Amy Irwin &
Bea Bleile, Armidale
After a misleading election campaign by yhe Young Liberals in last year's student elections, the University of New England Student Association electoral tribunal ruled that three Young Liberals breached the association's election regulations. Two were disqualified from voting and standing in UNESA elections for two years.
However, two of these students were elected and are still holding their positions this year, giving the Young Liberals a majority on the UNESA council and the executive, and the presidency.
During o-week, the UNE Liberal Club displayed posters reading "We control your country, we control your campus" and "Fuck off ferals", attracting complaints from both the student body and members of the community. Even the Sydney Morning Herald picked up the story.
The Young Liberals started asserting control through a score of motions pushed through the first UNESA council meeting in February. UNESA cut funding for the popular Queer Space, distanced itself from the National Union of Students, giving the president the right to intercept NUS campaign materials and shred them if she doesn't approve of their content. The council also voted to call a referendum on UNESA's continued affiliation with NUS.
The president was given the right to veto any publication within or affixed to the UNESA building that is deemed "inappropriate". The council supported the implementation of strategies to make the services of UNESA more relevant to "mainstream" students. After deeming that UNESA funds had been spent inappropriately, the council then approved the purchase of a portrait of the Queen, and a new Australian flag.
UNESA president Samantha Aber has also put forward a motion that UNESA financially support a court challenge by one of the students found in serious breach of the election regulations.
Students are collecting signatures on a petition to repeal most of the motions passed at the first UNESA meeting and to express a vote of no confidence in the council. To support the campaign, email <armidale@socialist-alliance.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, March 16, 2005.
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