An update from the GSA President: September 15th 2025
Dear Graduate Students,
I know it’s a busy time of year, but I hope you’ve been keeping well. The Grand Final holiday is just around the corner, and I, for one, am very much looking forward to an extra day off.
You may have seen the University’s announcement about developing a new surveillance policy, following recommendations from the Victorian Commissioner’s investigation. GSA is concerned about the risk of further undermining graduate students’ trust in the University, and more importantly, the impact on student privacy. We’ve been following this matter closely, and our position remains consistent: graduate students and researchers should not be subject to monitoring that compromises their rights or erodes their trust in the University, nor in ways that are inappropriate in a university environment.
You can see more in our recent statements and advocacy here:
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Protest advocacy report
We’ve also been continuing our work on the FEIT Flexispace review. It’s been a challenging process, but our representatives have been working tirelessly to ensure graduate researchers’ (GR) needs are properly considered. We’ve put forward a number of reasonable and practical proposals to improve how Flexispace operates at Melbourne Connect, and while our position that every GR deserves a dedicated and allocated desk hasn’t changed, we’ve kept the conversation with FEIT constructive. We’re keen to build on this approach with other Faculties whenever changes are proposed that affect GRs.Please feel free to reach out to me at president@gsa.unimelb.edu.au
Sincerely,
Ethan Chou