University of Western Australia Student Guild

UWA Student Guild

Full name	University of Western Australia Guild of Undergraduates
Founded	1913
Affiliation	National Union of Students (NUS)
Key people	Maddie Mulholland (President)
Office location	Perth, Western Australia
Country	Australia
Website	uwastudentguild.com

The UWA Student Guild is the official student representative body at the University of Western Australia, representing the interests of students to the university, government and the wider community, as well as providing services to students. The Guild's published mission is to be Western Australia's leading campus student representative organisation.

Background

The UWA Student Guild is the premier student representative body at the University of Western Australia. The vision of the UWA Student Guild is to be Australia's leading campus student representative organisation.

The Guild provides a number of services, and is instrumental in promoting and sustaining student life on campus. The Guild runs a number of activities including Prosh, Orientation Day (O-Day), End of Semester Shows and other major campus events. Guild Departments and Subsidiary Councils run other events, such as Multicultural Week and Spring Feast (run by the International Student Services department), Club Carnival (run by the Societies Council) and the PAC Pop-Up series of performances (run by the Public Affairs Council).

The Guild also supports and assists a network of more than 100 affiliated clubs and societies on campus, catering to a very wide range of interests (religious, theatrical, cultural etc.). The Guild also runs the majority catering outlets on campus, including the Tavern, as well as a second-hand bookshop and a volunteering centre. For most of the organisation's existence, it maintained a monopoly in on-campus catering, although in 2012, the first three independent catering outlets were introduced.

The Guild's Student Centre provides one-on-one academic advocacy, as well as financial counselling and interest-free loans.

Guild Council is the overall governing body of the Guild and consists of 23 voting members democratically elected at the annual Guild elections. The current Guild President is Maddie Mulholland, who took office on 1 December 2015.

Former Guild Presidents include notable figures such as former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, former federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley and former Health Minister and Attorney General of Western Australia Jim McGinty.

Annual elections

Student representatives are elected to their positions by students in annual elections held in September. Elections are conducted by the Western Australian Electoral Commission. Both independent and party candidates run in the elections, with the historical bias leaning towards grouped members becoming elected. Elected office bearers take office as of 1 December in the year they are elected.

The 2015 Elections took place from 21 to 24 September 2015, and were for the 103nd Guild Council. Five parties contested the 2015 elections: STAR, Launch, Left Action, United College Kids and The Birthday Party, as well as one independent.

Racism Controversy

100th Guild President Cameron Barnes caused significant controversy when he approved a racist article in the annual charity "Prosh" paper. The article, "dream-time horoscopes" lead to a public relations disaster for the Guild, with major charity beneficiary ICEA withdrawing support from the paper. President Barnes immediately back flipped on the decision, claiming he was not responsible, despite having personally reviewed and approved the paper.

Missing Money

In May 2014 the Guild hired audit and tax firm BDO to investigate financial irregularities in the Guild's 2013 accounts, which found about $870,000 had been misappropriated.

Based on the initial findings of that investigation, a staff member was dismissed for serious misconduct.

Guild structure

The Guild is administered by a council of student representatives elected for one-year terms at the annual elections. There are twenty voting members of council, and several more non-voting members. Members may hold a voting and a non-voting role concurrently. Unlike some other campus unions, there is no financial compensation for student representatives, with the exception of the President who works at the Guild full-time during their term. The following list shows the Councillors and Officer Bearers elected at the 2015 Guild Elections (with the exception of the Vice President, Chair and Secretary of the Guild who were elected at the first Council meeting on 1 December 2015):

Guild Executive
Name	Position	Ticket (when elected)
Maddie Mulholland	Guild President	STAR
Charlie Viska	Guild Vice President	STAR
Michael Kabondo	Guild Secretary	STAR
Tom Burke	Guild Treasurer	STAR
Subsidiary Council Presidents
Name	Position	Ticket (when elected)
Jack Looby	Societies Council President	STAR
Emma Boogaerdt	Education Council President	STAR
Megan Lee	Public Affairs Council President	STAR
Ordinary Guild Councillors
Name	Position	Ticket (when elected)
Stephanie Munro	Ordinary Guild Councillor	Launch
Jacky Chiang	Ordinary Guild Councillor	ISL
Chad Bensky	Ordinary Guild Councillor	STAR
Joanne Lim	Ordinary Guild Councillor	ISL
Julian Coleman	Ordinary Guild Councillor	STAR
Nick Brown	Ordinary Guild Councillor	Left Action
Brad Forbes	Ordinary Guild Councillor	STAR
Jesse Martino	Ordinary Guild Councillor	STAR
Ben Martin	Ordinary Guild Councillor	Launch
Jessica Porter-Langson	Ordinary Guild Councillor	STAR
Other Voting Members
Name	Position	Ticket (when elected)
Laura Mwiragua	Women's Affairs Officer	STAR
Lucy Moyle	Chair of Guild Council	STAR
Peter Derbyshire	Postgraduate Students' Association President	N/A
Kenneth Foo	International Students Officer	ISL
Other Non-Voting Members
Name	Position	Ticket (when elected)
Julian Coleman	Senate Representative	STAR
Lizzy O'Shea	Immediate Past President	STAR
Emily Law	Welfare Officer	STAR
Dennis Venning	Environment Officer	STAR
Torey Rickerby	Sports Representative	STAR
National Union of Students Delegates
Name	Position	Ticket (when elected)
Charlie Viska	NUS Delegate	STAR
Emma Boogaerdt	NUS Delegate	STAR
Emma Norton	NUS Delegate	Left Action
Alex Hamilton	NUS Delegate	STAR
Lizzy O'Shea	NUS Delegate	STAR
Liam Staltari	NUS Delegate	Launch
Tom Beyer	NUS Delegate	STAR