President's Address

Georgina Hedge

Welcome to the second ever edition of the UTS Law Students’ Society HalfYearly Report: Obiter! My name is Georgina Hedge, and I am the UTS LSS President for 2022-23.

2023 Achievements

After three years of Covid-19 lockdowns, self-isolation, and restrictions, 2023 is the first full year that the UTS LSS has been able to run its initiatives at full capacity. While Covid brought many challenges and made us yearn for the return back to “normal”, it also made the UTS LSS reassess the best ways in which we can deliver our initiatives The 2023 LSS Executive has taken these lessons in their stride, and adopted hybrid approaches to certain events to promote the accessibility of our initiatives to all students. I am proud of how the UTS LSS has adapted its processes to best meet the diverse needs of our community

Another wonderful achievement of our 2023 Council is the introduction of four new Representatives, in replacement of the previous Diversity Director role.

These representatives are our Women’s, Queer, First Nations and Disability Representatives, each of which represent a unique sector of our wonderful LSS community. These roles were introduced upon consultation with member stakeholders, other universities, and UTS staff members, with the view of increasing the representation of minority communities within the LSS. The development of these roles has been one of the greatest achievements of the 2023 Council, introducing initiatives such as the Women's Collective, and the Accessibility Guide to ensure that all LSS events are organised with accessibility in mind As we continue into the second half of 2023, our Representatives are continuing their fantastic work, and beginning to move into advocacy work for the groups they represent.

In 2022, the UTS LSS conducted the first Member Feedback Forum in an attempt to gain a better understanding of what our members want As this did not get the engagement we had hoped, a huge goal of mine in 2023 was to collaborate with the Faculty to roll out a Faculty-wide student survey to gain genuine feedback on what both the LSS and Faculty of Law can do to cater better to the needs of students. It is very exciting that this Survey will be rolled out in Spring Session, and I encourage all members to provide their feedback on how we can improve the LSS moving forward!

The UTS LSS is also excited to host the 2023 Australian Law Students Association National Conference, which brings together 300 law students from across Australia and the world to UTS This is a huge coup for our 2023 Council, and we are excited to see our fantastic competitors take the international stage!

2023 Challenges

In full transparency, the greatest challenge that has faced the UTS LSS in 2023 has been the unprecedented number of resignations faced by the Society I would like to thank these fantastic Councillors who gave their time to the LSS Managing these resignations has been a difficult challenge for the whole Council, as we attempted to keep the Society afloat, rather than expanding on our existing initiatives

The resignations have also encouraged the Council to critically review our by-elections process, which has the potential for some level of bias to influence the process We will be conducting a review of our elections process prior to our 2023 General Elections in SeptemberOctober

2023 is the first year in which the new UTS LSS Grievance Policy has been placed into action, after a year of preparation and consultation in 2022 Adopting the Grievance Policy in 2023 has been a positive step forward in addressing the ways in which the LSS can effectively respond to grievances that occur at or within our events and initiatives This Policy was introduced in direct response to feedback from our members that the LSS needed better processes to handle grievances Any first year of implementing a policy has its ups and downs, and we are looking forward to reviewing the policy at the end of the 2023 tenure to determine ways in which it can be altered to better serve members.

Further, the Society is currently in the process of developing a UTS LSS Inclusion Policy, which will look to complement the Grievance Policy as a statement of the UTS LSS’ commitment to grassroots inclusion of all members, no matter their background. As part of the introduction of the Inclusion Policy, the UTS LSS will be engaging in a consultative process with our members to gain a better understanding of how the LSS can be more inclusive of all UTS Law students.