A recent proposal to move the University of New South Wales’ Student Representative Council (UNSW SRC) upcoming annual elections to “flex-week” has prompted significant discord amongst student politicians and factions.
The motion, presented by the Labour Unity-aligned election ticket Revive on the July Council meeting’s agenda, proposes that “Arc moves SRC elections to flex-week, to promote higher engagement with student elections.” In this context, “flex-week” refers to the week-long mid-trimester break UNSW students will enjoy between October 14 and October 20.
This change would violate the National Union of Students (NUS) regulations, which state in Section B5.2 that the election of delegates to the NUS National Conference “must take place (a) on at least 3 consecutive academic days.”
In an email to Honi Soit, the UNSW SRC Environment Officer Gina Elias noted that “holding an election during flex-week, when most students do not have classes and therefore are not on campus, actively undermines student engagement in the election and with the SRC generally. Elections are one of the few times of the year when the SRC is unmissable on campus, with dozens of campaigners, flyers, posters, corflutes, and crucially, conversations about why students should care about the SRC, informing them of SRC advocacy and services provided for them.”
Elias went on to state that “this is also often a key time when marginalised students, such as students with disabilities, can ask and find out about the SRC’s services and advocacy.”
Concerns that this scheduling change would “drastically inhibit the democratic proceedings of our SRC” have also become a pertinent part of the debate. Elias raised that “candidates cannot be held accountable through their online campaigns in the same way that they could with in person campaigning, where they actually have to engage students and answer questions about their policy and past record.”
In particular, UNSW SRC Education Officer Cherish Kuehlmann commented to Honi that “I can’t stand for an election which de facto excludes thousands of students from participation, by holding it when they are not on campus. It undermines the basic democratic integrity of the election. Elections should be held at a time where all students have the equal opportunity to engage in them.
She also stated that the proposal “would mean that all the students who travel for classes, from Western Sydney, from the Illawarra, will be denied the opportunity to engage with the election campaign, while those in residential colleges are able to with ease. This is fundamentally discriminatory.”
Given that moving elections to flex-week would privilege students who live on campus and would vote for Labour Unity, and that the faction has moved this motion while most other left-wing councillors are attending the NUS Education Conference in Perth, Socialist Alternative has compared this proposal to “a form of gerrymandering”.
Dissent to this motion also exists within Revive, the Labor Unity-aligned SRC faction itself. One faction member, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Honi that “changing the SRC elections to flex week would do nothing but ice out all students who can’t afford to live on, or travel to campus each day. We know students living with disabilities and Indigenous students are underrepresented in on-campus accommodation and it’s a shame Revive would put this motion forward at the expense of these students.”
In light of Senator Fatima Payman’s recent suspension from the Labor Party following her decision to cross the floor in support of a Free Palestine, some Labor Unity-aligned members have expressed concerns over what they feel is a need to “toe the Party line.”
These events are particularly pertinent amidst ongoing debates at the University of Sydney to move SRC elections and voting online, or continue with in-person campaigns.
