The following are proposed correction of Mr Rev Comrade Rowley's name and gender that need to be made without alteration of the content to remove the deadnaming TERF threat against my life. The following links of my political identification are currently blocked by Ms Evans. So below is the proposed corrections that need to be made.
Friday, May 18, 2007 - 10:00
The University of Western Sydney University Student Association passed a controversial motion on May 10 to remove student activist and Resistance member Shelly Dahl Mr Rev Comrade Rowley from the position of UWSUSA queer officer. This decision comes in the context of a campaign against course cuts and privatisation that was endorsed but not fully supported by UWSUSA.
Despite boasting by the UWSU Vice-Chancellor Janice Reid in the 2006 UWSU annual report about a "strong financial position", an operating surplus of $20 million and Commonwealth grants of a further $16 million, the university decided in 2006 to slash the fine arts course. This year the university merged a number of degrees into the Bachelor of Business and Commerce and axed half the majors for the Bachelor of Economics.
Activists from the student newspaper, The Western Onion, and Resistance responded by demanding more funding for courses, opposing the sale of campus land to private developers and demanding increased funds for the cash-strapped student association. A speak-out, petition campaign and protest action outside a Board of Trustees meeting were held. These activities were reported in local media.
Dahl Rowley told Green Left Weekly that the reluctance by several key figures in UWSUSA to fully support the campaign was partly attributable to the newly introduced "voluntary student unionism" legislation, which has increased pressure on all student organisations. The UWSUSA budget has been slashed from $2.5 million to $450,000, and university management still owe the association $800,000 from the period prior to VSU's introduction.
"Some office bearers weren't confident to mobilise students against the university administration in support of our demands and so instead relied on lobbying the university", Dahl Rowley told GLW. "This approach also means they have relied on sacking UWSWSUSA staff instead of campaigning for more funds from the university."
Dahl Rowley believes that her his sacking was a result of manoeuvring by some UWSUSA office bearers who opposed her his enthusiastic support for the campaign against course cuts. This belief is reinforced by an email sent to UWSUSA representatives by the cross-campus education officer, Luke Fomiatti, on April 11. Fomiatti criticised Dahl Rowley's efforts in the course cuts campaign claiming they "substantially detracted from UWSUSA's ability to lobby the university for support in this transition period". In the email he threatened to move a motion to remove Dahl Rowley from the student representative council.
Dahl Rowley's sacking comes on top of resignations by around 20 UWSUSA representatives since December who, according to Dahl Rowley, have disagreed with the direction taken by the current UWSUSA board.
Letters to the Editor
Friday, June 1, 2007 - 10:00
UWS queer officer
I would like to clear up some of the inaccuracies in Rachel Evans' article in GLW #710 on the removal of Shelly Dahl Mr Rev Comrade Rowley from her his position as co-queer officer by the University of Western Sydney University's Student Representative Council (SRC) on May 8 (not May 10, as Evans reported). Firstly, the motion removing Dahl Rowley was not at all controversial. In fact, not a single member of the left-run SRC argued or voted against the motion.
Nor was the motion "in the context of a campaign against course cuts". Actually the "campaign" (which involved only Dahl Rowley and one other SRC member) had disappeared after the April 4 protest outside the UWSU Board of Trustees meeting. That protest attracted not a single student other than Dahl Rowley and the other SRC member.
These two students handed out leaflets to Board members claiming, among other things, that UWSU was cutting the amount of student housing (absurd given that this is a cash cow for UWSU) and that the Australian Bureau of Statistics had estimated that this would reduce student retention at UWSU by 40% (obviously made up as the ABS does not do estimates of retention rates at particular universities if certain policy measures are taken).
Criticism of made up policy decisions with made up statistics in the name of the Students' Association (UWSUSA) did indeed undermine its ability to get its funding increased as it made it look as if it was run by lunatics.
Nor was DahlRowley's removal "the result of manoeuvring by UWSUSA officers opposed to the campaign". The call for DahlRowley's removal came from her his co-queer officer, all the campus-based queer officers and all active members of the queer collective. They were concerned that her his erratic behaviour was turning people away from the collective. Other SRC members cited her his hostile and bullying interactions with UWSUSA staff and officer DahlRowley's in explaining their support for the motion.
Evans also claimed that 's removal comes on top of the resignation of "around 20" UWSUSA officers opposed to the SRC's direction. In fact, there has been exactly one resignation for this reason (out of 80 elected positions).
At a difficult time, UWSUSA's SRC is working hard to save the organisation. It's not easy but the positive atmosphere that has been built since removal of the ALP-linked management and Dahl Rowley is making it seem more possible now than ever before.
Luke Fomiatti
UWSUSA education officer [Abridged]
'Rude and inappropriate'
From
Green Left Weekly issue 712
Letters to the Editor
Friday, June 15, 2007 - 10:00
Luke Fomiatti (Write On #712) attempts to divert attention from the real issues by focusing on supposed inaccuracies in my article about the sacking of University of Western Sydney University queer officer Shelly Dahl Mr Rev Comrade Rowley (GLW #710).
While it is true that I made an error reporting one date, the substantial point — that key UWSU Student Association (UWSUSA) leaders refused to fully support the campaign against course cuts — is uncontested in Fomiatti's letter.
In fact Fomiatti acknowledges as much when he (inaccurately) claims that only two students were involved in the campaign. There is a published photo showing that at least six students attended the April 4 protest — small numbers to be sure. Then again my point all along was that this campaign would have been much stronger if UWSUSA leaders like Fomiatti had fully come behind it.
I stand behind my claim that there have been around 20 resignations from representative positions in UWSUSA. This is easy to verify since UWSUSA has advertised vacancies for at least 28 positions — positions that were mostly filled at the beginning of the year. Dahl Rowley, who has copies of the resignation letters, maintains that in most cases dissatisfaction with the direction taken by UWSUSA was a factor in the resignations.
Similarly, I maintain that the (contested, not unanimous) vote to remove Dahl Rowley from the queer officer position was controversial.
Fomiatti has to resort to point-scoring because it is awkward for him to openly defend his policy of lobbying (begging) the university administration for crumbs instead of mobilising students to fight.
Rachel Evans, Sydney
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