Current Campaigns

 

  • 2010 project

The 2010 project is a huge restructure being undertaken by the university management. One of the more tangible changes of 2010 is the change from three academic Divisions to six Faculties.

Murdoch is in a difficult financial predicament which is essentially caused by a lack of funding to the higher education sector. Murdoch 2010 is a necessary change, however there problems with how this process has been carried out, with next to no bona fide information being disseminated to students, and next to no consultation with students.

The attitude of the University administration seems to be that 2010 does not concern students

Our Demands:

Open Books! – We need full and accurate information on the 2010 project.

My Murdoch, My Future! – We demand real student consultation on course and unit cuts.

Staff cuts should start at the top! – Students demand that the Vice Chancellor be made accountable for Murdoch’s predicament!

More information:

  • The Rebellion Special Edition: Murdoch 2010 (coming soon)


For more information on the campaign, contact Clare on president@guild.murdoch.edu.au

For more information on Faculties (what is my faculty? where is my faculty administration?) talk to Basha on evp@guild.murdoch.edu.au

  • Rockingham Campus

Your Guild has been running a campaign this year to save Rockingham campus. Rapidly decreasing student numbers on that campus (it used to have over a thousand students, now it has just three or four hundred), course cuts to the point where you cannot complete an entire degree down there anymore, as well as the fact that the university is facing a $16 million budget deficit, led us to believe that the university was planning on closing the campus. We continually questioned the university management on what they had planned for Rockingham campus, and they refused to answer. Given the fact that they would give us no information on the campus, we believed the worst.

After publishing an article about the future of Rockingham campus in the Metior and mentioning it in an email bomb sent out by the Guild, the university got really angry! They denied that they were closing the campus, and tried to tell staff and the community that the Guild was lying! Our response is that we were telling students the truth as we knew it at the time. It is not in our interests at all to lie to students, and we questioned the university endlessly in order to find out the truth about Rockingham, yet they refused to tell us.

It is the belief of the Guild, as well as many staff on campus, that it is because of the big deal the Guild made about Rockingham that had the support of staff and students, along with the pressure the Rockingham City Council put on the university management, that Rockingham will remain open. It would be a PR nightmare for the university for them to close a regional campus and for us to be running a campaign to keep it open.

So, in short - Rockingham will remain open. The university have subsequently stated that they are exploring new and innovative ideas that will engage the Rockingham community. But the fact still stands that students cannot complete their entire degree down at Rockingham (they have to travel up to South Street in order to complete). The Guild will continue to campaign for full courses to be offered down at Rockingham campus.

For more information on the campaign, contact Clare on president@guild.murdoch.edu.au

For academic issues to do with studying at a regional campus, contact the Regional Students Representative to Academic Council, Emma on queer@guild.murdoch.edu.au


  • Gender Neutral Toilets

In order to highlight the issues that transgendered people face every day, and to make things a little easier for transgendered students on Murdoch campus, the Guild is running a gender neutral toilets campaign. We are not campaigning to turn every toilet gender neutral. There are obvious issues here regarding safety, comfort and cultural diversity. The Guild is campaigning for some purpose-built gender neutral toilets to be located around the university's campuses. This campaign is about challenging perceptions about gender and challenging trans-phobia.

For more information on this campaign, please contact Emma on queer@guild.murdoch.edu.au

  • Student Village

Do you live at the student village? Are you concerned about the increase in rent, and the unfair financial penalties?

Contact Kevin Clare, your Student Village Representative on: studentvillage@guild.murdoch.edu.au

You can read the completed student village survey results online now

  • Common Free Time at Murdoch

Common Free Time is a period of time usually one or two hours a week when no classes are scheduled. This enables students and staff to organise practical meetings times to facilitate education incentives, activism, social interaction or networking. Both the University of Western Australia and Curtin University of Technology have two hours set aside per week for common free time.

Currently university students are working longer hours than ever before, in addition to fulltime study, so common free time can allow students to spend time engaging in educational and social activities outside the classroom.

Are you part of a club or society that cannot find a practical meeting times?

Do you have friends across faculties and struggle to meet up with them during the week?

Want to get more involved with campus life but cannot attend events?

Need to meet up with your tutor but cannot a convenient meeting time?

Want to attend a forum, foreign language class or film screening but always have classes scheduled?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, or simply want common free time on campus please sign our petition

This campaign is run by the Education Action Collective

  • Shorter Semester

Does the semester seem shorter to you? Are you feeling pushed for time?

Have you had lectures, workshops or tutorials during the study break?

In 2006 the university shortened semester from 13 to 12 weeks (of course there was no decrease in the cost of education), promising there wouldn't be a decrease in the quantity of material taught or in the quality of teaching.

Since then we have seen more units scheduling classes during dedicated study breaks.

Please email Basha Stasak at evp@guild.murdoch.edu.au with the codes of units which have demands on your study time.

  • Recycling Bins on campus

Do you notice something missing on Murdoch? Supposedly a campus concerned with sustainability, there are a real lack of recycle bins at Murdoch. University management find recycling bins "aesthetically unappealing" and also do not want to spend money on getting the bins emptied. Murdoch Uni needs to re-examine its priorities and get a recycling bin for every waste bin! This campaign is being run by MUST (Murdoch Uni Sustainability Team).

For more information, please contact Joe at sustainability@guild.murdoch.edu.au