Happy holidays everyone! Pity it’s been so cold – I hope you’re all keeping warm! Hopefully you’re all relaxing too, enjoying your well earned break, and feeling good about your exam results.
Even if you didn’t get the mark you expected, remember, you’ve made it through the first semester, and that’s something to celebrate!!
Etcetera…. you get the idea 🙂
Since we haven’t had any campus activations this month, keep reading if you’re interested in what’s going on behind the scenes at USASA. Otherwise, enjoy your holiday, and see you next month!
Highlights
The biggest news this month was the response we received from TEQSA after reaching out to them to urge them to include student representation in their response to the issue of contract cheating in Australia. The CEO of TEQSA was very appreciative of our input and has since raised the matter with the TEQSA student advisory group, and will continue to work with them on this issue. We also submitted a comment on the draft contract cheating legislation, supporting CAPA, NUS and UATSIS in asking for a law that targets the predatory cheating industry but not students and their families.
USASA will be meeting soon with the president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, who sits on the advisory group, to discuss our ideas and concerns. We hope that this will lead to a response which is informed by and addresses the underlying issues which make students from non-English speaking backgrounds more likely to be involved in academic integrity inquries. Many of these are the same issues that cause these students to struggle with coursework and with university life in general, so my hope is that this could be a really positive move toward a more supportive environment across the Australian higher education sector.
In the Diversity, Equity and Access committee, we’ve started the process of developing an Aboriginal Strategy for USASA. This will take a similar form to the development of the USASA Strategic Plan, with a strategy session with USASA staff and board members and key aboriginal staff and student leaders, to be followed by wider consultation with aboriginal students. It will hopefully be a document that helps USASA contribute to the UniSA vision of being the university of choice for Aboriginal students, and to Australia’s reconciliation goals.
In the SASH steering group, the SEU have agreed to hire a research assistant to review the research literature and best practice on cultural primary prevention initiatives, to ensure that our approach is rigorous and evidence-based, so that we are doing the right thing by our students in addressing this critical student safety and wellbeing issue.
Finally, this coming month I will be joining the new ALLY network advisory group, to provide input into the launch and development of the program, which will give UniSA staff and students skills and opportunities to support queer/LGBTQ+ students at UniSA, again contributing to what I hope will be an even more inclusive and supportive environment at UniSA.
Activity Report
05/06/19 – Magill Campus Advisory Group
07/06/19 – Diversity, Equity and Access Committee Meeting
18/06/19 – USASA Board Meeting
22/06/19 – USASA Staff and Student Board Tree Planting Day
27/06/19 – SASH Steering Group Meeting
27/06/19 – SASH SEU + USASA catch up
Upcoming Events
04/07/19 – Diversity, Equity and Access Committee Meeting
04/07/19 – Welfare Committee Meeting
16/07/19 – USASA Board Responding to SASH Disclosures Training
16/07/19 – Save the Children Pop Up Activation breifing
16/07/19 – USASA Board Meeting
27/06/19 – SASH Steering Group Meeting
27/06/19 – ALLY Network Advisory/Working Group
