Update me on VSU (2 Viewers)

[leetom]

so what does the government get out of implementing VSU?????

Triumph of ideology. There won't be any real direct financial benefit for the government (other than not having to pay Union fees for ADFA students, but that's not huge). It's just a battle between old university adversaries, striking back at the Left in retaliation for an apparent hard time some of the Cabinet ministers got in their university days.

 

[Phanatical]

Photos of today's protest are available at my website, www.andrewquah.com.

More to come soon.

 

[walrusbear]

woah man
talk about overstating the negative
fuck me
your photos involve about 1% of those involved today and about 5 minutes out of 4 hrs rallying

 

[HubertDale]

I reckon we should rip down every anti-vsu poster u see on campus, let them waste our unions fees on useless shit like that

 

[Not-That-Bright]

I reckon we should get more pro vsu people at the next protest.

 

[walrusbear]

how many neo-libs are there on campus? (serious question)

 

[SashatheMan]

Photos of today's protest are available at my website, www.andrewquah.com.

More to come soon.

so this is supporting VSU?

 

[Phanatical]

woah man...
fuck me...

No thanks.

 

[Phanatical]

My opinion pieces are not pro-VSU. They are anti-VSU, but they illustrate the point I've been trying to make for years - that the current system doesn't work either.

We need to find a happy medium. Lower fees, more focus on essential service, and scrapping the stupid programs.

 

[walrusbear]

My opinion pieces are not pro-VSU. They are anti-VSU, but they illustrate the point I've been trying to make for years - that the current system doesn't work either.

We need to find a happy medium. Lower fees, more focus on essential service, and scrapping the stupid programs.

good point
try telling that to Nelson

 

[Phanatical]

The Government are as ideologically driven as the Student movement. Why do you think everybody hates me? It's not because I'm an asshole, but because I stand for everything they oppose.

Alexander Mustafa, the former NOLS head at USYD, even once commented that I was more dangerous than the entire Liberal Students movement at our university, because I stood as an independent and advocated a movement away from the collectives the SRC is built on.

 

[Rorix]

I don't know if this has been asked before but can somebody show me a chart or statistics of somesort of where my f`ucking $400 per year goes and how much of that $400 actually goes to something that I use?
And for people bitching about food prices going up by 50cents or a dollar think of how much money you save by having VSU, if your gonna join any clubs post-vsu i'm sure it ouldnt be too much more expensive.

The financial statements for the USU are up on their website. Don't know about whatever university you go to, but it should be available somewhere. Basically, significant amounts of the money goes toward services that are used by a small number of persons but have large costs, like childcare. At USYD, expenditure on clubs is somehting like 500k out of about 30M, and parties etc. is about 100K, if I recall correctly. Could be wrong, but either way most of the things that the unions claim will be lost if VSU is introduced are the popular items which tend to be quite low expenditure. Claims that union buildings etc. wouldn't exist are pretty much BS, since they generate large amounts of rent for the union (at usyd at least).

 

[Xayma]

Rorix, or any other USYD'er can you find where the $55.45 listed as for cleaning, repairs and renovations fits in the financial report. The only thing I can find is under Admin which handles cleaning (page 17) yet that only amount to $452 663.

Edit: Listed as $2.8M on page 2. But I cant find those figures elsewhere.

What I love is that another $1.8M was held for future refurbishments and maintenance (love how we pay for this and they get rid of life membership).

 

[frog12986]

Of course there is an ideological element driving the policy. However, who can really protest against it on the grounds of freedom of speech and the like..
Universities constantly promote their own leftist agenda and any differing viewpoints tend to be frowned upon.

Maquarie University is a perfect example of this situation with their removal of any affiliation with the highly contraversial Asso. Professor Fraser. Although the majority of people 'may' not agree with his viewpoints, he has every right to promote them without compromising his position at the university. This type of agenda and subsequent 'gagging' is evident throughout the vast majority of universities in NSW. This directly contradicts the 'university ideal' of freedom of speech and thought, as well as many of the leftist approaches to the majority of social issues.

How many people write 'left-leaning' essays in subjects such as sociology and the like, to merely please the marker?

 

[Not-That-Bright]

We have a situation now where students are making net benefits from the losses of others. Student A pays $100, but only gets a benefit of $50 - due to this, Student B who paid $100 also can get a benefit of $150.

That's the only way that I can concieve for people to gain some sort of net benefit from being a part of the union (of course we have to also remember the SRC takes a large chunk for its self, and the rest of the beaurocracy).

We have a situation where distance ed students... are obviously being totally ripped off by the system. They pay, equal ammounts of money, and they get NO benefit (or very minor), this means that others can gain a very large benefit.

This is not a system that is drawn down "fairness" either, it's not like it's only the poor, those who could not do without taking from the benefits of the others are the only ones benefiting.

Either - The system needs major reforms,
OR
VSU needs to be implimented.

VSU is not the scrapping of unions, it is a compromise to make it voluntary to join the union. The VSU legislation was announced two years ago, and what has the union done to prove we don't need VSU? Not a damn thing.

 

[katie_tully]

We can work out everybodys financial expectation. Except I failed that part in maths

 

[frog12986]

We have a situation now where students are making net benefits from the losses of others. Student A pays $100, but only gets a benefit of $50 - due to this, Student B who paid $100 also can get a benefit of $150.

That's the only way that I can concieve for people to gain some sort of net benefit from being a part of the union (of course we have to also remember the SRC takes a large chunk for its self, and the rest of the beaurocracy).

We have a situation where distance ed students... are obviously being totally ripped off by the system. They pay, equal ammounts of money, and they get NO benefit (or very minor), this means that others can gain a very large benefit.

This is not a system that is drawn down "fairness" either, it's not like it's only the poor, those who could not do without taking from the benefits of the others are the only ones benefiting.

Either - The system needs major reforms,
OR
VSU needs to be implimented.

VSU is not the scrapping of unions, it is a compromise to make it voluntary to join the union. The VSU legislation was announced two years ago, and what has the union done to prove we don't need VSU? Not a damn thing.

NTB said it all..

 

[leetom]

Either - The system needs major reforms,
OR
VSU needs to be implimented.

Option one please, in order to preserve essential services but cancel funding of political activity. University political activity will remain as the major parties will begin funding their university wings.

 

[Comrade nathan]

Alexander Mustafa, the former NOLS head at USYD, even once commented that I was more dangerous than the entire Liberal Students movement at our university, because I stood as an independent and advocated a movement away from the collectives the SRC is built on.

So basically you're Darth Vader.

Student A pays $100, but only gets a benefit of $50 - due to this, Student B who paid $100 also can get a benefit of $150.

Union funds are not a still sytem. Your not actually stealing someones money if you use that money and some chooses not to.

I argee with reform and the removing of funding of some political activity, to keep and improve the funding of of essential services and social programs. Though even in this system people will be paying for things like childcare but may never use them. I don't have a problem with this as it should be use what you need.

What really needs to happen with the unions is more bureaucrat control, to keep fees low, but essential services up.

 

[walrusbear]

We have a situation now where students are making net benefits from the losses of others. Student A pays $100, but only gets a benefit of $50 - due to this, Student B who paid $100 also can get a benefit of $150.

That's the only way that I can concieve for people to gain some sort of net benefit from being a part of the union (of course we have to also remember the SRC takes a large chunk for its self, and the rest of the beaurocracy).

We have a situation where distance ed students... are obviously being totally ripped off by the system. They pay, equal ammounts of money, and they get NO benefit (or very minor), this means that others can gain a very large benefit.

This is not a system that is drawn down "fairness" either, it's not like it's only the poor, those who could not do without taking from the benefits of the others are the only ones benefiting.

Either - The system needs major reforms,
OR
VSU needs to be implimented.

VSU is not the scrapping of unions, it is a compromise to make it voluntary to join the union. The VSU legislation was announced two years ago, and what has the union done to prove we don't need VSU? Not a damn thing.

not really
it's a very short sighted and heavy handed policy that does more damage than good
agree that the unions need major reforms
VSU doesn't do anything productive - essentially i can only see it damaging the quality of tertiary education in the country