Jacquie Bicanic – Illuminate
Jacquie Bicanic. Photo: Curtin Guild.
What sparked your interest in student politics?
The political part of wanting to be a student advocate isn’t really the part that interests me. What I am is passionate about the students having a voice and having that voice heard, which is what the guild represents. I got involved and ran for Guild councillor last year because I wanted the Guild and Curtin to be more sustainable and push for more sustainability on campus, since becoming guild councillor I have been really inspired by what we as the Guild have been able to do help students and now I wanted to take what I’ve learned and make more change for students through the VP-SW role.
This is a brand-new position, why was it needed now?
I think the role was always needed; it just took someone to point it out for the change to be made. The role is needed in particular now due to the current cost of living crisis, rental crisis and climate crisis. With all of these going on concurrently, it’ll be good for students to have a contact point to go to. I know issues like welfare and sustainability have always been important to the Guild, but now that there is a dedicated officer for these issues- someone can now really champion and devote their time to acting on welfare and sustainability at Curtin.
Why are you running for the position?
I have a passion for sustainability and have a lived experience on welfare issues. On the sustainability side: I am the founder and President of the Sustainable Collective at Curtin (Guild club), I took place in the FBL inaugural Carbon Literacy Project and Curtins inaugural Sustainability Challenge, I volunteer with UNAAWA’s environmental committee, and I recently became part of the AMP Youth Advisory Committee. On the welfare side: I am acutely aware of the ongoing housing crisis and rental crisis. I have lived in public housing and struggled through budgeting on welfare/Centrelink payments. I was also part of the Guild queer collective this year and have had experience helping the Queer officer advocate for queer welfare issues. This is a role that I am not only passionate about, butI have a lived experience in. I feel that I could not only help students, but I would be able to relate to and fully appreciate their experiences.
I want to be able to push the university to deliver a more sustainable and equitable student experience for all students.
What is the purpose of the role?
To be the student representative who will fight for, negotiate, and push improved student welfare and for more sustainable options on campus, and to be a contact point for students, and a person that represents the student voice and interest to the university on these matters. This role is also responsible for supporting the equity officers and ISC president as these roles deal with welfare issues a lot.
If elected, what specifically will you be hoping to change or implement to improve sustainability and welfare outcomes?
I would like to push for a free drop-in clinic on campus, to fix Curtin Counselling, lobby for a national duty of care that universities owe to students (much like businesses and companies have a duty of care for their staff, Curtin should have a duty of care for their students). I want to introduce and roll-out containers for change on campus (and in student accommodation-if we can get the university to support that) where the funds go back to the students, and I will be working to get a permanent thrift store on campus. Illuminate has done a lot to get more Guild pop-up thrift stalls which have students have loved because it’s such a fun intitative for the student community which helps students be sustainable and find clothes and homewares which are cheap, and I think that having that option permanently available on campus would be amazing. If we are able to implement a fully Guild controlled op-shop, I think it would be great to prioritise the store being able to get professional attire for students to use in internships and professional areas that students often start to go into during university, I know that is a struggle for a lot of students with low income who are starting to work in more professional areas/jobs.
What’s your own confession at Curtin, or what’s a Curtin life hack you’ve found?
Parking at Curtin Stadium is green, but it’s closer than some of the yellow parking on campus! If you’re lucky or get in early enough you can park there, and once paid parking ends, if you’re still on campus you can move your car closer so you don’t have to walk as far later that evening. Or, if parking is full as usual and you end up parking on the other side of campus, you can call the Safer Communities team and they can escort/drive you to your car. Not a lot of students know this, so I thought I’d share!
Chloe Jackson – Left Action
Chloe Jackson. Photo: Curtin Guild.
What sparked your interest in student politics?
I’ve always been interested in activism. I really care about women’s rights, LGBTQIA rights, trans rights, the rights of people of colour et cetera. But I think that I really recognise the history of the student guild and the past, and the power that it has had with the Vietnam War movement and with the marriage equality stuff in 2017. I think that the guild has a lot of power and maybe it’s not using it to the extent that it should.
This is a brand new position, why was it needed now?
Well, let’s face it. Climate change is the biggest threat to humanity and all students at Curtin University. I think it’s a fear a lot of us have. And, not only individual sustainability, but holding the university’s ties with fossil fuel companies and big business accountable. Holding them accountable is what we need right now. Small, individual action does make a tiny difference, but it’s not the thing that’s going to save us from climate change, and that’s why having a representative on the guild who will fight for further pushes against these types of companies is what we need.
Why are you running for the position?
I think that this position is one of the most important positions on the guild at the moment, despite being a new one. Not only sustainability, but further pushes against big fossil fuel companies is what we need to fight climate change and student activists for the longest time have had the power to do so. So regardless of which position I am in, or anyone in left action is in, they will fight for student rights and for human right. But in terms of sustainability, I think it’s something we really need to focus on right now.
What is the purpose of the role?
I think that maybe the purpose it was intended for was to create a greener campus, a campus that is more focused on sustainability, maybe (with) smaller individual actions. But,I think that it has the potential to make a larger difference. Small campaigns around recycling and green thumbs initiatives are great, but they are not going to make significant change in the long run. So, at the moment, I think it’s a limited role, but I think it can be expanded to something bigger and powerful.
If elected, what specifically will you be hoping to change or implement to improve sustainability and welfare outcomes?
Student welfare is also a significant issue on campus. There are thousands of students who cannot afford to eat, thousands of students who are are struggling with their day-to-day, and who are not able to focus on their studies. I would be pushing the university for reforms. We can’t sit at the table with them and have a comfortable discussion about it. We need to be fighting them, cutting ties with fossil fuel industries, making accommodation cheaper, anything that we can do that we can push the university to do, is what we will do.
What’s your own confession at Curtin, or what’s a Curtin life hack you’ve found?
My Curtin life hack is to stay up till midnight every single night completing my assessments because I work nearly full time and I don’t have time to do my assignments.