The third SRC meeting of 2015 was perhaps the most dramatic meeting the ANUSA has convened this year. Held on 28th April, the marathon meeting run for almost four hours yet failed to pass a motion regarding re-affiliation with the National Union of Students.
Other highlights included the announcement of ‘mature age and students with children’ focus group. ANUSA President Ben Gill said this group was created “to identify gaps in [ANUSA’s] services for these categories of students and discuss ways to better engage [with them].” Initial discussions raised ideas for starting a crèche for short term and all-day care.
Gill also introduced a policy that all members of the ANUSA Executive will undergo a performance review in the next few weeks to gauge their performance.
Queer* Officer, Kat Reed, raised concerns that the current media policy does not allow any ANUSA representative except the President to speak to the media except without written consent.
“As a Department Head, who is supposed to have complete autonomy on matters regarding my department, it seems unreasonable to hold department heads to this rule too,” said Reed.
Reed proposed a motion that no department representative of ANUSA should be prevented from speaking publicly about their own personal views. However, the constitutional legitimacy of the motion was questioned by General Secretary Megan Lane, who replied that “policies made at ANUSA cannot fly in the face of things written into the constitution.”
A constitutional amendment was proposed for the upcoming ANUSA Annual General Meeting, which will be held on 21st May. As a result, students will be able to decide at the meeting whether Department Officers are able to speak to the media on issues and policies relating to their Collective.
A motion was also passed by the SRC to create the much-awaited Disputes Committee, which is an independent committee that solves professional relationship issues, votes of no confidence and bad management claims. A Financial Review Committee was also created.
In the Social Officer’s report, Jack Gaudie said the “Grants and Affiliations Committee has held a special meeting where we cleared all payment request and approved $26k to club and societies.” This brings the total money approved up to $52,500 for 2015.
Treasurer, Sophia Woo, said in her report that ANUSA has spent over $684,000 so far this year, out of a total budget of $1,380,000.
The next meeting of the SRC will be held on 26th May, following the ANUSA AGM on 21st May.
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