WUSA's April 2026 Meeting

This April, the Wollongong Undergraduate Students Association’s (WUSA) main agenda was finding a replacement for their empty Education Officer and Assistant Secretary position.

Before the meeting could begin, there were a few officebearers who could not make it. Welfare Coordinator Charlotte Vakayil, General Representative Kat Schreiber, Allsorts Queer Representative Neo Bieniek, and Disabilities Representative Matthew Malby sent their apologies for being unable to attend. General Representative Logan Kerr was also not in attendance but did not send their apologies.

International Students Representative Pratham Puri was also absent and did not send their apologies, despite stating in a report in the last edition of The Gala that: “Through collaboration with university departments and student organisations, I aim to ensure that international students feel heard, supported, and empowered throughout their academic journey at UOW.”

As soon as the meeting began, an emergency motion was moved to the forefront of the agenda to appoint a new Education Officer. Simon Upitis was one of three nominations for the role and before voting could begin, he spoke on his obligation and duty to fulfill the office. The other two nominations for the role, Taha Parker and Shoyeb Ahmed, were not present.

“I think WUSA should have a number of things on its high priority list, and I think the main thing is that we need to rebuild the left here in Wollongong,” he said to the council.

“A movement to rebuild a fighting left-wing movement in Australia that can push back against the rise of the far right, push back against the Labor government, and can push back against the one-sided class war being waged by the rich and powerful across Australia today.

“You can see Anthony Albanese proudly proclaiming his patriotism when you see videos of war crimes overseas as we bump up defence spending here at home while slashing spending on the NDIS or housing.”

Mr Upitis went on to mention the growing Palestine solidarity movement that has been building across the country in the last two and a half years. He also mentioned that members of the WUSA council belonging to the New South Wales Labor Students (NSWLS) faction were not in attendance at the Nationwide Student Strike for Palestine on the 11th of March, and urged them to come to the next action. On fighting the far right, Simon discussed his recent discussions with students and their concerns with Pauline Hanson’s right-wing movement. He added that in a recent incident on campus where right-wing pro-lifers were harassing students, members of Socialist Alternative heckled them until even more students joined in on drowning out their hateful message, showing a desire to resist a growth of right-wing politics.

After his speech, Antonios Tzamouranis asked Mr Upitis about the recent University of Wollongong (UOW) course cuts. Simon discussed how dire the situation at UOW is, but also mentioned that strikes at the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Newcastle is inspiring hope to fight back against this wave of cuts. He reinforced his belief that WUSA should aim to mobilise students here at UOW to support their staff when they do take action later this year.

After Mr Tzamouranis’ question, the council held a secret ballot to vote for the new Education Officer. Voters could have chosen to abstain from their vote secretly, but in the end the council was unanimous to elect Mr Upitis as the new Education Officer.

Moving through the procedurals of the meeting, Caitlin Veigel, WUSA President, opened her report by mentioning the interim report into the university sector in New South Wales.

“There’s a recommendation to further investigate UOW Global Enterprises, for broader financial mismanagement,” she said.

“There’s a wider focus across the sector about how much universities are spending on consultancy firms and the makeup of university councils.

“56% of university council members across New South Wales are affiliated to either consultants or corporations, they’re basically invading our university councils.”

In other news relating to WUSA, Ms Veigel mentioned that half of the amendments to the WUSA constitution has been approved by the UOW Council. Changes to the constitution will continue to be worked on in the following months.

General Representative Megan Guy asked if the UOW Council gave any reason for not approving the other changes. Ms Veigel mentioned that the “risk and financial management changes” needed more consultation with the university.

“As we are all aware, we’re not an independent organisation, we’re actually a part of the university and all of our accounting is connected to the university,” the President said.

“It’s basically another method for them to block us from getting SSAF.”

She mentioned that they pushed through the ones they could get done and that they’ll work on the remaining constitutional reforms. Ms Guy asked if the UOW Council has given any pointers on what they want the constitution to look like and Caitlin clarified that no, they’ve given no advice. Mr Upitis brought up that he wishes future changes to the constitution to be decided in a democratic way by WUSA. Another note, the Vice-Chancellor needs to sponsor the motion for constitutional amendments before it can even make it to the UOW Executive Board, where if the board approves the motion, can finally move to the UOW Council.

General Secretary Hanzel-Jude Pador brought up upcoming actions that WUSA could participate in, such as the What You Were Wearing (WYWW) rally being held on the 18th of April and the upcoming May Day on the 1st of May rally.

On this note, Mr Upitis questioned Mr Pador about his and NSWLS’ absence from the recent rally to protect public housing at Bellambi. Mr Pador reiterated that he does not support the state government’s proposal to redevelop Bellambi but that he also had work that day but that he also did not know it was a rally open to everyone.

“I didn’t realise it was an open invitation to include us, but in future we’ll be attending those rallies,” Mr Pador said.

“You don’t require an invite to come to a rally, it’s a protest, since when are protests organised that you need an invitation to attend?” Mr Upitis said in response.

There was a discussion among the council on how to inform each other on these events for the future and they have resolved to inform each other of future actions within their own internal communications.

Daniel McClelland, who is both the First Nations Officer of the National Union of Students (NUS) and the WUSA Treasurer, reported on the NUS’ plan to alter the definition of what a student-led organisation is in federal legislation.

“In the NUS’ view, the current definition gives a bit too much leeway to non-independent and non-democratic bodies to seek SSAF,” Mr McClelland said.

“They are intending to use WUSA as a case study in their brief.”

Mr McClelland reported that invoices to be paid out to the NUS are also being chased up; with some accounting magic he has reduced the cost of some payments and also some debt forgiveness and discounts.

Mr Upitis mentioned in his report as the newly elected Education Officer about an opportunity for WUSA to join the photo petition to support reproductive rights.

Tert Coordinator Serena Emanuele took a chance to mention how well the newspaper is doing and to remind officebearers to stay on top of their reports for the newspaper when The Gala calls upon a member to report. Ms Guy went on to compliment The Gala.

“I just think it’s a really good initiative, it harkens back to a tradition of student media being quite political,” she said.

Women’s Representative Alexia Chipperfield reported on the upcoming WYWW rally, her push to revive the Women’s Collective, and the recent initiative to cover the free period products in the UOW Library.

A point of argument arose on the topic of WUSA covering the free period products in the library. Previously the library had applied for SSAF funding to cover the free product within the library but the staff had no chance to do the application for this year. Ms Chipperfield has stepped in to provide WUSA’s supply of period products for the library.

Socialist Alternative called out NSWLS on rolling over and footing the bill for the university instead of fighting and demanding the administration cover the products themselves instead of letting SSAF cover it. Ms Chipperfield reaffirmed that there is an incredibly high demand with weekly refills needed, and so that WUSA cannot wait on the university to supply it themselves.

“I do believe that the university is the one that should be providing the free period products,” she said.

“I’m personally happy to keep refilling and keep doing this at the same time as attempting to get the university to supply it themselves.

“Unfortunately those things take a lot of time and there are numerous hoops to jump through, and I would love to keep pushing that for the university but there’s just kind of a lot that needs to be done there.”

Socialist Alternative wanted NSWLS to commit again to a campaign of demanding the university to cover the cost of free period products on campus instead of having WUSA continue to supply them through SSAF funding that could go somewhere else. The argument wrapped up with no conclusion.

Environment Representative Mr Tzamouranis gave a report on an opportunity to workshop a campaign for further divestments from companies contributing to the growing climate crisis, which will most likely be joined with the current divestment campaign from weapons companies.

Ethno-Cultural Representative Tidus Funaki reported his discussions with students on their concerns and the issue of students in Queensland who face arrests for protest slogans, especially Liam Parry who was arrested for chanting “from the river to the sea.” Mr Funaki also reiterated the goals of Students for Palestine’s divestment campaign, especially with the upcoming Nationwide Palestine Solidarity Week and aiming to bring attention to the weapons and defence research on campus that needs to be divested from.

General Representatives Ms Guy and Ryan Chapman spoke and gave a report on the various campaigns they’ve been involved in, in the past few weeks. Most recently, a snap rally held by Wollongong Against War and Nukes in response to Australia’s complicity in the US’ war in Iran. They reaffirmed that the Labor party has been the most supportive of the US’ campaign, especially with PM Albanese being one of the first world leaders to support the invasion.

From here on, the council voted through various motions which you can find on the WUSA Instagram: @wusa_uow