Macquarie University Students' Council

The Macquarie University Students' Council (MUSC) was the organised student body of Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. It comprised many parts with the representative council elected by undergraduate students as its main body. Later students of the private Sydney Institute of Business and Technology (SIBT) were also included. During its history it was also representative of post-graduate students until the creation of Macquarie University Post-graduate Representative Association. As well as the council there were clubs, societies, collectives, departments and publications that made up the whole MUSC. These clubs, societies, departments and collectives all had various degrees of autonomy from the actual council.

The council itself was the governing body of the MUSC and was answerable to the student population. In its early days its engagement reached out to a large percentage of students. The council had a number of activist collectives open to all students around its key areas of operation. The number of focus of the collectives changed over time. The council also provided consumer type services to its members, including legal aid and academic advocacy.

History

The MUSC was created to provide a voice to students at the Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, campus. It was involved in campaigns about student welfare and social issues affecting not only the campus but also wider society.

The MUSC was successful in building alliances with non-student progressive organisations and movements. During 1973 the MUSC worked with the Builders Labourers Federation - BLF (a union whose members now make up part of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU)) to organise one of the first 'Pink Bans' [http://books.google.com/books?id=J4vx-NjjQxsC&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=%22macquarie+university+students+council%22&source=web&ots=ql9xVRL3iW&sig=DbL3Dbja6p4aOIbZCrOt21u5DIs#PPA141,M1] . Similar in tactic to the green ban, the pink ban was recommended when one of the residential colleges at Macquarie University, Robert Menzies College, ordered a student to lead a celibate life and undertake therapy and confession to cure himself of his homosexuality. The BLF decided to stop all construction work at the college until the university and the college Master made statements committing to a non-discriminatory university environment. The MUSC was successful in engaging with the BLF again in 1974 when a woman at Macquarie University had her NSW Department of Education scholarship cancelled on the basis that she was a lesbian and therefore unfit to be a teacher.

During the seventies the MUSC was also involved in some direct actions that were less obvious in purpose. One conception day event involved herding a number of sheep across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was suggested that the purpose of this action was to point out that the NSW Government had a number of outdated laws on its books.

Publications

Arena was the newspaper of the MUSC. It had a separately elected editorial team who had control over the publication. It was not unusual for the editorial team that was elected to be of a different political persuasion to the majority of council. This was particularly noticeable in later years when the majority of council was aligned to the Student Unity (Labor Right) faction and the editorial team was aligned to non-ALP left wing factions.

Hogben Toad was the weekly publication of the MUSC that alerted students to the activities of the week and near future. This publication was later superseded by a publication of the Macquarie University Union (later Students at Macquarie SAM).

MUSCateer was the new publication name for Arena given to the paper by a council in the early 2000's. This council was aligned to the Student Unity faction at Macquarie University. Editorial control was taken by the same faction around the same time. After the change of name very few editions were produced. In 2005 MUSCateer ceased being published. There were allegations that this decision was made to "further the political ambitions of President, Victor Ma" [ [http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3988 The art of censorship - On Line Opinion - 28/12/2005 ] ]

Clubs and Societies

Clubs and Societies at Macquarie University had the option to affiliate with the MUSC and receive funding and support to engage with the campus community. It was a key way in which the council engaged its member outside of political events.

Women's Department

The Women's Department was an autonomous Department of the MUSC. A women's collective operated through the department and was open to all women students. It operated to affect change in the lives of women on campus and in their everyday lives. The Women's Department was elected separately to the MUSC Council by women students only.

MUSC Collectives

The Education Collective was formed to allow all students to participate in the council around issues affecting tertiary education. The education collective not only took up issues affecting students at the Macquarie University campus, but also issues that affected access to tertiary education generally.

The Environment Collective focused on local and global issues about the environment. It often used direct action as a tool to bring about change. Locally this included many members of the collective climbing the trees in the middle of where the M2 Motorway was to be built.

The Sexuality Collective took up lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer issues. The collective was also instrumental in establishing a permanent Queer Space on campus is 2001.

The International Solidarity Collective engaged with issues of international importance. The collective focused it works on fighting imperialist actions, such as anti US bases campaigns through to the recognition of the democratic elections in Burma.

References