What is the SRC?
The Student Representative Council (SRC) is a key student representative body at the University of Sydney. The body is funded by Student Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF) and provides a variety of services for students which are accessible to all undergraduates at the University of Sydney.
Free casework services are accessible for students to seek support including academic appeals, accessing Centrelink, and housing advice.
The SRC advocates for students on a platform independent of management. This means they advocate for change through activism and protest, and in student advocacy on Academic Board meetings. They push for change that impacts students – such as fighting against course cuts, advocating for functional staff-student ratios, and pushing through change such as five-day simple extensions.
The SRC is also composed of a variety of Collectives. Office Bearers are employed by the SRC to govern a Collective. Examples of SRC Collectives include the Autonomous Collective Against Racism (ACAR), Disabilities Collective (DisCo) Women’s Collective (WoCo), Education Collective, amongst many more.
The SRC’s sexiest service is printing, funding, providing an office for and paying the editors of Honi Soit.
What are you voting for? What does this all mean?
In these elections you are voting for:
- SRC President: Elected as an advocate for the student body, leading the team of 5 executive members and spearheading campus issues.
- Representatives to Council: Meet monthly to debate and pass motions on student policy. Some counsellors get selected to serve on the executive which manages the SRC budget. Others become Office Bearers.
- Delegate to the National Union of Students: Delegates that represent the USyd students at the annual NUS conference. These delegates are factionally aligned, vote on behalf of USyd upon student issues and take part in intercampus and interstate discussions.
In this election, there will be no option to vote for Editors of Honi Soit due to the provisional election of the uncontested team.
This year, the President election will be contested in a three-way race — for the first time in 7 years. Contending for the top spot is Angus Fisher (NLS), Thomas Thorpe (Liberals) and Rand Khatib (Grassroots). Stakes are high this year with Khatib vying to maintain the last 5 years of Grassroots presidencies, Fisher seeking to bring any form of stability to NLS power and Thorpe attempting to bring rain to a 26-year dry spell of a Liberal presidency.
It is important not to discount this time of year. These are the peak representative voices that fight for issues pertaining to your education, your accessibility to resources and your student interest.
Voting: what, when, where, why!!!!!
What: This year voters are able to vote in three separate ballots to elect the SRC President, the Representatives to Council and the delegates to the National Union of Students.
When: Voting will take place at various booths and times around campus from the 24th, 25th, and 26th of September.
Where: Voting booths will be at held at:
Jane Foss Russell: Tuesday – Thursday, 8:45am – 5:15pm
Fisher Library: Wednesday & Thursday, 8:45am – 5:15pm
Manning House: Wednesday, 10:45am – 3:15pm
Conservatorium of Music: Wednesday, 10:30am – 3:30pm
Susan Wakil Health Building: Thursday, 10:45am – 3:15pm
Peter Nicol Russell Building: Thursday, 10:45am – 3:15pm
Preferences, scheming…..
SRC elections are conducted through an Optional Preferential Voting system. You can choose to vote above the line, which allows you to vote for a ticket as a whole. Below the line voting means that you may select candidates anywhere on the ticket in any order.
It can be compared to the voting process in Senate elections – wherein it is the choice of an elector to vote for a political faction (or party), or to select individual candidates.
“Breaking Quota, I don’t even know her!”
The preferential voting system means that candidates who achieve a quota pass on their surplus votes to the next preference on the ballot. This process continues until all available positions are filled. Often preferential architecture is decided after lengthy interfactional negotiations, signalling shadowed influences on the results of the election.
This means that your vote goes to who you ‘preference’ or, in other words, you rank everyone by how much you like them. Your vote counts for your first preference but if that person isn’t elected, it will count for your second preference, then third preference, and so on.
Who are you voting for?
What do these ticket names mean? What are they promising? Many factions like Labor and Liberal deploy masquerading pseudonyms to distract from negative associations with federal politics. But be warned, they want a seat there!
Grassroots are a leftist and Greens-aligned activist group faction on campus. They have enjoyed the presidency since 2019, despite the occasional contest from a Labor faction. They are also running under the branding Free Palestine.
Socialist Alternative (SAlt) often runs under the faction Left Action. Known for their hardlines, Eastern Avenue pamphletting, Red Flag newspaper, and their evergreen rivalry with Solidarity, SAlt are the most present activist group on campus.
International student faction Penta tend to be apolitical, and largely function as an interest group that advocates for services for international students. These include FoodHub, student life and concession cards.
Stand Up are a collection of first year students, seemingly composed of the Student Unity (the Labor Right faction), after they last ran under the name in 2022.
Colleges are exactly that: college students. Broadly Liberal-aligned, they are suspicious of student politics and the Left’s policy to abolish these institutions.
Engineers are only running one ticket this semester. They are broadly a non-political, non-activist group, primarily driven by achieving more STEM representation.
Pharmacists are dedicated to improving the campus experience for healthcare students.
Artistry works in tandem with Student Unity and represents students from the Conservatorium of Music. This year sees only one ticket under this branding.
Impact is the National Labour Students (Labour Left)’s branding of choice. NLS are also running under the branding ‘Hot Girls’.
Save is the moniker masking campus liberals. Critical of SSAF and lovers of the colleges,
Save are running 4 tickets this year, each headed by first year students. They are also running under the Liberal-aligned branding, Reform.
Rules and Regulations
The rules and regulations covering the SRC are too numerous to count or explain but here are some of the most important ones that students should be aware of when engaging in the election. The full regulation be accessed here: https://srcusyd.net.au/about/constitution/
- Only currently enrolled University of Sydney undergraduate students can vote in the elections.
- No voter or candidate may engage in dishonest practices to gain an advantage including but not limited to: bribery, threat, and tampering with ballot papers.
- No one may campaign in person or online until the start of the designated online and physical campaigning period.
- When campaigning, a person may not come into physical contact with another person unless that contact is consensual or engage in any behaviour that causes any individual to feel intimidated.
- All official material on social media or distributed in person must clearly display the name and student identification number of the person authorising that material (typically the campaign manager).
- All campaigning must be done in English and if any materials contain a language other than English, an easily readable translation must be provided alongside the statement.
- No must not interfere or damage in any way the campaigning material of any candidate that is put up in accordance with University policy.
- All questions about the rules and regulations as well as any reports of breaches should be reported to the SRC Election Officer Riki Scalan at the following address: [email protected]
