VP's and Officers, SR & CC

Within the UQU, there are a further NUM elected roles, with 6 comprising the rest of the T9 alongside the President, Secretary, and Treasurer. This section comprises the end-of-year reports from these elected roles.

Campus Culture (Campus Culture, Clubs & Societies) Student Rights (Academic Rights, Welfare) Women and Queer

Student rights

Hi! I’m Samara and I have been UQ Union’s Vice President for Academic Student Rights this year! It’s been a pleasure representing students this year, heavily collaborating with SAS (Student Advocacy and Support) and offering academic and financial support to the best of the Union’s ability.

My largest focus this year has been upscaling the ‘Placement Bursaries’ offered to students struggling financially while completing compulsory placements. Compared to previous years, this year we were able to give out $45k+ to over 95 students which is a huge increase. Ideally, I’d love to see this initiative continue to expand in future as the number of applications alone (170+ across 3 rounds) is demonstrative of a sincere need for this service. Other financial support has also been offered in the form of the ‘Accessible Academic Grant’ – a service whereby students can apply for the Union to purchase academic essentials (i.e. textbooks, materials, uniforms, etc) if they are struggling financially.

Another major component to this role is the representative aspect. Advocating for students’ interests in board/committee settings, as well as extensive engagement with academic and administrative staff outside of such meetings has been crucial to not only presenting the interests of the student body on potential academic policy changes, but also important in understanding the achievability of policy election promises within the scope of the Union. For example, while changing the structure of placements would be ideal to alleviate stress from students, placement requirements are usually set by institutions external to the university – making it hard for UQU to affect policy change. As such, financial assistance is the next best optio Samara n. Paradine

Campus Culture

The C&S department, which includes the Vice President Campus Culture (Clubs and Societies), C&S Manager (Emily) and C&S Administrator (Prasidhi), make up one of the biggest portfolios in UQ Union. At its core, it serves as the basis for student engagement activities, whilst providing resources and support for all UQU-affiliated student-run clubs and societies at UQ. As of 2022, there are over 220 UQU-affiliated clubs and societies at the University of Queensland, with a total current total membership of all UQU clubs and societies at nearly 40,000. Fundamentally, as part of my role as Vice President Campus Culture (Clubs & Societies), I am delegated general responsibility for overseeing the C&S department on behalf of the UQ Union Council. I act as the chair of the C&S Committee, which meets monthly to discuss policy development, allocation of subsidies and disciplining of affiliated bodies.

Vice President (Student Rights)

Some highlights of my term include running clubs conference in person after a 2-year online hiatus, the ‘Clubs Spotlight’ videos highlighting the fantastic clubs of C&S and two very successful market days. Further, the development of the ‘grant by application scheme’ to enrich, support and advance the C&S student experience. We were also able to organise an activities day for C&S executives, to foster and nurture an inclusive and engaging student community and facilitate networking.

Outside of C&S, I’ ve been able to advocate for the acknowledgement and advancement of student representation and services at The Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE). I presented a motion to the UQU council which outlined a regulation and constitutional change to take effect with the success of a referendum. The motion was successful, fundamentally changing the structure of UQU to encompass PACE and the needs of students in the expanding precinct. As interim PACE officer, I’ ve worked with the current UQU student executive and QPSA (Queensland Pharmacy Students’ Association)

Rheanna Norris

Vice President (Campus Culture) to give out free microwavable meals, fruit, muesli bars and red bull to students during SWOT-VAC and look forward to the continuation of this role next year and beyond.

Overall, It has been a pleasure to serve as part of the UQU student executive this year and I feel very privileged to have been able to represent both my pharmacy constituents and the wider student community. I have met so many incredible, lifelong friends in C&S, and truly encourage anyone to take that leap of faith and join one (or many!) of the incredible clubs and societies here at UQ!

Turbot st. (Herston) officers

This is Trisha Harijatna and Sachita Dahal tuning in as your Turbot St Officers. We are the UQ dentistry representatives with an outdated name that works with the UQ union (that as of September 2022 will be changed to Herston officers).

As the nominated turbot street officers, we started the year with a few goals. We wanted to increase the UQU presence at the Herston campus to help Herston students feel more supported in their studies. We also wanted to add a vending machine in the Oral Health Centre so students could access some food and drink options outside of hours.

In semester one, we negotiated with the school, and we obtained approval for a vending machine which was placed in time for the start of semester two. We also held our first midday munchies which were successful. During exam block, we handed out frozen meals and bubble tea. This was also a success; students felt more supported by the UQU and could see their presence around the campus.