Doubts cast on campus election
Bernard Lane
26 October 2005
The Australian
MACQUARIE University's return to student democracy has been called into question by a decision to give free votes to students from a private provider on campus.
"What it means is that one-third of the votes are illegitimate, as far as we can see," said Phil Betts, a student critic of the Macquarie University Students Council team re-elected last week under 2003 president Victor Ma.
MUSC gave free membership, and therefore voting rights, to students from the Sydney Institute of Business and Technology, through which foreign students can gain entry to Macquarie, the institute's business partner.
Scrutineers said votes from SIBT went heavily to the MUSC incumbents. It was unclear when and how these postal votes werechecked against a roll of SIBT students.
After poor management under a previous council, Mr Ma's team took office in 2003, suspended elections last year and oversaw the incorporation of MUSC with a new constitution. Since 2003, a dissident group known as 180 Degrees has complained of a lack of accountability and openness.
Returning officer Tim Morison told the HES there appeared to be a racial element in opposition to Mr Ma. "Sometimes it's [been] possibly a bit racist by those people who don't want `Victor and his Chinese mates' in [office]," he said.
But Karl Grice, a scrutineer who has made a formal complaint about the elections, said this was a furphy.
He said it was the team of Mr Ma, founding president of the Chinese students' society, that had run a targeted campaign, singling out international Chinese students. "Their how-to-vote cards were offering language services, they've been putting a huge focus on migration services," Mr Grice said.
Mr Ma said he had pitched his campaign at all students without distinction. "I wasn't specifically targeting any specific ethnic or non-ethnic group," he said.
He said he had not experienced any racism during the campaign, although there would always be "cultural differences" on a multi-ethnic campus.
The constitution allowed MUSC flexibility in setting membership fees for SIBT students, he said. "It can be $1, it can be zero, it can be $100."
The rules restrict voting in elections to those who have paid their fees. Yet elsewhere the rules define the fee as "the annual fee set by the student council that Macquarie University undergraduate students and SIBT students may pay".
Complaints about the SIBT vote have been dismissed by MrMorison, although he appeared to contradict himself on the issue.
At first he told the HES the constitution allowed free membership for SIBT students.
Later he said he had "sent out statutory declaration forms making SIBT [students] sign that theyhad paid their membership in full".
Macquarie's registrar, Brian Spencer, told the HES the university had no objection to SIBT students being members of MUSC, "provided that they met the normal conditions of membership, which, I understand, includes the payment of a fee. I am unable to identify that clause of the constitution [that] allows free membership of SIBT."
Bernard Lane
26 October 2005
The Australian
MACQUARIE University's return to student democracy has been called into question by a decision to give free votes to students from a private provider on campus.
"What it means is that one-third of the votes are illegitimate, as far as we can see," said Phil Betts, a student critic of the Macquarie University Students Council team re-elected last week under 2003 president Victor Ma.
MUSC gave free membership, and therefore voting rights, to students from the Sydney Institute of Business and Technology, through which foreign students can gain entry to Macquarie, the institute's business partner.
Scrutineers said votes from SIBT went heavily to the MUSC incumbents. It was unclear when and how these postal votes werechecked against a roll of SIBT students.
After poor management under a previous council, Mr Ma's team took office in 2003, suspended elections last year and oversaw the incorporation of MUSC with a new constitution. Since 2003, a dissident group known as 180 Degrees has complained of a lack of accountability and openness.
Returning officer Tim Morison told the HES there appeared to be a racial element in opposition to Mr Ma. "Sometimes it's [been] possibly a bit racist by those people who don't want `Victor and his Chinese mates' in [office]," he said.
But Karl Grice, a scrutineer who has made a formal complaint about the elections, said this was a furphy.
He said it was the team of Mr Ma, founding president of the Chinese students' society, that had run a targeted campaign, singling out international Chinese students. "Their how-to-vote cards were offering language services, they've been putting a huge focus on migration services," Mr Grice said.
Mr Ma said he had pitched his campaign at all students without distinction. "I wasn't specifically targeting any specific ethnic or non-ethnic group," he said.
He said he had not experienced any racism during the campaign, although there would always be "cultural differences" on a multi-ethnic campus.
The constitution allowed MUSC flexibility in setting membership fees for SIBT students, he said. "It can be $1, it can be zero, it can be $100."
The rules restrict voting in elections to those who have paid their fees. Yet elsewhere the rules define the fee as "the annual fee set by the student council that Macquarie University undergraduate students and SIBT students may pay".
Complaints about the SIBT vote have been dismissed by MrMorison, although he appeared to contradict himself on the issue.
At first he told the HES the constitution allowed free membership for SIBT students.
Later he said he had "sent out statutory declaration forms making SIBT [students] sign that theyhad paid their membership in full".
Macquarie's registrar, Brian Spencer, told the HES the university had no objection to SIBT students being members of MUSC, "provided that they met the normal conditions of membership, which, I understand, includes the payment of a fee. I am unable to identify that clause of the constitution [that] allows free membership of SIBT."
