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Vsu

for once I actually agree with a policy of the current Liberal government in its bid to make student union fees voluntary. Why should I, a student at the University of Western Sydney (Bankstown campus) pay $180 a semester for a student union which does absolutely jack shit on my campus. It doesn't make sense! for the last 4 years, the student union on my campus has organised nothing! no sporting activities, no bbqs, no social outings, NOTHING. Last year a group of students and I had a problem with a lecturer in one of our subjects. As students, we naturally turned to our union for support and you know what they told us........."we can't do anything about the situation, if you have a problem, seek your own legal advice" now what the hell is that????? all the food and coffee outlets are also run by private enterprise, not students or the respective association so I really can't justify folking out $180 a semester for a "service" which doesn't exist.

In conclusion, GO JOHHNY, so what if some University of Sydney peoples dont get to play cricket on the weekend! join your local club and say yes to VSU!

Sid

well being a USYD student i reckon the union is good for us students.. i transferred from UWS Campbelltown this year.. and it was such a change!! the union actually does shit for us!! im loving it!! so even if i hafta pay like a dollar a day.. i reckon its worth it.. but thats just me.. u prolly feel dat way coz UWS blows.. i apologise to all UWS students out there.. but u gotta taste student union at USYD b4 u can make a real decision.

I agree with VSU!

Seriously, my fifth year at uni now and my union fee has gotten me sweet fuck all....

Here at Adelaide uni, our bars/cafe's etc are self run businesses, which means none of our union fees even goto them, and thats the only services I use.

Its funny how they protest about saying no to VSU because everyone wants to be in the union anyway... if that was the case, it could be voluntary and everyone would want to be in it.

Seriously, I can live without the islamic prayer room and whatever else my money goes towards, and as for the union members, maybe if you weren't studying for an arts degree you wouldn't need some crappy union membership to put on your resume, so let it gooooo....

I'd rather spend my union fee on records

quote:

Originally posted by petek I agree with VSU! I'd rather spend my union fee on records

thats the spirit

I am for VSU - RMIT university was absolutely crap when it came to their union actually doing anything for the students, experienced the "we cant help you seek outside legal help.." line and only thing we saw our money going to was half arse attempts at O-week events (usually an outside sponsor would have footed the bill) and money going to some WOMYNS room thing (spelling was something ghey like that so it didnt include the word "men") for lesbo arsed hairy bitches that couldnt handle working in a male dominated environment.

meeh then again at some uni's the Union works so

hahah sid i thought the uni was going downhill when i graduated and boy has it gone down hill quick.

time to abandon ship !

if you're going to pay for an education, make it worth your while.

and yes the usyd union is awesome, imo.

vote 1 pedro

from memory, during the mid ninetees it was the student union that rallied and organised against the howard govt's approach to higher education, and though not winning concessions from the govt, they got them from the universities.

they may be useless a lot of the time (as unions are) and their composition may have changed since i attended, but id still rather have some kind of organisation in an establishment as important as tertiary education.

without some kind of funding their activities would obviously decrease. i think individuals that hold such a powerless role in isolation and powerful role in great numbers -need a representing body.

perhaps concessions can be made for those students that struggle financially, but a lot of us didnt, and i certainly had no problem paying the fees in the belief that if they were needed they'd be there. now, its not a perfect world obviously, but if you strip the union of money they'll never be able to do any good at all. i know when cuts starting hitting departments and so forth it wasnt fun having your units disappear. be like someone taking away a favourite tune you wanted to check out

I would rather spend my student fee on Baskin and Robbins Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icecream.

I would get more helpful advice and piece of mind from a $160 tub of icecream than any part of my university union.

quote:

Originally posted by petek Here at Adelaide uni, our bars/cafe's etc are self run businesses, which means none of our union fees even goto them, and thats the only services I use. Seriously, I can live without the islamic prayer room and whatever else my money goes towards, and as for the union members, maybe if you weren't studying for an arts degree you wouldn't need some crappy union membership to put on your resume, so let it gooooo.... I'd rather spend my union fee on records

Not to mention U of A's PAID positions of Environmental Officer (wtf do they do?) Female Officer, Male Officer and Queer Officer. Yes, they are all paid positions, why does a Uni need them?
UniSA (where I am) doesn't have them, and functions perfectly. Adelaide's union is an absolute laughing stock, they are incredibly wasteful, and is nothing more than a wannabe political force, thats all they do is push political agendas rather than doing something useful.

As for UniSA, the Student Association is actually good, except they obviously have no business sense, the cafe at City East is apparently losing bucketloads of money, except it isn't that cheap and the food is crap. That cafe has the potential to run very successfuly, but isn't, and it should be able to survive without subsidies, as should most cafeterias and cafes at ALL unis. The same goes with bookshops, just as a newsagent can survive, there is no reason a bookshop cannot survive on campus.

quote:

Originally posted by vitamin v I would get more helpful advice and piece of mind from a $160 tub of icecream than any part of my university union.

mmmm $160 tub of icecream

if i can remember correctly we only paid something like
$40 a year
and each month we got free piss @ a BBQ

thats the only good thing about vut

quote:

Originally posted by eRRaTiK vote 1 pedro

funniest movie of last year imho

quote:

Originally posted by eRRaTiK mmmm $160 tub of icecream

+1

quote:

Originally posted by eRRaTiK

GOSH!!!

what the hell are you people on about??? don't any of you play sport at uni? or want to be represented as students? or want to talk about uni in a forum or newspaper? or want to get likeminded students together in a club or society? of course i understand that its different at different unis but i think this is a ridiculous idea. at monash we have so many different clubs and societies and organisations that without funding from amenities fees wouldn't be able to cut it. i happen to be president of one them but even if i wasn't i still think its a stupid idea that will hurt universities. sure not everyone wants to join a club or use the facilities provided but at the same time not everyone uses the local library or other services provided by your council, but you still pay for them. i would rather pay fees and know that this money is being spent on trying to make university life better and more fun for all students than not pay it and see how fun it is after. no more balls, no more bbqs, no more trivia nights, no more open day activities, no more guest speakers or seminars, no more representation. sounds great.

quote:

Originally posted by Philby what the hell are you people on about??? don't any of you play sport at uni? or want to be represented as students? or want to talk about uni in a forum or newspaper? or want to get likeminded students together in a club or society?

NO to all.

i think you phil represent a minority. i know for swinburne, a large proportion of people do not engage in such uni-based activities. maybe i should have, might of made it bearable.

I don't know about everything else, but i hate having to pay $150 a year just for the Sports Union that i don't use. The only sport-related thing i do at uni is go to the gym, and that still costs heaps.....why shouldn't my sports fees go towards that instead?

Sydney University probably has the highest Student Union fees of any uni - approximately $550 a year.

quote:

Originally posted by Philby what the hell are you people on about??? don't any of you play sport at uni? or want to be represented as students? or want to talk about uni in a forum or newspaper? or want to get likeminded students together in a club or society? of course i understand that its different at different unis but i think this is a ridiculous idea. at monash we have so many different clubs and societies and organisations that without funding from amenities fees wouldn't be able to cut it. i happen to be president of one them but even if i wasn't i still think its a stupid idea that will hurt universities. sure not everyone wants to join a club or use the facilities provided but at the same time not everyone uses the local library or other services provided by your council, but you still pay for them. i would rather pay fees and know that this money is being spent on trying to make university life better and more fun for all students than not pay it and see how fun it is after. no more balls, no more bbqs, no more trivia nights, no more open day activities, no more guest speakers or seminars, no more representation. sounds great.

Totally, absolutely 100% agree with you here.

Unfortunately it certainly seems to be an aspect of our generation that basically no one cares about anything that encompasses more than themselves these days. They have no idea what goes on behind the scenes for services/events they may or may not use or attend, and consequently do not want to give up their precious 'me' dollars for something that seems inconsequential to them.

So maybe some of our parents were identified as the 'baby boomers', i think there's little doubt our generation are the 'me me me' generation.

a little of track here re vsu, but hey, the whole thing's cumulative... i wonder how many other public services/unions etc will be lost in the not too distant future, and how many people will be satisfied they didn't fight for them should they're life fuck up in the future and they have no help or protection available to them or their family?

but it's probably fine, most will continue to accumulate wealth and lack of free or subsidised services will be irrelevant. hope i'm fortunate enough to be one of them!

quote:

Originally posted by vitamin v I would rather spend my student fee on Baskin and Robbins Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icecream. I would get more helpful advice and piece of mind from a $160 tub of icecream than any part of my university union.

You're a woman after my own heart V

*looks towards freezer for icecream*

quote:

Originally posted by A.J. I don't know about everything else, but i hate having to pay $150 a year just for the Sports Union that i don't use.

damn straight!

I'd prefer USU over VSU anyday...but perhaps the current system needs to be reformed so that we have greater choice in what we contribute towards. I know I wouldn't be contributing any money to the "women's office" or anything like that...but I'd happily contribute to the SRC, childcare, the casual employment service...Manning Bar..etc.

Did anyone here actually go to thursdays rally?

quote:

Originally posted by Philby i would rather pay fees and know that this money is being spent on trying to make university life better and more fun for all students

And NON students
hail free coronas to the law students (and their friends)

Though i have never been a university student i have to say if i was one i'd be pretty pissed at having to pay for a union i would want nothing from.

There are unions in my work which i cant stand and would loathe having to pay for them, i dont mind others doing it if they want to but you should not HAVE to be a part of it imo.

I think that with voluntary union fees nobody would pay and all those free things you don't even notice would go away.

The university would then decide what is best for you and thats not good.

This country was brought up on unions and with out them it would not be the country we all love.

and no I am not a memeber of any union at moment because I do not know of one in my work place.

I love unions.

quote:

Originally posted by Dr P I think that with voluntary union fees nobody would pay and all those free things you don't even notice would go away. The university would then decide what is best for you and thats not good.

agreed.

just look at how effective the voluntary voting system is in the US

I pay $202.50 (UTS) for nothing. I dont even use none of their services, what a waste of money. I was actually at uni yesterday (not knowing that fight against VSU rally was on) go out for lunch and bang theres thousands of uni ppl protesting, majority of those people look like Arts students (no offence )there the ones that normally bum around in our uni doing shit all, so I guess I understand they need their unions etc. to keep them occupied

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