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Student unionism in Australia "on brink of extinction"

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John McVey

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In Australia there are no fraternities or sororities in universities (almost all of which are public institutions). All that exists, besides a few small national bodies, is the local student union, in which membership was compulsory until recently. This is simply known as Compulsory Student Unionism, CSU for short.

The membership fee, of the order of $US200 though varying from uni to uni, is billed to you at the start of each year or semester as part of your signing up for courses. The university then forwards the money to the local student union, whose leadership is elected late in the prior year by the entire student body (the participation rate in these elections is historically around 10%). The union council then takes petitions from students to fund this or that students' social club, plus pays for various campus services. These disbursements include for overtly political organisations and campaigns.

As you might have guessed, many of the destinations for these funds have long been a source of anger. People were rightly incensed that they are required by law to fund things they may have outright objections to. The formal name of the alternative is as simple as CSU: Voluntary Student Unionism, VSU for short. Explaining to Objectivists why VSU is superior to CSU is unnecessary, so I wont bother preaching to the choir.

There have been pushes to change this to Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) for years. On a state level it has been in and out of existence a few times, while at the national level it started in 2006, coming into effect at the start of 2007. One year on, the very existence of some unions is now under threat. At the moment the threats are limited to small regional campuses with low student numbers, but since the participation rate in the elections for these unions is historically around 10% and that student unions are generally not highly regarded in the general public I think the extinction would widen to the whole lot over time, if matters were left to take their own course. I do hope that this really is the beginning of the end for these damn organisations, but I imagine that one of the things the kRudd krew will do is change the legislation back to CSU (or worse) just as the activists are campaigning for.

JJM

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