UMSU elections 2016: what you need to know
This week is student election week, and if you’re a UniMelb student, you’re entitled to vote for a panoply of elected positions up for grabs at the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU).
If you’re looking for us to paint a real picture of the week ahead, here is our rundown on what you actually want to know.
We’ve only got 12 pages in the print version of paper, so we’ve kept our summaries to headlines: we’ve got a survey of the factions contesting multiple officebearer positions; a guide to how preferencing works. Since you’re reading the online version, make sure you check out our full rundown of tickets contesting the elections.
Not sure how to vote? Practice voting online with our practise voting tool. It includes all the candidate statements (in a supremely easy to access fashion), and you can print out your preferences to take in to vote.
Our main election website gathers all of our election coverage in one place, so you get all the news as it comes in, and can also catch up with things like our full ticket-by-ticket rundown published two weeks ago.
Not a member of UMSU and so don’t care? Think again.
The University collects the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) from all local students: in 2016, that was $290 (for a full time student), of which about $90 went to UMSU. The University also recognises UMSU as a representative for students, which means that it takes the view that UMSU can speak for you, so you should make sure it says what you want it to.
(The University also sets aside an “equivalent to SSAF” amount from international student fees, so even if you’re an international student and don’t have a “SSAF” line-item on your statement of fees, you still pay.)
The fact you paid doesn’t mean you have to vote — far from it; unlike most Australian elections, voting is not compulsory — but it does mean that you have a vested interest in what UMSU does, so consider your options carefully.
Where next?
Read more at our full election coverage page.