By Maureen Robinson, The Fulcrum (University of Ottawa)

ADELAIDE, Australia (CUP)— During my undergraduate
years at the University of Ottawa, the Student Federation of the
University of Ottawa (SFUO) and its functions were faced with
plenty of criticism and opposition. Much discussion centred on
student fees—where they went, how they were used, and who had
‘authority over them. Overall, student life was good and my time
on campus was enriched by the plethora of student services freely
available.

On any day, I could use either of the two gymnasiums, pick up
a copy of the Fulcrum or La Rotonde, meet up with friends at the
campus bar, browse through books at the the bookstore, or drop in
at the Peer Help Centre.

I always paid my student fees—both student union
and administration-based—at the start of every year a little
begrudgingly but without a second thought. Student union
membership is a universal constant, after all—right? Imagine
my surprise when, upon commencing graduate studies at the
University of Adelaide in Australia, I was offered the option of
joining the student union for a mere $20. My first thought was: I
have a choice in the matter?

Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) was introduced to
Australia in 2007 by the right-wing federal coalition government
under former prime minister John Howard. VSU legislation
explicitly forbids Australian universities from requiring a student
to: a) be a member of a student association, union, or guild; or b)
pay a compulsory fee for facilities, amenities, or services that are
not of an academic nature.

“Universities were broadly opposed to it because now they’re
having to pay for student services out of teaching and learning
funds,” said Lavinia Emmett-Grey, president of the Adelaide
University Union (AUU) and VSU opponent. “It passed by a small
margin in the [university] senate.

“There were protests,” she continued, “but they didn’t work
well enough. The [right-wing] youth movement was strong at that
time, running counter protests and claiming that compulsory fees
were an unnecessary tax on students. They claimed that if you
never have to need a welfare office, why should you have to pay?”

The effect on student recreational, social, and cultural
activities was immediate and devastating, with $167 million
stripped from Australian student unions and over a thousand jobs
lost. Impacts ranged from slashed funding for interuniversity
sports clubs and campus media to the shutting down of child-care
services, locker facilities, educational assistance offices, emergency
loan programs, food banks, resource centres, and dozens of other
services on each campus formerly supported by student fees.

Kim Dowling, a member of the AUU board, remembers the
pre-VSU era when all students paid a mandatory $350 AUD per
semester for student fees.

“This fee went to the Students Association of the University
of Adelaide (SAUA), [which] then distributed it in order to provide
student services on campus,” she said.

The current AUU is similar to the University of Ottawa’s
Board of Administration, while the SAUA was more like the
SFUO.

In 2007, VSU changed all that.

“Anyone who didn’t have to pay a student services fee no
longer did. In the immediate aftermath, it stripped approximately
$4 million from the SAUA and forced a restructure of the services

(Pent

offered by the Union,” said Dowling.

“For me personally, I didn’t really notice the effects on
anything until I went to get a bunch of t-shirts printed, only to find
that the printing store had been closed. In fact, a whole bunch of
stuff I was used to walking past was missing,” she continued.

“And when I started enquiring about the Rainbow Room—our
queer space—I learned that it [is] pretty much remained locked and
unused now; no one to look after it, therefore no club using it. And
I had no idea of what was going on until I needed the help of an
education welfare officer. In fact, most students had no idea. It all
happened so quickly.”

“2006 was the last year that editors were paid,” recalled Steph
Walker, co-editor of On Dit, the campus newspaper, now in its 76th
year of publication. “On Dit was also a weekly publication. It is
now [biweekly]—a terrible loss, as it was only one of two student
publications that printed weekly. On Dit dropped from [a] tabloid-
sized to a magazine-sized publication.

“The desire to be editor was also stunted significantly. For the
first time in many years, only one team [member] raised their hand
for the role, and that repeated in 2007, 2008, and 2009.”

In 2006, anticipating the implementation of VSU, the AUU
board voted to defund the SAUA.

“Consequently,” said Dowling, “the SAUA, and all of the
student advocacy it was responsible for, collapsed. The AUU
managed to keep all of the essential services running.”

The next year, the AUU secured a funding agreement with the
university in return for handing over most of the AUU’s bargaining
chips—the student centre and the catering facilities (several cafés
and a bar) were relinquished from student control and came under
the university’s authority.

While Australia’s current federal government is attempting to
repeal VSU (an election promise from late 2007) and amend the
nature of compulsory non-academic fees, the bill has been stalled
in the federal Senate.

Emmett-Grey remains an outspoken opponent of VSU.

“The campus is such a desert compared to what is used to be.
It’s such a wasteland. It’s the campus culture that’s been the most
affected,” she said. “The clubs and sports have been decimated,
especially on the rural campuses because it costs so much more,
due [to] the costs of transport . . . [VSU] is slowly killing campus
culture.”

VSU changed the way student unions were viewed by the
student body — which could be a tough lesson for the Canadian
student unions, some of which students believe do not always act
on student interests. Perhaps a diluted form of VSU—easing the
pain of up to $600 in incidental fees for lower-income students,
while keeping essential student services—could keep student
union executives honest, more accountable, and less confident in
their own untouchable power. While I could never fully advocate
for full VSU in Canada, I think we can learn a lesson from our
Australian counterparts that there is more than one model for
student government.

Post-VSU, Australian student unions have had to work harder
for less reward, and have come under harder scrutiny as student
support services have become scarcer.

“Now, students appreciate that us representatives are working
our asses off,” says Emmett-Grey. “Unless student reps are held to
rigorous standards, they will be resented by students.

“It’s lazy, self-interested student representatives who make
student organizations vulnerable.”

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