The University of Sydney Union (USU) provisionally elected its incoming executive team from existing Board Directors in a public meeting on Monday night.
Electable positions included President, Vice-President, Honorary Treasurer, and Honorary Secretary, marking the end of the term for Naz Sharifi, Madhullikaa Singh, Nicholas Dower, and Onor Nottle in each respective role.
Bryson Constable (Liberal), Ben Hines (Libdependent), Julia Lim (Independent), and Grace Wallman (Switchroots) were elected as the new executive.
The meeting commenced at 6:10pm, with three proxies included in a total of fourteen Board Director votes. This included the five student representatives inducted in the most recent USU elections, as well as two Senate-appointed Directors David Wright and Alyssa White.
The first order of the meeting was the election of the President. Grace Porter (Unity) nominated Wallman for the position, which was seconded by Sargun Saluja (NLS). Wallman accepted the nomination before Phan Vu (Independent) and Hines nominated Constable for the same position.
Wallman spoke first about her candidacy. She focused her speech on USU members, arguing that the Presidency needed to foreground their perspective. She said she feared the campus community would be tough to rebuild after COVID-19. To rebuild she said, the USU needed to “move forward with a shared vision,” and be “Inclusive of voices that may not otherwise be heard.” She supported the ongoing development of the USU’s Reconciliation Action Plan which targets improving the union’s relationship with indigenous students and improving its Disability and Inclusion Action Plan.
Constable spoke next. Constable highlighted his existing track record on the executive in his speech noting he has served on five committees. He assured the room he could run the executive collaboratively. “Collaboration is the most important thing for me,” he said. He echoed Wallman’s support for the RAP and DIAP and also argued that the USU had to improve its service provision. “We have to work on our food and drink strategy.”
Constable also made consistent references to his “fallibilities” and “shortcomings” throughout his nomination speech.
After a vote was taken outside, Constable was elected USU President for the next year.
In response, outgoing Honorary Secretary Onor Nottle moved a procedural motion in objection to Constable’s election. She stated that he “doesn’t deserve the position” on the “basis of meritocracy, or over Ben and Grace.” Nottle also pointed out that Constable is the “Vice-President of the Conservative Club and a card-carrying conservative member.” The club, she said, had published positions in The Sydney Tory that were “unashamedly ableist, anti-choice, and Zionist.”
Honi Soit would like to note that Constable’s election was entirely dependent on the votes of the two Senate-Appointed Directors present at the meeting. Without these two votes, Constable would have lost with five votes to Grace Wallman’s six from the left bloc.
This year’s President Naz Sharifi and USU CEO Michael Bromley also delivered outgoing speeches. Sharifi opened by “commending everyone for nominating” and extending her “congratulations to the provisional executives.” She “echoed the call for collaboration, for decency and kindness”, and noted to the Board Directors that “you owe it to this organisation to put your factional ideologies to the side.”
Bromley continued these sentiments by emphasising that representatives are “obligated to have no politics when it comes to doing what’s best for the USU”, and that they must maintain a focus on “sustainability, world-class experiences, and the best deliverables.”
Nottle then left the room and the meeting proceeded to the election of the Vice President.
Grace Porter and Ben Hines were both nominated and seconded as candidates for this position. After a vote, Hines was declared the USU’s next Vice President.
Julia Lim (Independent), nominated by Hines, was then elected Honorary Secretary, beating out Sargun Saluja who was nominated by Wallman. Upon accepting her position, she expressed disappointment at the fact that this year’s Presidential and Vice Presidential positions have been “given to two white men.”
Wallman was the only member of the ‘left bloc’ to be elected to the executive as Honorary Treasurer. She was nominated by Constable and only accepted the position unopposed after hesitating for a minute and waiving her speaking time.
Former Honi Soit editor and SRC First Nations Officer Ethan Floyd (Switchroots) and Vu were jointly elected to be the non-executive directors of student publications. The DSPs oversee PULP magazine and the USU’s Faculty Society publications.
James Dwyer (Unity) was elected to the Financial and Electoral Committee. Speaking about his financial experience, Dwyer said that he had “spent the last four years studying commerce.” “The principal role of the USU is to ensure money is spent in the best interest of the student community,” he continued.
Shirley Zhang (Independent) was elected unopposed to the Awards Committee and beat Dwyer in a vote to land a role on the Clubs and Societies Committee. This is despite Dwyer serving in executive positions across five different societies. “I want everyone to join the clubs as I do,” Zhang said. Zhang was also elected to run the International Students Portfolio.
Georgia Zhang (Switchroots), who did not attend the meeting, was elected unopposed to the Debates Committee. She is the only current Director who has attended a debating event. Zhang was also elected to the Womens Portfolio.
Floyd, also not in attendance, beat Vu in a vote to run the Ethnocultural Portfolio. Floyd is the first Indigenous Board Director for more than ten years, and according to Wallman who spoke on his behalf, would “engage BIPOC students and staff, particularly from Aboriginal communities.” Floyd was also elected to the Queer and Disabilties Portfolios. He has a “unique experience dealing with welfare services,” Wallman said.
Vu, referring to her experience as SULS International Officer, was elected to the Governance Committee and the People and Culture Committee. Saluja was elected unopposed to the Environmental Portfolio.
The meeting closed at 7:36 pm.
