The SUPRA Disability Officer has sent a formal complaint to the University Senate, asking it to block changes made to the SUPRA constitution at its May Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The May 13 meeting, held online and in person, dissolved the existing Higher Degree Research (HDR) network, and replaced the current Equity Officer role with a new council executive position which will now oversee HDR representation.
The HDR Equity Network was established after the pandemic after a group of 50 HDR representatives from across multiple faculties petitioned SUPRA and the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education for a body to hear their concerns.
In an email to the University Senate, the current Disability Officer Gemma Lucy Smart alleged that the changes were brought to the AGM “without any consultation with the council or, more importantly, the Equity Network itself.”
The changes, Smart wrote, “raises significant concerns about the precedent this sets for the dissolution of Equity Networks.”
Smart asked the University Senate and Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education to block the changes.
Several members who attended the AGM also raised concerns that the explanation for the changes was rushed and accessibility issues prevented those who opposed the dissolution of the network to voice their opposition.
In an internal email sent to SUPRA’s Director of Operations and the Returning Officer, a member of the Equity network argued a lack of accessibility “impacted the integrity of the AGM process.”
Members who attended the meeting online allege the sound quality prevented them from hearing the proceedings and the closed caption feature failed to record many parts of the meeting.
Some members who attended online and spoke in opposition to the changes say they were not able to turn their cameras on and could not clearly see other speakers.
Honi Soit understands the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer also sent an email to the University also expressing concern over the AGM.
In response to the complaint, HDR Equity Officer Arash Araghi told Honi the email “lacks substance and clarity.”
“I have consistently communicated with different groups of HDR students across all disciplines,” Araghi said. “The item was discussed during the April council meeting.”
According to Araghi, the change was made to better allow SUPRA to handle an increasing number of complaints from HDR students which were not being fulfilled in a timely manner.
He also said the new council position would allow SUPRA to better allocate funds to the network, telling Honi that “HDR Equity Network expenditures in the last two years have exceeded the regular funds we have by at least 8-fold.”
Documents containing the proposed changes were sent to all members seven days before the AGM.
Honi has seen documents which show the strategy and planning committee was consulted alongside a working group made up of executive members who are HDR candidates.
SUPRA President Weihong Liang acknowledged there were technical challenges during the AGM and maintained the organisation did their best to fix them.
“These issues were unfortunate and frustrating, however there were no breaches in process and the meeting was valid,” he told Honi.
Liang argued the changes would bring about more oversight and expand participation of HDR students within the organisation.
While noting that the SUPRA constitution does not require widespread consultation for constitutional changes, Liang said that “members of the network were consulted.”
“The term ‘member’ in this context is used fairly informally, aside from being a SUPRA member and an HDR student there are no other defining processes or rules about who is or isn’t in the network.”
The University has not contacted SUPRA to address the complaint, but a University spokesperson confirmed to Honi they had received the email and knew of the changes to the constitution.
“SUPRA is an independent, student-led organisation with its own governing body,” the spokesperson said.
“While SUPRA operates independently of the University, we’re happy to engage with the organisation’s leadership and strongly support the importance of representation for students from all backgrounds.”