MONASH COLLECTIONS

Monash Students Association

Entity Details

Entity titleMonash Students AssociationEntity identifier18Entity typeAgencyDate range1995 - DescriptionA provisional Students’ Representative Council was elected within a few weeks of the enrolment of the first students at Monash in 1961 and acted as the official liaison between the student body and the University administration. The SRC nominated representatives to such organisations as the Union Board, the Sports Association, the Clubs and Societies Council and committees of the University Council. Its activities included the promotion of cultural, educational and recreational activities. Representation on the SRC was divided into faculty and general representatives who came up for election each year. The SRC produced a regular student newspaper - Lot’s Wife (formerly Chaos); an annual magazine - Orpheus; and briefly, a newspaper for secondary school students - Tumbril. The SRC was dissolved in 1968 and replaced by the Monash Association of Students which attempted to involve much larger numbers of students in the decision making processes and in which power was vested in the general meetings of students. The association was designed to separate representative and administrative functions, to give each elected representative a definite task and to encourage general student participation through general meetings. MAS comprised three major elected bodies: the Administrative Executive, the Committee of Representatives, and the Public Affairs Committee which provided material to the student body for formulating policies on matters outside the university. MAS had other standing committees over the years the most important being the Activities Committee, the Educational Affairs Committee and the Publications Committee. The elected bodies and standing committees were directly controlled by student general meetings which alone had the power to determine policy. The structure and constitution of MAS were outlined in Statute 2.10 of the Monash University Act 1958 and regulations pursuant to it. In 1994 the Victorian government introduced legislation regarding voluntary student unionism - the Tertiary Education (Amendment) Act 1994 - in response to which university student bodies were restructured. In 1995 the student associations were separated from the Union and a new Monash Student Association was constituted for the Clayton Campus. This association included the Monash Student Board, the Monash Postgraduate Association, the International Students Service, and the Mature Age and Part Time Students Association. The objects of the MSA are outlined in part 3 of Statute 2.7. The executive officer of the association is appointed by Council.

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