A Culture of Engagement

The way things are
Students are busy people, and often have lots of different things to juggle at the same time. In addition to studies, there are also work commitments, family, friends, and so on.

Despite this fact, the ANU has an extremely vibrant on-campus life. Students at clubs, societies ad on-campus residences host lots of great events. There are dozens of active clubs, and a sizable $235,000 of ANUSA’s annual budget is set aside to fund such clubs. This points to the fact that there is a sizable portion of students that are willing to dedicate some of their time to things outside of their studies.

This culture of involvement in extracurricular activities is a very positive thing that not only benefits students that directly participate, but also has numerous benefits for the student body as a whole. For instance: It is easy to see how some of these factors feed into each other: more clubs lead to bigger clubs, which lead to more funding available, which lead to more clubs, and so on. From this, we might draw the conclusion that liveliness begets liveliness – so too does this culture of involvement become self-perpetuating.
 * Active on-campus life means that more events are held, meaning that students have a greater variety of events to choose from.
 * More active clubs and societies means that more funding is likely to be directed to these organisations, which allows these clubs to be even more active.
 * Clubs and events give students more opportunities to interact and learn from each other.
 * Clubs and societies help contribute to an all-round more lively university experience

Parallel to this vibrant social life on campus, student involvement in “student issues”, such as university funding or the quality of education, has never been consistently high. In 2012, over a thousand students were involved in the protests against the cuts to the School of Music programme changes, whilst ANUSA’s General Meetings often find it difficult to maintain quorum (of 40 people) throughout their duration.

There are undoubtedly many factors at play as to why students don’t get involved in such student issues, but as a whole it does paint a telling story about the state of student engagement.

The way we think things should be
We believe that with positive support, a culture of engagement can grow – for the better! Whilst engagement with student issues – broadly, student activism – will never be as popular as social events, we would like to see such a culture of engagement and activism blossom at the ANU.

Indeed, events in 2012, such as the changes at the School of Music and the Vice-Chancellor’s proposal to sack staff, have sparked a revival of interest in student issues. We are very enthusiastic and supportive of the continued cultivation of a sense of awareness and activism amongst students.

“Engagement” need not mean debating in meetings or showing up at protests. Rather, we believe engagement encompasses both formal and informal elements. This might take the form of: As with a culture of social activity, there are benefits to a culture of engagement. These include:
 * Debate amongst friends
 * Reporting, analysis and opinions in student media like Woroni
 * <span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-AU">Students asking critical questions: to their friends, lecturers, or even to themselves; in essence, “thinking outside of the box”

<span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-AU">Making students critically aware of the environment around them – in our case, the university (akin to how reading the news helps make us aware of the world around us!)


 * Training students’ capacities for critical thought


 * Social and intellectual opportunities to meet and share ideas with fellow students
 * Showing that the student body is interested and willing to stay engaged. This has the additional effect of showing to the university administration that students are serious about their university experience, and may result in more bargaining power in negotiations with the university. This could be complimented by things like petitions, survey statistics, constructive proposals, and so on.
 * More opportunities for students to help create positive and tangible change in the university student community.
 * Empowers students, and helps turn their opinions into action.

Do
Solution: First-year engagement

A culture of engagement should start at the beginning of university. Just as all first-years find out that it’s alright to do sports, party and socialize, we want to tell first years that it’s alright to think critically about what they want from their education.

Solution: Public education

Knowing is a crucial prerequisite of doing. Students need to be informed about the issues in higher education, and ANUSA is in a prime location to be providing such information.

Solution: informal participation

A culture of participation requires opportunities for students to participate. These opportunities should cater to students of varying interests and time commitment, and might include skill swaps, student-led lectures or workshops, or attending open brainstorming sessions.

Solution: deliberative democracy

Deliberative democracy is a method through with students can formally gather and discuss various aspects of their university experience, as well as develop concrete proposals t act on these issues.

A cornerstone of an active student body, implementing deliberative democratic forums will allow students to truly have a say in how they want to shape their time at university.

Solution: more recognition for work

Recognizing the work, time and effort that students put into participation will provide key incentives to participate more. This may be done through avenues like certificates, mentions in the newsletter or online, incentives such as food/drink vouchers, or even honouraria.