Chris Peterson, Melbourne
On May 15, 200 students rallied outside a university council meeting at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to protest against RMIT's decision to cut funding to the student union.
RMIT plans to cut funding to the union by 50%. "RMIT has guaranteed $900,000 for the union this semester, but as an organisation that normally has a budget of a few million dollars, this is woefully inadequate", said Zaine Bulot, the RMIT Student Union's city campus coordinator. "Our demands to RMIT are: full funding for the student union, full autonomy of the union and student control of clubs and societies, activities and student services."
After the meeting, RMIT agreed to allow the student union to remain autonomous and to keep its reserve funds. "This is a small victory", said Bulot. "Thanks to student pressure we were able to keep our hard-won reserves. However, the student union is still heavily dependent on university funding, so we need to keep up the fight."
Campaign meetings to save the RMIT Student Union are being held every Thursday at 6pm at the Student Union Meeting Room, building 12, level 4, near the Hub at the RMIT city campus. For more information, phone Emily on 0412 939 183.
From Green Left Weekly, May 24, 2006.
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