Justin Pen loves Twitter and hates SULC. His report for the inaugural GronkWatch.
Students who took to Twitter to celebrate their admission to the University of Sydney were ambushed by overzealous baby Tories from the Sydney University Liberal Club (SULC) earlier today.
Honi can exclusively reveal SULC’s Twitter page contacted at least 19 incoming students.
“Congrats! Looking forward to seeing you at the @SydneyUniLibs Oweek stall #usydhereicome”, the club’s robotic lion bellowed to unsuspecting tweeps.
It remains unclear as to why certain students were contacted while others ignored, with SULC pouncing on students already dismayed by the University’s notorious administration.
“how do we enroll for usyd wtf”, one incoming student asked.
“Congrats! Looking forward to seeing you at the @SydneyUniLibs Oweek stall #usydhereicome”, SULC replied.
By accident or design, SULC also harnessed the raw power of the grassroots hashtag “#usydhereicome”, now occupying the lion’s share of its tweets.
Honi understands its media wing @MonDroitNews also made direct appeals to incoming first-years, falsely representing itself as the outlet for “usyd [sic] campus news”.
Much like its parent, @MonDroitNews was indifferent to students’ genuine pleas for enrollment information.
One student, who asked the University’s Twitter account, “are unikeys being distributed now?” received the following reply from Mon Droit:
“Congrats [redacted] ! To grab all your usyd campus news check out @MonDroitNews #usydhereicome”
SULC is controlled by the Centre-Right faction of the Young Liberal Movement, derogatively referred to by its rivals as the “Ambition Faction”.
Sources within SULC and the Young Liberal Movement last year told Honi the club was a significant recruiting base for the faction, bringing in around a hundred membership forms a year.
In 2012, SULC also hosted radio broadcaster Alan Jones at its President’s Dinner who infamously suggested that then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s father “died of shame”, a fortnight after he passed away.
Ever the merry-tweeter, @SydneyUniLibs summarised that event: “brilliant speech by Alan Jones last night. It’s no wonder he’s the nation’s most influential broadcaster! #presidentsdinner”.
That Tweet was promptly deleted. So perhaps their latest was not @SydneyUniLibs‘ most tasteless work. But when cheering the death of a Prime Minister’s father is the bar, that’s no surprise.
