University of Melbourne Student Union

The Union Theatre,[1] also known as the Union House Theatre,[2] was founded around 1953, along with the Union Theatre Repertory Company. A large number of notable Australian performers, writers and other notable people did some of their earliest work there, including Cate Blanchett, Barry Humphries, Steve Vizard, Barrie Kosky, Graeme Blundell, and Germaine Greer.[3] It is on the ground floor of the Student Union.[4]

The Guild Theatre is on Level 1.[4]

Over 200 student-run clubs and societies are affiliated to UMSU,[5] which supports these organisations though financial grants and administrative assistance. The groups affiliated with UMSU range from the More Beer! club to the Quidditch team, but the largest and most notable of these societies are the faculty clubs (Arts' Students Society & Science Students' Society[6]) which run the largest balls and parties on campus.

Union House Theatre is the facilitator of student theatre at the Parkville campus, and runs two theatre spaces available for use by student theatre groups.[7] Student theatre groups include the Melbourne University Absurdist Theatre Society (MUATS), the University of Melbourne Music Theatre Association (UMMTA), the Throwback Players and the Union Players, as well as groups for the Colleges. Faculty theatre clubs include the Law and Medical Revues. Theatre clubs from culturally diverse backgrounds include Chinese and Sri Lankan theatre groups.[8]

There are six notable faculty clubs at the University of Melbourne: The Melbourne Arts Students' Society,[9] The Science Students' Society,[10] The Engineering Students' Club,[11] The Commerce Students' Society, The Biomedicine Students' Society and[12] The Environments Students' Society (ENVi).[13] All clubs run events throughout the year aimed at integrating new students into university life, running social activities and liaising between the faculties and the current students to enable and encourage their studies and enable opportunities for future employment.

Students Protest Against Education Cuts. University of Melbourme Parkville, September, 2013

Political clubs in 2020 include Liberals, the ALP Club (Labor Left), Labor (Labor Right), Greens, Socialist Alternative and Solidarity, as well as clubs representing Amnesty International and the Political Interest Society.[5]

A number of activist campaign groups are affiliated to the student union, including the Campus Refugee Rights Club and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.[14]

As of 2020, there are 42 cultural and linguistic clubs.[5] Out of those, there are 26 Asian cultural and linguistic clubs, 6 Middle Eastern cultural and linguistic clubs, 6 European cultural and linguistic clubs, 1 African club and 3 broader cultural and linguistic clubs.[5]

The Melbourne University Debating Society is one of Victoria's oldest student organisations, founded in 1876.[15] MUDS holds weekly debating competitions, as well as larger annual invitational competitions for other universities in the lead-up to the World Universities Debating Championships, and the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships. Historically, the University of Melbourne has been very successful, hosting the 1993 World Universities Debating Championship, and making it to the Grand Final of the 2003 WUDC. Additionally, MUDS were the champions of the 2019 Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships. The Society also hosts Public Debates, and is one of the largest student groups on campus.

From 2002, some of the union's unprofitable commercial services were terminated, including U-Bar, and a property deal was entered into with Optima Property Development Group. A draft report from auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers warned in June 2003 that this could potentially create obligations beyond MUSUi's capacity to pay.[20][21] The deal was for MUSUi to sublease student apartments to international students from the Optima Group. It did not proceed.

On 30 September 2003, Vice-Chancellor Alan Gilbert informed MUSUi that the University was terminating the 2003 Funding Agreement, effectively stripping it of any future money, citing "evidence of breaches by MUSUI of its obligations under the Agreement", (the agreement being "providing facilities, services or activities of direct benefit to students at the institution"). He also cited a "serious breakdown in governance, financial management and accountability structures within MUSU".

On 6 February 2004, the Union was placed into liquidation by the Supreme Court of Victoria after a vote by the Student Union Executive. MUSU's liquidator, Dean Royston McVeigh, said in his provisional liquidator's report, that the Union owed debts of $4.3 million (mainly to the University of Melbourne) but only had assets of $3.5 million. McVeigh acknowledged that these "debts" were the result of creative accounting by the University, with the University ultimately relinquishing any claim to such "debts". As a result, it was no longer student-controlled (a prerequisite for affiliation to NUS) and was in any case unable to pay affiliation fees. A new constitution was approved.

Master Ewart Evans, who was presiding over the hearings of the liquidators' examination until his retirement in 2005, was critical of the "somewhat precipitative" timing of civil court proceedings, which McVeigh quickly settled out of court after much adverse publicity about his own fees and expenses believed to total more than $8 million[22] prior to producing a Liquidator's Report and convening a meeting of creditors. The downfall of MUSU was satirised by the Union Players in the play Friday Night at the Union in 2004.

Students Protest Against Education Cuts. University of Melbourme Parkville, September 2013

Following the 2004 annual election, a coalition between the Liberal Club and the Labor right was defeated by a cooperative left, made up of National Labor Students (ALP Club), Socialist Alternative and a group of progressive students who are not involved in other politics called Activate. The positions won by the left groups were for an interim student representative committee established by the University to oversee student representation and advocacy until the incorporation of UMSU.

UMSU saw few changes in its power dynamic from 2005-07. In 2007 National Labor Students held the President, Secretary and Education (Academic) Offices. The makeup of the 2007 Student Council had no ALSF presence (due to the Liberal Student tickets withdrawing from the annual elections prior to the opening of the ballot). The 2007 UMSU budget, due to funding cuts caused by VSU, was reduced from just over $2m in 2006 to $1.23m in 2007. This resulted in reductions in funding for departments, particularly those which traditionally have been considered high, such as the Activities, Clubs and Societies and Media Departments.

In 2008, the National Labor Students and Grassroots tickets, running as StandUp! and Activate respectively, won most of the paid positions in the Student Union. Their tenure in 2009 was highlighted by difficulties in passing budgetary support towards the National Union of Students and Students for Palestine organizations.

2009 saw nearly all major elected positions won by a Labor Right-Liberal coalition called Synergy.[23] On Student Council, Synergy were elected to four positions (two Liberals and two Student Unity) and five positions were won by iUnion, a newly established ticket run by international students and former StandUp! office bearers.[24]

2012 saw the union criticised for the decision to not lay a $200 wreath at the ANZAC dawn service, with President Mark Kettle stating that "participating in the ANZAC Day service would be ‘glorifying war’".[25] There was also a publication in a major daily newspaper that student resources had been were used to support "a live and extreme sex show performed on campus for "sex education" purposes."[26]

2013 again saw the union criticised, when they passed a motion to unreservedly celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher,[27] resulting in media coverage from the Herald Sun and a large student backlash against the union over Facebook.[28]

UMSU has a number of paid officers, which include: the President; the General Secretary; Media Officers; Education (Academic Affairs) Officer; Education (Public Affairs) Officers; Activities Officers; Creative Arts Officers; Clubs and Societies Officers; Welfare Officer; Environment Officers; Indigenous Officers; Disabilities Officers; Queer Officers; Women's Officers; People of Colour Officers; the Burnley Campus Coordinator, and the VCA Campus Coordinator.[46]

Aside from the positions of President, General Secretary and the campus coordinators of Burnley and the VCA, all other offices can be shared between two people.[46] The Media Office must be shared between three or four people.[46]

UMSU has a pay parity provision in its constitution which stipulates that all full-time officers must be paid an equal wage and that all part-time officers be paid at a .6 fraction of the full-time rate of pay. The VCA Campus Coordinator and Burnley Campus Coordinator are paid at .5 fraction of the full-time rate of pay.[46]

Elections for positions within UMSU are determined through direct election during the first week of September each year. This sees the election of 32 paid office bearers of 17 representative departments, as well as 21 students who sit on UMSU's peak decision body, Students Council. The election of representatives onto department committees and seven NUS delegates also occurs at this time, with the election of a student representative onto the University's Council occurring every two years.

As of the 2016 election, the UMSU constitution has applied Affirmative Action to the election of positions held by more than one representative. This mandates that in all Office Bearer positions, at least 50% of elected representatives must identify as a woman, with the Women's Department having to elect at least one officer that identifies as a Woman of Colour. This is extended to Students Council and department committees, which must elect women into 50%+1 of all positions. In the election of roles within autonomous departments, as well as the election of restricted autonomous positions on Students Council, only those who identify with the represented group are eligible to run.

In 2019/20 the Students' Council, the peak body for the union, is made up of 21 student representatives from 5 factions (who run under the following Tickets during elections). [29]

Currently, most of the positions within UMSU are held by members of six factions who run under the tickets Stand Up!, Community for UMSU, Independent Media, and The Biggest Blackest Ticket. As of the 2020 election, Community for UMSU holds the nearly all positions within UMSU and has a majority within students' council.

• Stand Up! - A progressive ticket consisting mainly of those aligned with the Labor Left faction of the Australian Labor Party who align to the National Labor Students faction of the National Union of Students. Since 2019, this ticket has included students from the Young Labor Centre Unity faction.
• Community for UMSU A ticket created in 2020 that emphasises a 'grassroots movement' of students from the university and its community. Many of the convenors and members of the ticket have hailed from student political entities such as Pride in [Y]our Collective, More!, UMSU International and Student Unity. Since 2020, this ticket has included students from the Labor Right Young Labor Unity (SDA) and Grassroots Independents factions.
• Just Clubs Just Activities - A ticket consisting of Clubs- and Activities-focused independents. In 2019, the ticket was created and its members contested two Office Bearer positions (winning just one), as well as positions on committees and Students Council.
• Independent Media - A ticket that encompasses around the collective of student media on campus, namely the campus newspaper, Farrago and its radio subsidiary, Radio Fodder. For much of recent campus political history, Independent Media has secured the editorship of Farrago. While the preselection process is closed, candidates are preselected internally by members of the media collective who have contributed regularly over the year.
• The Biggest Blackest Ticket - An Indigenous ticket that is almost wholly built out of the campus' Indigenous collective
• Socialist Alternative - A part of a national revolutionary socialist group, at a youth level Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist faction heavily involved within the National Union of Students. While mainly running under the Left Focus (and more recently, the Melbourne Socialists in 2018) tickets, the group is also known to run 'feeder' split tickets under the guise of one issue ticket names such as Cheaper Textbooks, International Students Welcome or Extend The Free Tram Zone. In 2020, the ticket renamed to 'Student Resistance'.
• VVholesome - A joke ticket run by a single person. Created in 2019, the ticket ran for all positions with the same 1-2 people for every positions have recorded a substantial amount of vote share in its contests for a satirical entity. The ticket's aim is to voice its dissatisfication with the union and its politics.

The positions below were elected in the 2020 general postal elections for the 2021 term in office, which runs from December 1 2020 till November 30 2021.[29]