Lot's Wife Edition 8 2013

STUDENT AFFAIRS
too. Lastly, a huge congratulations to Thomas
Green and Declan Murphy who were recently
elected as your Education (Public Affairs)
Officers for 2014 - we know they will do a
brilliant job and we can’t wait to see them get
started! Sarah and John xx
Environment & Social Justice:
Rory Knight & Tamara Vekich
Seeing as this is the last report from us, we
want to thank all those who were involved
with ESJ this year and to encourage you all to
continue pursuing your passions for environmental
and social justice issues. Every little
bit of individual effort will ensure progress
continues, whether it’s signing a petition,
volunteering for a cause, or organising a movement
yourself! We are looking at wrapping
up this semester by perhaps organising a trip
to the Tarkine rainforest in Tasmania, which
is threatened by logging exploitation. If you
are interested, give us a shout! In other news
we have finished our cooking nights and will
be hopefully continuing at Wholefoods next
year too. If you are looking for causes to get
involved in or inspired by for the summer or
next year, drop us a line! Good luck for exams
and have a productive summer!
Male Queer: Asher Cameron
Queer Affairs Committee elections were
on last week and I would like to congratulate
the 6 elected committee members for 2014!
Good luck during your term!!
Recently I’ve been continuing work with
Monash Equity and Diversity Centre on the
Ally Network pilot program, attending and
organizing the student panel and assisting with
the training package being offered to staff. For
those who don’t know, the Ally Network is an
education program for (primarily) staff to make
the university a more inclusive and supportive
place for queer students by making academic
and professional staff more knowledgeable
about queer issues and making queer allies more
visible on campus. The project will continue
into next year with the year pilot coming to an
end in September next year. After a (hopefully)
successful evaluation, the program will be
rolled out across more faculties in future years.
I have also been liaising with Monash
Abroad to write a sexuality and gender presentation
for exchange students arriving in Australia
as well as Australian students departing
for overseas study. This will be introduced into
pre-departure programs in the next few weeks
and then rolled out into other sessions over
the next few months. Hopefully this will make
more queer students feel supported by Monash
University.
Thanks for a fantastic year, all the best to
Freddie in 2014!
Female Queer: Cam Peter
The MSA Queer Dept. has had an exciting
year. We’ve organised and run some of the most
well attended Queer Week and Queer Balls in
recent history, we’ve fundraised and sent record
amount of attendees to Queer Collaborations
and are looking forward to hosting Queer Collaborations
next year.
Perhaps the achievement I am most proud
of, and one that is the most significant, is the
way our collective has grown and has come
to reflect the much greater diversity of our
community. We have successfully organised
a TISGD (Trans, Intersex, Sex and Gender
Diverse Caucus), as well as Dyques (a queer
women’s social group). This is in addition to
the forums, workshops, discussion groups and
resources we continue to provide to our collective,
and provide spaces for voices of our most
marginalized groups to be heard.
Next week is Asexuality Awareness
Week and the MSA Queer Dept. is hosting an
‘Asexuality 101 + Mythbusting’ workshop in
the Queer Lounge from 1pm. We hope to see
you there!
Welfare: Alexandra Bryant
Hi all! Sitting down to write my last report for
Lot’s is odd. A while back the department was
a part of R U OK? Day and of course as always
Free Food Mondays has run every week, well
except the week of the power outage that is.
With the final go in Week 12 planned to be a
bit more special than usual. I have to thank all
of the volunteers who have helped me week
to week, from the every week volunteers that
have helped all year to my fellow OBs who
have helped me out of tight spots.
The other semester long project has been
the NUS Student Mental Health Survey which
is aiming to get current data about the state of
students minds. It talks a couple of minutes to
fill out but every entry is more valuable knowledge,
you can fill it out online at: https://docs.
google.com/forms/d/1Qufi0vCWcxYH2Pbm_
yuknt5P3uixX1CxZXXv0N37EuE/viewform
I think the only thing I have left to say
is that if you need anything during the more
stressful period of exams, the door to the welfare
Office is always open.
That was a lie the last thing I have to say
is good luck to next year’s Welfare officers Paul
and Sarah who have amazing plans for next
year and who I know will do an amazing job.
Women’s Department: Edith Shephard &
Sally-Anne Jovic
The Women’s Department is slowing down
as we get towards the end of the semester,
and starting to prepare for next year. We’re
currently finishing off our Trigger Warnings
campaign, working with next year’s Women’s
Officers Edie and Zoe, and doing some housekeeping
activities to make the Department and
the Women’s Room all the better for next year.
As we’re currently in the planning stages of
next year’s activities, so we are looking for ideas
and suggestions for events, campaigns, and
activities, as well as volunteers! If you have any
ideas or want to get involved, please email us at
msa-womens@monash.edu.
Activities: Amy Clyne & Eliza Gale
For our final Activities report of 2013, we’d like
to reflect on how our department has grown,
and had much fun along the way! From Surfin’
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 8 • 2013
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