New class advocacy system rolls out
A new class advocacy system is being trialed for all Semester 2 courses, essentially merging the three previous class rep systems. The approach will supposedly help student associations to collaborate resources to strengthen the service overall. This trial is the beginning of what will be sure to be further collaborative efforts between the associations, as the merge heats up.
The new system is based on one that has been run by ASA on the Albany campus for the past decade. ASA President Ben Austin says the new system adopts parts of all the current Class Rep and Class Advocacy systems into one. “We have a single sign up that can be used across all campuses and the respective associations will get have the ability to work with students from their campuses,” Ben said.
Tessa Guest, MAWSA President, says “It makes a lot of sense to roll this system out, because a lot of lecturers and course staff cross over between internal and distance cohorts. So, it will be way more efficient for students and staff to work through liaise with one system, rather than two or three.” She summarises, “Ultimately, the goal is for student voice to be strengthened, and for all class-related issues to be dealt with swiftly and thoroughly.”
Ben says the system is adaptable and can change to suit each campuses’ needs as required. “We hope that every class in each course will have at least one class advocate to truly trial the system,” he said. Ben recognizes the goal to represent every course is ambitious. “We aim to have at least one student per class as an advocate, but we do understand that students will take time to get used to the system but hopefully the training material will be sufficient,” he said.
Many classes have had no class advocate under the old system due to either lack of interest in the role or the role not being advertised well. If successful, it would likely be the first time every class has been represented by a student advocate independently.
If you want to be an “Advanced” student advocate, according to the ASA website, all training will involve some “role play” for the advocates to practice their skills. Now, that sounds like a bit of me.