President
Jacky He
Welcome Week ran extremely successfully for the University of Sydney Student Representatives Council last week! Over the three days, we have successfully attracted 1077 distinct followers on our WeChat and Facebook platforms and made a historical record in the amount of traction attracted to SRC’s social media during Welcome Week. Each day we had approximately 50 volunteers / office-bearers at our SRC stalls handing out show bags and SRC flyers, and some collectives have raised over sixty members in the span of the three days!
The international students campus tour also ran very smoothly as well, with 60 students turning up on Monday afternoon (20 more than the registered number of students). We received positive verbal feedbacks from the students expressing their satisfaction towards our service and they also had an opportunity to communicate and bond with some of the student representatives from the SRC.
Vice President
Dane Luo and Caitlyn Chu
The SRC had a fantastic start to the year at Welcome Week! We handed out 2000 bags and spoke to thousands of students about what we do, student rights on campus and how our incredible services can help you. This week we will be giving out thousands of wall planners, showing our introductory video, and talking to more students on all of our campuses, including, Darlington/Camperdown, the Conservatorium, Camden, Mallett Street, Cumberland, Sydney College of the Arts, Westmead, and Singapore.
We know that going to University doesn’t come cheap! We know that there are so many additional costs like textbooks, Opal travel, food, rent and much more. BUT did you know that many undergraduate students in our University are eligible for Centrelink assistance but haven’t applied?
Centrelink offers several payments for University students. There is a lengthy process to apply and submit documentation, particularly if it’s your first time contacting them, but our amazing CASEWORKERS can help. Call our office (9660 5222) to make an appointment to speak to someone who can help!
The most common payment received by undergraduate students is the YOUTH ALLOWANCE. This is a fortnightly payment (up to $499.90 depending on your circumstances) to full time students who are between 18 and 24 years old and are Australian residents. Your fortnightly payment varies based on whether you are single/couple, whether you live at your parents’ home, whether you have/care for children and, you and your parents’ income and assets. Be aware that your payment may decrease if you receive an income from work and you will need to make fortnightly declarations about your wages and salaries. The SRC has a leaflet that explains how this all works at https://bit.ly/2BJpqvH. You can apply and find more information at https://bit.ly/2WaWaqe.
If you need any help with any of these payments you can email [email protected] and a caseworker will be happy to give you advice. Or if you would like get involved in SRC events or campaigns, feel free to email us at [email protected]
We hope to see you around campus!
Dane and Caitlyn
General Secretaries
Yuxuan Yang and Niamh Callinan
SSAF Application
On the 31st of January, the SRC’s SSAF Application was successfully sent off. This was within the deadline given and included both the base funding and contestable funding aspects of the application. We would like to give a massive thank you to Dane who as Acting President signed and officially sent the application. We would also like to say a massive thank you to Chitra (Administration), James and Mel (Casework and Policy), Amanda and Mickie (Communications and Publications), Thomas (SRC Legal Service), Karen (Elections) for the work they put into the application, and also their ideas and suggestions for improving each department’s capacity over the coming year.
In regards to the final numbers of the application, this will not be confirmed until around April, so whilst the application has been received and acknowledged, we are still awaiting further communication as to the progress of the application and the final amounts the SRC will receive from the SSAF resource pool this year.
Council’s First Meeting/ Reps Elect
We are very excited to finally have all the OB positions elected and we have started to communicate with all the officers in regards to what they are hoping to achieve this year. We both look forward to continuing to discuss and assist all OBs and Collectives in their plans for the coming year.
Welcome Week
Welcome Week is finally upon us; we have spent that last few weeks finalising the merchandise, the allocation of stalls, volunteers and packing all the material into the SRC tote bags.
We run out of 2000 SRC bag, including orientation-countercourse handbook, logo pen, SRC help flyer, SRC sticker and so on, and more than 2500 wall planer. We would like to thank the Welcome Week Committee for their assistance in organising Welcome Week, and also all the OBs and Collectives for their enthusiasm, time and energy they have placed into meeting the deadlines for printing and materials for this week. .We are very touched and we would like to great thank to the volunteers, you help us to let more students understand src, let us truly integrate students, understand students, represent students. We look forward to more volunteers joining us.