Friday, November 22, 2013

How student elections work

Every year there are student union elections. You don't have to participate if you don't want to but it is in your best interest to.

Student elections cater primarily to students. They usually campaign for better things at University .

At RMIT this year about 2285 students out of about 70000-80000 students took part in the student elections. This year only one International student representative was running in the student elections hence no one voted for anyone.

What are you voting for?

You are voting for better conditions at uni so that you can study comfortably without any major hassles.

Each union has about 7-8 departments such as Queer, Womyns, Welfare, Education etc.  At RMIT there are usually two to three different parties. Different parties have different views. Some maybe left wing, whilst others are right wing. It is just like voting for Labor or Liberal in an Australian election.

Most departments at the Union will fight for your rights and many of them run campaigns throughout the year

Are there any departments that cater for International students at University?

The answer is yes. At all the major universities there is some sort of International students department. Here they campaign for better things like Concession cards. You may not know it (or care) but International students are not entitled to concession cards like the local students in Victoria.

Also they offer support and information for International students. Some of them may offer some free or cheap activities to unite all students.

But they are poorly publicized. Usually they are publicized in student magazines and all over campus. But students just walk by.

Some candidates pressure students to vote for them and students will just do it regardless of what they stand for. This is known as misinformed voting.

What are your experiences with student elections? Please comment below or feel free to use Imotiv to leave a comment.

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