Welcome back to the Glass coverage of the Guild Student Representative Council (SRC) Meetings of 2024. This is our coverage of the January meeting held on Wednesday 21 February 2024 at P419, Gardens Point Campus.
We will be bringing students coverage of these meetings throughout the year, so you have insight into all the goings-on in your Student Representative Council (SRC). These meetings include the motions that Guild Executives and other students put forward for the SRC to vote on, and which will directly impact your university experience. This is our second council meeting of 2024.
All current students can attend SRC meetings. If you want to see change on campus, we encourage you to put forward a motion to the SRC.
COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
You can find the minutes of the meeting here .
You can also access the meeting agenda and documents associated with motions raised at the meeting in this folder.
AND WE’RE OFF!
The meeting was opened at 6:12pm by the Chair Taav’n Clark and began with an Acknowledgement of Country.
The Chair noted the following apologies for the meeting: Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice Councillor Erin Milne, Engineering Councillor Georgie Dobbs, Science Councillor Daniel Soltermann, Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice Councillor Ella O’Brien and Health Councillor Arya Chaudhari.
The Chair noted leaves of absence for Disability Officer Ethan Johnstone and Women’s Officer Lauren Cuthbert for on February 23 and 24.
FIRST UP, COLLECTIVE REPORTS.
The Disability Collective report was delivered by Convenor Michael Pendergast.
You can read the full report from the Disability Collective here.
The Disability Collective currently has 80 members. They reported they would hold their first meeting of the year on March 14 in which they hope to elect the 2024 Executive Committee. They’re hosting two welcome events on March 6 and 7 and directed people to their social media for more details.
The Disability Collective also said they’re planning to host a disability employment workshop on March 21 in collaboration with the Guild and the Australian Disability Network.
The Queer Collective report was delivered by Convenor Cal Botelho.
You can read the full report from the Queer Collective here.
The Queer Collective has 161 members. They will hold their first meeting on March 5 in which they hope to elect the 2024 Executive Committee.
They’re hosting a welcome games day event on March 1. They are also planning a gender affirming make up tutorial later in the semester, an event which was postponed multiple times last year. Their members are very excited about this event.
NEXT UP, MOTIONS… SIKE!
There were no motions on notice… shockingly.
ON TO THOSE PESKY CASUAL VACANCIES
Since the January Council Meeting, we had three resignations: Clubs & Societies Officer Muskan Sharma, International Students Officer Moin Rahman and First Nations Officer Portia Rennie.
Portia resigned in the days leading up to the February Council Meeting, so the SRC were filling the vacant positions that had sufficient notice of Education Officer, Clubs & Societies Officer and Internation Students Officer.
There were 18 applicants across the three positions.
None of the applicants’ resumes were available on the public SharePoint for students to view. However, all members of the SRC were able to access these files via a private Guild folder.
Due to a procedural motion moved by Treasurer Archer Skinner, each candidate had two minutes for a speech and then an additional two minutes of questions.
Soooo, we will make this just as quick and tabulated the journey we were taken on.
EDUCATION OFFICER
| NAME | DEGREE | KEY QUOTE |
| Sanyam Aware | Masters of IT | “I pledge to serve with dedication, transparency in the pursuit of excellence.” |
| Kajal Rana | Accounting | “Education for me is not studying and passing exams, it means inclusivity and being active in social work and other things.” |
| Calissa Leyden | Law | “I really feel like that this role is a role of service, it would be my responsibility to make sure that the concerns of the student body not just myself, are heard.” |
| Sayeed Shaiban | Masters of IT | “I feel like the system needs more transparency in these issues, students need to know what’s happening.” |
| Long Le | Industrial Design | “I have for my vision, as Education Officer is advocating for better pre-recorded lectures.” |
CLUBS & SOCIETIES OFFICER
| NAME | DEGREE | KEY QUOTE |
| Hong Le | HR | “With [QUT Bubble Tea] events, when I dealt with it, we were very successful in the amount of attendees and the places that we have along with our sponsors as well.” |
| Linh Ngyuen | Did Not Disclose | “I have been working in three different countries. So, I can say I am easy to adapt to a new environment.” |
| Leanne Kok | Medical Engineering | “I’ve kind of had roles in clubs with different sides where it’s more of like the societies for the international students, as well as for the academic side. So, I feel like I have quite a lot of experience in this and how clubs, what clubs are like and how clubs interact.” |
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS OFFICER
| NAME | DEGREE | FUN FACT |
| Shiva Delawari | Masters of IT | “I want to be the voice in QUT for international students, so they feel they are included in this society, and we actually care about them.” |
| Tu Ngyuen | Did Not Disclose | “I want a live international line at HiQ so we can have more direct questions and we can solve more.” |
| Neda Fayaz | Business and Marketing | “I really like communicating with different people from all around the world. My friend actually suggested for me to enrol in this because they know how much I like to communicate with different people and easily being a part with them, like not being shy and making new friends.” |
| Jovan Fersando | Masters of IT | “The reason why I applied as the International Officer is because I want to connect the students internationally, and fight for their problems.” |
| Jeremy Peng | Did Not Disclose | “Should I be elected, I will try to dedicate myself and because I’ve seen so many problems already arising out of cultural differences.” |
| Diya Ramnat | HR | “My commitment to international students is unwavering as I’m aware of the bumpy road that comes our way, when we choose to study in a different country.” |
| Shize Li | Did Not Disclose | “I’m so happy to see all the faces from different countries, different words when I volunteer. This is my goal, I want to make connection with different cultures.” |
| Sara Muneeb | PHD Candidate in Robotics | “I believe that we can provide international students an environment where they can feel safe, inclusive, and have support in whatever department they need.” |
| Lily Chan | Business (Accounting) | “I believe that there should be more support for international students studying at QUT, particularly in terms of adjusting to the different education system, dealing with culture shock, homesickness and the language barrier, as well as educating international students on their basic work rights and assisting them with finding accommodation.” |
| Muhammad Amir | Masters of IT | “I consider myself to be an empathetic person. And because of that, I have developed long-lasting relationships throughout my life. The one thing that life has taught me is that it’s the art of working in teams.” |
VOTING DONE IN-CAMERA
After going in-camera following a procedural motion moved by Treasurer Archer Skinner, the successful candidates were announced by President Aaron Bui:
The new Education Officer is Calissa Leyden.
The new Clubs & Societies Officer is Hong Le.
The new International Students Officer is Jovan Fersando.
THAT’S IT
The Chair closed the meeting at 9:10pm.
