It’s a few hours before the polls to elect the inaugural La Trobe Student Council close. There is little fanfare on campus, and it isn’t likely to arrive soon. It’s a Friday in early May and with the vote held entirely online, the Bundoora campus is sleepy with few things to mark the occasion.

The Student Council was announced by the university in late March as a body elected and led by students to consult with them to “collectively advocate” for their ideas on their behalf. The university is promoting the Student Council as a body that can achieve that advocacy in its status as an independent body.

But the La Trobe Student Union is claiming that the council lacks independence, while also undermining the existing union, evidenced in the signs in the trademark La Trobe Student Union (LTSU) purple and white around university, claiming: “La Trobe is Attacking Student Democracy”.

Unions like the LTSU are bodies elected and run by students to advocate for their members as a group—particularly in response to university decisions that may adversely affect anyone attending La Trobe. The LTSU, then the Student Representative Council, was formed in 1967 and its campaigns have included anti-Vietnam War action and protests against major cuts to courses and jobs on campus.

LTSU Queer Officer Lucy Hatch tells upstart that the LTSU’s primary concern is how new council’s role overlaps with several union responsibilities and the fact that council meetings will be co-chaired by the university.

“I think it’s a very, very, very watereddown service and I think it’s sort of misleading to market it as, you know, a representative student body for students,” she says.

“Because we already have one of those that can actually stand up to the university, whereas the council can’t.”

Leaders from the LTSU and student-led clubs were excluded from nominating for the Student Council under the draft Terms of Reference released before the election. Separate regulations also grant a university-appointed official several “final” decision making powers “relating to the eligibility of a candidate or a voter, the conduct of the election or the result of an election”.

A La Trobe University spokesperson did not answer directly when asked if these measures compromised the Student Council’s independence but emphasised the student consultation involved in creating the council through their Students as Partners Network.

“We have welcomed all feedback on the draft Terms of Reference for the Student Council,” the spokesperson says.

“The elected student members of the Student Council will finalise the Terms of Reference as a priority when the Council is established.”

Union complaints extend beyond the Council’s role and independence.  Hatch says the Union also believes the university’s agenda endangers the LTSU.

“When the union is constantly being undermined by the university it means that more time and resources are dedicated to fighting for its very existence as a student body rather than the issues that it would prefer to be fighting against,” she says.

Another point of contention is funding. Both the Student Council and LTSU draw from the funding pool raised by the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF), a fee all university students must pay. The LTSU does not charge for membership and virtually all its funding comes from SSAF funds.

When the La Trobe Student Association (LTSA) was established in 2021, the union’s SSAF budget, which at the time exceeded $1 million, was cut by 88 percent. While the Bundoora LTSA branch dissolved, Lucy Hatch says funding to the union has not recovered since.

“Obviously, not having enough SSAF, or not having enough oversight or you know, an extra student body is just another body that the union is [going to] have to butt heads with,” Hatch says.

A La Trobe University spokesperson said that the council is not intended to replicate the work of “valued” existing organisations but instead aims to “complement and strengthen” student representation.

“In establishing the Council, there is no reallocation of services or funding from existing student organisations,” the spokesperson says.

Legislation that came into effect in January of 2025 mandated that 40 percent of SSAF funding go toward one or more “student-led organisations”. This constitutes an increase in the amount allocated to student groups, but no funding increase to the LTSU is planned.

One noticeable difference is that the council will operate across all La Trobe University campuses, while the LTSU is based solely in Bundoora.

A La Trobe University spokesperson said that it is supporting student aspirations to build an organisation that “brings together” students across the whole university.

“This includes all our campuses, rural, regional and remote communities, online and under-represented cohorts,” they said.

Despite the uncertainty that has met changes to student consultation, the union is prepared for what lies ahead.

“I’m pretty optimistic that the Union will be able to survive this and we’ll be able to continue to be a fighting body on campus. I think everyone in the Union is very dedicated to stopping what’s going on right now,” she says.

“That might be silly, but I think that we’re all very devoted to our work in the union.”

Article: Lewis Cain-McAliece is a third-year Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism) student at La Trobe University. You can follow them on Twitter at @Lewis_CM_

Photo: Supplied by author.