Births, Deaths and Marriages – Semester 2, Week 2

Not-so-strange bedfellows

Honi received a tip off last week from a source within the Sydney University Liberal Club (SULC) of a political power play occurring between Catherine Priestley, secretary on Dom Bondar’s ticket for the upcoming SULC executive election, and Honi hopeful John Patrick Asimakis, however both parties have denied any formal agreement.

Honi was told the pair had engaged in an exchange of support whereby Asimakis had signed up a new SULC members ahead of the election in exchange for support from SULC in the Honi race. A number of people friends with Asimakis – notably from the hallways of St Paul’s College – were spotted joining SULC at their O Day stall last week, despite not previously being members of the club.

“We have had the secretary of the club [Bondar’s opponent for president, Josh Crawford] confirm severable notable names on [Asimakis’] ticket have signed up at the club, as well as a number of people who aren’t genuine Liberals,” David Hogan, a member of SULC who supports the Crawford ticket, told Honi.

Although Priestley denied there was any formal agreement between the pair, she did say she and Asimakis were “very good friends”.

“I know his situation and he knows mine,” she said, adding she expected rumours would come from her opponents in the upcoming SULC elections who she accused of conducting a “stack-a-thon” and said were looking to “discredit [her] in any way possible”.

Asimakis also denied there was a formal deal, but said he would be “unsurprised” if SULC members wanted to “see change” at Honi and his ticket “would be the vehicle for delivering that change”.

It remains to be seen what kind of change the ticket, of which Honi Soit reporter and St Paul’s College resident Josh Koby Wooller is the sole other confirmed member, will propose in their policy statement when nominations close on August 17.

After he declined to comment last week, Honi managed to get this statement from Asimakis: “Our ticket is very diverse, it will represent the interests of everybody on campus, and all the ticket members have great experience in writing, both in Honi and for other publications.”

As for the other two known Honi tickets (see last weeks’ BD&M), we have heard that – after last week’s SCA-focused edition – both teams are looking to the University’s Rozelle campus to fill out their remaining spots. Das, Ergas and Faithfull et al have added artist Jemima Wilson to their team while rumour has it Sun, Ryan, Landis-Handley & Co are also seeking a ~creative~.

Oops, we screwed over students again

The Business School, infamous for hiring racist tutors and systematically failing international students to facilitate their role as university cash cows, has screwed up yet again. In a publicly available Academic Standards and Policy Committee agenda, the Business School listed the student numbers of those currently undergoing investigation for academic dishonesty. Unsurprisingly enough, every other faculty who submitted an academic dishonesty report managed to do so without making the same mistake.

SRC General Secretary Georgia Mantle identified the error. “I think it was concerning that no one else in the board picked up on the fact that they were there! These are paid professionals whose job it is,” Mantle said. The student numbers are no longer listed on the publicly downloadable agenda.

Senate race kicks off

Nominations have officially opened for election to the Sydney University Senate, the peak governing body of the University. Here’s a sneak peak at the faces that are vying for the undergraduate fellow position.

First up is Arts student Finn Keogh. Keogh seems to be taking a minimalist approach to the election, saying “I would prefer not to campaign online, but that is more or less unavoidable these days” and “I’d prefer not to be on Eastern Avenue, although that is still up in the air.” Keogh doesn’t expect to receive factional backing and intends to increase transparency of the fellow’s policy stance.

“For a lot of previous undergraduate senate fellows, there has been a distinct lack of direction. That is very much the case with the previous fellow. There was no idea what the position was on deregulation,” he told Honi.

Second is Arts/Law student and ex-Honi editor Alexi Polden. Polden has been rumoured to be running for many months now (as has been reported previously in Honi) but has been coy with the actual confirmation. We can now finally confirm he’s running. He didn’t specify whether he expects backing from any particular factions, saying “I think my platform and record will resonate with most students, so I find it hard to see any faction opposing it.”

Finally (for now), is Georg Tamm. Tamm has unsuccessfully contested the Union Board elections twice, and has re-engineered the Facebook page (replete with “Curious Georg” branding) from the second campaign for this Senate run.

Tamm said to Honi, “As you probably know I’m a student with a disability. Since the implementation of Academic Plans across the board and centralisation of special con I’ve found the system to be failing students. My main motivation for running is that I know how horrible the entire process can be to receive support from the University.”

The ballot is conducted electronically, which means that in-person campaigning doesn’t impact the result as much as in the SRC campaigns.

Which prominent academic was spotted zipping down Eastern Avenue on a Razor scooter?

You were correct! It was Nick Enfield, University of Sydney Chair of Linguistics and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities.

Sorry, Noah

Last week’s Births, Deaths & Marriages misidentified Noah Vaz as a Young Lib. Vaz has never campaigned for a Liberal candidate at a local, state or federal level, and we apologise for this error.