Recently, I have had the opportunity to talk to the Curtin Guild Equity Representatives of 2022. As a Grok editor and writer, I asked them questions that were specific to their roles, the issues they would like to address, how we could as students and representatives collectively work together to improve Curtin’s equity issues, and what actions are currently being undertaken. There were 6 equity representative candidates and here is what they have to say.

Interview with Erin Russell – Curtin Guild Women’s officer

1. What does equity mean to you and what is your area of focus?

It’s about recognising the structural oppressions that certain groups face and uniting to challenge those oppressions. Women continue to face barriers like the pay gap and everyday sexism in their lives. In WA we don’t have free, fully accessible abortions. Childcare is expensive and birth control can be a financial burden as well. This all affects women in different ways at different stages of their life. I think the undermining of female-dominated industries flows into the sorts of attitudes people take towards women in their studies. I have also spoken to women on campus about the stress that comes with the high cost of abortions in WA (up to $250 for medical and $700 for surgical – even more for international students).

2. Why are you passionate about the chosen area/issue?

Sexism is just rife in society and you notice it from an early age through your own experiences and those of your friends and family. Having worked in hospitality, I’ve had to deal with plenty of sexist bosses who underpay and mistreat their female staff. It’s noticeable in school and at university that women tend to be less confident and have their ideas taken less seriously. The halls of power are also full of sexist abusers as we’ve seen with Christian Porter here and Brett Kavanaugh in the US. Now we’ve seen Roe vs Wade (the constitutional right to abortion) overturned in the US, which is only going to embolden the anti-abortion far-right here. It is a really important time to be fighting for women’s rights.

3. What action or contribution have you made towards addressing the issue?

This year I was one of the main organisers of the pro-abortion protests in Perth. We were the first city in Australia to demonstrate outside the US Consulate in response to the overturning of Roe vs Wade and this was followed by tens of thousands all over the country. Since then, we started to push for abortion rights to be improved in WA since they’re still on the criminal code, expensive, and only available in two private clinics. Members of the WA government like Minister for Health – Amber Jade Sanderson – were forced to publicly state that they agree our backwards laws and accessibility need to be overturned. Given they have made no concrete promises; we need to keep the pressure on them.

4. How will this benefit the university, its reputation and most importantly the students?

I don’t think the guild should be concerned with what will benefit the university and its reputation – they’re a business that only cares about their bottom line, which is why we’ve seen ongoing staff sackings, ties to fossil fuel corporations, and a refusal to increase staff pay this year in a cost of living crisis. Combatting women’s oppression is definitely in the interests of students, obviously the many women who study at Curtin and also anyone else who might need an abortion. So many of us have had to face sexist bosses, had our ideas or our areas of study undermined, come up against barriers in our reproductive rights and more.

5. What can we as students do to help you succeed as the equity representatives?

I think the only way that equity representatives can seriously challenge women’s oppression is by mobilising the student body to protest for our rights. If the guild had sent out all-student emails and put time into building our abortion rights protests, it would have meant more students knowing about them. The more people that come out to protest for their rights, and to show solidarity to others, the more likely we are to win.

6. What could be further improved?

I think the guild needs to be an activist body that mobilises students around a whole range of issues, many of which are interconnected. The same state government that is refusing to give women full rights in their bodily autonomy is also helping to set up new, giant polluting projects, overseeing one of the biggest Indigenous incarceration rates in the country and refusing to raise the pay of many female-dominated industries like nursing and teaching. Many Curtin students will go on to work in these industries, and Curtin’s refusal to raise staff pay goes along with this trend. It is the role of student unions to fight to make society a better place – for students, for our planet, and for everyone who is screwed over by the capitalist system.

Interview with Audrey Foote – Accessibility Officer

1. What does equity mean to you, and what is your area of focus?

Equality is about giving people the same help, whereas equity is about giving each student an individual plan that is aimed at their needs. There may be two students who both have a diagnosis of depression, but the type of help that they need in their access plan will be different.  My chosen focus for this campaign is Mental Health.

2. Why are you passionate about the chosen area/issue?

I am passionate about Mental Health because I suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder. I am also a Mother of a child who has Mental Health issues, and have an understanding of how caring for someone can impact your studies.

3. What action or contribution have you made towards addressing this issue?

The first action that I made to address this issue is to be open about my own struggles with Mental Health issues. I am now applying for the accessibility officer position to assist students who require or have a Curtin Access Plan.

4. How will this benefit the university, its reputation and most importantly the students?

Raising awareness about Mental Health I believe will benefit the university and its reputation, because it will lead to acceptance of students and staff who have Mental Health issues. This will also benefit students who care for family or friends who have a Mental Health illness.

5. What can the students do to help you succeed as the equity representative?

Students can help me to be successful by letting me know what I can do to help them succeed in their course. It would be good if students could attend the regular coffee catch-ups that I will putting on, to allow students with Curtin Access Plans to meet each other. It would be good if students could give me advice on what events they would like to see run on campus to help them to succeed in their chosen course.

6. What could be further improved?

I would like for future students to be more aware of the services that can be utilised at Curtin that can help them to be successful at university. I would also like more knowledge given out on who is eligible to get a Curtin Access Plan, and how it can be helpful to them.

Interview with Rey Nairn – Accessibility Officer and Guild Councillor

1. What does equity mean to you and what is your area of focus?

To me, equity means recognising and removing the barriers that prevent disadvantaged people from doing what they want to do and achieving their goals. An equitable system is one where an individual can meet every requirement for a task with equal ease, and doesn’t have to prove their need for the tools to succeed before getting access to them. My area of focus is in disability access, but I am also conscious of other factors that prevent people succeeding at university. Factors like being a parent, studying part time, having a low income background, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students, and those who live far from campus or have restricted access to transportation.

2. Why are you passionate about the chosen area/issue?

Firstly, I am disabled. I have multiple disabilities that affect most aspects of my daily life, including my mobility, attention, sensory abilities, mood, and social interactions. When moving through the world as a disabled person you quickly realise that the world is not designed for you. When I first came to Curtin, I was hopeful that a university, of all places, would be built with me in mind. Then, I discovered that there is no wheelchair-friendly way to get from Mallokup to The Tav. The fact that a world-class university like Curtin, with its highly-ranked architecture program and claims of Universal Design, doesn’t have the bare minimum accessibility measures, like compliant ramps and pathways, is frankly embarrassing. We should have universal access toilets in every single building, closed captioning available on every piece of recorded media, wheelchair accessible laboratories, more flexible learning options, and so much more.

3. What action or contribution have you made towards addressing the issue?

In 2022 I have had the opportunity to advocate for students on many decision-making bodies and working groups at Curtin, as well as meeting with academics, professional staff, and students to discuss the problems students face. I have also contributed heavily to the development of the Disability Access and Inclusion Plan, parking and path-of-travel reviews, laboratory access discussions, and many more projects – all of which were in desperate need of a disabled voice to ensure our needs were considered and bring attention to the real issues on campus.

One of my proudest achievements in my time at Curtin has been finally getting transcription/closed-captioning software integrated into the iLecture platform, bringing Curtin into the 21st century in terms of online accessibility. While the new software leaves a lot to be desired, it enables students to process spoken lecture content more easily, improving equitable access to course materials and improving grades. After so many years of previous Accessibility Officers, Guild representatives, and students pleading for captions, I am extremely proud to have been able to deliver on the promise Illuminate made at the last election.

I have also been working to move the university away from requiring medical documentation for the Curtin Access Plan (CAP) system, a project that I am very excited to continue work on in 2023 if re-elected.

4. How will this benefit the university, it’s reputation and most importantly the students?

Regarding Curtin’s reputation: My role as Accessibility Officer has been to advocate for students to be able to access their education. If Curtin neglects to make the university accessible and suffers a reputational blow for it, that is entirely their responsibility. Reputational harm is easily avoided through listening to student voices and prioritising our needs. That being said, if Curtin is going to consider impacts to the reputation of the

university as a key point for decision-making, improving accessibility and inclusivity is only going to boost the reputation of Curtin as a world-class university.

My ongoing project is to move the university towards a de-medicalised CAP system and away from requiring a diagnosis and medical documentation. This will greatly improve equitable access to CAPs for all students. As most of us are aware, we are currently experiencing a healthcare crisis in WA. Both the public and private healthcare systems are overwhelmed at all levels, from General Practitioners to Specialists of all disciplines. A student looking to get diagnosed with ADHD or Autism now faces a potential wait of over a year – and that’s if the student can even find the funding to get diagnosed in the first place. On top of practitioner shortages and the cost of appointments, discrimination is built into the system. It can be nearly impossible for students to get medical documentation if they do not fit into a doctor’s idea of what a person with a particular diagnosis looks like. This most commonly affects women, queer and trans people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, CALD individuals, those with pre-existing conditions, and so many more. Along with increasing education accessibility for so many vulnerable students, a less medical CAP system would make Curtin a leader of disability inclusion in higher education, allowing us to set the new standard for individual access plans. As a handy side effect, the change could also potentially reduce the wait times for specialist medical services in the wider community.

5. What can we as students do to help you succeed as equity representatives?

There are a few things that students can do to help Equity Representatives. The first is to get involved! Join the equity collectives in semester 1, show up to events, follow social media, and keep up to date with what the Guild is up to. The second is to use your voices and vote in the Guild elections! Encourage your friends and classmates to vote to make sure the policies that are important to you are brought into focus in the next year. The next thing students can do to help is to tell us what’s important to you. Talk to us about the issues you’re having, things you really like that should be more common, and things you think can be better. The Equity Reps are there to support students and help make your uni experience better, and feedback is essential for that.

6. What could be further improved?

We have a lot to improve at Curtin.

From an operational standpoint, so many of the processes are needlessly beurocrat ic and nigh-impossible to navigate at the best of times. University policies are vague and open to interpretation, leaving student and staff rights and obligations ambiguous and allowing excuses for poor treatment. Where policies and procedures are not vague, they are often not followed in the interests of preventing reputational or financial harm to the university.

In terms of built environment, it seems that every attempt is made to avoid having to change or renovate buildings to make them more accessible. Much of the Bentley campus does not meet current accessibility standards, with the excuses of ‘unjustifiable hardship’ or financial costs used to dismiss complaints.

Our teaching staff are consistently overworked and underpaid, with increasing casualisation and wage theft disproportionately affecting staff with disabilities, many of whom are also students. This is happening while university profits explode in the aftermath of the pandemic and return of international students. Additionally, the cost of living and wage crises, coupled with exorbitant parking fees, are forcing staff and students to choose between travelling to campus and being able to afford rent. The University gladly takes money from fossil fuel and mining corporations, contributing to the destruction of our planet at the same time as insisting parking costs are to ‘increase sustainability.’

There are so many more things to improve, but this is already a long answer. For more on what needs to change at Curtin, see the Illuminate policies (I promise they’re much less wordy than my answers). Really what this all boils down to is that the university culture and priorities need to change. Curtin needs to remember what the purpose of this institution is – to educate – and who makes that possible – academic and teaching staff, and students.