by Isabel Cant

Hello Vertigo Readers,

I’m Nour Al Hammouri, your 2022 Welfare Collective Officer and a final year Bachelor of Advanced Science (Pre-Medicine) student. I’ve recently been elected into this position following a year of being the Welfare Collectives Convener in 2021!

Throughout my time as Convener, I was exposed to a myriad of issues, initiatives, and problems that students face at UTS, on and off-campus. It is the responsibility of the Student Association and the Welfare Collective to respond to these matters and work towards better conditions.

The Welfare Collective was founded and continues to operate to improve student betterment. We have regular meetings in which we discuss exactly how to approach different items — through these collaborative meetings, we’re able to respond directly and hopefully, assist students in having a better experience at UTS. We aim to encourage mental health and academic support, accessibility awareness, anti-racism, social justice activism and whatever else the collective has on its agenda!

For 2022, The Welfare Collective will push for and focus on: • More wellbeing services, including; trauma-informed

S.A.S.H. and ethnically diverse counsellors, then opening them up to international and linguistically diverse students • More dialogue and opportunities to support marginalised communities • STEM students gaining access to paid internships to further support throughout their studies • Easier access to Accessibility, Counselling, and Special Consideration processes • Compulsory Lecture Recordings and universal 11:59 submission times.

Collectives work most effectively with workshops, collaboration and coffee. Another way we increase efficiency is by relying on you — the students — to come and talk to us about what they’d like to see us work towards. Without your introspection and perspective, we are slower to respond to the important issues which affect our daily student lives. The changes made to E-Requests were fast-tracked only because students came forth and shared their stories.

We’d love to see you drop by at our meetings, keep an eye out on our socials for when they’re happening!

WELFARE OFFICER

Nour Al Hammouri

Instagram: @uts.welfare.collective FaceBook: UTS Welfare Collective Email: welfare@ utsstudentsassociation.org

D I SABILITIES OFFICER

Hi, my name is Cal, and I am so excited to be your Disabilities Officer for 2022.

The Disabilities Collective has been inactive for a number of years, so you might not be too familiar with who we are and what we do. We are an autonomous collective, meaning you must identify as having a disability, mental illness, chronic illness, auditory or visual impairment, neurodivergent condition, or other health conditions in order to become a member. We aim to provide a space that simultaneously provides social connection and community for disabled students, as well as participating in activism and advocacy to improve the lives of disabled people, both at university and in broader society.

As Disabilities Officer this year, my main goal is to get the collective up and running again and build a radical, accepting space that emphasises the voices of disabled people most often neglected by a mainstream discourse on disability. This includes Indigenous people, people of colour, and queer and trans people. I aim to hold fortnightly meetings throughout the year in which all disabled people are invited to attend. A safe space where we can discuss our plans and ideas for what we will achieve as a collective.

If you would like to get involved, email accessibility@ utsstudentsassociation.org, or like us on Facebook at facebook.com/utsdisabilities.