SSA social media blocks student, promises to deliver on election promises
One Swinburne student remains blocked from the new Swinburne Student Association's social media after President Sanara promises to uphold election promises. Genevieve Spiteri and Matthew Parkhill reports.
When mechanical engineering student Blaze Smith commented under the Swinburne Student Association’s Instagram profile, they didn’t mean to point fingers or make anyone’s job any harder. They wanted to know where the SSA was, why no one had heard from them so close to semester start, and how things were going to be run in the new year.
Their questions mirrored those of many clubs who were entering Orientation week without their budgets and little communication from the new administration; a feeling of confusion and exasperated frustration had set in.
Under Blaze's first comment, the SSA issued a short apology but had not answered any questions. Blaze followed it up with another comment.
And then they were blocked.
Formed of a merger between the Student Union and university staff-led Student Life, the SSA has had a tumultuous early run being understaffed and behind schedule, according to emails circulated amongst clubs from CEO Josh Gilligan in February. SSA President Sanara Galhenage said the directors board is working quickly to address concerns, with a ‘town hall’ meeting soon to be announced for students to ask questions.
Sanara, who ran on the Together party ticket—a party formed from SSU members—said the SSA is aware of student’s frustrations but that the SSA is still in its formative months and working hard to deliver election promises. After being contacted last week for comment on Blaze's account, Sanara said they would look into it, however, Blaze remains blocked.
"I was annoyed, because yes I was probably being more aggressive than I should have been, but I’ve been fed up with the lack of communication from the SSA… " Blaze said, recounting their reaction to their Instagram comment.
“I think it’s important that students can voice their concerns on a public platform and it sets a bad precedent that you block the first person that starts asking questions that you don’t like.”
“Considering this is a platform that they ran on transparency and fixing university, how can they do that if they don’t hear people that they don’t like?”
Sanara sits as President on the board of directors, alongside Vice President Tess Robb, four student directors, and three university directors. The board directly communicates with the university, whose three directors work "in the interest of students."
Students should contact SRC office bearers with concerns related to their roles, Sanara said. SRC members relay their findings in meetings with their executive education and welfare officers, who work closely with the Vice President. Strategies are then developed in the SRC for the board to raise to the university.
Some strategies include delivering on Together party election promises, such as expanding student parking and procuring rent relief resources for students in student accommodation on campus, which Sanara says they have not begun discussions over "as of yet" but will begin negotiating "this semester".
“It’s something that we definitely want to work on. I am aware that during the election there were a lot of promises (made), some bigger and some smaller...
"[student parking] is a discussion that needs to be done in collab with the university... [it's] never an easy task… rarely completed in a year, but it's important to have these first steps.”
The full list of promises is on the Together party's Instagram page, along with a number of their member's nomination statements. The new SSA's instagram page is under the tag SSA.swinburne.
Students voted on the board directors and SRC officers in September 2024 in a week-long election. Nominations for candidates were also only open for one week, with information on election rules distributed internally in the Union and through Student Life only two weeks prior, in August.
The Burne contacted clubs for their experiences with the SSA transition. Their responses and club event info are below.
Riley, President of SwinFilm:
“The student life was definitely a flawed system with having to use them as a middle man to get funding from the central funding body at the Uni but what helped was that there was a person I could go to talk about our club events and funding which doesn’t exist anymore - it doesn’t feel like I have anyone to talk to when it comes to issues with setting up the club and in fact it feels slower than before because of how much the SSA has gutted the Student Life staff and failed to hire in time for the semester to start. It definitely affected our club’s transition into the first semester of the year too, I had to wait weeks for a response on the reinstatement of the club and it’s meant I’ve had to start events later into the semester than I had hoped”
Jasper, Treasurer and Ex-President of Swinburne Tabletop Roleplaying Games Club:
“The transition process was unfortunately near non-existent. We were informed by email one day that it was SSL's last day, then 2 days later a similar email from SSA saying that they were behind schedule and understaffed, with little information to offer us. Several clubs, lead by SUSS, sent an email asking for further actions to be taken due to this, and the response was minimal.
SSA's only talking point regarding clubs during the merger election was "increased funding for sports clubs". They have however now announced an "active grant boost" which is marketed as "all clubs are available to get an extra $5k of funding for sem 1". This however isnt the reality, as one of the key restrictions for getting the grant is a club must have "generated $3k or greater in club revenue in 2024". Not only do most clubs at swinburne not have a history of purposefully "generating revenue", but the surprise restriction means that clubs were not made aware of the restriction and given time to generate the revenue. Furthemore, our club has actually had it's funding cut by $600, as they have placed a $6k cap on grant requests, rather than the $6.6k we recieved years prior.”
Students can look forward to thr club's monthly game night at the Elgin inn, for board games fun and discounted food.
Committee Member, Swinburne Game Makers Club:
“The main problem I've had with the SSA so far is that the transitioning period happened at a pretty bad time. While I was planning the IGM for the Game Maker's Club, it would take a while for the clubs team to get back to my emails since they were understaffed. Deadlines were approaching and I was scared that it would be too late by the time they responded.
This transition also evidently caused delays in clubs getting access to funding. The Game Maker's Club has not yet needed to use club funding, however I did go to a picnic run by the Gender Agenda club where they mentioned they could not access the funding to buy food. Food was still provided by members of the club, however it was all paid for out of pocket.
These problems will likely go away in the coming weeks, however I thought it would be worth mentioning the transition because of the panic it caused in such a crucial moment for the club.”
Erin Mayall, (They/Them) Projects Officer Swinburne Association For Accessibility:
The transition was very rough, funding was unable to be supplied to clubs for welcome back week and neither us or staff new anything about how things would change or what it would be like. It took a collective email to the vice chancellor for our concerns to be heard and even then it was only on the 2nd of March that we received information.
The clubs forum was great and I'm glad club hub (q & a for club committee with staff) is back. I'd love to see the SSA hold up the commitments made to students going forward- particularly around transparency and the incorporation and response to student feedback. It's frustrating as a student to give feedback and not get any idea of if it'll have any impact.”
Join us! 5pm Tuesday 25th of March is our movie night. We will be in the top floor of the Junction building (next to Glenferrie Station) with drinks and snacks screening "the theory of everything" a movie about the life of Stephen Hawking.
Communication channels are now open and club administration should be fully functional “by the end of this month," Sanara said.
”In January a lot of clubs were denied reregistration, and I completely empathise with students that are trying to work with their clubs and weren’t hearing anything, but we are up and running now.”
”Operations for students is a bit confusing right now. I would really like to emphasise the point that we are a new organisation and there are a lot of issues with staffing that are being resolved.”
Student representatives should be found at most events and stalls the SSA will hold throughout the year, she said. Otherwise, students should ask board members or the CEO directly at the nearest town hall meeting, the details of which are yet to be released.
While they appreciate the opportunity to meet the board and express their concerns in person or online, Blaze doesn't want to deal in ‘politics’ anymore and just wants clear answers and strategies for improving the campus. They are conflicted on whether or not to attend, whenever details are released.
”I’m conflicted. Part of me wants to go because I am sick of nothing happening at this university,” they said. “This is my sixth year here; I’ve tried in various ways to make the university better for the queer community at Swinburne…”
”It’s kind of like I’ve got nothing left to lose, it’s my last year, I’m done playing politics… I am really frustrated, and I do want to go to this townhall and I hope they tell us (about it) soon.”
To sign up for the SSA's regular updates, students should head to their website here and create their free account. If you have any concerns or queries, make sure to attend the next town hall meeting.
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