Newcastle University Students' Association (NUSA)

The Newcastle University Students' Association (NUSA) is the peak representative body for students at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. The organisation is one of four student organisations at the university (the others being Yourimbah (a student guild at the university's Ourimbah campus), Newcastle University Postgraduate Students' Association (NUPSA)[1] and NUSport) and focuses on advocacy, political representation and organising as well as providing welfare services and supporting campus life activities. NUSA publishes the student magazine "Opus".

Newcastle University Students' Association
AbbreviationNUSA
Established28 April 1954
AddressNUSA Building, University Drive, Callaghan 2308
Governing bodyNUSA Council
Previous namesNewcastle University College Students' Association (1954-1964)
MembershipStudents of the University of Newcastle
Websitehttp://www.nusa.org.au



Structure and Governance

NUSA is an incorporated association with a governing body consisting of annually elected student representatives and a small number of non-voting ex-officio members.

Governance

NUSA is directed by the NUSA Council (NUSAC) which is made up of the NUSA executive, collective convenors, faculty representatives, first-year representatives and a representative from the colleges. As the governing body, the NUSA Council drives the direction of NUSA as an organisation and oversees the executive and management staff in delivering the strategic direction. Additionally, as the peak representative body for students at UON, the NUSA Council also serves as a forum for debate and policy discussion on student issues. The NUSA Council develops policy platforms in conjunction with its collectives on key issues to advocate on behalf of students at UON. The Council has periodically been referred to as the Student Representative Council (SRC) of the University. [2]

The organisation's representative structure operates on the basis of student collectives which are convened by office bearers to direct and undertake political campaigns. NUSA is affiliated to the National Union of Students of Australia.

Past Presidents

Presidents by Year
UNSA Presidents
Name Year Political association/grouping
Luka Harrison 2020 National Labor Students (NLS)
NUSA Presidents
Name Year Political association/grouping
Kearnie Kelly 2020 Grassroots Independents
Kearnie Kelly 2019 Grassroots Independents
Christy Mullen 2018 Grassroots Independents
Michael Labone 2017 National Labor Students (NLS)/ Independent
Phill Johnson 2016 National Labor Students (NLS)
Clare Swan/Phill Johnson 2015 National Labor Students (NLS)
Thomas Seilding/Clare Swan 2014 -
Rosemary Gosper 2013 National Independents
Heather Richards 2012 -
Heather Richards 2011 -
Matilda Hunt 2010 -
Talia Barrett 2009 -
Beth Maloney 2008 Grassroots Left
Megan Clement 2007 Grassroots Left
Jack Thieme 2006
Carl Harris 2005
Michael Whitbread 2004 Grassroots Left
Vanessa Bowden 2003
Kylie Rooke 2002 National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS)
Matthew Thompson 2001
Amie Grierson 2000
Michael Kachel 1999
Matthew Paul 1998
Lisa Ronneberg/Nicole Pietsch 1997
Gennice Davies 1996
Lincon Saunders 1995
Tina Bubutievski 1994
Tina Bubutievski 1993
Matthew Cantrill 1992
Christopher Toll 1991
Martin Davies 1990
Alison Kinder 1989
Glenn Beatty 1988
Chris Craig 1987
Chris Craig 1986
Matthew Yates 1985
Michael Harkin 1984
Terry Slevin 1983
Margaret Kavanagh 1982
Margaret Kavanagh 1981
Greg Holding 1980
Max Spaanenburg 1979
Mick Barr 1978
Leo Walsh 1977
Paul Drinkwater 1976
Adrian Woo 1975
Dave Wallace 1974
Greg Giles 1973
Ann Duke 1972
Aldis Svirskis 1971
Russell Schulz 1970
Brailey Sims/Giles Martin 1969
Giles Martin 1968
John Sara 1967
Michael Nelson 1966
Kent Wilson/Tony Cootes 1965
NUCSA Presidents
Name Year Political association/grouping
Tony Cootes /Kent Wilson 1964
Tony Cootes 1963
Paul Walmsley 1962
John Cornelius/Paul Walmsley 1961
Adrian Nelmes/John Cornelius 1960
Christopher Cornelius 1959
Joan Sawyers 1958
Peter Allen 1957
George Kirkby 1956
Robert Hitchcock 1955
Jim Dowrie 1954

Services

NUSA enhances the lives of students at the University of Newcastle by providing:[3]

  • Student representation and advocacy
  • Welfare and support services
  • Campus activities and events
  • Clubs and societies
  • Equipment hire
  • Subsidized and free food on campus
  • Discounted training courses
  • Student media, including Opus magazine

Campaigns

NUSA and its collectives are involved in a number of campaigns at any one time. The organisation maintains a strong relationship with the other unions on campus such as the CPSU, NTEU and United Voice by joining with them in many campaigns.[4]

Construction of Warabrook railway station

Amid growing transportation concerns from students as the Callaghan campus expanded, NUSA initiated a protracted student-led campaign during the late 1970s for a new railway station to be constructed on the Great Northern Railway line to service the campus. The organisation held several extended public campaigns and lobbied state and federal members of parliament for support. NUSA was ultimately successful in this campaign by the early 1990s and on 23 October 1995, the Warabrook (University) railway station was opened.[5]

Preventing the closure of the Huxley Library

In the late 1990s and early 2000s the Vice-Chancellor announced several plans to close the Huxley Library.[6] NUSA and the student body lead strong campaigns against this, in one instance organizing and holding three successive rallies of several hundred students each in the same week. The large scale student protests organised by NUSA caused the University to abandon plans to close the Library. [7]

Night-time safety on campus

Night-time safety at the Callaghan campus was an issue that rose prominence from the early 2010s, following reports of attacks on students.[8][9][10][11] Campaigns run by NUSA to draw attention to this issue have lead to improvements to campus lighting and security services. [12]

Outsourcing of UON facilities maintenance services

Between 2015 and 2017, NUSA mounted a sustained campaign[13] in opposition to University's decision to outsource of facilities maintenance services to Broadspectrum (previously known as Transfield Services), a company that was controversially responsible for running Australia's immigration detention centers in Nauru and Manus Island.[14] In May 2017, the University announced that it was cutting ties with the company.[15]

Compulsory class attendance

From Semester 1 2020, the University's Vice-Chancellor introduced a compulsory 80% attendance requirement at small group tutorials, laboratory sessions and seminars for all first year students. The consequence of failing to meet the 80% attendance requirements for a course was Component Fail grade. In order to prove their attendance in classes students were required to use an app with geotracking software. [16] NUSA's Education Collective initiated a campaign against the mandatory attendance policy and raised concerns over the geotracking software used to monitor students.[17] In March 2020, during growing concerns of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the University announced the suspension of the mandatory attendance policy.

Other campaigns

Other notable campaigns by NUSA include:

  • Being one of the leading groups in the campaign for the autonomy and formal establishment of the University of Newcastle in the early 1950s.
  • Campaigning in opposition to attempts by NSW Liberal Governments to close the Newcastle railway line and the City's CBD train stations both in the early 1990s and mid 2010s.[18]
  • Campaigning against the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Governments' plans to deregulate university[19] and reduce the HECS repayment threshold. [20]
  • The introduction of a cap of 50% course weighting for all exams and the move to a restricted open-book format as the default option for final exams from 2016
  • Lobbying the University to purchase up to 25% green power in the early 2000s as well as moving to become the first university in Australia to be powered by 100% renewable energy, and achieve carbon neutrality in the late 2010s. [21]

History

Establishment

The origins of NUSA began at Newcastle University College (NUC, established 1951). NUC was created as an offshoot of the New South Wales University of Technology (now known as the University of New South Wales) and was co-located with the Newcastle Technical College at Tighes Hill.[22] As NUC began to expand its enrollment in 1952 and 1953, views among the student body continued to grow that the University's student union, based in Sydney, unable to adequately represent students in Newcastle. This push by NUC students for a local student union resulted in the creation of Newcastle University College Students' Association (NUCSA). The inaugural governing Council of NUCSA held their first meetings in 1953 and the organisation became incorporated as a fully constituted body on 28 April 1954 with the adoption of its constitution. From then it was eligible to receive compulsory student union fees collected from all students at NUC.[23]

The first SRC of the University refers to the Council of NUCSA commencing in the year of 1953 with subsequent Councils named in numerical succession each year from this, the 2nd SRC of UON being in the year of 1954 and 3rd SRC for 1955 and so on.

The NUSA Building on the eastern side of Callaghan campus at University of Newcastle, Australia

Renaming as NUSA

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Newcastle residents and NUCSA campaigned for NUC to be re-constituted as a university in its own right. The campaign was ultimately successful, with the University of Newcastle being established as an autonomous institution on 1 January 1965 by gubernatorial proclamation under the University of Newcastle Act 1964 (NSW). Following the autonomy of UON, NUCSA was renamed as Newcastle University Students' Association (NUSA).

In 1966, the University and NUSA relocated from Tighes Hill to a largely undeveloped bushland site in Shortland which underwent major development as enrollment grew in subsequent years.

Political history

Consistent with the historical dominance of Labor Left in the greater Newcastle area, a majority on the NUSA Council has long been held by the left factions of the National Union of Students of Australia usually by either the National Labor Students (NLS) or left-wing independent groups or more often by the two, cooperatively.[24] Predecessors of these groups include the National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS) and National Broad Left (NBL) which dissolved in the period of late 2005 and early 2006.

Voluntary Student Unionism

Despite the Howard Government's Voluntary Student Unionism legislation, which was in place from 2006 to 2011 and prohibited the charging of student union fees, causing massive cuts to both staffing and service levels at NUSA,[25][26] it continued to provide independent representation through its own sources of income and university funding. NUSA's partner student organisation at UON responsible for commercial services and entertainment events, the University of Newcastle Union Ltd, was wound up following a loss of revenue. This resulted in the university taking responsibility for most commercial leases and a range of campus life activities on the Newcastle campuses in the late 2000s and early 2010s. [27]

Independence of NUPSA

Newcastle University Postgraduate Students' Association (NUPSA) was a name given to the Postgraduate Students Collective of the NUSA Council in the early 1990s. The elected Postgraduate Students Convenor on the NUSA Council was referred to as the president of the postgraduate students' association. During a time of a growing postgraduate student population at the University, from 1995 moves were initiated by the university to split NUPSA from NUSA as an independent organisation, citing the increasing diversity of postgraduate students' needs.[28]

A motion at a Special General Meeting on 29 May 1997 for constitutional changes to establish NUPSA as an independent entity was defeated, resulting in the Postgraduate Students Collective remaining part of NUSA's structure. However, at a meeting of the University Council on 27 June 1997, the University resolved to override the decision and establish NUPSA as a separate entity from NUSA, effective from 1 July 1997. At the time, the move by the University was met with mixed views among the student body and concern from NUSA. [29] While NUPSA began the process of operating separately to NUSA from the late 1990s to provide independent representation and support services for postgraduate students, the two bodies maintained a close collaborative relationship. NUPSA was registered as an incorporated association in NSW on 3 February 2014. [30]

Founding of Central Coast Campus Union Ltd. (Yourimbah)

Interest in forming a local student union for the Central Coast began from 1989 at the time the University's Ourimbah Campus was beginning to develop and expand. A local Central Coast student body was soon formed and their aim was to become a financially independent recognised student body by the University. Following lobbying by the group, by 1993 the University Council voted to recognise the student body and provide funding from the General Service Fees of Central Coast students. From this, the Central Coast Campus Union (CCCU) was to be based on a guild structure providing both student representation and operating commercial services in contrast the split structure of multiple student organisations on the Newcastle campus.

In 2002, the organisation was registered as an Australian Company Limited by Guarantee under the name Central Coast Campus Union Ltd. (CCCUL). [31] By the end of 2003, its Board had voted to change the trading name to Campus Central - Ourimbah.

Campus Central - Ourimbah did not receive any funding from the University in 2013 during a brief dispute with the company over the ownership and delivery of commercial services on the campus, but the relationship improved in following years. [32] In early 2015, the company again re-branded itself under the name Yourimbah. The company maintained a strong relationship with NUSA and NUPSA to support university-wide student representation and the delivery activities and events.[33]

Merger

In 2016 the NUSA Council adopted a four year strategic plan to expand services and reform its governance and representative structure. As part of this, NUSA initiated discussions with NUPSA and Yourimbah on combining the three existing student organisations into a single, whole of institution student union for UON. These discussions culminated in the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2019 between NUSA, NUPSA and Yourimbah for the merger of the three separate organisations to form the University of Newcastle Students' Association (UNSA).[34]

The University of Newcastle Students' Association Ltd. was registered as an Australian Public Company, Limited By Guarantee on 27 May 2020.[35] From 30 June 2020, NUSA will cease most operations as an incorporated association alongside NUPSA and Yourimbah pending wind up and deregistration as individual legal entities. On 1 July 2020, the University of Newcastle Students' Association (UNSA) will commence operating in place of the three separate student associations.[36]

References

  1. NUPSA Website Archived 2007-01-13 at the Wayback Machine, Newcastle University Postgraduate Students Association.
  2. "Opus - Orientation handbook - 1994". Living Histories. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  3. "Everyday Services". NUSA. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  4. Archived October 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Rail fight heats up in the Hunter". Railpage. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  6. "Anger at plans to close uni library". Green Left. 2016-09-06. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  7. "Library campaign: three rallies and a partial victory". Green Left. 2016-09-06. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  8. Branley, Alison (2009-09-15). "Newcastle international students discuss violence - Local News - News - General - Newcastle Herald". Theherald.com.au. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  9. "Boys charged over attacks on students". Brisbanetimes.com.au. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  10. Jerga, Josh (2009-05-21). "Youths attacked foreign students in Newcastle - police | Courier Mail". News.com.au. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  11. "Newcastle uni students vulnerable - Local News - News - General - Newcastle Herald". Theherald.com.au. 2009-10-31. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  12. "Getting around campus at night". The University of Newcastle, Australia. 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  13. "Broadspectrum protest disrupts UoN Open Day | OPUS MAGAZINE". web.archive.org. 2017-02-28. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  14. "Protest against Broadspectrum held as Nauru Files leaked | OPUS MAGAZINE". web.archive.org. 2017-02-28. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  15. McGOWAN, MICHAEL (2017-05-16). "University of Newcastle cuts ties with Broadspectrum". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  16. "Compulsory attendance". The University of Newcastle, Australia. 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  17. "University rejects outrage over mobile phone tracking". www.abc.net.au. 2020-02-03. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  18. CARR, LILY RAY and MATT (2014-12-14). "Thousands Rally for the Rail in Newcastle". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  19. KELLY, MATTHEW (2015-03-25). "Students rally against uni fee deregulation". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  20. Cottrill, Tyson (2016-03-30). "CONCERN OVER PROPOSED CHANGES TO HECS DEBT REPAYMENT LEVEL | NBN News". www.nbnnews.com.au. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  21. Kelly, Matthew (2018-12-15). "Newcastle uni flicks the switch to 100% renewable energy". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  22. "Archives Outside ยป Grant of Arms โ€“ The University of Newcastle's Declaration of Independence". web.archive.org. 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  23. "Opus - Issue 1 - 1954". Living Histories. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  24. "Failed ticket delivers NUSAC to Stand Up! Unapposed". Opus media. 17 September 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  25. "Student unions on brink of extinction - National". smh.com.au. 2008-01-13. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  26. "Campus tension: uni services are facing the axe - National". smh.com.au. 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  27. STRACHAN, JULIEANNE (2008-12-18). "Last drinks for University of Newcastle Union". Newcastle Herald. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  28. NUSA Council Meeting Minutes 23 August 1995. Newcastle University Students' Association. 1995.
  29. Opus, July 1997 edition. Opus magazine. 1997. pp. 6โ€“7, 12โ€“13.
  30. "Associations Search". associationspr.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  31. "ABN Lookup". abr.business.gov.au. 2014-11-01. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  32. "Newcastle Uni Ourimbah students accuse management of administrative breach". www.abc.net.au. 2013-06-24. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  33. "History - Yourimbah". www.yourimbah.com.au. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  34. "NUSA, NUPSA & Yourimbah to be potentially overhauled as one united student association". UON Navigator. 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  35. "Australian Securities and Investments Commission - UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION LTD. ACN 641 135 195".
  36. "Student associations". The University of Newcastle, Australia. 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.