University of Sydney Students' Representative Council

The University of Sydney Students' Representative Council (SRC) is the representative body for undergraduate students at the University of Sydney.

University of Sydney Students' Representative Council
University of Sydney SRC logo
History
Founded1888 (1888)
Leadership
President
Liam Donohoe, Grassroots Left
since 2019
Structure
Seats33
Political groups
     Panda (7)[1]

     Grassroots Left (5)
     Switch (5)
     BOOST (3)
     Pump (3)
     Left Action (2)
     Pro-Team (2)
     Unite (2)
     Cupcake (1)
     Colleges for SRC (1)

     Activist Strikeback (1)
Length of term
1 year

Structure

The SRC is governed by the Council, which consists of 35 Representatives elected annually by undergraduate students. The Council meets once a month. It is the supreme decision-making body in the SRC.

The Executive of the SRC is elected annually by the Council, and consists of the President, Vice-President, General Secretary, and five general members, elected proportionally out of Council. Meeting weekly, the Executive makes most significant decisions regarding the SRC.

The day-to-day operation of the SRC is generally conducted by paid staff and paid office-bearers, being the President (directly elected by students), the General Secretary, the Education Officer(s), and Women's Officer(s).

Annual elections are held in September each year, to elect the Council, the President, 7 NUS delegates, and the editors of Honi Soit, the student newspaper. Unlike most student organisations, other office-bearers are elected by the Council, and not directly by students. All undergraduate students have a right to vote in annual elections.

Approximately 4500 students vote each year.[2]

History

In 1888 the establishment of the Sydney University Undergraduate Association marked the first sign of organised student government on the campus of Sydney University. The Women's Undergraduate Association was formed in 1899 and separate organisations for male and female evening students were to form some years later. In 1929 the four associations agreed to rationalize the governing of the student body, and the Students' Representative Council was established to represent all undergraduates. The first President of the S.R.C. was J. M. Gosper. The 1930/31 Annual Report acknowledges that it is 'largely to the enthusiasm and organising abilities of J. M. Gosper that the Council owes its origins.

Student government was initially concerned primarily with gaining a student voice within the official University hierarchy, and promoting student interests within the University environment. However, student leaders soon became aware of their influence within the wider community, and the scope of student politics extended to include issues of broader social and political significance. At various times student activism has been of considerable importance in moulding public opinion in Australia on issues as diverse as apartheid, the death penalty, censorship, conscription and tertiary fees.

Honi Soit is the SRC's official journal and was first published in 1929. Its longevity is perhaps unintended, as the SRC's Annual Report expressed 'doubt as to whether any useful purpose could be served by the continuation of Honi Soit' and the publication was maintained the following year on an 'experimental basis.'

Past SRC Presidents

Prominent former Presidents of the Sydney SRC include a Prime Minister of Australia, Cabinet Ministers, and Members of Parliaments, State and Federal, Justices of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court, including a Chief Justice of New South Wales and a Court of Appeal President. Presidents of the SRC have also regularly proceeded to become Presidents of the National Union of Students.

Presidents by Year
Name Year Grouping
J.M. Gosper 1930
Frank Wood Bayldon 1931
V.J. Flynn 1932
C.R. Laverty 1933
J. Bowie-Wilson 1934
D.R. Lewis 1935
G.P. Campbell 1936
Kevin Ellis 1937-38
P.J. Kenny 1938
W. Granger 1939
J.H.E. Mackay 1940
J.S. Collings 1941-42
P.P. Manzie 1942
Moya McDade 1943
Keith Dan 1944
Marnie Watt 1945
John Nash 1946
John Redrup 1947
Ted McWhinney 1948
Alan Beattie 1949
Jim Brassil 1950
Peter J. Curtis 1951
Phillip Jeffrey 1952
Gregory Bartels 1953
Philip Berthon-Jones 1954
Greg Dunne 1955
Tony Reading 1956
Jim Carlton 1957
Malcolm Brown 1958
Brian L. Hennessy 1958
M.G.I. Davey 1959
Robert J. Wallace 1960
Peter Wilenski 1961
John Boyd 1962
Michael Kirby 1963-64
Bob McDonald 1964
Michael A. Weber 1965
J. Richard Walsh 1965-66
Geoffrey Robertson 1966-67
Alan Cameron 1967-68
Jim Spigelman 1968-69
Percy Allan 1969-70
Barry Robinson 1970
Chris Beale 1970-71
Chris Sidoti 1971-72
Brett Mattes 1974
John McGrath 1974-75
David Patch 1976
Peter Byrnes 1977
Barbara Ramjan 1977-78
Tony Abbott 1979 Democratic Labor Party
Paul Brereton 1980-81 Centre Unity (Labor Right)
Paul Rickard 1982 Centre Unity (Labor Right)
John Martin 1983 Centre Unity (Labor Right)
Belinda Neal 1984 Centre Unity (Labor Right)
Mark Heyward 1985 Liberal
Helen Spowart 1986 Council of Australian Labor Party Students (Labor Left)
Joe Hockey 1987 Liberal
Liz Gardiner 1988 Left Alliance
Rod McDonald 1989 Left Alliance
Vanessa Chan 1990 Left Alliance
Caitlin Vaughan 1991 Left Alliance
Amanda Lees 1992 Left Alliance
Anna Davis 1993 Left Alliance
Heidi Norman 1994 Left Alliance
Nadya Haddad 1995 Left Alliance
Catherine Burnheim 1996 Left Alliance
Katrina Curry 1997 Left Alliance
Adair Durie 1998 Students First (Liberal)
Luke Whitington 1998-99 Socialist Left (Labor Left)
Natasha Verco 2000 National Broad Left / Activist Left
Moksha Watts 2001 Socialist Left (Labor Left)
Daniel Kyriacou 2002 Socialist Left (Labor Left)
Jo Haylen 2003 Socialist Left (Labor Left)
Felix Eldridge 2004 Socialist Left (Labor Left)
Rose Jackson 2005 Socialist Left (Labor Left)
Nick Wood 2006 Socialist Left / National Labor Students (Labor Left)
Angus McFarland 2007 National Labor Students (Labor Left)
Kate Laing 2008 National Labor Students (Labor Left)
Noah White 2009 National Labor Students (Labor Left)
Elly Howse 2010 National Labor Students (Labor Left)
Donherra (Dee) Walmsley 2011 National Labor Students (Labor Left)
Phoebe Drake 2012 National Labor Students (Labor Left)
David Pink 2013 National Labor Students / Sydney Labor Students (Labor Left)
Jennifer Light 2014 Student Unity (Labor Right)
Kyol Blakeney 2015 Grassroots Left
Chloe Smith 2016 Sydney Labor Students (Labor Left)
Isabella Brook 2017 National Labor Students (Labor Left)
Imogen Grant 2018 Grassroots Left
Jacky He 2019 Panda
Liam Donohoe 2020 Grassroots Left

Politics

From the mid-1960s the SRC has been at the centre of student activism in Australia. Most activist groupings in the National Union of Students have a presence at Sydney University, such as National Labor Students, Socialist Alternative, Student Unity (Labor Right), the Australian Greens, Grassroots Left and the Liberals.

Since 2000 the SRC has been heavily influenced by what is now National Labor Students (formerly the National Organisation of Labor Students), the student arm of Labor's Socialist Left. Prior to that, from the late 1980s until 1997, the SRC was controlled by the Left Alliance, a former NUS faction made up of a coalition of students to the left of Labor such as Socialists, the Australian Greens, anarchists, queer activists, and environmentalists. Labor Party affiliated factions dominated the SRC presidency from 1998 to 2014. In recent years Labor's hold on power was challenged by independent/non affiliated alliances, internal conflicts within established Labor factions and the emergence of the Grassroots Left. Grassroots Left quickly developed into a national NUS faction with a presence on several campuses. A member of Grassroots, Kyol Blakeney, was elected the second Indigenous president of the University's SRC in 2014. However, in 2015 and 2016, Labor Left faction National Labor Students re-secured the SRC Presidency, in cooperation with Grassroots in 2015 and in cooperation with moderate Liberals in 2016, who supported Edward McCann for the Vice-Presidency of the SRC.[3] However, following the election this coalition collapsed, with a broad left grouping of Labor left, Socialist Alternative, independents and Grassroots elected to all remaining positions.[4] In 2017, Grassroots returned to the presidency, electing Imogen Grant as the 90th President of the SRC.[5]

In 2018, an independent party of international students labelled the Panda Warriors won the presidency, electing Jacky He as the 91th President of the SRC.[6] He is the first President to have been elected on primarily the votes of international students within the university.

The SRC's current President is Liam Donohoe (Grassroots).[7]

Alumni

The former Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, was President of the SRC in 1979.[8]

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See also

Notes
  1. ^ Brett Mattes resigned late in his term, and was replaced by John McGrath, who had been elected in 1974 for the 1975 term.
  2. ^ Peter Byrnes resigned midway through his term, and was replaced by Barbara Ramjan. Ramjan subsequently won election to the presidency in her own right.
  3. ^ At the time of the 1978 SRC Annual Elections the SRC Electoral Regulations specified that the term of office commenced from the time of the official declaration of the poll by the Electoral Officer. There was a bitter dispute after the 1978 Annual Elections as the then Electoral Officer delayed declaration of poll for several weeks after the count had been concluded, resulting in the then President-elect, Tony Abbott, gaining access illicitly over a weekend to the SRC offices and declaring himself in power on the following Monday morning. Access to the SRC offices by Officers and representatives was barred by cohorts of Tony Abbott (from St. John's College) on that Monday morning and subsequent days and, eventually, the Registrar's office was called in to mediate between the contending sides. As a consequence of this in the following year the Electoral Regulations were amended to specify that the term of office commenced on 1 September.
  4. ^ For the period to the end of 1988, Sydney University operated on the three-terms-a-year system and SRC Annual elections were held in Trinity (second) term in July. Subsequent to the University changing to the semester system in 1989, the SRC Electoral Regulations were changed during 1988 (to take effect from 1 Jan, 1989) to the effect that SRC Annual Elections be held in second semester and that the term of office of the Council be for one year from 1 December to 30 November the following year. Falling in a transition year, Rod McDonald held office for 15 months.
  5. ^ Adair Durie was removed from office following the 1997 election.
  6. ^ Luke Whitington was elected in the 1998 by-election following the removal of Adair Durie, and was elected again at the 1998 general election to serve in 1999.
  7. ^ The Socialist Left merged into National Labor Students in 2006.
  8. ^ David Pink resigned from National Labor Students on the 20 March 2013 joining the newly formed Sydney Labor Students.

References
  1. "SRC 2019: The final results". Honi Soit. 28 September 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  2. P. Graham, SRC Electoral Officer 2013
  3. http://honisoit.com/2016/09/births-deaths-marriages-week-7-semester-2/
  4. http://honisoit.com/2016/11/repselect-2-live-blog/
  5. "Imogen Grant narrowly elected 2018 SRC President". Honi Soit. 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  6. "Panda's Jacky He will be 2019 SRC president". Honi Soit. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  7. Liam Donohoe to be President of 92nd SRC. Honi Soit. 26th September, 2019.
  8. Freyne, Catherine. "Shadow boxing: Abbott's battle against 'Marxists' at the University of Sydney". ABC. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
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