University of Western Australia Student Guild

The UWA Student Guild is the official student representative body at the University of Western Australia, representing the interests of students to the university, government and the wider community, as well as providing services to students.

History
The UWA Student Guild is the peak student representative body at the University of Western Australia. The vision of the UWA Student Guild is to be Australia's leading campus student representative organisation.

The Guild provides a number of services, and is instrumental in promoting and sustaining student life on campus. The Guild runs a number of activities including Prosh, Orientation Day (O-Day), End of Semester Shows and other major campus events. Guild Departments and Subsidiary Councils run other events, such as Multicultural Week and Spring Feast (run by the Multicultural Week department), Club Carnival (run by the Societies Council) and the PAC Pop-Up series of performances (run by the Public Affairs Council).

The Guild supports and assists a network of more than 140 affiliated clubs and societies on campus, catering to a very wide range of interests (religious, theatrical, cultural etc.). The Guild runs the majority of catering outlets on campus, including the Tavern, and a volunteering centre. For most of the organisation's existence, it maintained a monopoly in on-campus catering, although in 2012, the first three independent catering outlets were introduced.

The Guild's Student Centre provides one-on-one academic advocacy, financial counselling, a food pantry, and interest-free loans.

Guild Council is the overall governing body of the Guild and consists of voting and non-voting members democratically elected at the annual Guild elections or at department annual general meetings.

Annual Elections
Student representatives are elected to their positions by students in annual elections held in September. Elections are conducted by the Western Australian Electoral Commission. Elected office bearers take office as of 1 December in the year they are elected.

Council
The Guild is administered by a council of student representatives elected for one-year terms, beginning on December 1st and ending on the 30th of November in the following year. There are twenty-one voting members of council, and several more non-voting members. Members may hold a voting and a non-voting role concurrently. Unlike some other student unions, there is no financial compensation for student representatives, with the exception of the President and Postgraduate Representative who work at the Guild full-time and part-time respectively during their term.

Members of Guild Council are:


 * Guild President.
 * Guild General Secretary.
 * President of Education Council.
 * President of Public Affairs Council (PAC).
 * President of Societies Council (SOC).
 * President of the Postgraduate Students' Association (PSA).
 * President of the International Students' Department (ISD).
 * Western Australian Students' Aboriginal Corporation (WASAC) Chair.
 * Women's Officer.
 * 13 Ordinary Guild Councillors (OGC).

Standing Invitees are not members of Guild Council but have the same rights and privileges. Standing invitees are:


 * Immediate past Guild President.
 * Wellbeing Officer.
 * Environment Officer.
 * Sports Officer.
 * Residential Students' Department (RSD) President.
 * Pride Officer.
 * Access Officer.
 * Ethnocultural Officer.
 * Volunteering Chair.
 * Mature Age Students' Association (MASA) Chair.
 * Any other Department officers.

Executive
The Guild Executive consists of the Guild President, the Guild Vice-President, the Guild General Secretary, and the Chair of Guild Council. Both the Guild Vice-President and the Chair of Guild Council are elected by and from Guild Council at the first meeting for the Guild Year.

Student media
The UWA Student Guild funds the student-run magazine Pelican. Pelican was established in 1930, making it one of the oldest student publications in Australia.

Racism controversy
The 2013 edition of annual charity newspaper Prosh caused significant controversy when a racist article, "dream-time horoscopes" lead to a public relations disaster for the Guild, with major charity beneficiary ICEA withdrawing support from the paper.

Missing money
In May 2014 the Guild hired audit and tax firm BDO to investigate financial irregularities in the Guild's 2013 accounts, which found about $870,000 had been misappropriated.

Based on the initial findings of that investigation, a staff member was dismissed for serious misconduct.