15/10/2021
We're so proud of everything the Reach team has been able to achieve in 2021! It has been a huge year, and we're incredibly grateful that QUT students trusted us to represent them and advocate for their interests. Before we kick off our campaign vision for 2022, we'd like to reflect on a few of the biggest highlights of this year:
🔶 SSAF. This year we increased our SSAF percentage to 20% ($1.535m). Next year we are on track to further increase this to 25%. The money we have received in SSAF has funded a suite of student initiatives and services that make your experience at university better. SSAF money is student money, and it should be spent to benefit you. When Reach first took office in 2019, the Guild received only 3% of the SSAF, and we have fought hard to increase this. If elected, Reach will push increase that allocation to 50%
🔶 Student Markets. We gave students with small businesses the opportunity to promote and sell their products on campus for free as part of our Student Market held along Main Drive last week. Showcasing the talent and entrepreneurial skills of QUT students is something we will continue to do if re-elected.
🔶 Wellfest. The mental health and wellbeing of students suffered significantly last year with COVID and feeling isolated from campus. To help, we ran a 6-week wellbeing festival that focused on financial, social, and mental wellbeing and featured dozens of expert panellists and contributors from around Australia.
🔶 Botanic Bar refurb. We updated the bar's interior with new furniture, lighting and decor to give it a fresh, bright feel! Keep an eye out for some cool new games coming soon!
🔶 Expanded Student Assist. We hired 2 new advocacy officers to support even more students in issues relating to academic misconduct, withdrawal without penalty applications and appeals against exclusion. We also hired a department manager to help identify systemic trends and issues in faculties, so we bring issues to the attention of the university quicker.
🔶 Changed the 0% policy. Successfully lobbied the university to amend the 0% policy! Starting from summer semester this year, students will be able to receive automatic 48 hour 'no documentation required' extensions for all assignments. This can be applied at any point until 48 hours after the original due date. So your computer crashing at 2 minutes to midnight will no longer mean you fail your assignment!
🔶 Prac packs and Sharehouse packs. We know that university can be difficult for students financially, so we put together some free essentials packs to help ease the burden. We gave away 200 share house packs for students moving out of home, including free crockery sets, cutlery, grocery vouchers, and laundry hampers. We also gave away 300 Prac packs for students undertaking compulsory unpaid placement, including a power bank, go-card top-up voucher, grocery voucher, reusable coffee cup, USB, notebook and pen and canvas laptop bag.
🔶 Changes to academic student misconduct. We successfully lobbied the university to change academic student misconduct procedures to ensure they are focused on an educative approach that prioritises student welfare. This will reduce the significant wait times for decisions and remove the adversarial committee system that is currently in place.
🔶 Accessibility Wins. After much lobbying, we secured some big wins for improved accessibility, with closed captioning now automatically provided in all lectures. The library also received an accessibility makeover. There are now low-lighting room options, food free zones and a daily quiet hour from 2-3pm.
🔶 Adulting 101 Throughout the year we have run life skills workshops called Adulting 101 where we’ve got experts in to teach students about budgeting, protesting, investing, renting rights, sustainability and so much more.
If you’d like to continue to see services and events like those described above make sure you vote Reach online on the Monday the 22nd October so we can continue delivering for students in 2022!
