Privatisation threat to student organisations

BY BARNARD BUSOOA

The University of Western Sydney Bankstown Students' Association has recently been informed by the university admnistration that it will soon cease to exist. It will become part of a centralised entity partly owned by the university administration.

If this happens, the university administration can threaten the students' association with a perfectly legal withdrawal of funding whenever students get too restless. What a wonderful way of taking over student services and facilities, and profiting from them at the expense of students.

This is "voluntary student unionism" introduced by stealth. VSU legislation, introduced in a few states and proposed nationally, prevents student activities fees from being student controlled. After huge anti-VSU protests a few years ago, university administrations have learned not to take student activists and a concerned community head on.

The ultimatum to the association took place while students were on holidays. The final changes will be made when students are on their winter break. This is how the administration keeps the community in the dark.

The end result of this for Bankstown will be the destruction of the campus community, and the withdrawal of many student-funded activities within it. Instead, the profits will go to funding a miniature profit-making corporation which will take student fees and administer them as the university administration sees fit.

More seriously than that, if more universities copy the example, these changes could spell the end of politically independent student organisations that contribute to community struggles and criticise powerful institutions.

Without the resources to campaign on community issues, many groups would lose much needed funding. The university student association has always campaigned for free education.

Like the UWS administration, the federal Coalition government now plans to take this away by removing political student organisations. It has VSU legislation pending as part of the higher education package before the Senate.

This is only one step in the removal of student resistance to the idea of privatisation on a number of levels. Independent student organisations pose a real threat to PM John Howard's privatisation agenda. The defeat of student organisations is an important step to the destruction of community resistance.

From Green Left Weekly, September 10, 2003.

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From GLW issue 553