This year, Honi Soit invited both presidential candidates and up to two representatives from each Honi ticket to sit separate quizzes. This is the first year that Honi candidates have been asked to sit a quiz. They all gracefully accepted. The SRC quiz had 39 questions, and the Presidents, 40. Questions were open-ended without any multiple choice. All quizzes were administered in the SRC Office Bearers’ Room, not the Honi Soit offices. Candidates were given 30 minutes to complete the quizzes. They did so under invigilated conditions. Here’s how we designed the quizzes: For Honi, questions were based around basic tenets of journalistic practice, contemporary student goings-on around campus, developments in the education sector and familiarity with Honi itself. For the presidents, questions were related to University of Sydney-related statistics, student organisations and relevant university bodies as well as enduring student campaigns.
Presidential Quiz
1. According to undergraduate enrolment data from June 2019, there are currently 37,146 undergraduate students enrolled at USyd. According to the SRC constitution, how many SRC councillors should there be? [37]
2. Before 2019, when was the last time the number of SRC councillors was increased, and to what number? [2010, to 33 councillors]
3. How much SSAF funding did the SRC receive in 2018? [$1,881,651 or $1,765,351]
4. Name the five student organisations which received SSAF allocations in 2018 [SRC, SUPRA, CSG, SUSF, USU]
5. Name five SRC collectives. [Wom*n’s, ACAR, QUAC, Disabilities, Environment]
6. Who chairs the Academic Board? [A/Prof Tony Masters]
7. If an undergraduate student has a legal problem this month, how can they access the SRC legal service? [They can’t (at the time of the quiz, the SRC legal service was closed and due to reopen in October).]
8. To the nearest ten thousand, how much annual funding is the SRC Legal Service receiving in 2019? [$216,288.39]
9. Name four SRC publications. [Counter Course, Growing Strong, Honi Soit, Orientation Week Handbook]
10. Describe one way that an SRC president can be dismissed from office. [Petition signed by at least 500 members of the student body, motion for dismissal carried by two thirds majority of a General Meeting of the student body with at least 200 members in attendance]
11. Describe one way in which the SRC constitution can be amended. [Petition signed by at least 300 students]
12. Describe an ongoing legal suit that the SRC is currently a party in. [Thomas McLoughlin’s unfair dismissal claim in the Fair Work Commission, Patrick Massarani defamation]
13. Name the individual and organisatiokn behind the 2020 national survey on student sexual assault. [Dr Anastasia Powell, Social Research Centre]
14. According to the 2017 national survey on student sexual assault, over 1 in _ students were sexually assaulted or harassed in 2016. [1 in 2]
15. Who is the current President of the NUS and which faction are they a member of? [Desiree Cai, NLS]
16. Approximately what percentage of university staff are employed as casuals? [~50%]
17. Researchers from which faculty are currently locked in a Fair Work Commission dispute over staff relocation? [Faculty of Medicine and Health]
18. Name two of the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellors [Lisa Jackson-Pulver, Stephen Garton, Colm Harmon, Pip Pattison, Duncan Ivison]
19. When does Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence’s term end? [2022]
20. The Federal Government recently announced a taskforce into foreign interference at Australian university campuses. Name the four areas which will be probed by the taskforce. [Cyber security, research/IP, foreign collaboration, culture and communication]
21. Name two committees, one which hears academic appeals and one which hears student misconduct allegations. Both committees feature student members. [SDAC, SAP]
22. Who are the current co-presidents of SUPRA (Yanning Bai, Minran Liu)
23. In 2018, how much did the University invest in the fossil fuel industry, according to freedom of information data obtained by Fossil Free? [$22.4 million]
24. Out of 41 Australian universities, where did USyd rank in terms of student perceptions of the overall educational experience, according to 2018 Student Experience Survey data [39th]
25 How many students (to the nearest hundred) enrolled at USyd are Indigenous according to the University’s 2018 annual report? [400]
26. How many students enrolled at USyd (to the nearest thousand) are from non-English speaking backgrounds according to the University’s 2018 annual report? [21,800]
27. Identify four areas of law which the SRC Legal Service can assist in?
28. Which University service was embroiled in an ICAC inquiry earlier this year? [Campus Security]
29. As part of the proposed SRC regulation changes this year, polling booths would have been added in which two new locations? [Charles Perkins Centre, ABS]
30. Part of the president’s job is to DSP the paper every week for legal risks, including defamation. Name one defence to defamation under law. [Truth, contextual truth, qualified privilege, justification, honest opinion]
31. Is the SRC a charity? [Yes]
32. Which machine learning tool by Turnitin was licensed for trial use by USyd in 2019? [Authorship Investigate]
33. USyd’s amendments to its MOU with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation proposed a change in the name of the Bachelor of Western Civilisation degree. What was the proposed change? [Bachelor of Western Tradition]
34. Name two Open Learning Environment (OLE) subjects.
35. Who is the incoming president of the UNSW SRC and which faction are they a member of? [Manu Risoldi, Unity]
36. To the nearest thousand, how much did the SRC pay to the NUS in affiliation fees for 2018? [$64,300]
37. In his Semester 1, Week 4 presidential report, Jacky He incorrectly advised students that SRC caseworkers can provide a particular service, which they in fact cannot. Which service did He incorrectly advertise? [Mental health services]
38. In the event that the Chair of Standing Legal is unable to discharge their duties, or if no Chair of Standing Legal has been elected, who shall take up the responsibilities of the role? [The Executive]
39. What is the name of one of the languages spoken by the custodians of the land the University occupies? [Dharug, Gadigal]
Honi Soit Quiz
1. Which controversial academic was dismissed by the University earlier this year for distributing materials featuring a swastika superimposed over an Israeli flag? [Dr Tim Anderson]
2. Who is the current President of the National Union of Students and which faction are they a member of? [Desiree Cai, National Labor Students]
3. How many pages long is a standard edition of Honi Soit? [24]
4. Name as many regular sections of the paper as you can. [Editorial, Acknowledgement of Country, Goings On, Burn Book, Letters, News, analysis, Multilingual, Culture, Opinion, Perspective, Feature, SRC reports, Puzzles, Comedy]
5. In what year was Honi Soit first published? [1929]
6. Who is the current CEO of the USU? [Acting CEO Alistair Cowie]
7. What was the theme of the USyd Revue in 2019? [The Void]
8. Name the two legal processes through which institutional information (which is not on the public record) can be obtained? [Government Information Public Access/GIPA, Freedom of Information/FOI]
9. Where might liability lie in the event of a defamation lawsuit against Honi Soit? [The Directors of Student Publications as publishers, the president, author, editors]
10. With which two universities has the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation successfully brokered a deal this year? [University of Wollongong, University of Queensland]
11. Who was recently appointed Chancellor at ANU? [Julie Bishop]
12. Who is the outgoing Provost at USyd and who will take their place on Monday of next week? [Stephen Garton, Barbara Messerle]
13. Who was the first international student president of the USU? (Ruchir Punjabi)
14. Who is the current Undergraduate Senate Fellow at USyd and what year does their term end? [Francis Tamer, 2020]
15. Did the USU report an increase or reduction in revenue in 2018, compared to 2017? [Increase]
16. The USU ran a number of ‘town hall’ style meetings earlier this year to consult members on a particular policy issue. What was that issue, and who did they meet with? [C&S funding, C&S executives]
17. The incumbent SRC administration proposed a package of regulation changes earlier this year. Have those regulations passed council? [No]
18. Name one of those proposed regulations that would have affected Honi Soit?
19. How many social media platforms is Honi Soit on? Name as many as you can. [Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, LinkedIn, YouTube]
20. Sydney University Sport and Fitness (SUSF) changed its organisational structure earlier this year. How many board directors now sit on its company board? [8-10]
21. Describe the subjects of two feature articles Honi Soit has published in 2018 or 2019?
22. What was the name of SRC solicitor dismissed in June this year and who is the current acting principal of the SRC Legal Service? [Thomas McLoughlin, An Li]
23. What are the ways in which old editions of Honi Soit can be accessed? Name as many as you can. [Honi website archive, University of Sydney digital archive, Issuu, Fisher Library Rare Books Collection]
24. Name the podcasts produced by Honi Soit under WET (2017) and SPICE (2019)? [Honicast, Rag Off]
25. Name all of the autonomous editions of Honi published annually? [ACAR, Wom*n’s, Indigenous, Disabilities, Queer]
26. What are the names of student publications of the following universities? (one mark for each) ANU [Woroni] UTS [Vertigo] UNSW [Tharunka] UQ [Semper Floreat] Macquarie University [Grapeshot] The University of Melbourne [Farrago] Monash University [Lot’s Wife] The University of Western Australia [Pelican]
27. What is the weekly circulation of Honi Soit? (provide a range) [3000-5000]
28. In journalistic practiice, news articles follow a specific structure. What is the name of that structure? [Inverted pyramid]
29. What is the size of the annual stipend received by the SRC President in 2019? [$42,015.58]
30. When does Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence’s term end? [2022]
31. How many editions of Disabilities Honi have been published? [Two]
32. Name one thing that has been the subject of an Honi Soit investigation in 2019.
33. What Faculty is currently locked in a dispute with the University over an unconsulted relocation of staff and researchers? From which building are they being relocated? [Faculty of Medicine and Health, Anderson Stuart]
34. How many stands does Honi Soit have on satellite campuses? [Three]
35. What is NatCon and when is it held? [National Conference of the NUS, December]
36. Which USyd college was embroiled in an Anzac Day hazing scandal this year? [St Paul’s]
37. Which former High Court Chief Justice conducted a recent review into campus free speech this year, and what was its finding? [Robert French; no free speech crisis]
38. USyd recently engaged a new security provider. Who was its previous provider and why was their contract terminated? [Sydney Night Patrol and Inquiry; terminated due to fabricated time sheets and rampant corruption]
39. Which student organisation collaborated with the University’s contract cheating crackdown earlier this year? [USU]
40. A greyhound racing night was organised by students at St Andrew’s College earlier this year. Which two colleges publicly boycotted the event? [Sancta Sophia College, St John’s College]