The State Of Empire: a history of your student magazine

THE STATE OF EMP IRE

A HISTORY OF YOUR STUDENT MAG

Words by Tahlia Dilberovic

Special thanks to Nix Herriot for their assistance in the research behind this piece and the provision of transcripts of interviews with past editors Ian Yates and Andrew McHugh

Attending Flinders University is a political choice, or at least it was in the 1970s. Isolated from the bustle of the city, the small university, established in 1966, attracted those who believed education could be done differently. Central to its establishment was the question of who education truly served – the people? Or government and big business? It was this radical spirit infiltrated every part of the student experience at Flinders. It made us the stronghold of the student anti-conscription movement, and it was present when we took the registry building. This legacy has not yet ebbed from our cultural memory, but it is beginning to.

While the legacy remains, our reality is now different. With the shift towards voluntary student unionism in the 2000s, the commodification of the modern Australian university began to pick up speed. Suddenly, institutions of higher education began to market themselves as service providers. Campus culture began to dwindle, and brutal restructures and staff cuts became a rite of passage for those bestowed a vice-chancellorship. The degree factory was born.And Flinders, the small, quaint Uni on the Hill, that once drew in radicals and creative eccentrics, was unable to escape this fate. As Andrew Hughes, former ET editor states, ‘I think as time went by at Flinders; people just realized that it was probably going to turn into the same kind of university every university ends up being’, but still, ‘Flinders held out for a good long time’. Empire Times was a core component of this radical spirit. Student publications serve a crucial role in the University ecosystem as a form of alternate media; conveying student voices, not that of institutions’, resulting in the promotion and discussion of views that challenge the dominant paradigms of society. As Martin Fabinyi, founder of Empire Times argues, student media not only provides students with ‘topics of discussion and dissention, but also proves to society that a better system is possible and forthcoming’. Student publications have a sordid history in Australia, mainly for their role in challenging censorship laws. The first student newspaper was published in 1925, the University of Melbourne’s Farrago, and by the mid-1930s, most universities had their own paper. Most of these publications are ongoing and still print under their original names– Empire Times is the new kid on the block, with the first edition published in 1969. But ET arrived on the scene just in time. The 1960s and 1970s served as a crucible for student media; with issues such as conscription, censorship, police brutality, and reproductive rights entering mainstream discourse. Student media took up arms on these issues, publishing materials that either toed the legality, or straight up broke the law. ET’s newness did not result in meekness. After all, we were the only student magazine at the time to control the means of our production - we had our own printer, meaning we were the only ones in Australia with the ability to publish what we wanted, when we wanted. Ian Yates, former editor, described Empire Times as a ‘weapon to advance causes’; pushing limits with each edition, regularly featuring pornography to flout censorship laws; and constantly railing against the system. In 1970, not even a full year into publication, the Australian named Empire Times ‘plucky, brash, and the most lively of all university newspapers’, while Mark Posa of the Democratic Labor Party provided our favorite compliment, simply describing ET as ‘filth’. And ET certainly earned it. Early editions saw articles entitled ‘The Pill and You’, ‘Gay is Good’, and ‘In Defense of Unwed Mothers’, all at a time when access to birth control was highly restrictive and stigmatized, homosexuality was illegal, and forced adoptions were commonplace. Likewise, in the height of the Vietnam war and conscription, no issue went to print without a call for a moratorium, and articles giving advice on how to dodge the draft. In fact, in April 1969, the Editors spent the night in jail for demonstrating against conscription. Empire Times was alive, spirited and didn’t shy away from a fight, whether it came from the (now defunct) SRC or (oddly enough) CIA recruits. ET, the darling of the student left, did what all good media should – it challenged power. In recent years, successive editorial teams have adopted a more apolitical approach to Flinders’ student mag. A quick glance at the ET inbox will see contributors warned against taking too strong of an ideological stance, or articles edited to exclude the promotion of specific causes or rallies. Long gone are the days of our seedy little student mag, printed in the backroom of a share house, constantly questioning the powers that be. But this shift has not occurred in a vacuum. As our institutions of higher education are reduced to degree factories, there is no place on campus for a steadfast student voice. The very nature of a political, and critical, student media is a threat to any university structure that relies on undermining student experience, and solidarity, for the sake of profit. But the fight isn’t over until you leave the mat, and ET is still here – and still swinging.

vol. 17, no. 7, 1985