Monash Student Association
Encyclopedia
The Monash Student Association (Clayton) Inc (MSA) is located at the Clayton campus
of Monash University
in the Campus Centre building. The MSA is made up of elected student representatives who represent all Clayton campus students on general issues such as education, fees and student welfare, and also specific issues such as women's affairs and queer
affairs. MSA also operates a student radio station, SWiCh child care, a Transport service, Student Theatre, the Co-op Bookshop, an Activities department, Lot's Wife, Host Scheme, the Short Courses Centre and Wholefoods vegetarian restaurant.
The MSA was formed at the end of 1994 with a merger of the former Monash Association of Students, Monash Postgraduate Association, the Mature Aged and Part Time Students Association and the Monash University International Students Society. It subsequently incorporated as an independent body in 1998.
The Activities office organises on-campus student activities and inter-campus competitions and events, such as live bands, DJs, movie nights, and Green Week.
Clubs & Societies
Clubs & Societies governs the over 95 (non-sporting) clubs and societies at the Clayton campus. The clubs range from academic-based clubs to those that are cultural, political, spiritual, or relating to a hobby or specific interest.
Education Office
The Education department provides advocacy, policy work, campaign management, advice, and representation to the student body. Some notable achievements include the 2004 HECS protests, the campaign against unfair parking fines and the 2006 campaign for the re-introduction of Swotvac
.
Environment Department
The Environment Department facilitates student involvement in sustainability and social justice, both on campus and in the wider community. They work with the university in order in minimising consumption of water, paper and energy; purchasing and use of renewable energies, recycled paper and other eco-friendly products; minimising waste and maintaining effective recycling and composting programs. They support wider student campaigns on issues like protection of old-growth forests, fair trade, indigenous justice, refugee rights, and climate change.
Radio Monash
Radio Monash is a radio station, which offers live webstreaming
and podcasting
and offers training in aspects of broadcasting in a full digital recording studio, which is often used as a rehearsal room for bands and musicians.
Host Scheme
Host Scheme is an orientation program that runs a camps program, functions program and Host Scheme Night; a huge party at the start of Orientation Week, which attracts thousands of new students.
Lot's Wife
Lot's Wife is the student newspaper. It addresses student issues and news, provides a voice for student commentary and reviews.
Queer Department
The MSA Queer Department caters for all students who identify as lesbian
, gay
, bisexual, transgender
, intersex
or those who are questioning their sexuality and/or gender identity
. It provides the queer lounge, as a safe a queer
-only space where students can gather, socialise and discuss queer issues in a supportive environment, and also works to collectively fight against discrimination and oppression suffered by queers in society.
Student Theatre
The Student Theatre is a place for students to get involved in acting, directing or backstage work, and stages a large number of productions a year.
Transport
The Transport Department runs a carpooling service, and also provides public transport information and discounted bicycle parts.
Welfare
The Welfare department runs Free Food Mondays, giving struggling students free vegetarian food every Monday night. It recycles old donated computers by rebuilding them for students. It also runs the Survival Centre, which contains free food and second-hand clothing for students in need.
Women's Room
The Women's Room is a women-only environment, a place for women to socialise, study and meet other women. It was created by the student union due to perceived university in-action over a rising spate of assaults around campus, particularly after normal class hours, on women.
Wholefoods
Wholefoods is a vegetarian restaurant, cafe and grocery service owned and run mostly on a volunteer basis by students. While it is constitutionally a department of the MSA, historically MSC has delegated authority each year to an autonomous collective (The Wholefoods Collective) which governs the restaurant with the tacit support of the MSA.
The MSA is also a member of the National Union of Students
and conducts election for NUS delegates concurrently with the MSA elections.
; independent
& left-wing
coalitions and right-wing coalitions
. It should be recognised that the spectrum of views represented in student politics is decidedly left of the mainstream political centre.
Activate was a grouping made up of environmentalists and other left-wing students that were generally referred to as the ‘grassroots left’. They held the Presidency and a majority of the Office-Bearer positions from 2002 to 2005.
At the 2005 elections, Go!, an independent & National Labor Students coalition, won majority control of the student association and have held it ever since.
Generally right-wing coalitions have included members of the Labor Right, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students
and the Monash Liberal Club. They ran under tickets such as ‘Action’ (2006), ‘Unite’ (2007), ‘Connect’ (2009–2011) and 'Voice' (2012). In 2008, they ran with a large group of Go! splinters to form a ticket known as ‘Universal’ (please note that this grouping is unrelated to the Universal elected ticket between 1999–2001).
The demise of Activate in recent years has seen the greater development of a group known as ‘Left Action’. Left Action is a broad left activist ticket, made-up predominately of members of Socialist Alternative
. Despite the growth of Left Action, it has failed to win control of the student union. In 2010, old members of Activate relaunched the Activate ticket under the new name of 'Switch' which had mixed success at that year's MSA elections.
The MSA is currently controlled by a majority of Go! members. Control of the MSA has tended to swing between the far left and left of student politics over the years.
Monash University, Clayton campus
Monash University, Clayton Campus is the main campus of Monash University located in Clayton, which is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria....
of Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
in the Campus Centre building. The MSA is made up of elected student representatives who represent all Clayton campus students on general issues such as education, fees and student welfare, and also specific issues such as women's affairs and queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
affairs. MSA also operates a student radio station, SWiCh child care, a Transport service, Student Theatre, the Co-op Bookshop, an Activities department, Lot's Wife, Host Scheme, the Short Courses Centre and Wholefoods vegetarian restaurant.
The MSA was formed at the end of 1994 with a merger of the former Monash Association of Students, Monash Postgraduate Association, the Mature Aged and Part Time Students Association and the Monash University International Students Society. It subsequently incorporated as an independent body in 1998.
Services
ActivitiesThe Activities office organises on-campus student activities and inter-campus competitions and events, such as live bands, DJs, movie nights, and Green Week.
Clubs & Societies
Clubs & Societies governs the over 95 (non-sporting) clubs and societies at the Clayton campus. The clubs range from academic-based clubs to those that are cultural, political, spiritual, or relating to a hobby or specific interest.
Education Office
The Education department provides advocacy, policy work, campaign management, advice, and representation to the student body. Some notable achievements include the 2004 HECS protests, the campaign against unfair parking fines and the 2006 campaign for the re-introduction of Swotvac
Swotvac
Swotvac, or sometimes stuvac refers to a period preceding examinations in high schools, higher education institutions, and military colleges, chiefly in Commonwealth countries.-Etymology:...
.
Environment Department
The Environment Department facilitates student involvement in sustainability and social justice, both on campus and in the wider community. They work with the university in order in minimising consumption of water, paper and energy; purchasing and use of renewable energies, recycled paper and other eco-friendly products; minimising waste and maintaining effective recycling and composting programs. They support wider student campaigns on issues like protection of old-growth forests, fair trade, indigenous justice, refugee rights, and climate change.
Radio Monash
Radio Monash is a radio station, which offers live webstreaming
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
and podcasting
Podcasting
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
and offers training in aspects of broadcasting in a full digital recording studio, which is often used as a rehearsal room for bands and musicians.
Host Scheme
Host Scheme is an orientation program that runs a camps program, functions program and Host Scheme Night; a huge party at the start of Orientation Week, which attracts thousands of new students.
Lot's Wife
Lot's Wife is the student newspaper. It addresses student issues and news, provides a voice for student commentary and reviews.
Queer Department
The MSA Queer Department caters for all students who identify as lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual, transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
, intersex
Intersex
Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...
or those who are questioning their sexuality and/or gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
. It provides the queer lounge, as a safe a queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
-only space where students can gather, socialise and discuss queer issues in a supportive environment, and also works to collectively fight against discrimination and oppression suffered by queers in society.
Student Theatre
The Student Theatre is a place for students to get involved in acting, directing or backstage work, and stages a large number of productions a year.
Transport
The Transport Department runs a carpooling service, and also provides public transport information and discounted bicycle parts.
Welfare
The Welfare department runs Free Food Mondays, giving struggling students free vegetarian food every Monday night. It recycles old donated computers by rebuilding them for students. It also runs the Survival Centre, which contains free food and second-hand clothing for students in need.
Women's Room
The Women's Room is a women-only environment, a place for women to socialise, study and meet other women. It was created by the student union due to perceived university in-action over a rising spate of assaults around campus, particularly after normal class hours, on women.
Wholefoods
Wholefoods is a vegetarian restaurant, cafe and grocery service owned and run mostly on a volunteer basis by students. While it is constitutionally a department of the MSA, historically MSC has delegated authority each year to an autonomous collective (The Wholefoods Collective) which governs the restaurant with the tacit support of the MSA.
Politics
Monash Student Association office bearers are elected at an annual election, whereupon the executive committee of the MSA, the Monash Student Council, is also elected; in the MSC, all office bearers have voting rights.The MSA is also a member of the National Union of Students
National Union of Students of Australia
The National Union of Students is the peak representative body for Australian university students. Most student unions in Australian campuses are affiliated to NUS...
and conducts election for NUS delegates concurrently with the MSA elections.
Political groups and their election tickets
Since the early 2000s, there have generally been three main political groups on campus: grassrootsGreen politics
Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...
; independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
& left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
coalitions and right-wing coalitions
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
. It should be recognised that the spectrum of views represented in student politics is decidedly left of the mainstream political centre.
Activate was a grouping made up of environmentalists and other left-wing students that were generally referred to as the ‘grassroots left’. They held the Presidency and a majority of the Office-Bearer positions from 2002 to 2005.
At the 2005 elections, Go!, an independent & National Labor Students coalition, won majority control of the student association and have held it ever since.
Generally right-wing coalitions have included members of the Labor Right, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students
Australasian Union of Jewish Students
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students is a federation of Jewish student societies at Australian and New Zealand universities and other higher education institutions. It was founded in 1948 at the University of Sydney and is affiliated with the World Union of Jewish Students. It is politically...
and the Monash Liberal Club. They ran under tickets such as ‘Action’ (2006), ‘Unite’ (2007), ‘Connect’ (2009–2011) and 'Voice' (2012). In 2008, they ran with a large group of Go! splinters to form a ticket known as ‘Universal’ (please note that this grouping is unrelated to the Universal elected ticket between 1999–2001).
The demise of Activate in recent years has seen the greater development of a group known as ‘Left Action’. Left Action is a broad left activist ticket, made-up predominately of members of Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative (Australia)
Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist political organisation in Australia formed by an expulsion from the former International Socialist Organisation in 1995. It is one of the largest groups of the Australian far Left, claiming to have the largest active membership. With branches across...
. Despite the growth of Left Action, it has failed to win control of the student union. In 2010, old members of Activate relaunched the Activate ticket under the new name of 'Switch' which had mixed success at that year's MSA elections.
The MSA is currently controlled by a majority of Go! members. Control of the MSA has tended to swing between the far left and left of student politics over the years.