Guild Recap - August 2020

Hi everyone,

I hope that you are all settling back into the semester, happy tuition-free week! Here's our monthly update from your Guild Representatives to you.

So you all know, the Guild Council and the Representation Board both meet monthly to discuss the two intersections of the Guild;

The Guild Council covers all of our services and amenities that we provide, as well as our financial and business performance, making sure the Guild is viable and sustainable going forward into the future.

The Representation Board covers our representative reports, events and campaigns and hosts much political and open discussion about the issues facing students, and what we are doing about it!

Anyways, here are some highlights from our August meetings;

At the August Guild Council we:

• Introduced our newly appointed Guild Councillor Julia Khen, welcome!

• Discussed a student submission about the introduction of an online student representative (to continue).

• Updated the council on the Guild elections, which were proposed to be online but the council decided that it should continue in person with a change of location and electronic ballots to cut the large cost of an election.

The Representation Board discussed

• The Hands Off Our Education campaign to oppose the higher education fee changes that threaten to increase student contributions for a range of courses and will reduce Government funding to universities by close to one billion dollars.

• The Guild has received a $50,000 grant from Lotterywest to assist with our food aid program.

• Guild President Hana Arai and Activities VP gave a presentation at St Catherine’s College in Nedlands where 20% of residents are Curtin students.

• The Student Partnership agreement progressing with a memorandum of understanding soon to be signed.

• Student Assist’s caseload increased as a result of COVID-19 with 500 welfare cases requiring support.

Our Equity Reps have some exciting events on the way too:

• The ISC is coordinating an International Student Day in October
• Queer Department coordinating Wear it Purple afternoon tea
• The Women’s Department is collaborating on a Share the Dignity project and ran a successful Pizza and Painting event
• The Accessibility Department is organising events for Mental Health week

Lachy Lee, Secretary
secretary@guild.curtin.edu.au