Swinburne union affiliates to VTSAN and NUS
By Maurice Sibelle
MELBOURNE — More than 700 students attended the Swinburne Student Union (SSU) special general meeting on September 9 to change the constitution of the union and affiliate to the Victorian TAFE Students and Apprentices Network (VTSAN) and the National Union of Students. Swinburne University of Technology has a TAFE and higher education (university) sector.
This was the largest student union meeting at Swinburne in decades and signals the emergence of a new layer of activists.
The meeting was motivated by the need to build a stronger union to campaign against up-front fees, increases in fees and charges, the adverse effects of amalgamations and the lack of student services.
The new constitution increases student union representatives from 15 to more than 40 positions and establishes campus committees at the Prahran and Lilydale campuses.
Most significant was the high participation of TAFE and Lilydale students. More than 130 Prahran students and a bus-load of Lilydale students attended.
The campaign turned a largely quiet Prahran campus into a hive of activity. Prahran had the highest percentage participation of students in the meeting.
There was unanimous support for the constitution and VTSAN affiliation motions. A bus full of Liberal students from Melbourne University, who came to disrupt the meeting, were refused entry on the basis that they were not students at Swinburne.
While there was some opposition to NUS affiliation, it was not organised. The overwhelming sentiment was to make the student union stronger. People cheered enthusiastically as student representatives spoke about student control of student affairs.
VTSAN is the peak body of TAFE student organisations, the TAFE equivalent of NUS in Victoria. VTSAN, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in November, has established more than 20 student organisations in its brief existence. It represents organisations which cover some 50% of Victoria's 420,000 TAFE students.
Swinburne is one of the few universities in Victoria that was not affiliated to NUS. The affiliation to NUS and VTSAN represents a setback to the Kennett government's attempts to destroy student unionism.
[Maurice Sibelle is the coordinator of the Victorian TAFE Students and Apprentices Network.]