Guild Annual Report 2016

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

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EVENTS

Executive Reports

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

CONTENTS 1. Executive Reports....................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Guild President’s Report.......................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Managing Director’s Report............................................................................................................................... 10 1.3 Finance Report........................................................................................................................................................... 12 1.4 PSA President’s Report..........................................................................................................................................16 1.5 Guild Executive Reports.........................................................................................................................................18 2. Operational Department & Committee Reports................................................................................... 20 2.1 Commercial Services Report.............................................................................................................................. 22 2.2 Corporate Services Report............................................................................................................................... 26 2.3 Student Services Report.................................................................................................................................... 30 2.4 Strategic Resources Committee.................................................................................................................... 34 2.5 Equity & Diversity Committee......................................................................................................................... 34 2.6 Governance Committee...................................................................................................................................... 35 2.7 Welfare & Advocacy Committee.................................................................................................................... 36 3. Student-Run Department Reports................................................................................................................ 38 3.1 Education Council.................................................................................................................................................. 39 3.2 Education Action Network.................................................................................................................................39 3.3 Public Affairs Council.......................................................................................................................................... 40 3.4 Societies Council................................................................................................................................................... 42 3.5 Access Collective................................................................................................................................................... 44 3.6 Albany Students’ Association......................................................................................................................... 44 3.7 Environment Department.................................................................................................................................. 45 3.8 Ethnocultural Collective..................................................................................................................................... 46 3.9 International Students’ Service....................................................................................................................... 46 3.10 Mature Age Students’ Association.............................................................................................................. 48 3.11 Pelican Magazine................................................................................................................................................... 49 3.12 Pride Department................................................................................................................................................ 50 3.13 Residential Students’ Department................................................................................................................. 51 3.14 Sports........................................................................................................................................................................ 54 3.15 WA Student Aboriginal Corporation........................................................................................................... 55 3.16 Welfare Department.............................................................................................................................................56 3.17 Women’s Department......................................................................................................................................... 57 3.18 National Union of Students............................................................................................................................. 59

Executive Reports

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EXECUTIVE REPORTS

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.1 Guild President’s Report

Guild President’s Report

By Maddie Mulholland Introduction

It has been an honour to be the 103rd UWA Student Guild President. The Guild Council, Committees, Office Bearers and Staff have worked very hard on an ambitious plan to improve the Guild’s performance in three broad areas: 1. Visibility & Value Creation (managed by Michael Kabondo, Guild Secretary); 2. Representation & Effective Engagement (managed by Charlie Viska, Guild Vice President); and 3. Operational Excellence (managed by Tom Burke, Guild Treasurer).

Visibility and Value Creation

This year we have worked to ensure that our services and support provide value to all students at UWA, not just the 94% who are Guild members. We have overseen staff and student departments implementing many new initiatives, and have created positive social, and print media to promote milestones like the opening of the Club Collaborative Zone and Quobba Gnarning Café. We have also responded to important student issues including the UWA Renewal Project, the Orlando Massacre, an islamophobic incident next to the on-campus prayer facility, changes in the Universities Legislation Amendment Act, and incidences of sexual assault on university campuses.

2016 event highlights include our biggest fully carbon-offset O-Day yet, and the 85th anniversary of PROSH, with the theme ‘Pursue ImPROSHable’ which raised $50,000 for our 5 charities.

2016 has also involved a large push for reform to Orientation at UWA, which will be rolled out in 2017 and 2018, with a greater focus on student experience, peer-to-peer community and fun!

Representation and Effective Engagement

My Executive and I have been dedicated to reaching out to, and advocating for, students from all backgrounds and experiences. This year we built on the work of previous Guild Councils in supporting the Access Collective, establishing the Ethnocultural Collective, building a stronger connection with College Residential Clubs and with the WA Student Aboriginal Corporation (WASAC).

Tyson McEwan, the WASAC Chair, and I worked together to name Quobba Gnarning Café and oppose the decision made by the Carnarvon Shire Council not to fly the Aboriginal Flag during NAIDOC Week.

My team and I have researched and commenced discussions about introducing gender neutral toilets to the Guild Village, we’ve introduced a halal food provider in the Refectory and we have supported the International Student Services Department to welcome, engage and support international articulation students.

The Guild Council took many policy stances including recognising WASAC as the sole peak representative body and voice for Indigenous UWA students, reaffirming our position as a refugee sanctuary and against mandatory detention, condemning harassment and bullying, adopting a stance on social, economic and educational equality for LGBTQI students, and supporting the legislation of full marriage equality. We also withdrew from our commercial agreement with The West Australian, in protest to their continued publication of the misogynist cartoonist Dean Alston.

Operational Excellence

In order to operate the organisation more successfully, we have made significant investment into our systems and processes.

We have implemented a point of sale system to better understand student purchasing behaviour, revitalised the Guild’s functions business, reviewed the Guild’s Regulations, introduced an Audit and Risk Committee comprising Guild Alumni, developed a Risk Appetite and Mitigation Plan for the Guild Council, introduced a computer renewal program and invested in new servers, developed a strong Guild Archives collection, and formalised the Guild Alumni Group!

In order to ensure that the Guild can be financially sustainable and impactful into the future, we engaged Deloitte to assist us with completing a Business Review, which will feed into our planning for the next 5-10 years. We have developed an implementation plan to ensure that our operations are increasingly efficient and effective, and that we continue to have the ability to swiftly respond to student demand.

In the Commercial and Catering Division, we have overhauled the Refectory’s offering, included new menu items like cold brew coffee at Catalyst Café, options for vegan, vegetarian, halal and gluten-free requirements, new mobile vendors, a new Tavern menu and Altavend machines.

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.1 Guild President’s Report

Capital Development

I was excited and proud to open the Club Collaborative Zone (CCZ) in the Central Wing of the Guild in February with Janet Holmes à Court AC, which won the Interior Architecture Award for WA! This project, commenced in 2008 and completed in January this year, is an Australia-leading custom-built space designed to support oncampus club activity 24/7. It was an especially exciting occasion for me as I have sat on the Design Group from the initial design stage right through to construction.

We contributed to the development of a new café in Reid Library, Quobba Gnarning Café, made some aesthetic upgrades to club spaces in the Guild Central Wing and Cameron Hall, renovated the interior of the Tavern and installed a new Tavern fence in the Beer Garden.

We are also in the process of reviewing our Commercial Plan for Guild Village and the Refectory, to be actioned in 2017 and 2018. We commenced with some upgrades this year to Westpac Bank and the Second-hand Bookshop.

Partnership Between the Guild and the University

As the peak representative body for students, we have provided significant feedback to the University on a variety of projects, set out to the right.

In August, I presented to the UWA Senate, which is the University’s governing board, about the Guild’s activities and future plans and gave Guild tours to members of the Senate, many of whom had never visited the Guild before.

The Guild have also enjoyed a close relationship with UWA Convocation and the Convocation Council, the representative body for alumni.

External Issues

This year’s biggest external focus has been the Universities Legislation Amendment Act which proposed a variety of changes to the UWA Act including changing the 3 elected student representatives to 2 appointed and removing the requirement that a minimum SSAF payment be made to Student Guilds. Our lobbying was successful in maintaining elected student representatives and strengthening the SSAF minimum section (50%). However, there will still be a reduction in student members from 3 to 2, which will be grandfathered in.

We have engaged with the National Union of Students to respond to the Minister for Education’s Consultation Paper indicating possible partial fee deregulation of flagship courses, lowering the HECS repayment threshold and cutting funding to HEPP, which funds pathway programs like UWA’s Aspire and Fairway entry programs, through surveys, petitions and protests.

Future Direction

I could not be prouder of the student rep and staff teams who have worked extremely hard this year to deliver so many successes and reforms, and who have made a large impact on the experience of UWA students. Our work has put the Guild in a stronger financial position, with a better sense of our identity and purpose, and has given us the experience of many new initiatives to build on.

Maddie Mulholland 103rd UWA Student Guild President

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.1 Guild President’s Report

Item

University portfolio

Guild portfolio

Review of Courses

Education

Education

Policy on Assessment

Education

Education

Graduations Review

Community & Engagement (C&E)

Past VP

Career and Work Experience opportunities

Innovation Quarter

President

Introduction of new course and phasing out of old courses

Education

Education

Feedback on: Unit Outlines, Scaling, Barrier assessments, Exam issues (eg. Room overcrowding)

Education

Education

Unifi feedback

Strategic IT & Information Management Committee (SITIMC)

President

Feedback on: Facilities, including toilets, recording facilities, software, teaching spaces and student common spaces

Facilities Development Committee (IT items to SITIMC)

President

Orientation Reform (including UniMentor)

Student Life

President

Academic Calendar / Summer School proposal

Education

President

SURF survey completion, review of questions and understanding amongst students

Education

President / Education

Engagement with UWA Sport and creation of the UWA Sport Student Stakeholder Reference Group

UWA Sport

President / Student Services / Sport

Feedback on UWA Disability and Inclusion Plan

Equity & Diversity

President / Access

Feedback on Review of Venues Pricing

C & E / Venues

President / Societies Council

International articulation student intake engagement strategy

Vice Chancellor

President / ISS

Renewal Project

Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor

President

Implementation of Class Allocation System (CAS)

Student Admin

Education

Review of Special Consideration

Education

President / Education

TL;DR of university policies

All

Education

Gender neutral toilets introduction to Guild Village

Campus Management

President

Feedback on: Changes to parking, end-of-trip facility access, lighting across campuses and wayfinding

Campus Management & Security

Vice President

Review of Sexual assault policies, screening of Hunting Ground movie and engagement with Universities Australis ‘Respect. Now. Always’ campaign

Vice Chancellor / Student Life

President / Women’s

Responding to Orlando shooting, engagement with UWA LGBTQI community, participation in UWA LGBT+ study

Vice Chancellor / Equity & Diversity

President / Pride Department

IT failures (April, August) & Power failure (October) – student advocacy

Education

President

ISB Survey - Promotion and higher rate of response

Education

President

Introducing more International student involvement in Student Services planning and orientation

Student Services

ISS

Working with Local Drug Action Group (LDAG), including on a Survey into Study Drug usage

Cultural Precinct

President

International connections - Engaging with visiting students (often from Malaysian student organisations)

Vice President / ISS

Engagement with B-Phil commencing students, Flying Start students and prospective High Achieving student program

Student Life

Vice President / President

Staff v Students Cricket Match

Staff

President

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

103rd Guild Council Our work in 2016 has put the Guild in a stronger financial position, with a better sense of our identity and purpose, and has given us the experience of many new initiatives to build on.

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.2 Managing Director’s Report

Managing Director’s Report

By Tony Goodman Introduction

Over the past year, the Guild has continued to implement it’s Transformation Strategy with significant success in driving greater compliance, development of infrastructure, systems and processes and student facilities to help create the best student experience possible for UWA students. The Management team and I have been pleased to see a positive staff approach to working hard alongside the student representatives as a dedicated unified team.

Our 2016 strategy has focused on excellence in: • Relevance to and engagement with the study body; • Commercial stability and high operational performance; • Ensuring a strategic and sustainable business model; • Achieving cost-efficiency through a robust budgeting and internal controls framework; and • Continuously adapting to a changing environment, while maintaining our independent autonomy.

Our core goals are around Governance, Financial Planning & Business Strategy and development of the Catering & Commercial strategy.

Governance

The Guild has focused on forming a UWA Student Guild Audit and Risk Committee, which will comprise the Guild President, Guild Treasurer, a student member of the Strategic Resources Committee and four external nominees, who are Guild alumni and graduated at least 10 years ago. We are now in the process of inviting people to join the committee.

Guild Council have, for the first time, developed and adopted a Risk Appetite and Mitigation Plan. In the future this will be reviewed annually by the Audit and Risk Committee.

The Guild Executive Management Committee have also been working on formalising the Guild Alumni Group (currently 600 engaged members) to reconnect and draw on a deep pool of external capability to support the Guild’s activities.

Financial Planning & Business Strategy

In late 2015, the Guild started to review its organisation, practices and strategy, including the financial requirements of the Guild in order to deliver the services that we see as core and most relevant to the Guild and students. This led to the Guild engaging Deloitte to co-conduct a Business Review, and we sought their feedback on how we best meet the expectations from UWA, as a key stakeholder, engage UWA students better, have better financial performance (Revenue / Cost), and structure our internal controls framework. Our key long-term financial goal is to make an ongoing surplus of

100,000 - $200,000

$

annually for capital reinvestment.

In assessing why we perform at our current financial levels, Deloitte found that the Guild’s SSAF Service Level Agreement with the University has not changed between 2012 and 2016, despite a reduction in funding from $2.5 million (70%) in 2012 to $1.6 million (30%) in 2016. This means that the Guild will continue to run a deficit without changes to our operations and/or services. Deloitte praised the Guild’s diversified revenue model (SSAF, Catering, Commercial activities and tenants), and confirmed some of our initiatives such as the mixed model approach to catering were correct. Deloitte endorsed the Guild’s Masterplan, future financial projections and restructure plans. In partnership, we developed a plan to deliver services more sustainably within the SSAF funding model and reality of less students being physically on campus.

The half-cohort had a large impact on the Guild’s revenue generation, which will continue as this cohort moves through their studies at the University. Given the seasonal nature of classes, lack of evening activity and poor lighting around the campus – students tend not to stay other than for study purposes. This impacts the Guild’s ability to open outlets in a financially sustainable way, and impacts the Guild’s revenue overall, which flows on to the Guild’s ability to fund student-facing services.

Together we developed a range of initiatives that we will start rolling out to address our service delivery.

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.2 Managing Director’s Report

Staff Capability

The Guild has been focused on improving staff capability. People are an important part of what the Guild is, and how it delivers its services to students. In 2016, the Guild made the following key appointments to its team: •

Associate Director of Commercial, driving the Guilds commercial and catering part of its operations including developing third party relationships.

Executive Chef, to raise and develop kitchen capability and quality of catering.

Dedicated Café Manager, whose aim will be to drive service in Quobba Gnarning and Hackett Cafes.

A new Communication team, including Engagement Manager, Marketing and Creative Designs team to develop capability in delivering student communication (peer to peer) and design requirements.

• • •

In 2016 and into 2017 the Guild will continue to develop and work with training and developing staff capability.

Masterplan Construction Projects & Refurbishments

The Guild has continued to invest in ‘bricks and mortar’ infrastructure projects in 2016 following on from 2015 developments, to enhance student experience on campus.

• • • • • • •

Club Collaborative Zone (February 2016) UWA Guild Tavern (August 2016) Quobba Gnarning Café (September 2016) Second floor of Guild Central Wing, décor upgrade (October 2016) Cameron Hall upgrades including storage facilities for clubs and improved décor (October 2016) Hackett Café upgrades and refurbishment (October 2015 & November 2016) Subway and Boost Juice establishment (October 2015)

The total level of investment dedicated to these projects across 2015 and 2016 was

3.1million

$

This is mix of SSAF Capital Expenditure funds as well as the Guild’s own savings.

The Guild’s Masterplan was updated in 2016 to include new development plans for the Guild Village precinct, its commercial areas, and the Refectory as priorities in 2017 and 2018.

Audit & Risk

The Guild undertook three audits this year – the Financial health check, UWA Occupational Health and Safety audit, and its annual External Financial Audits. The Guild performed well in all reviews. In April 2016 the Guild submitted its annual Financial Audit and SSAF Report to UWA Risk and Audit Committee, which is part of the Guild’s compliance obligations under SSAF legislation. I am pleased to report that the committee and UWA Senate commended the report and that the Guild met it’s obligations.

Concluding remarks

The Guild has performed extremely well in 2016, successfully met its compliance and governance obligations and is embarking on implementing a well-designed strategy for its future. In 2016 we have seen significant advancements in how we provide and deliver services to students. I would like to thank all the employees of the Guild and the student representatives for their continued hard work and dedication. Their efforts truly make a positive and significant difference to students at UWA.

Tony Goodman Managing Director

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.3 Finance Report

Finance Report

By Mutya Maraginot-Joseph & Tom Burke Introduction

The Guild budget is prepared in consultation with all Managers, Directors, Student Representatives and the Guild Council. The Guild Council approves the budget based on the recommendations from the Strategic Resources Committee.

The Guild budget balances the resources required to provide student services, run the organisation, provide sufficient capital funds for future improvements and maintain a prudent level of cash reserves. The Guild does not carry any debt within its balance sheet; instead operating using a combination of Student Services & Amenities Fees (SSAF) income, commercial income and income from its investments. These cash reserves, held within the University’s investment pool, are valued at $4,400,000.

In 2016, the initial estimated cash deficit was -$28,578, with an accounting deficit of -$261,699, which was reforecast in the Mid-Year Budget Review to a cash surplus of $44,196, with an accounting deficit of -$188,925.

Adding non-operating income from investments of $205,000, the total net cash surplus before capital expenditure in the Mid-Year Budget Review is estimated at $249,196.

Total capital expenditure for 2016 is budgeted at $964,247. Funding is from both the SSAF Capital Fund of $239,247 and the remaining $725,000 from the Guild’s investments and operations.

Major projects include: the Tavern Refurbishment, new point of sale system and Quobba Gnarning Cafe.

This is in line with the overall drive of improving the services provided to students.

The following charts outline the percentage breakdown of the operating income and expenditure and the distribution of the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) for 2016.

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.3 Finance Report

Sources of Operating Income

SSAF Distribution

Budgeted Guild Expenditure

74%

Student Services and Amenities Funding (SSAF) and Associate Membership

11%

Property (net return)

9%

Catering Divison (net return)

6%

Tavern (net return)

0%

Second Hand Bookshop (net return)

29%

Guild

29%

UWA Sports

29%

UWA Student Services

9%

Capital Fund

4%

UWA Administration Fee

24%

Student Services

7%

Student Assist

20%

Financial Services

6%

Volunteer Centre

17%

Administration Services

4%

Information Technology Services

14%

Student Representation

8%

Sub Councils & Guild Departments

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.3 Finance Report Sources and Application of Funds and Cashflow Summary (2016 Budget and 2015 Audited Accounts) Budget Review June 2016

Budget Jan 2016

Audited 2015

1,853,384

1,612,937

1,556,527

SSAF Income is negotiated with UWA

Property (net return)

262,972

251,156

264,828

Tenancy income in Guild Village

Catering Division (net return)

214,719

520,313

233,317

Includes all catering outlets and external contractors

5,421

5,421

9,295

Categories Student Services & Amenities Fee (SSAF) and Associate Membership

Second Hand Bookshop (net return) Tavern (net return)

Bookshop results exclude Texchange

150,000

60,971

(85,441)

2,486,496

2,450,798

1,978,526

Student Representation

(403,677)

(429,009)

(385,959)

Council, Presidential, Elections, Fac Soc Grants, Affiliations, Pelican Magazine

Sub Councils and Guild Departments

(238,693)

(257,533)

(210,385)

Ed, Pac, Soc Sub Councils and all Student Departments

Student Assist

(202,612)

(252,288)

(235,204)

Academic, welfare and financial support to UWA Students

Student Services

(688,482)

(706,403)

(638,402)

Events, Memberships, Student Centre, Design & Creative

Volunteer Centre

(161,074)

(177,507)

(114,348)

Volunteeer Centre is run with support from Volunteering WA

Total Operating Income

Guild operated Tavern

Administration Services

(501,546)

(401,818)

(377,404)

Directors, Project Management, Human Resources

Financial Services

(570,384)

(576,867)

(372,860)

Financial Services to support clubs, council and admin

(113,953)

(116,072)

(115,885)

IT Services to support clubs, council and administration

Information Technology Services Total Expenditure

(2,880,421)

(2,917,497)

(2,450,447)

SURPLUS / (DEFICIT) FROM OPERATING ITEMS

(393,925)

(466,699)

(471,921)

Non-Operating Income Mainly UWA Pool Investments

205,000

205,000

1,067,081

REPORTED ACCOUNTING SURPLUS/(DEFICIT)

(188,925)

(261,699)

595,160

Income from investment and insurance recovery

CASHFLOW SUMMARY Categories Accounting Surplus (Deficit)

Budget Review June 2016

Budget Jan 2016

Audited 2015

(188,925)

(261,699)

595,160

438,121

438,121

358,037

(205,000)

(205,000)

(1,067,081)

44,196

(28,578)

(113,884)

Add back Non-Operating Income

205,000

205,000

1,067,081

CASH SURPLUS/(DEFICIT) BEFORE CAPITAL EXPENDITURE

249,196

176,422

953,197

Add Back Depreciation (non-cash) Deduct Non-Operating Income CASH SURPLUS / (DEFICIT) FROM OPERATING ITEMS

Capital Expenditure

Depreciation is included in the expenditure segment; but needs to be added back to work out Net Cashflow UWA Pool Investments

UWA Pool Investments

(725,000)

(695,000)

(937,561)

NET CASH SURPLUS/(DEFICIT)

(475,804)

(518,578)

15,636

Capital Projects are not part of daily operations

UWA STUDENT GUILD - STATEMENT OF AVAILABLE NET CASH & INVESTMENTS

Jun-16

Dec-15

Unaudited*

Audited

Current Assets

4,065,692

3,656,638

Cash and Trade Receivables

Non-Current Assets

5,762,712

6,358,975

Investments and Capital Assets

Cash and Investments

9,828,404

10,015,613

Current & Non-Current Liabilities

-1,576,746

-1,536,554

Total Liabilities

-1,576,746

-1,536,554

Net available Cash & Investments

8,251,658

8,479,059

Trade and other payables; Leave Provisions

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.4 PSA President’s Report

Postgraduate Students’ Association (PSA) President’s Report

By Peter Derbyshire Introduction

This year has been an exciting and challenging year with the focus shifting from preparing students for further research to preparing students for a multitude of professions that are available. The changes in postgraduate training in higher education will present students with many challenges so we have focused on preparing students for this changing environment whilst still supporting their current studies.

Awards & Grants

26 competitive awards and grants have been awarded this year to postgraduate students to help empower them to run their own projects, undertake field work for their research, and to attend national and international conferences when university resources are not able to cover the full cost of these endeavours.

1,000 $ 8,100 $ 14,400 $ 6,000 $

was granted to 2 student-run events: the Postgraduate Archaeological Conference and an event on consulting run by Bloom and St Catherine’s College. was distributed to students in 6 field work/data collection awards to aid students with the cost of doing self-funded research.

Events

was given out in 16 conference awards where the student showed both a need for the funding, as well as a benefit from the funding. was awarded in 2 postgraduate Convocation awards which were given out to students that undertook conference travel that was a unique experience to their research.

The Postgraduate Students’ Association (PSA) ran 3 family-focused events in 2016. Over 70 postgraduates and their families attended our 2 stargazing nights and 300 registered for the evening at SciTech. These events indicate a desire for a further increase in family-focused events for postgraduate students.

We continued our monthly networking event ‘Connect’, which has grown in popularity over the year with 100 postgraduates attending some months. Connect has also been used to communicate issues to postgraduate students and advertise Guild services like Student Assist. Other networking events have included orientation events and our new ‘Speed Date My Degree’ event which was our first event of the year for commencing students. The Quiz Night was a big success as always, thanks to the local companies that were willing to donate prizes.

We have added to our Equity portfolio’s main event, the Women in Research breakfast showcasing women presenters and a fantastic breakfast provided by the Guild, with a ‘Discover my Culture’ event run using a similar format to ‘Date My Degree’, for international students. Having international food and prompting questions was a great way to get participants to talk to each other about cultural differences.

This year the PSA have placed a strong focus on professional development events that focus not just on research but also on career pathways outside of research. The biggest success was the ‘Research to Consulting’ event with McKinsey Management Consultants, following which we created a consultants register for postgraduates so that McKinsey can provide similar and smaller workshops through the PSA in the future. The Student Talks in Research (STiR) conference took a turn this year to be focused on presenting both research and students’ abilities to which resulted in at least one presenter being given a mentorship. Great success! There was also a workshop on applying for fellowships and the research career path that was highly successful and the faculty staff that presented have since had a number of meetings with students about a career in research. We are also considering helping students navigate options around entering education after their postgraduate degree.

Advocacy

Approximately 10 individual student advocacy cases were taken on this year of varied complexity. In most of these cases, Student Assist helped as postgraduate cases can be tricky due to the nature of the relationships between supervisor and student.

Engagement

The PSA newsletter and Facebook page are our primary forms of engagement to contact postgraduate students.

This year, we’ve grown to 1,906 likes on our Facebook page and a reach of approximately 6,000 viewers for some of our posts. The weekly newsletter is now also going out to graduate diploma students and graduate certificate students as well as honours students. There is an average of 6 advertised opportunities for postgraduates per newsletter. The annual magazine Postscript was published in October.

70

STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES ATTENDED STARGAZING

300

STUDENTS REGISTERED FOR THE EVENING AT SCITECH

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.5 Guild Executive Reports

Guild Vice President

By Charlie Viska

As Guild Vice President, my role has been focused on maintaining strong representation for Guild members. I have been responsible for liaising with our newly formed Access and Ethnocultural Collectives, as well as assisting the Mature Age Students’ Association and Albany Students’ Association. Throughout, my goal has been to make sure the Guild is as inclusive and representative as possible.

The Guild Vice President is the only permanent member on the University’s Parking Fine Appeals committee, which has allowed me to be in regular contact with the University over all things parking and transport. The Guild has had a number of wins this year, one of which was making sure the University didn’t expand its post-code restrictions on parking.

One of the Executive’s general goals this year has been to increase students’ overall engagement with the Guild’s services and activities. To this end, the start of the year saw us present to incoming B-Phil students, College Res’ Clubs, and student leaders in the Business School. Throughout the year, we have continued this outreach with events like Grill the Guild at the 5 colleges. These were an opportunity for regular students to hear about what the Guild has to offer, meet their elected student reps and enjoy free food!

As Vice President, I’ve also had the pleasure of welcoming a number of international visitors to the Guild. Throughout the year, we had a number of groups of student representatives from Malaysia. It was a great opportunity to exchange ideas and learn more about representation in another country.

I have been responsible for liaising with our newly formed Access and Ethnocultural Collectives, as well as assisting the Mature Age Students’ Association and Albany Students’ Association.

Finally, as an Executive, we have been looking for training opportunities for our councillors. In my role, I have organised record-keeping training, training resources and videos for new councillors and a handover process for the incoming Guild Council.

Guild Treasurer

By Tom Burke

2016 has been a year of transition for the commercial side of the Guild, and this has resulted in significant financial pressures. We redeveloped Hackett Café, constructed the Club Collaborative Zone, gave the Tavern a new courtyard fence in Semester 1, and complete renovation of the interior during the winter break, and renovated the café in Reid Library café, reopening in September as Quobba Gnarning Café. To add to this, the long-awaited opening of Subway and Boost in October 2015, in the Ref created competition with Guild Catering for the first time, and a drive to increase quality and customer satisfaction on campus meant inevitably higher food and drink prices.

My role as Treasurer has been to strike a balance in the face of these financial pressures, cutting costs where justifiable but not as to significantly impact the level of service that the Guild offers. I have developed the organisation’s budget and reviewed it mid-year, through my position as Chair of the Catering & Tavern Committee, and as a member of the Strategic Resources Committee, the Executive Management Committee, and the Guild Executive.

In particular, as Chair of the Catering & Tavern Committee I oversaw the development of new menus, reviewed food and coffee suppliers, and developed strategies to deal with the increased competition in the Ref, including the reshuffling that took place at the beginning of the year. My committee was also involved in the renovation of the Tavern, the Reid Café redevelopment, the selection of food trucks to bring onto campus, and the introduction of Altavend international vending machines among many other things.

One of my responsibilities has been to consider and approve the granting of overdrafts to Guild-affiliated societies. Five overdrafts were approved in 2016, and the three major ones have been repaid. Two remain outstanding, one which was intended to cover an existing debt of a small club, and the other which was approved to a newly-affiliated club and is unlikely to be repaid until next year.

The remainder of my role will be to guide the development of the 2017 Budget proposal in conjunction with the incoming Treasurer, and to continue to develop

Five overdrafts were approved in 2016, and the three major ones have been repaid.

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

1.5 Guild Executive Reports the commercial strategy of the Guild. In particular this will involve overseeing the evolution of Quobba Gnarning Café which is still in its early stages of operation and must be adaptive to demand and feedback. It will also involve continuing to plan the future of the Refectory, and look at ways of giving that important institution a sustainable future.

Guild Secretary

By Michael Kabondo

The role of the Guild Secretary is primarily administrative – compiling reports, agendas, minutes and resolutions for Guild Council Meetings and following up business from previous minutes. Part of my role on the Executive has been to coordinate and manage student representatives to ensure they achieve and implement their policy objectives.

This year key administrative tasks I have performed include; providing template guides for Office Bearers completing reports, agendas and minutes, and making Guild committee minutes available on the Guild website. The Guild Council Chair and I have worked together to create a new template for the Guild Council agenda to ensure Council meeting run more efficiently, which separates operational and policy items.

Additionally, I have organised and facilitated the election of Ordinary Committee Members onto Guild Committees through Guild Council, and ensured the integration of those students into the committee’s activities.

I have worked on organising Chair Training and Diversity Training for councillors and Office Bearers. Some of my projects this year have been updating the Guild Policy Book, and working with Archives to streamline our document management systems.

I have also coordinated Councillor and volunteer contribution to Guild events including, Orientations, Cruickshank-Routley Memorial Guild Ball, End of Semester Shows (EOSS) , St Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest. I have chaired the Ball, EOSS1 & EOSS2 Planning and Preparation Committees and subsequent organisaion and logistical management. I have ensured other students also get the opportunity to be involved in the process.

I have also coordinated Councillor and volunteer contribution to Guild events including, Orientations, CruickshankRoutley Memorial Guild Ball, End of Semester Shows (EOSS), St Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest.

Operational Department & Committee Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

OPERATIONAL DEPARTMENT & COMMITTEE REPORTS

Operational Department & Committee Reports

Page 21

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

Our Biggest O-Day In 2016, we had 231 stalls and over 9000 student attendees. The live music in the Tav, carnival rides, giant inflatable slide, Food Truck Village and a chilled space were well-visited.

Operational Department & Committee Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.1 Commercial Services Report

Commercial Services Report

By Jack Spagnuolo & Tom Burke Catering & Tavern Committee

The Catering and Tavern Committee, chaired by the Guild Treasurer, and comprised of students and staff from across the organisation, met monthly over the course of the year. The committee’s business has been largely centred on increasing food and beverage quality, and the renovation of outlets such as Hackett Café, Quobba Gnarning café, the Tavern and the Refectory, and included activities such as: • Approving all aspects of the Tavern renovations, including the new fence design, the AV system, a Nightlife entertainment system, the interior design, new bar taps, new food and beverage menus, new furniture, a new security system, and CCTV. • Increasing the quality of sushi in Guild cafes through negotiations with our supplier.

• Developing a master plan for differentiating Guild cafes.

• Reviewing the availability of food and drinks on campus to satisfy different dietary requirements, such as vegan, vegetarian, halal and gluten-free.

• Overseeing the development of a new ‘Food on Campus’ website.

• Commissioning new aesthetic bin encasements for all outlets and increasing recycling.

• Approving a new audio system for Hackett Café.

• Bringing international food and drink vending machines onto campus in collaboration with Altavend.

• Introducing a new point of sale system into all outlets.

Catering Division

2016 has been a very busy year in the Catering Division of the Guild, commencing with some significant changes to the team as part of the continued evolution of staff, teams and products.

The Guild discount of up to 35% off on coffee and 10% off on food has contributed $433,000 back to students as of September 2016!

35% 10%

The Guild manages: The Refectory, Hackett Café, Quobba Gnarning Café, Catalyst Café, Nedlands Café, The Tavern, A kiosk in the Somerville Theatre, McGeachie-Tennant Kiosk and The Food Vans on Oak Lawn.

on

and

on

Our strategy has built from last year focusing on: • Diversifying products and variety to meet the changing student demographic; • Improving customer service; • Provide value to students through the Guild discounts; and • Introducing tiered price points to meet varied student budgets.

We made significant changes to the Refectory over the summer break by segmenting sections of the Refectory into specialised food categories, featuring ‘Wok’s Cooking,Asian cuisine, ‘Rice to Meet You’ fresh sushi and salad, made-to-order rolls and ‘Spud’ carvery and burgers, now replaced by the Halal provider ‘Yo Amigo!’. The new independent outlets, Boost Juice and Subway, opened in October 2015, have provided extra diversity and food options but have resulted in lower sales in the Refectory and other nearby outlets.

To increase quality of food and customer service, the Department has made some significant changes to its catering management team at cafes, the kitchen and the Tavern, with the appointment of a new Executive Chef and Café Manager for Quobba Gnarning and Hackett Café. This has increased costs, which we are working to stabilise for 2017. Our investment in catering has been recognised in the International Student Barometer survey where students provided positive feedback on our changes. We have implemented new processes and revised all menus, and the cafés across campus have been operating well.

We are on track to make a $365,000 profit in catering by the end of the year, despite lower students physically on campus and the Reid Library Café being closed for 6 months longer than initially anticipated! The Tavern has performed exceptionally well this year, with financial growth driven from lunch trade and events. The new menu introduced in January has made the Tavern a favourite for lunch and early evening meals.

Commercial Tenancies

Commercial Tenancies within Guild Village have been consistent for the last twelve months. Currently we are in the process of reviewing leases and developing the Guild Masterplan for the Guild Village, which includes new commercial tenancies to respond to student demand. In 2016, the Guild successfully relocated the Westpac branch down to the ground level in Guild Village, swapping it with the Second-hand Bookshop. This new branch will act as a benchmark for the other tenancies.

Operational Department & Committee Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.1 Commercial Services Report

Capital Projects

New Quobba Gnarning Café In September 2016, the Guild was pleased to open the Quobba Gnarning Café (formerly the Reid Café) on the ground floor of Reid Library. The café was named by the WA Student Aboriginal Corporation (WASAC) and acknowledges the traditional owners of the land, the Whadjuk Noongar people. The café is fitted out with two counters, one for coffee and cakes and the other for more substantial food, in an urban style and we have introduced a variety of new food and beverage choices aimed at the student and staff markets.

The Tavern Refurbishment The Tavern has undergone a major refurbishment, commencing with the Beer Garden – new furniture, décor and fence featuring a bar with stunning river views. The interior refurbishment, completed during the winter break, comprised new AV and sound equipment, interior design (new carpet, wood stain and wall colouring) and furniture. The bar taps and inside bathrooms were also upgraded. The renovation, combined with new management and menu changes, have revolutionised the venue into a strong financial performer and social hub for the Guild. We are now preparing to celebrate the Tavern’s 90th birthday in 2017!

Second-hand Bookshop relocation The Guild Second-hand Bookshop has been relocated to the first floor of Guild Village, in the commercial zone. This has the advantage of providing it with more space and the opportunity of a fresh new start, including expanding its offering to selling club and society merchandising as a non-profit service to students.

To date the Bookshop has provided

60,000

$

worth of payout value to students and

176,000

$

worth of revenue!

Club Collaborative Zone See the Societies Council Report!

Solar Panels (Business School) See the Environment Department Report!

Executive Reports

Page 24

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

Executive Reports

Page 25

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

Gourmet Burgers in the Tav The Tavern has performed exceptionally well this year. The new menu introduced in January has made the Tavern a favourite for lunch and early evening meals.

Operational Department & Committee Reports

Page 26

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.2 Corporate Services Report

Corporate Services Report

By Mutya Maraginot-Joseph & Charlie Viska Corporate Services Commitee

The Corporate Services Committee is responsible for setting the direction for operational matters within the Guild which are then carried out by the Corporate Services team. This committee is chaired by the Guild Vice President, and has a number of staff and student members. In addition to the usual business conducted by the IT and Finance teams, the committee has overseen the following projects:

Corporate Services Projects

Review of the Second-hand Bookshop The Second-hand Bookshop is one of the Guild’s gems on campus. Having been left untouched for a long while, this year the Bookshop has undergone a number of important changes. It has been relocated to a brand new space, with huge windows and twice the floor space. This has meant students are no longer cramped when searching for books, and are able to relax and enjoy the ambience of the new space. Additionally, new furniture, bookshelves and carpets have given the bookshop a refreshing Nordic vibe. As always, Bookshop Manager Betty Jansen has done a fantastic job in continuing to help students find books during the challenging period of moving locations.

New Point of Sale System 2016 saw the Guild invest in TASK, a new Point of Sale System for our commercial outlets. All of our cafés are now equipped with this new software, which improves the service experience for café staff and customers, integrates better with our accounting systems, and provides better data and inventory management for the Commercial team.

New Cleaning Service Providers The Committee conducted a tender process for the Guild’s cleaning services and made a recommendation to the Strategic Resources Committee which was accepted. Coming under budget as a whole, this has meant our student spaces are receiving the cleaning that is required while extra money is able to be allocated to other Guild services, departments and events.

Transition to NetSuite In the accounting area, we completed the transition to NetSuite, which has meant the Guild now has better bookkeeping and accounting processes. Office bearers, members of Guild Executive and Club Presidents and Treasurers are also now able to see their respective finances online, which was previously never possible. NetSuite integrates with TASK and other potential systems which gives the Guild capacity to expand in the future.

IT Upgrades The Guild’s IT has also been a big focus of the Committee this year. Firstly, we established a Computer Investment Program to help the Guild stay up to date with the new, changing requirements of an organisation in the 21st century, commencing with acquiring new tablets for Directors, the Guild President and some student reps. The program is designed to continually replace ageing computers, so that all students and staff have working, efficient computers to undergo their daily tasks.

Archive Management The Guild has continued the project of maintaining and digitising its archives with the help of Guild Volunteering and Archivist Melissa Hetherington. Additionally, Melissa has helped groups such as WAMSS with their club archiving needs and has built the Guild Alumni contact database of past Guild Councillors.

Other Asset Management The Committee has also been involved in the maintenance and insurance of the Guild’s car, as well as the purchase of computer equipment for our cafes.

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

Operational Department & Committee Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.3 Student Services Report

Student Services Committee

By Michael Kabondo

The Student Services Committee is responsible for the student-facing services that the Guild provides which are Student Assist, Engagement and Design, Guild Volunteering, Events and the Guild Student Centre. For 2016, we set out to provide a more strategic direction on the activities and initiatives of the Student Services Departments ensuring we had a more holistic approach to how the Guild presents itself to students, introduced Event Directors for Guild-run events, and conducted event reviews following each event which fed into planning for future events.

Engagement Department

The Engagement Team comprises Engagement, Marketing, Design and the Guild Student Centre and exists to help students experience student culture and feel part of an engaged, supportive and vibrant student community.

By Madeleine Smith

In 2016, we renewed our strategy to maximise our engagement by formulating it around the Student Lifecycle to highlight information at times that are most relevant and valuable to the student population. To boost our advertising revenue, we have created a new Ad Kit and Dairy Ad Kit with new items for 2017.

Social media remains our strongest communication channel and in 2017 we will be implementing a new social media strategy and monthly social media schedule. We will continue to build our digital presence by completing the Cafes of Campus, Guild Volunteering and MyGuild websites commenced this year.

The Design department has been busy moving the election broadsheet process online, styling the new websites mentioned above and designing 10 publications including Pelican, Damsel, Postscript and PROSH. We have also generated income for the Guild from in-house design services marketed to external businesses and UWA

Volunteering & Community Engagement Committee

By Sofia Kouznetsova

Guild Volunteering

By Claire Duffy

The Volunteering and Community Engagement (VACE) Committee sets the direction of Guild Volunteering and oversees the Guild’s community engagement strategy, and aims to develop and improve the volunteering culture on campus through the creation of policies and initiatives. The Semester 1 VACE Chair Denisse Fierro collaborated with the Environment Department and Tangaroa Blue to participate in World Oceans Day with beach clean-ups in June and October. In Semester 2, for National Student Volunteer Week (8-14 August) the VACE Committee launched an ‘Inclusion Series’ of discussions by students and community organisations around the theme of inclusion, and we are now planning the “Thank A Volunteer Day” event.

Guild Volunteering is a joint venture between Volunteering WA and the UWA Student Guild, and has had a successful year encouraging the development of student-led initiatives, empowering student volunteering and recognising the contribution of student volunteers through transcript recognition. This year we have increased our range of opportunities introducing Virtual Volunteering and the Volunteer Tutor Exchange, and introduced more rigorous screening processes and confirmation of insurance to bring us in line with the National Standards for Volunteer Involvement.

In 2016, Guild Volunteering launched the Program Directors Course, a leadership program for students where they had access to training and resources which supported them to further sustain volunteer opportunities for UWA students in the community.

Guild Volunteering had many successful events over the year, beginning with O-Day where we signed up 293 new newsletter readers and had 193 expressions of interest in Program Director-run programs. For National Volunteer Week (9-13 May), we ran a ‘Give Happy Live Happy’ social media campaign recognising volunteers and a packed week of events like the ‘Translating your Volunteer Experience on to your Resume’ workshop. For National Student Volunteer Week we ran Faculty Specific Volunteer Consultations, Inter-University Tree Planting Day, a Program Director-led Bicycles for Humanity group, a trip to the Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary and a volunteer thank you event!

Guild Volunteering also ran 3 regional volunteer trips, the first of which was to Bunbury for the Western University Games where 10 UWA students supported over 1,200 competitors in 18 sports, the second to Muresk, Northam and Toodyay where 9 volunteers supported the Avon Descent, and the third to Albany where 9 volunteers supported Southern Mountain Bike’s Southern Peaks Race, Jump Competition and the Albany Urban Downhill.

Finally, two of the Guild’s flagship volunteer and community engagement events, PROSH and Relay For Life are now supported by Guild Volunteering. In Semester 1, PROSH raised $50,000 for their 5 charities, and in Semester 2 Relay For Life raised over $88,000 for Cancer research.

RELAY FOR LIFE RAISED

88,000

$

50,000

$

PROSH RAISED

Operational Department & Committee Reports

Page 32

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.3 Student Services Report

Student Assist Department

By Patrice Mitchell

The Department’s goal for 2016 was to increase Student Assist’s visibility throughout campus. We have worked hard promoting Student Assist to students, university staff, colleges, Guild Departments and clubs, and have seen a huge increase in cases compared to 2015.

YTD 2016

2015

Academic

367

179

Financial

307

251

Welfare

129

34

Total

803

464

To increase academic cases, the team contacted Academic Conduct Advisors suggesting they mention Student Assist at the bottom of every email they send to students. This has increased the amount of academic misconduct cases the department has dealt with from 11 in 2015 to 47 year to date in 2016.

The team heavily promoted the textbook grants provided by the Co-Op and all funds were depleted this year for the first time. We also tightened the grounds for financial assistance to ensure we always have grants and loans to offer to students.

Welfare cases have increased this year due to promotion and the establishment of the Guild’s Food Pantry, which has assisted over 30 students so far and generated great, appreciative feedback.

Student Assist has also been involved in many welfare and promotional initiatives this year such as crewing the Chill Out Zone at night events, ISS and Women’s Department events, PROSH, Grill the Guild events at Colleges, Welfare Week and Pride Week, Club Carnival, Uni-Mentor training, SOC meetings and ‘Student Assist and Chill’ in the Ref courtyard.

Events Department

By Kasey Hartung

The Events Department’s core focus on 2016 has been to help Guild student departments realise their event potential and aid them to deliver bigger and better events, and to support affiliated Clubs and Societies to run a wider variety of successful events.

The Events Team run O-Day, which in 2016 had 231 stalls (an increase across all categories), over 9,000 student attendees and over $80,000 in revenue. We introduced live music and events in the Tavern which were steadily attended throughout the day, and created a vibrant carnival atmosphere on Oak Lawn complete with a Food Truck Village, giant inflatable slide and free carnival rides. For those who wanted a more chilled space, Lipton Ice Tea sponsored a chill out zone which was well-visited! The team have also worked to activate the Refectory Courtyard in summer months with the Oasis Pop-Up, enlisting clubs and departments to run fun activities like busking, roaming performances, arcade games and many other initiatives!

Following successful Student Leadership Training sessions for Clubs and College Res Clubs and the move to a dedicated Events Office, the team have had an increased number of student drop-ins, now spending at least 70% of each day assisting students with enquiries in event management and logistics. To date in 2016, the team have delivered and assisted with 813 events, with anticipated attendance by 90,500 students, 11.5% run by Guild Departments and 20.6% featuring alcohol.

Total No. of Events

Expected Pax

Guild Department Events

Events with alcohol

January

3

60

0

0

February

27

7,095

10

5

March

143

12,498

11

21

April

109

12,140

14

24

May

113

9,047

12

26

June

39

4,495

8

12

July

41

5,669

3

10

August

135

10,291

25

26

September

124

14,421

4

36

October

79

14,818

7

8

Total

813

90,534

94

168

EVENTS

813

90,500 ANTICIPATED ATTENDENCE AT EVENTS IN 2016

803 STUDENT ASSIST CASES SO FAR THIS YEAR

Operational Department & Committee Reports

Page 34

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.4 Strategic Resources Committee

Strategic Resources Committee

By Maddie Mulholland

The Strategic Resources Committee is responsible for managing the financial and strategic decisions of the Guild, and comprises the Guild Executive, PSA President, two members of Guild Council and the Management team relating to finance and strategy.

The Committee’s first item of business was to develop the Budget for the 103rd Guild Council. Our projected accounting deficit was -$261,699 and we set a CapEx budget of $695,000 (plus $250,000 to come from the SSAF CapEx Fund). The budget deficit was due to higher costs in the Student Services Department and lower SSAF revenue compared to 2015, explained by lower student enrolments in the half-cohort and the Service Level Agreement (SLA) still set with 2012 figures (70% SSAF receipt), which has meant our costs have outweighed our income. From the Treasurer’s budget report – “In a year of full student enrolments, the contributions from the SSAF would bring the Guild to break-even […] we have accepted a deficit that allows us to continue to provide our high level of service, despite lower SSAF income.”

In July, we conducted a Mid-Year Budget Review in which we reduced our projected revenue from Catering and costs throughout the organisation to come to a revised accounting deficit of -$188,925.

Following on from this Budget process, the Committee engaged Deloitte to conduct a Business Review. This review and the Guild’s implementation plan have been presented to Guild Council and implementation is now being managed by the Executive Management Committee. The Committee have followed the UWA Legislation Amendment Act’s path through parliament closely, pleased at the reinforcement of the requirement that 50% of the SSAF be paid to the Guild, which should address our budget position in the future. Treasurer, Tom Burke, also led a review of the Guild budget structure and procedure for development, the recommendations of which will be implemented in the formation of the 2017 Budget.

The Committee have managed the setting of food and drink prices, café opening hours, external marketing of the Tavern, introduced new Catering team roles, monitored the Guild Functions business, and developed strategies to earn additional income such as leasing out the Nedlands Café kitchen. We have also endorsed Business Cases developed by the Corporate Services Committee around IT investment, and the Catering & Tavern Committee for vending machines and the Tavern alarm system.

Good governance has been a core focus of ours for 2016, and in line with this we introduced an Audit and Risk Committee to advise the Guild on our financial and risk-related decisions. It will be formed by the end of 2016 for commencement in 2017, and will comprise the Guild President and Treasurer, Guild Council alumni with relevant expertise, and Management related to audit, risk and finance.

The Strategic Resources Committee also manages the Guild’s capital program, expenditure and forward planning. In 2016, we have updated the Guild Masterplan, with a specific focus on refurbishing the Refectory in 2017.

2.5 Equity & Diversity Committee

Equity & Diversity Committee

By Laura Mwiragua

The Equity & Diversity Committee aims to advocate for students who are underrepresented in existing Guild structures and develop policies and initiatives designed to improve inclusion. This year, representatives from the Access Collective, Ethnocultural Collective and parents group on campus were invited on to the committee to increase its representative ability.

Parents on Committee The Committee connected with a group of parents on campus to ascertain the needs of this demographic and the possibility of reinstating the representative body ‘Student Parents on Campus’ (SPOC) which had previously lapsed.

The priority for student parents is the development of a crèche where parents can leave children in care for a few hours while they attend classes or study, as established child care centres only provide whole day care. We have investigated the child care facilities at other Australian universities, and will next conduct a survey to firmly establish the demand and specificities for a crèche.

Ethnocultural and Access Collectives The Committee have acted as a point of contact and support during the establishment and growth of the Access and Ethnocultural Collectives.

Club Guidelines The Committee commended the work of the 2015 Committee in creating the 2015 Equity & Diversity Club Guidelines which set out advice for items like theming and running inclusive events. We focused on implementing the Guidelines, publishing them online and presenting them to Clubs at a Societies Council meeting.

Facilities Development The Committee has been a source of feedback and ideas on facility issues relating to lighting, accessibility and gender neutral toilets, and have taken steps in preparing to do an accessibility and lighting audit of the campus in 2017, which will help the Guild develop proposals for improvement to the University.

Operational Department & Committee Reports

Page 35

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.6 Governance Committee

Governance Committee

By Lucy Moyle

The Governance Committee is the sub-committee of the Guild Council tasked with maintaining good governance by writing, reviewing and interpreting policies, rules and regulations relating to the Guild and its ventures, as well as maintaining the Guild Policy Book and Guild Statute Book.

One of the larger tasks this year has been the reviewing of the Guild Regulations which were considered to be outdated with regards to current practices, but also, on occasions, not reflective of good governance. The Committee has laid the groundwork by undertaking discussions with past and current Guild Office Bearers to establish the accuracy of the existing regulations relevant to their portfolios, and using the opportunity to formalise exciting new initiatives, including the Guild Audit & Risk Committee.

Another big priority of the Committee has been ensuring consistency across the rules for all Guild Departments, which dictate aspects of the department such as department structure, objects, membership, meetings and elections of the wider department committee. Each department was created at a different time, and as such the structure of the sets of rules vary depending on whether the department had a policy focus (like the Environment Department) or a representation focus (like the International Student Services Department). The Committee has developed a template which we applied to current departments and now exists to assist future departments like the Albany Students’ Association and the newly established Access Collective and Ethnocultural Collective. This template’s creation was also a driving force for the Postgraduate Students’ Association’s review of their rules, which were approved this year.

Additionally, the Committee has successfully written or approved a number of policies, including the Club Collaborative Zone Policy, which illustrates the proper use of the new shared club space; the CCTV Acceptable Use and Access Policy, which explains the use of CCTV equipment in the UWA Tavern; the NUS KPIs, which measure the performance of our national NUS Office Bearers, and; the Tenancy Allocation Policy, stating the process for clubs and societies to apply for ‘clubroom’ spaces.

For the remainder of the year, the Committee will be working to complete the In Camera Minutes Policy and the PSA President Stipend Policy.

Another role of the Committee is to interpret the Guild Regulations when required. The Committee has undertaken this particular role on a number of occasions, including determining which body should administer the Club Collaborative Zone Policy, and establishing the timing of the election of the PSA President and committee.

The Committee has had an extremely successful year, which can be most positively attributed to the diversity of fresh perspectives present on the Committee. A number of tasks will be transferred to the incoming Governance Committee of the 104th Guild Council, because of the long-term strategic nature of some projects, and we look forward to seeing them completing these projects.

Operational Department & Committee Reports

Page 36

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

2.7 Welfare & Advocacy Committee

Welfare & Advocacy Committee

By Emily Law

The Welfare & Advocacy Committee is focused on ensuring student’s welfare needs are being advocated, communicated, and represented at all levels within the University. 2016 has proved to be an eventful year with collaboration between the Committee, various Guild departments, and external organisations on studentled initiatives. We also focused on promoting the services of Student Assist.

Welfare Weeks The Welfare Department ran two Welfare Weeks during 2016 with over 50 events in total. These weeks involve running events on campus to improve student welfare, raise awareness for important issues like mental health, student poverty, alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, and knowing your rights as a student, as well as providing valuable information about University services and support networks.

See the Welfare Department Report for more details.

Food Pantry Two-thirds of University students live below the poverty line, which means many students have to choose between food and other costs. The Welfare Department and Student Assist created the Food Pantry which stocks staples that any student who is struggling financial can access, no questions asked.

Sleep Out for Homelessness The UWA Social Justice Collaboration ran a Sleep Out on Oak Lawn to raise awareness and funds for the

50,000 young Australians who are homeless, many of whom are university students. This event had guest speakers, donation opportunities, as well as a film screening on youth homelessness, “The Cellist”.

Know Your Rights Campaign The Education Action Network developed the University’s first ‘Know Your Rights’ guide in collaboration with Student Assist. It is the first go-to guide for all UWA Students on issues of appeals, special consideration, bullying, financial support, and any other academic issues that may arise at University. The Committee assisted in promoting it to students.

Yoga, Pilates & Mindful UWA The Welfare Department collaborated with Events and Guild Volunteering to continue running free weekly Yoga and Pilates. This year, Guild Volunteering was also able to introduce free weekly meditation with their Mindful UWA program.

Health Promotion Unit (HPU) & Local Drug Action Group (LDAG) LDAG sustained and grew their support systems for students and families affected by drug use. HPU have continued to run their Zest for Life program during 2016, which helps to identify students at risk of suicide. They have also grown the Lived Experience project – a program that teaches students who have had experiences with mental health issues to learn how to speak about their stories in a constructive manner, and help them to become leaders for others. This program was featured with great success in both Welfare Weeks in the form of Mental Health Panel Discussions.

The Welfare Department ran two Welfare Weeks during 2016 with over 50 events in total.

Student-Run Department Reports

Page 38

UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

STUDENT-RUN DEPARTMENT REPORTS

Student-Run Department Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

3.1 Education Council

Education Council

By Emma Boogaerdt

The Education Council is comprised of representatives from the Faculty Societies, the Postgraduate Student Association and Guild Departments, and is the peak student forum for addressing campus-wide educational issues. The role of the Education Council President includes chairing and running the Education Council, being the student voice to the University on education matters, and overseeing the Education Action Network (EAN).

In 2016, the Education Council has continued to build on the work done in the last two years in ensuring students from all Faculties are being represented. In 2014, we restarted the ALVA Society, in 2015 we restarted the Health Students Society, and this year we have been working to restart the Education Students Association. With the Renewal Project restructuring the academic units of the University it is more important than ever that Faculty Societies and the Education Council ensure that no student or discipline fall through the cracks.

This year we have begun to see the implementation of the new Assessment Policy, which includes a number of positive changes for students due to the feedback and input provided by the Guild. In order to ensure that students understand the new policy the Education Council Committee created a ‘TL;DR Guide’ to summarise the key points, and collaborated with the EAN to create the ‘Know Your Rights Guide’ to inform students of their academic rights at UWA and empower them to address any issues they come across.

A big win for the Education portfolio has been guaranteeing a review of the Special Consideration policy, including a reduction in the turnaround time of applications, providing a clearer guide of what qualifies for Special Consideration, moving the application form online and incorporating feedback from the Access Collective. These changes should make the process of applying for Special Consideration clearer and easier for many students.

With the Renewal Project restructuring the academic units of the University it is more important than ever that Faculty Societies and the Education Council ensure that no student or discipline fall through the cracks.

Along with these achievements, the Education Council President and Guild President have also successfully lobbied for University investment into Unifi blackspots and poor teaching facilities, improvements to SPOT and SURF surveys, and the drastic expansion of Summer School options for 2017.

With all of that, and the Renewal Project and restructure ongoing, it has been a successful and busy year for the Education Council and its affiliated Faculty Societies.

3.2 Education Action Network

Education Action Network

By Emma Boogaerdt

The Education Action Network (EAN) exists as the campaign arm of the Education Council and aims to involve all students in educational advocacy and respond to campus and national higher education issues. The EAN has been incredibly active under the lead of Lina El Rakhawy this year.

At the end of last year, the Vice Chancellor announced that the University would be undergoing a restructure (the ‘Renewal Project’) which would result in approximately 300 staff being made redundant. The EAN coordinated with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and campus activists to run a number of peaceful stunts and protests to ensure that the concerns of students and staff were heard loud and clear by the University administration in the lead up to the Senate making a decision on the restructure.

One of the main goals of the EAN has been to re-brand and get more students involved. We created a Facebook page and mailing list for the first time, as well as having a very successful O-Day stall with campus card stickers and a dunk tank!

The EAN has been supportive of a number of external campaigns, including the ‘Save Our Voice’ campaign which successfully protected student representation on University Senates and stopped the reduction of the SSAF being paid to Student Guilds in the Universities Legislation Amendment Act, which was a huge win for students thanks to Guild Presidents and EANs across WA! The EAN also embraced many campaigns of the National Union of Students, from pushing for more funding to higher education to campaigning for cheaper textbooks.

We have also been more active on campus this year, working with the Education Council to create a ‘Know Your Rights Guide’ to educate students about their academic rights, and ran a campaign around students’ rights at work during second semester to try and combat workplace exploitation.

It’s been a huge year for the EAN in 2016 and we can’t wait to see it continue to expand and grow next year!

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3.3 Public Affairs Council

Public Affairs Council

By Megan Lee

The Public Affairs Council (PAC) facilitates club collaboration and promotes social justice, arts and culture, volunteering and community engagement, political and faith-based activities on campus and in the wider UWA community, by running themed weeks and events to showcase Clubs. In 2016, we had 71 affiliated Clubs and have taken a particular focus on promoting awareness and action surrounding social justice issues in our society today, and have worked hard to expand the opportunities student have to become immersed in arts and culture.

A bigger and better Fringe Festival kicked off the year! Extended to two weeks long, the festival included a Club Cabaret Night, Comedy in the Tav, a chill Monday Fun-Day set of activities and a live music festival with a vintage feel. It was an amazing opportunity for Clubs such as Dance UWA, DESI Student Society, EMAS and the Multicultural Students’ Union to showcase their skills and for students to come together and experience the vibrancy of Fringe.

Along with Fringe Festival, we’ve experimented with new and old themed weeks. Language Fest was a fun and immersive new themed week which celebrated languages and cultures from around the world. Ingrid Horeb, the 2016 PAC Treasurer, headed up an amazing array of events including a Speed-Dating with Languages event, live performances in the Tavern and a French film screening in Hackett Hall, featuring the UWA French Club, Italian Club, Korean Culture Club and Japanese Studies Society.

PAC put on a fun new themed week, Book-Con, to celebrate literature involving a whole bunch of PAC clubs and community partners. We launched our ‘Take-A-Book, Leave-A-Book’ little library, supported the Creative Writing and Poetry Club workshops and compendium launch, and ran a Scavenger Hunt throughout the libraries on campus with cool prizes from Elizabeth’s Bookshop.

PAC’s biggest themed week was Social Justice Week, run by 2016 PAC Vice-President Hannah Matthews. The week was an opportunity for students to critically engage with social justice issues in our society. We partnered with the McCusker Centre for Citizenship to run a panel discussion titled “Indigenous Issues in Focus”, ran a Social Justice Club Carnival and a social justice themed Poetry Slam Night on Oak Lawn and a Winter Sleep Out. We also organised an outdoor movie screening on Oak Lawn to raise awareness surrounding youth homelessness which was attended by over 100 people. PAC collaborated and supported a number of Club events, snap actions and demonstrations on a number of issues ranging from refugee rights to women’s reproductive rights.

PAC’s final project was the Youth Poverty Awareness campaign where we raised awareness surrounding the staggering number of two thirds of students living below the poverty line in Australia and let students know about Guild Student Assist services such as the food pantry and financial assistance that are available.

It’s been a full and exciting year and the Committee looks forward to the Council having an even bigger presence on campus and an ever-growing relationship with Clubs on campus well into the future.

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3.4 Societies Council

Societies Council

By Jack Looby

Societies Council Committee

In 2016, the Societies Council (SOC) Committee have prioritised broadening campus culture through providing better training and support for clubs, increasing engagement with the University to open up opportunities and continuing the work on improving club facilitates. It has been gratifying to see that engagement with the Guild has increased with more applications for club grants and over 9,400 individual memberships on O-Day!

Club Facilities

After many years of preparation, the Club Collaborative Zone opened in the Central Wing of the Guild in February!

This space provides world-class facilities for all clubs and societies, with spacious meeting rooms, work spaces, an audio-visual room, a production area and a large amount of storage. The uptake by clubs has been fantastic, with 200 online bookings since April and almost all clubs requesting after-hours access.

The Tenancy Committee, led by Jesse Martino, manages Guild property leased to student groups. This year the Committee clarified the allocation processes to ensure spaces are managed equitably, and reallocated all club storage and will be reallocating all club rooms at the end of the year. There have also been upgrades to the following spaces: • Cameron Hall: Repairs and varnishing to the main stairway entrance, installation of whirly birds and replacing old storage.

• Top Floor, Central Wing: New carpet, painting and lights.

Club Events and Training

Each year, SOC run two Club Carnivals on Oak Lawn. This year, SOC introduced two new club carnivals at the Business School, to engage a different set of students and expand the reach of campus culture.

In order to ensure students know how to find the amazing club spaces we have, SOC ran a Semester 2 orientation event called ‘Campus Quest’ showing students key locations like club rooms, the Second-hand Bookshop and Student Assist.

We have also made efforts to improve the monthly SOC meetings by inviting notable alumni to meetings to share their knowledge on how to manage committees and how to transfer skills into the real world. The SOC Committee and Guild Events have reviewed the Student Leadership Training to ensure it is comprehensive and relevant to clubs. We also secured discounted first-aid training for clubs!

A major role of SOC is to support clubs with tools to run events and initiatives. This year we made big changes to our website to make guides and templates more accessible, we created new guides (Sponsorship, Secretaries and Fresher Reps), and updated the Handover Guide and the New Club Application Guide. We have updated the SOC Rules with new administrative processes and procedures for club name change. We also introduced a decorations and equipment loan database for clubs to share their materials and reduce costs.

To support the growing number of clubs, funding has increased this year to over $95,000. We have also run more training sessions for club treasurers, introduced a budget template and changed the application process for grants to save time and effort for clubs. Plus club presidents and treasurers now have access to their account statements online, in real time!

SOC has the privilege of working with many dedicated and passionate students who not only come to University to study but to pursue interests and open opportunities for themselves and others. To these students and my hardworking committee, Sean, Lianne, Beth, Nick, Sarah and Elly I am truly grateful.

CLUBS

130

WORTH OF CLUB GRANT APPLICATIONS IN 2016

391,000

$

9,400

CLUB MEMBERSHIP SIGNUPS ON O-DAY

20 NEW CLUBS IN

2016

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3.5 Access Collective

Access Collective

By Cara O’Sullivan & Charlie Viska

2016 has been the first full year for the Access Collective as a trial department, and what an exciting year it’s been.

As the Collective is still new, a number of steps have been taken to try and build our membership, increase our engagement and to formalise our rules and committee.

One of the major projects of the year has been to create a formal constitution or rules for the Collective. Effort has been made to ensure the constitution reflects the flexibility and inclusivity of the group, and it will provide the department with direction into the future.

A number of enthusiastic and passionate students have joined the Collective’s Organising Committee, which has been co-convened by Cara O’Sullivan and Graham Knapp for the majority of the year. The leadership of our two convenors has meant members are engaged through our ever-growing Facebook group and the Collective has been able to maintain momentum.

To build our presence on Campus, the Collective has held semi-regular stalls on Oak Lawn during common lunch hour. This has been an opportunity to spread the news about the new Collective and also to get the Access Collective logo out there, so it becomes familiar to students on campus. The collective has also been involved in both Welfare Weeks, O-Day and both Club Carnivals.

With help from Guild President Maddie Mulholland, the Collective has also managed to establish regular liaison channels with the University’s UniAccess staff. This has enabled us to provide feedback from the members of the Access Collective Facebook group on things such as the new resource rooms and Special Consideration policies.

The Collective has also started some other projects that will be continued into the future. These include a general accessibility questionnaire, where students are able to provide general accessibility feedback on the University’s facilities. This data will be collated and made into a formal submission to the University.

A focus of the organising committee into the future will be more regular meetings, the organisation of more social events as well as more collaboration with other clubs, Guild Departments and Faculty Societies.

3.6 Albany Students’ Association

Albany Students’ Association

By Lauren Pullella

The Albany Students’ Association is the department representing approximately 200 Albany-based students, undertaking studies at the University of Western Australia, Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management and the Rural Clinical School Western Australia.

2016 has been a very successful year for the Committee, beginning with a fantastic PROSH event, which broke our Albany record from the previous year.

UWA Albany also participated in the ANZAC day celebrations for the first time in our history, which we hope will be the first of many proud days to come. We also held a successful and enjoyable student BBQ at the campus to celebrate the end of Semester 1 and to welcome our new Bristol exchange Masters students. At the beginning of Semester 2, the Committee introduced regular movie and pizza nights on campus to encourage student atmosphere, as well as free student yoga which will be ongoing with the support of UWA Sports. The Committee will also be holding an event at a local pub/restaurant in November to celebrate the end of year.

The Committee promoted student volunteer opportunities in the community, public lectures and study resources. The Committee represented UWA at community events such as ‘Never Mind the Ice’, which aimed to raise awareness about drug abuse, and promoted UWA Smart Start as an alternative and positive pathway for young people wishing to attend university.

The Albany Students’ Association will continue to provide new and relevant services and opportunities for the students as the campus grows in student numbers. These services will include trialing new sporting events and providing new study resources, as well as renovating our student common area to meet the needs of current and future students. We hope to continue to work closely with the student body of the UWA Albany Centre, the City of Albany community and the UWA Student Guild in Perth.

The Albany Students’ Association will continue to provide new and relevant services and opportunities for the students as the campus grows in student numbers.

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3.7 Environment Department

Environment Department

By Dennis Venning Introduction

What a year it’s been! 2016 was a year of long-term Environment projects coming to fruition, and many big successes including the introduction of solar panels, the institution of Guild-wide recycling, and a three-fold expansion of gardens on campus. At the same time the Environment Department has continued to grow, engage students and make our campus more sustainable than ever.

Projects

Our seventeen tireless volunteer project leaders had major successes including: • Solar Panels: After three years of hard work, our 40kilowatt, 160-panel solar system was installed early in 2016.

With a value of almost $200,000, the system is a serious win for the Guild’s sustainability efforts.

• Recycling: The Guild now has full recycling through all buildings and outlets, amounting to over 1100 litres of recycling volume per week!

• More Gardens: This year the size of the Guild Village Garden doubled, and the new Botany Annexe Community Garden came into being!

• Coffee Grounds Composting: We now collect coffee grounds from three outlets to compost and use them here on campus!

• Frank Green Cups and FacSoc-branded KeepCups: This year student groups across campus had a chance to get their own branded KeepCups and we’re also now selling fancy Frank Green cups in our catering outlets.

Events & Engagement

• • • • •

Sustainability & Advocacy

• • •

EnviroFest: Over 500 students came down for a successful day of free bike repairs, recycled art, seafaring drones and more.

Volunteer Cleanups: We’ve picked up a lot of rubbish this year! Student volunteers have participated in six fully-booked out events in conjunction with Guild Volunteering.

Volunteer Planting: 434 plants were planted by our volunteers this year!

1,000+ Facebook likes: At the time of writing, our Environment Department page has 1,120 likes and the Enviro Collective group has 285 members!

Friends of the Grounds: This year we’ve formed a relationship with the UWA Friends of the Grounds, and now run their new Facebook page and promote their events, including two plant sales with over 3,000 interested and 1,000 attending students!

Palm-Oil Free Catering: The new palm-oil free working group is saving rainforests, right here at UWA, by ensuring new menu items do not use palm oil!

Offset O-Day: This year we carbon offset 42 tonnes of CO2 for O-Day! Keep on KeepCupping! 18771 disposable cups have been saved from landfill this year and $5631 of discounts have gone to students.

5,631

$

WORTH OF COFFEE DISCOUNTS FOR USING KEEPCUPS

434

PLANTS PLANTED

1,100L OF GUILD RECYCLING PER WEEK

18,771 DISPOSABLE CUPS SAVED FROM LANDFILL

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3.8 Ethnocultural Collective

Ethnocultural Collective

By Lina El Rakhawy

The Ethnocultural Collective aims to bring together and represent UWA students of a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background, empowering them to work together towards raising awareness of and addressing any issues regarding inequality and racism, as well as promoting cultural diversity both on and off campus through various events and initiatives. 2016 has been the first year that the Collective has run.

The Ethnocultural Collective aims to be the peak representative body of CALD students within the university, and this year supported students through formal university processes, and worked with Guild affiliated Clubs to ensure they promote a more inclusive campus. The department supported cultural clubs and other Guild departments that represent particular subsets of CALD students and connected them with the Guild, in an effort to increase their visibility within the UWA community.

The department collaborated with Headspace Armadale for a CALD youth mental health event. We are hoping to expand on this in future years, to ensure CALD students are supported with mental health and welfare issues unique to them.

A delegation of UWA students attended the first NUS Ethnocultural Conference in July at the University of Melbourne in order to form relationships with the NUS Ethnocultural Department and counterpart student representative groups at other Australian universities, who have provided support and guidance to the department.

The goal for 2017 is to continue to expand on the initiatives of this collective as a fully-fledged body based on these aims, and hopefully be on the right path to becoming a Guild department.

3.9 International Students’ Service

International Students’ Service

By Kenneth Foo

The International Students’ Service (ISS) is the peak student body for UWA international students and acts as an umbrella organisation for smaller international student associations and clubs on campus. The ISS Director sits on several committees such as Guild Council and the Student Consultative Committee to provide a voice for international students.

All full-fee paying international students are automatically members of ISS. The department also subsidises an assortment of activities, sports, games, parties, educational seminars and looks after the welfare of all international students by advocating on issues that affect international students.

In recent years the proportion of international students has increased, with a larger shift toward international student enrolment predicted in future years. The department strives to constantly remind both the Guild and the University of the important role that these international students play in the on campus and that decisions should be made with these students in mind.

Some of the key events and achievements for 2016 are: Semester 1: • ISS College Row Welcome: This event, which saw high engagement from Faculty Societies and Clubs, supplemented the university’s international welcome and provided a more personal peer-to-peer opportunity for international students.

• ISS Goes to Rottnest: ISS continued the highly successful 2015 event series which subsidised tickets for international students to popular tourist destinations. We had a 100% increase in attendance from 2015, with 100 tickets selling out in 15 minutes!

Semester 2: • ISS Migration Seminar: To provide professional advice for international students planning to migrate to Australia post-graduation, ISS ran this highly successful event with a huge international student turn-out and positive reviews.

• Multicultural Week & Spring Feast: Multicultural week is a week-long event celebrating the ethnic and cultural diversity of the university, featuring one of the largest and most well attended annual events at UWA, Spring Feast, with over 50 stalls and 5000 attendees.

4,590 100% 5,000 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

ATTENDEES AT SPRING FEAST

INCREASE IN ATTENDANCE AT ‘ISS GOES TO ROTTNEST’

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3.10 Mature Age Students’ Association

Mature Age Students’ Association

By Simone Harrington, Angela Moses-Montague, Tam Pinkerton and Charlie Viska

2016 has been a great year for the Mature Age Students’ Association (MASA). MASA has continued to be an inclusive, diverse and eclectic group with students ranging from undergraduate, postgraduate, research and PhD studies that wish to connect on campus. For MASA members, the department offers the possibility to exchange ideas, to gain insights from those within a similar field, to find much needed support and to make long-lasting friendships.

A focus for this year has been extending the reach of MASA, which is reflected in a 50% increase in membership from 2015 to over 300 members. At O-Day alone, 70 new members signed up. The Facebook group ‘MASA Conversation’ continues to provide a platform for mature age students to ask questions and seek help, ranging from recruiting participants for their studies to locating hard to find items.

For MASA members, our many events throughout Semester 1 and 2 provide a welcome break from the daily grind of mature age student life. This year, the variety of events ranged from Coffee Catch-Ups at Hackett Cafe to Backto-Semester Lunches, from Sundowners at the UniClub to Wine and Cheese nights at the Tavern. Conscious of the diversity of mature age students on campus, we have made sure to cater for all tastes—from gluten free, halal to diabetic friendly diets.

Our AGM held in May was an opportunity to bring an engaged group of mature age students together to review the past 12 months and plan ahead. The MASA Committee has also had the pleasure of welcoming several new members in 2016, whose volunteering has helped immensely in the organisation and smooth running of all events.

The new committee has been dedicated to introducing a number of environmentally conscious initiatives for MASA, including dine-in or KeepCup coffees only at Café events, recycling plastic food wrapping and increasing electronic communication of events.

We are currently in discussion with UWA to create a “Cloud Mentor” program for new mature age students which aims to provide a portal for mentoring fellow mature age students to assist with navigating UWA.

50% MEMBERSHIP INCREASE IN 2016

MEMBERS

300

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3.11 Pelican Magazine

Pelican Magazine

By Kate Prendergast and Hayden Dalziel

2016 has seen Pelican Magazine evolve into a bird of new strengths, greater agility and enhanced clout.

The introduction of a website, phased in halfway through 2015, presented us with a wealth of new opportunities and challenges. From being an 8-issue-ayear print magazine, we can now also operate as a 24hr on-the-pulse purveyor of diverse student-created original content. A tightened focus on UWA-specific stories – from the Renewal Project, to the reform of the University’s sexual assault reportage policy, to the September Guild elections – has been invaluable in increasing our engagement and distancing ourselves from the reputation of being an ‘esoteric and exclusive clique’.

However – as we’ve been very adamant about – web is a complement to print, not a replacement. Where web extends our relevance to the greater community, print is the essential heart around which the core Pelican community gathers, and where lifelong friendships and memories are forged. Balancing the ephemeral, nimble nature of web, print is a cohesive material artefact, with greater opportunities for aesthetic play and unique design. In a motion put forward during the October Guild Council meeting, print was threatened to be done away with altogether. We anticipate the reoccurrence of similar such threats in the future, and hope that they will likewise be as thoroughly quashed.

To reminisce on a choice few of our proudest moments now. In April, we cancelled sponsorship from The West Australian in response to their continued, blasé publishing of misogynist content, as created by editorial cartoonist Dean Alston. (“Solidarity” wrote Van Badham in a subsequent email). We also made our first foray into multimedia, launching a new ‘Cover Artist Profile’ video series on YouTube. Not only did this give the illustrator behind the current issue a ‘face’, but it also gave students with skills in filming and editing a chance to showcase their talents and expand their portfolio. In keeping with our start-of-year objectives, us top editors worked exceptionally hard to increase the diversity of voices and opinions within the pages of the magazine, reaching out to clubs to commission content and presenting opportunities to get involved in the most open sense possible. Kudos also must go to the dedication of our team of section editors: the mag would not be possible without them.

What we’re most proud of though – quite frankly – are the times we’ve just exercised the sacred student press prerogative to be irreverent. The capacity for cheek that this position affords: it is profound. In fact, we would argue that it is this capability to ‘punch upwards’ that is most cherished, most respected, and most hallowed. Mischief: it’s a beautiful thing.

From being an 8-issue-a-year print magazine, we can now also operate as a 24hr on-the-pulse purveyor of diverse studentcreated original content.

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3.12 Pride Department

Pride Department

By Reece Gherardi & Fraser Windsor

Previously known as the ‘Queer Department’, department members chose the ‘Pride Department’ as our new name at our Special General Meeting in Semester 1. In fitting with our new name, the Pride Department has also produced a new booklet in time for Semester 2.

The department continued with previous event successes and tried new things throughout the year, including: • •

•

• •

•

•

O-Day: We offered free buzz cuts for women & gave out packs with our booklet, a badge and info about on-campus services.

Quiz Night (Semester 1): This was a successful new major event, which attracted otherwise unengaged students, with prizes donated by the Guild and local community.

Queer Collaborations: The Department officers and some members attended the annual QC Conference at Curtin University. Fraser presented a workshop on mental health which was well received. At the Conference, the WA Caucus dissolved the Cross Campus Queer Networked, but agreed to maintain informal contact between LGBT+ Student representative bodies. Overall, the UWA attendees found that few workshops were relevant to the Department’s goals and operations so in the future will not recommend attendance at the Conference.

Open Day: The Department had its first ever Open Day stall with information for prospective students!

Pride Week: LGBT+ UWA Students submitted Pride messages that were positive things about being LGBT+, displayed in Guild Village. Unfortunately they had to be rehung after being torn down on the Tuesday night. Monday was a Movie Night, Tuesday was Pride Carnival on Oak Lawn featuring Guild-affiliated groups with stalls, Wednesday we held an ‘Out in the Workplace’ panel, Thursday we ran ‘Coming Out with Cake’ and Friday was the Tavern ‘Pride Party’. Despite difficulties with collaboration and conflicting events, attendance exceeded our expectations.

Perth Pride Parade: The Department will be marching with UWA Equity & Diversity, inviting all UWA students to march and engage with the wide LGBT+ community.

Throughout the year we have also maintained weekly events.

Following the 12th June 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, the Pride Department held a vigil in remembrance of the 49 lives lost. Students and the wider community were devastated, and we provided a space to mourn.

Previously known as the ‘Queer Department’, department members chose the ‘Pride Department’ as our new name at our Special General Meeting in Semester 1.

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3.13 Residential Students’ Department

Residential Students’ Department

By Shyaam Patel

The Residential Students’ Department (RSD) exists to provide representation of college students’ interests and concerns on Guild Council and to organise a number of social, community and competitive events for those living on campus. The size and attendance of the department’s events this year has increased significantly since 2015, with annual events such as; • • • • • • • • •

The Fresher Festival in O-week featuring a Fresher dance-off, food and drink, and fun activities for college Freshers to get to know each other; The nightclub party at Air Nightclub encouraging intercollege friendships; Tav Show in Semester 2 providing residents an opportunity to catch up with their fellow collegians and take a break from their University commitments; Battle of the Bands won by St Georges College; Intercollege Debating, which saw the largest audience yet; The Quiz Night, which had 300 participating residents; Lip Dub, the competition in which colleges create their own original lip dubbed music videos, won by Trinity College; Our Semester 2 Pub-crawl; and Arts Night, a casual event at St George’s featuring all of the great College Row talent. Congratulations to Trinity for taking out the Cultural Cup!

RSD’s largest achievement and crowning event of the year was the Annual Intercollege Charity Ball, the 2016 Starry Night Ball, a charity ball in partnership with the Starlight Children’s Foundation. This year we are proud to have raised over $2,500 from the event.

In 2017, the RSD will have greater focus on volunteering opportunities for college students, in collaboration with Guild Volunteering and will continue to run high quality events, from an organisational and marketing standpoint.

RSD will also build on the fantastic relationship with the Guild that has been fostered over the last 3 years, and will work more closely with the individual Res’ Clubs from each college to bring greater event collaboration to the events calendar.

Is dio ommolut Western Waaglys magnam, offic te quation nestius, quas quis Congratulations to the Western doloresci officiam reris eatium consed que Waaglys, the eum UWA Team, simolora who took oditibus volorro fugiassim out 3rd place out of 33 at the National vel ipsundandent aut voluptatus, sumque Indigenous Tertiaryipicil Education Games! moditatem voloreribus, maioreped eum volo cusant, officim olestes enimus

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3.14 Sports

Sports

By Torey Rickerby

The Sports Representative is primarily responsible for the Interfaculty Sports Competition that occurs every Wednesday lunch time. This year, we have had feedback which will help build a better fixtures schedule next year, such as always ensuring there are options for males and females in weeks where the sport is not mixed, not running multiple rounds over multiple weeks of the same sport, and finding the balance between individual or small team sports and the larger team sports that more students can participate in.

The Guild President and the UWA Sports Council President sit on the UWA Sports Advisory Board, and have provided feedback and coordinated focus groups for the development of the UWA Sports Strategy. UWA Sports have also introduced a new Stakeholder Reference Group comprising representatives from the demographic representative groups in the Guild such as the Access Collective, Women’s Department, International Students Service and many more. This Reference Group will provide ongoing feedback to make sure that UWA Sports’ activities are as inclusive, accessible and demanded by students as possible.

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3.15 WA Student Aboriginal Corporation

WA Student Aboriginal Corporation

By Tyson McEwan

In 2016, the Western Australian Student Aboriginal Corporation (WASAC) was formalised as the sole peak representative voice of Indigenous students at UWA. WASAC focused on providing new opportunities for students to participate and learn about Aboriginal culture on campus, ran initiatives aimed to enhance our students’ experience at UWA, and helped to build a network with other students.

WASAC membership grew

40% in 2016 reflecting the great work of the 2016 WASAC committee.

WASAC have built a stronger relationship with Guild Council and Departments, who support our direction and encouraged and assisted the WASAC community to continually grow and respond to the feedback and concerns of the students in the School of Indigenous Studies. On May 2nd, the 103rd Guild Council recognised WASAC as the sole peak representative body and voice for Indigenous students at UWA. This motion has empowered WASAC to direct and lead the UWA community in supporting Indigenous students on campus.

In Semester 1, WASAC held the annual Marnda Week celebrations, which showcased the rich Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture we have on campus. There were three new events - the ‘Marnda Cup’ was implemented in the Touch Rugby Interfaculty Sport Competition, the Blackstone Indigenous Officer Micah Kickett hosted a free Blackstone breakfast for Indigenous Law students and WASAC ran a sundowner hosted in the Tavern with the Public Affairs Council (PAC).

WASAC also collaborated with Bicycles for Humanity which allowed students the opportunity to volunteer a few hours a month by fixing bikes before the bikes would be relocated to remote Aboriginal communities in WA. During the Winter Break the Western Waaglys competed in the National Indigenous Tertiary Education Games held in Brisbane by ACU. The Western Waaglys led by example showing amazing sportsmanship and team comradery amongst the competition and came away with

3rd PLACE OUT OF 33 UNIVERSITIES

Semester 2 saw the official opening of ‘Quobba Gnarning Café’ at the newly refurbished Reid Library. The naming of the café was inspired by Whadjuk Noongar elder Dr Richard Walley which captured the café as a place of ‘Good Food’. Continuing on, this cafe recognises the traditional owners of the land, the Whadjuk Noongar people.

It has been a busy and successful year!

On May 2nd, the 103rd Guild Council recognised WASAC as the sole peak representative body and voice for Indigenous students at UWA.

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3.16 Welfare Department

Welfare Department

By Emily Law

The Welfare Department is committed to student’s health, safety and wellbeing needs and aims to ensure that they get the most they can out of their University experience.

The Welfare Department ran two Welfare Weeks in 2016 with over 50 events dedicated to improving student welfare, raising awareness for important issues like mental health, student poverty, alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, and knowing your rights as a student, as well as providing valuable information about University services and support networks.

A core focus of the Welfare Weeks was physical welfare. There were many free food events, free sporting events, and a guest speaker who spoke and facilitated discussions about nutrition and eating disorders. In addition to this, the community health initiative REACH (Roaming Education and Community Health) provided free health checks to students.

Mental Health was a huge focus during Welfare Weeks with multiple mental health pledge events and two Mental Health Panel Discussions each semester.

This allowed students the opportunity to reduce the stigma associated with such an important issue, discuss their experiences, and grow support networks.

With the help of Student Assist, the Welfare Rights and Advocacy Service for Western Australia was able to come and give seminars on Tenancy and Centrelink – which tied in well with the Education Action Network’s ‘Know Your Rights’ Guide (see Welfare & Advocacy Committee Report).

To promote general well-being, we introduced coffee cup stickers with positive welfare reminders accompanying a cute polar bear. This received great feedback and was a very successful, low-barrier way to remind students that their education is important, but their health should always come first.

The most successful event for both Welfare Weeks was brought together by PAW (People for Animal Welfare) featuring puppies and kittens from animal shelter organisations on campus. These extremely popular events improved the welfare of many students, plus $2,000 was raised for the animal shelters in donations and a few puppies found new homes.

Another huge highlight was the introduction of the Food Pantry. Two-thirds of university students live below the poverty line, so if any student is struggling financially, they can receive their own care package filled with healthy and nutritious food staples.

Please read the Welfare & Advocacy Committee report for information of the Departments’ other welfare initiatives.

The most successful event for both Welfare Weeks was brought together by PAW featuring puppies and kittens from animal shelter organisations on campus.

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3.17 Women’s Department

Women’s Department

By Laura Mwiragua

The mission statement of the Women’s Department is to fight sexism and misogyny on and off campus. In doing so, we advocate for the rights of women students, provide services, maintain a safe space on campus, and run events, initiatives and campaigns to raise awareness about the experiences and achievements of women.

We started the year with a visit from the NUS National Women’s Officer, Heidi La Paglia, who joined members of the Women’s Collective to protest proposed federal cuts to health care that would disproportionately impact women. Over the year, the Department has communicated regularly with women’s representatives nationally to share skills and resources, and sent a large delegation to the Network of Women Students Australia (NOWSA) conference in Sydney in July.

From the outset, 2016 has been a year of strong engagement in broad societal issues, as well as issues pertinent to UWA students. The most prominent of these has been sexual harassment and assault. In August, the Guild co-presented a panel discussion and screening of ‘The Hunting Ground’. The screening marked the launch of a revamped University online reporting form, which was delivered by the Women’s Officer-elect Hannah Matthews, with the new student-centric policy still underway. This was a significant achievement which follows months of work in 2016 and lobbying of Women’s Officers since 2014. Recent media attention around the negative experiences of survivors with their universities has given the Department and the Guild more opportunity to recommend a way forward, which we hope to see implemented in 2017.

In May, the Department ran Women’s Week, featuring packed-out and empowering self-defence classes, an intersectional gender pay gap bake sale, and a panel discussion. SCREW Week and Bluestocking Week returned in Semester 2.

The Department significantly increased collaboration with clubs, Faculty Societies and Colleges through a range of innovative events, with highlights like DJ lessons with EMAS and a ‘Ladies Night In’ at UniHall attended by students from across college row. An extensive and diverse pool of contributors also worked to create this year’s edition of Damsel Magazine.

The Department trialled operating with three deputies; Monique Najar, Lina El Rakhawy and Laura Searle, which proved very useful. We recommend continuing this committee structure to make management of activities and calendars easier.

It’s been a major year for the Women’s Department. We have built off the commendable work of previous Women’s Officers to grow our reach, abilities, and representativeness considerably.

Women’s Department Facebook page likes

1,915

up from 1,177 in 2015!

In August, the Guild co-presented a panel discussion and screening of ‘The Hunting Ground’.

Student-Run Department Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

3.18 National Union of Students

National Union of Students

By Emma Boogaerdt

The National Union of Students (NUS) is the peak representative body for tertiary students in Australia. The UWA Student Guild is affiliated to NUS, which means that at the annual National Conference elected UWA students can pass motions on what NUS should be doing throughout the year and can vote in the elections for the new NUS Office Bearers. At last year’s conference UWA Delegates moved, and passed, numerous policies on important student issues from unpaid internships to sexual assault on University campuses – both of which have ended up being core campaigns run by NUS this year.

Over the year NUS also ran and supported numerous Conferences which allowed Guild student reps to learn from leaders in the higher education sector, skill share with other students, and influence what NUS does over the year. These included the Presidents’ Summit Conference in January for incoming student union Presidents, the Education Conference and Ethnocultural Conference in July, and the National Conference at the end of the year, and NUS also supported the Network of Women Students Conference and Queer Collaborations Conference.

Guild Office Bearers and the Education Action Network (EAN) have collaborated with NUS throughout the year on a number of key campaigns. One of the most successful of the year has been the work of the NUS Women’s Officer on the campaign against sexual assault and harassment, in collaboration with Universities Australia and the AHRC, which, along with the hard work of the Women’s Department, has led to significant change at UWA. We have also collaborated with the NUS Welfare Officer on campaigns on key student issues including cheaper textbooks, mental health and the unfair PaTH program. In collaboration with Headspace and the University of Canberra, the NUS Welfare Department launched the first ever National Survey into student wellbeing which will equip the Guild with data to lobby for better student support services on campus.

Finally, after successfully defeating fee deregulation three times, NUS’s Education Department has continued to work to fight against cuts to higher education, partial fee deregulation, cuts to the OLT, and cuts to HEPPP. The EAN at UWA has worked with NUS to run peaceful ‘National Day of Action’ protests throughout the year.

With so many campaigns run on important student issues by NUS this year, the bar has been set high for next year, and hopefully the UWA Delegates to the NUS National Conference will ensure that issues faced by UWA students are on the national agenda.

Executive Reports

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UWA Student Guild 2016 Annual Report

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