff is going to improve learning outcomes, not spending $17 million on a health precinct when the researchers to work there are not paid enough.
The corporatisation of the University goes hand in hand with poorer working standards. As managerial and finance-sector thinking has infiltrated the tertiary sector, staff have seen themselves lumped with more and more administrative work. Even as the genuinely helpful administrative work, such as special considerations and accessibility concerns, is still considered voluntary.
Woroni is a proudly independent media outlet, but on this, we agree with ANUSA: staff working conditions are student learning conditions. If we won’t stand in solidarity with teachers out of principle, then we can at least support them knowing that the better paid they are and the more flexible their work is, the better it will be for us.
Take just one example: assessment marking. Often, casual staff are paid per assessment marked, or paid per hour with the expectation that they mark a certain number of assessments in that time. Both practices drive markers to spend less time on each assessment, increasing the likelihood of unfair marks on students. The NTEU demand for pathways out of casualisation can help ensure markers are not pressured and exploited, and that students’ assessments are not rushed through.
And in turn, solidarity begets solidarity. Rent for next year has increased again, meaning that the cheapest student accommodation now exceeds the average rent one person pays living in a three bedroom sharehouse. We are seeing continued cuts in degrees and changes to the curriculum that remove the flexibility so many students desire. ANU has the highest sexual assault rate of any Group of Eight university. If we stand with staff, they will stand with us at our next protest. Stand with no one, and no one stands with you.
It is unclear how the staff strikes will progress from Bush Week. In other, more corporate universities like the University of Sydney, the strikes continued for months. Since the ANU NTEU branch announced its intent to strike, the ANU has moved forward on some issues. But, if management digs its heel in, we may see strikes throughout Semester 2. We may see picket lines and multi-day strikes and as frustrating as some may find these, it is our obligation to support better standards for educators. Staff will already be under pressure to compromise and give in to the University’s demands. Students have an obligation to stand with staff, to remove the guilt-tripping and emotional argument and say that no, strikes do not negatively impact students, not in the long run.
Support your teachers, turn out to the rally on the 27th of July. Don’t complain when class is cancelled because of industrial action, let your striking teachers know you support them, that you want this too. Remind the University who really matters.
Support the strikes.
The students of this University have an obligation to stand in solidarity with staff: we must support our teachers, we must support the strikes.