although i am not in uni at the moment, i still have been reading and reading and doing other related retarded stuff such as walking out of my house and towards uni and get inundated by uni students.
for the past year or so, the buzz of the town was the VSU proposal that’s meant to be discussed, argued, and perhaps implemented. This new legislation opposes compulsory student union. as of now, every student pays gsf with their fees at the beginning of each semester. these fees goes right to the student union, to be paid for goods and services that might or might not be used by the fees paying students themselves.
the goods and services ranges from supposedly cheaper food, cheaper gym fees, toilet maintenance (thus legalising you stealing a toilet roll? 
), counsellors’ usage and even the various events that you might or might not go, or even heard of. the fees, most importantly, also goes to the students who are our representatives. the last treasurer i heard, earned 12k a year from just being a student association treasurer.
At this time of the year, when votings are going on, there are many students plying the streets, throwing brochures at any passing students, trying to chat us up and perhaps interest us to vote for them. so at this time of the year, despite being painfully NOT a student, i am constantly reminded how much i was a part of it.
people i know were approaching me and asking me to vote for them. in the past, i had kindly decline. i had only voted once, and nicely, the person won the position he wanted. As far as i know though, whether i encourage them or not, few people i know actually bothers to vote.
and part of our gsf were supposed to go into this entire election process.
and at this time of the year, you get to see why there was an compulsory student union suggestion, and now a proposed legislation for voluntary student unionism.
there are many arguments about this, and alot of them stems from this: a huge amount of local students here goes to uni and work to support themselves, their lifestyles AND to pay off hecs, a financial aid program.
There are many ways to take it FOR VSU. GSF was supposed to pay for certain stuff that would eventually help the entire student body, however subtle, however “in the background” and however unfair it might be. in some students’ opinions, they do not use much of any services, where else there are often those who uses more than, if not alot of the services, and yet everyone pays the same amount. it seems, we are paying for those we do not know, may never know, and who might be taking advantage of the system and the services for their own benefits, such as those who only seek out counsellors when they need an extension for their assignments due.
also, for some people, they felt that their own student associations are not transparent enough in terms of expenditure reporting. sure they may say “oh we only spent this amount on this, and that amount on that” but truly, how much is spent on certain events, and how much on others? we might not really know.
in the past few years since i have arrived, for example, we have went from 12cts/mb downloaded in college, down to 8cts/mb downloaded and it’s going back up next year to 10cts/mb, on the pretext of standardising the fees through out all colleges. as i understood though, uni itself pays about 2-3 cts per mb, and i believe so does the colleges. effectively, we are simply paying college for transferring the net usage to us. i still don’t see why it should had have been at 12 cts originally.
if our gsf were supposed to lower the costs significantly, may i point out with similar rental i can get a nice place somewhere cheap, quieter, perhaps with a good choice of a partner, and honestly, better net? how many times have our net crash since i arrive? and how many “virus threats” which they blame on students bringing it into the network?
further more, we had email accounts that were technically free, maintained by staffs within uni, again which just might be supported by our gsf and/or fees, but also is extremely laggy for those who try to access it outside of uni and can be faulty even at the best of times? remember, i was booted from uni despite NOT having received any probationary letters/emails that they claimed they did sent out.
i am not expecting everything to be perfect, neither am i saying that education should be free. it is unreasonable to expect such a thing because even the best of lecturers have a family to feed, himself to care for and bills to pay. even the best university has their own buildings to maintain.
VSU itself depends on the hope that if students wants it badly enough, and sees the good of it enough, they WILL pay for it whether VSU actually exists or not. it is true that no matter how much gsf we pay, food outside can be found cheaper, better, and more professionally cooked than the ones inside.
remember my writeup on burgie food and their excuse for poor food was mass production? now imagine that at the uni canteen. yer. it’s not all that bad at times though, but surely, 5.50 for a smoke salmon sandwich, i can get a better quality one, healthier version, more variety in the sandwich with awesome, succulent meat and so on, for 4.50. that’s right, a dollar less, fat ass sandwich with more vegies, better meat, less rotting smell.
and it’s not like having a student union makes our voice any more significant anyways. the text book discount still went. the uni fees still went up. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ all the way. so going by that trend, it is likely that VSU legislation would be there to stay, whether we whine about it or not.
because at the end of the day, universities are a form of business. the government is a form of business. they work hand in hand and it helps the economy, it moves the country forward. the people down below here? i am no longer sure if they cared.
how does that translate to more money though? let’s put it this way, few students already liked the idea of paying for gsf, even voting. today, as i walked around the union watching people in pink waving other people down, i also see a huge bunch who had think it’s funny to loudly tell them to “fuck off!” because it’s a cool thing.
eventually, do you want to be paid to be standing there, in the rain, being told to fuck off? and the chances of you being paid would eventually dwindle, as fewer people pay for the student union. so soon, there won’t be a student union. or there would be a bare glimmer of it.
with less student union pressurising them, chances might be the shops would have more exhorbitant prices. we would have less “discount cards” that we usually get with our o-week bags.
and wait, when you REALLY need a counsellor, a doctor, or a law counsel, you might have to pay, or pay more than what you do pay now. as what i was told, whatever services you receive now, you would have to make an appointment and PAY. no more “i was stressed the fuck out, sorry i couldn’t come see you earlier. now can i have an extension back up letter from you ms. counsellor?”, no more “uni abused me, is there any way i can fight back legally?” for free. perhaps there are other avenues out there that one can turn to.
but where to seek them other than the one right where YOU belong and where people might understand understand you better?
as we grow old and get out to the working world, people start to understand less and less of the life as a student. the only person that best understand you, best represent you and best be your voice, is another student like you. not john howard, not the rest of the parliament, but another one of you. it’s true, they might be the least capable of people to appropriate money, some other fucker out there might be abusing the systems while using YOUR portion of the money.
but even if we make the choice to spend our money on the unions, would it be less likely to happen? where would you turn to, if uni no longer provides services to students at a lowered rate? food sucks, we can cook; people sucks, we can ignore.
but if we are to not have a student union, we might have to work more, to get the services we want at market prices, and i think as students, working or not working, none of us can afford to really spend more money outside of what we do spend already on a student lifestyle.
if student unionism do stay though, what the present batch of wannabe student politicians should work for is to regain confidence. they voted for you, now get their confidence back enough to want VSU to stay away. better money appropriation? a louder voice? what does the student body want? would you know? how would you know?
because we are all students.
*note: of course gsf pays for more than that. they pay also for the sports and recreation, childcare in some universities, employment for both students and non-students alike for certain positions and whatever else you might have that you had walk by and miss.
i LOVE the nature here, really, but i honestly am not sure if i had like to walk around and look for my class amidst overgrown weeds or uncared for lawns that are bound to have snakes or some random wild animal that had bite me up.
or the weeds be tall enough to hide a rapist.
my point is, everyone wants to talk about THEIR money, and worried about spending more money on stuff they aren’t likely to use. so hey, think about this, there will be one day you might actually need the services. better safe than sorry eh?
the other side to it is this: you pay for taxes too. but you might not exactly like it that john howard is sitting up there lording over you. true, you pay for safety amenities that you do use, but at the same time i am sure there are other stuff you don’t use. same goes with uni. so why are you still paying taxes?
u can say “we don’t have a choice we will be arrested!! blah blah blah ladida…” but you can also set up a protest against it saying you will only pay for those you actually use. pay 1 dollar per km driven and so on, pay at the voting booth for the voting paper you use. in the end, seriously, you had end up paying more for the services you do use than if you had paid a one off fee.
same goes for uni. really. think about it.
disclaimer: i have no reason to support or be against VSU. i am an international student after all, and one that’s just booted from uni too. at this point. if i go home now, VSU is none of my business. even if i stay, after 3 years, it’s still none of my business. infact, i rarely, if at all, use any of the services in uni, save staying on campus and occassionally using the lecture theatres, the tutorial rooms and what not. oh, and i get taught as well, but those are school fees.
i just felt like saying my piece. yay, so i did.
a few places to read about it:
against VSU proposal:
UNE’s University Chaplain’s opinion
victoria university council’s press release on their VSU opinion
actually… i kinda lost the links to the “for VSU” stuff oops. there are forums on it but those are personal opinions which i am sure everyone can form on their own. 
so! have fun!
