Following through with their 12-month plan, formally announced in September last year, the University of Sydney Union (USU) is officially moving into their final consultation phase for becoming an incorporated entity.
Spearheaded by President Bryson Constable and Vice President Ben Hines, the incorporation plan was approved at the USU Board meeting on the 28th of February. The plan will undergo one final period of consultation with the USU community before it is likely brought to the AGM in May.
The plan as it stands is approved in principle by several former USU Presidents, the President of the Students’ Representative Council, and other student groups on campus, as well as backed by the USU’s lawyers and an external law firm. The University of Sydney executive has also provided preliminary feedback regarding the proposed plan, but has not formally endorsed the plan.
The USU is currently a non-legal entity and not actually a true legal union. The incorporation plan will allow the USU to receive legal status as a sole entity separate from its individual members. This governance change will allow them to pursue enforceable and legal contracts without the necessity of attaching every single USU member to legal agreements.
Aiming to increase the continuity of the USU executive terms, the proposition will see a change in the composition of voting members on the Board. It will shift from 11 elected students and two senate-appointed directors to nine elected students, the immediate past president (IPP), immediate past vice president (IPVP), and three external committee chairs. In this new plan, student representation will remain at 11 on the board, and the appointed external committee chairs will not be able to vote on issues regarding ‘students’ or the Board executive.
The chair of the Board will remain a student representative, and the three external committee chairs will be appointed by a nomination committee composed of: three USU Board appointed reps, three USyd appointed reps, and a chair which is proposed by the USU and agreed upon by USyd. Theoretically, this means the external chairs will be nominated by a majority of USU representatives, maintaining student interests.
The inclusion of the IPP and IPVP for a single additional term is an attempt to address concerns of continuity for USU Board plans and initiatives. It is also inevitably beneficial for whichever President and Vice President finally enact this supposedly years-in-the-making plan.
USU committees will be condensed from nine to five, with several portfolios being subsumed by larger titles (such as the governance committee taking on the electoral committee’s responsibilities). Importantly, the USU Debating committee will be moved directly to a management portfolio and allocated an ‘officer’ representative, in an attempt to streamline their financial approvals and constitutional changes.
All portfolios will be shifted to ‘officer’ roles, leading to 10 total officer roles, including the newly introduced First Nations, Ethnocultural, Equity, and Colleges portfolios. Beyond the initial confusion of henceforth referring to SRC and USU officers, this necessitates the question of how the USU and SRC officers will be made continually distinct to a new student audience.
Incorporation will seemingly allow for a clearer distinction between individuals acting as a ‘student’ as opposed to as a “USU member”. The proposal arguably provides greater autonomy to the USU to independently provide student services on campus through greater student representation.
Naturally, Honi has concerns about the potential for this increased independence to be manipulated by future Boards in a way that compromises student life. The plan has a natural impetus towards seeking external funding, such as accessing government grants which are currently unavailable to the non-incorporated entity. Honi wonders how this will affect societies who have explicitly political values that may not align with legal, corporate, or governmental interests — let alone societies and clubs that aren’t inherently profitable.
When asked about these concerns, Constable responded: “The value proposition for being a part of the USU does not change because incorporating does not change our ability to allocate funding where we see fit to best support student activities, many of which are not profitable but serve an unimpeachable purpose in student life (like revues, student discounts, club grants, festivals, etc.).”
Honi believes this incorporation is inevitable and will be occurring before the end of the financial year. Perhaps left-wing activists on campus should start figuring out ways to hold power within a predominant part of the student union. Beyond hosting the largest welcome event on campus to reach out to new students and promote collectives, clubs, and societies, the USU also has a massive influence on the organisation and funding of amenities tackling student issues and the cost-of-living crisis, such as Foodhub and access to free period products. It is vital that an incorporated board is an accurate representation of student thoughts and political movements on campus.
The USU will be accepting final submissions and inquiries from the USU community about the incorporation plan in the coming weeks.
Editor’s Note: This has been amended to clarify the position of the USyd Executive & President of the SRC.
