...regular thoughts and updates by the 2008 President of the University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association (GSA)... Tammi Jonas
Not negligent, busy...
It's been ages since I last wrote to update you all - my apologies. As is often ironically the case, it's not due to lack of reasons to report, but rather having so many issues to cover that I haven't had time to sit down and write about them... but enough excuses.
Cooperative Housing Campaignbout 20 members of the Student Housing Action Cooperative continue to live at 278 Faraday St. We have been speaking with government and NGO bodies, as well as the Melbourne University Student Union Ltd, about possibilities for...
What do budgets, Burnley and the housing crisis have in common?
Okay,
the only thing they really have in common is the University of
Melbourne, but the first one has had serious implications for Burnley
students and all students seeking affordable accommodation over the
years, not to mention a number of other things. But let's first
consider this year's budget...
While the President's Away...
It's
been an eventful first half of the year, and I am dearly looking
forward to a month's break before returning to get back to business.
I'm off with my husband and three gorgeous children (ages 8, 7 & 4)
for a month of weddings, reunions and camping in California and Oregon,
from where I originally hail. I've left all your interests in the
capable hands of our Vice President (and former UMPA President) Tony
Williams and the rest of the hard-working staff and councillors at UMPA...
Notes from an Arts-weary President
We had a successful set of outcomes from taking the
UMPA Arts position paper to Uni Council, including the passing of the following motion...
Plagiarism - do you really know what it is?
It
seems to me that most postgrads are pretty sure they know that
plagiarism is copying someone else's work, whether just a sentence or a
whole essay, and that it is not okay. I suspect there are some out
there who aren't entirely clear that paraphrasing without in-text
citations is plagiarism. And I am certain that there will be some who
don't know that plagiarism is also, according to the University,
submitting all or part of your own work for more than one assessment
task..
Academic Freedom
Last week it was all about Arts, Music and the VCA. This week is all about academic freedom.
Last week it was about UMPA and UMSU criticising the University’s
handling of the chronic underfunding of Arts and Humanities, and
worrying about our own funding from the Uni as we take a position on
behalf of those we represent. This week it is a senior lecturer
defending his right to criticise the government, yet being demoted and
disaffected for doing so. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, they say.
I guess they don’t have a particularly complex view of just who owns that hand…
Save Our Arts!
Warning: this is a very long post! I promised a report back after taking the
UMPA position paper on the implementation of the Arts Renewal Strategy, so here we go...
The
paper went to the Teaching and Learning Quality Assurance Committee
(TALQAC) yesterday afternoon. It has detailed (and strong)
recommendations to address the current major issues that students are
reporting in the Faculty, which are...
Reconciliation takes a nation...
Last night UMPA was honoured to host one of hundreds of Reconciliation GetTogethers held around the country, an initiative of
GetUp!.
The evening was a fantastic example of a community coming together to
work towards a more positive future for all Australians, focusing on
the reconciliation of indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. The
30-odd of us there began with an acknowledgment of country, and then
moved on to tell the stories of what brought us there and what we hoped
to achieve through such conversations...
For those of you who missed it, last week was UMPA's Annual General Meeting (AGM). Now, in my experience, AGMs are notoriously dull and minimally informative. This year I was determined that ours would not suffer the same fate. So there were fireworks, a short brawl and tequila shooters until the wee hours. Just kidding. However, I did report to the members present on a few things going on at the moment that are relevant to most of you, if not all, so thought I'd recap those points here for my inaugural post to the Ponderings (the previous post doesn't count - it was just filler).
In the beginning...
there was umpa. And it was good.