 All right, good afternoon everybody. Welcome to the USC showcase. I'm just gonna share my screen to get my slides up now. Okay, welcome everybody. Well, my name is Belinda Berea. I am the student partnerships officer at the University of the Sunshine Coast. This afternoon in our showcase, myself and my co-presenters are gonna be speaking to you about our sustainable approach to student governance at USC. So I've got two students who I'm co-presenting with this afternoon. So I'll invite them to introduce themselves as well. So you wanna say hello, Melissa. Hello, my name is Melissa. I am a law student at USC and I am an elected student member to USC council and co-chair of our Student Senate. Thanks, Melissa, and we've got Alex. Hi, everybody, I'm Alex. I'm a masters of business administration student at USC and I'm also a representative for the Postgrad Student Association. Thanks, Alex. So before we get started, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians on the land on which we live, work and study and pay my respects to local indigenous elders past, present, emerging and recognize the strength, resilience and capacity of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Okay, so in this afternoon session, we're going to be speaking to you about sustainable approach to the design of the student governance framework here at USC. We're also going to speak to you about some changes we made along the way and the flexibility in the students and partners approach we needed to take in that implementation stage. We're going to cover also barriers to engagement, overcoming challenges and areas of improvement that we're still working on. And we'd love to have time at the end. We've got 25 minutes, but we'd love to have time to get everyone's input in the room through reflection and sharing some comments and suggestions as well. So I'll share with you how we can do that via Padlet at the end, but please feel free to put any comments or questions in chat throughout and then we'll just address them in our reflection component at the end. So this gives you a bit of a timeline that displays where we're at and where we've come from in the development of the student governance framework at USC. So the main thing I wanted to highlight here is the time it's taken to get to the stage that we're at. So the project really started at the end of 2017. In a consultation process, the framework was designed by students for students and we consulted with over 85 students who led that process. So in 2019, the framework was endorsed by council and the last 18 months, we've really been in the recruitment stage and the implementation stage of our student representative framework and fine-tuning and adjusting things along the way that Melissa will speak to you more about later. So this gives you a bit of a summary of what it is I'm talking about when I say governance framework. So we have 18 student-led representative groups that make up our framework at USC and the designers really mirrored, designed to mirror the USC staff-led governance framework as well. So there's 18 groups in this framework of which 14 are active at the moment. So it's a bottom-up three-tiered approach. In tier one, you'll see representatives from our schools. We've also in tier two, then got representatives from each of our campus, our postgraduate students, as well as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and international students as well. And they all are elected up to the Student Senate. So the Student Senate then reports through to our USC council, of which Melissa is one of those members. And our council is the highest governing body of the university. So it's really got endorsement from the most senior executives of the university. So in our design process, sustainability was really front of mind, which is what I wanted to highlight in our presentation this afternoon. So ensuring we had that transfer of knowledge between staff and representatives was really important and closing the feedback loop. So some of the key things that were featured in the design was there was a budget approval that was endorsed that supported the framework that included admin support. So that admin support is provided by students at work. So most of the students were previous representatives or volunteers that transitioned into a paid role. We also have co-chairs of the group. So we never have one co-chair, there's always two. And those terms are always staggered. So that's to ensure the transfer of that really important knowledge. We have rather than two chairs leaving and handing over to new people at one time. In terms of how students can contact their representatives, we have a contacted student rep form on a website in one central place that the admin team manages. And that's so we can always keep a track of concerns and make sure those feedback loops are closed. And then the final thing I wanted to highlight in terms of sustainability was the importance of the endorsement by council of the framework and the key role of the executive champions in that process. So having support from the most senior members of the university has really impacted the success of the framework. So when I hand you over to Melissa, she's going to chat about the flexibility in implementation. Thank you, Belinda. Oh, not showcased first, improvements, sorry. Can you hear me, Belinda? Yeah. Sorry, is it improvements first, not showcased? Yeah, I can go to that one. Sorry, okay. That's okay. This is just showcases what we have done so far and from 2020 to current, our student government framework has made a significant impact on ensuring that student voices is heard at USC and we've fostered a productive partnership between our executives, staff and students. And there's just a couple of things that I'd really like to highlight which really showcase the partnership that we've been able to develop, particularly with executives. At the beginning of 2021, we had a student senate planning day in which we invited all of our executive staff to come and participate and speak to members of the student senate and all but to attended that day. And it was more like a conversational rather than them speaking to us. They were really interested in how we're progressing, what we're planning on what we're doing. Then our improvements with sustainability in mind, another important factor in our implementation stage was the flexible students as partners approach. And as groups started to get up and running, listening to students on what was working and what wasn't, improvements were made along the way and have been implemented and all of the improvements that we've made have been student led. One of the highlights throughout the implementation stage was the introduction of a student senate report being accepted to our council meetings. And we've really seen the momentum of that report being received by council and improving our relationship with executives and our council members and their buy-in and interest in the student voice being represented through the student senate has been built through that. Throughout consultation with members of student senate, it was decided that we began the student senate with the rotating co-chairs for each meeting. And we felt that we needed to have a fixed co-chair to maintain sustainability and that kind of someone leading and being that conduit between the student senate and our executives. So it was through consultation with the student senate that it was decided and agreed that the logical people to co-chair it were the council members as they already have that relationship direct with the council. So we've implemented that and made the necessary changes in policy for that. And then finally, some of our key outcomes over the implementation of our student senate. Yeah, so you can, there's a three there that we've highlighted but I would like to particularly speak to the trying time of COVID which we really saw the relationship that has been built with our executives and staff in listening to the student voice. COVID was a period where the diversity of our student senate in representing all student voices was really heard in our collaboration with executives in developing an equitable COVID grading system that rather than just having one grading system we negotiated to have an opt in or opt out which provided equitable for all of our students during that time. And we also through the student senate having our international students we were able to bring the plight of our student international students to the executives and we had a bursaries that were implemented particularly for the trying times we had food delivered and food hampers in that time. Also additionally, one of the things that we really felt during COVID with our executives rather than having a formal communication of an email coming from executives we really urged them to be more personal and we saw the executives doing video addresses to our students during COVID which really kind of made our students feel that their voices were heard. And that was all that I had, thank you. Thanks for the introduction to today's discussion. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what's been working well at USC some areas for improvement and then we're gonna end off with a little group discussion. So some areas that have been working well for USC partnerships, skills development opportunities, fostering community and belonging and good governance and you can see as well we've got some testimony from students here. I'll speak a little about my own experience here so I'm fairly new to the university I'm about halfway through my program and like I mentioned I'm a representative for the Postgrad Student Association. So I got involved with that because I wanted to get a little bit more involved with the university and it seemed like a good place to start but what I wasn't aware of was how much I was going to learn about student governance and how much it makes up of the university and how students can get involved, how staff are involved and the opportunity for collaboration between the two groups. I've also used it as a means to expand my own network and like I said, I think it's just a great platform for being able to speak with lecturers, with staff about opportunities or concerns that we as students recognize and the PSA as well as all the other groups we saw in one of Belinda's original slides there for our framework, they all provide that great opportunity for students to engage with the university with staff, with lecturers and most importantly, I think with each other as well. Can you take me to the next slide? Thank you. So we do have some areas for improvement however, everywhere can be successful but you'll never be 100% successful. So some areas we've identified between ourselves, between students, between staff, streamlined communication between admin support and representatives, ensuring commitment as a representative is sustainable and that we avoid burnout. Additional support and training needed for students to build capacity and confidence and a lack of engagement from peers and this new dual mode delivery with less on-campus opportunity. I'm going to speak to that last one for a moment. I came into the program in October and that was my first time really engaging with fully online learning. Obviously we had to do what we had to do during times of COVID. I think the university has done a great job offering this dual mode of study now, especially from a post-grad representation. I know a lot of people who have other responsibilities, family work, they can't make it to a class in the middle of the day and we now have that option for a night Zoom class. I think that's fantastic. Obviously though, there are some concerns and it's something that we have to keep an eye on and moving forward because I feel that it's probably here to stay. And I think of a lot of other people are thinking about that too. And we have some comments from students on the side there. I'll leave that up for a moment. But yes, the engagement for peers and this new dual mode, how do we engage with students at on-campus events or do we also have to have an online component as well? Thanks, Belinda. So some areas that we've addressed or some areas we've improved to address those concerns for communication, Microsoft Teams, that's been a pretty big trial that's still ongoing. I as part of the Postgrad Student Association have been using Teams. It was my first time using it. I think it's a fantastic choice for the university. I think that when it gets rolled out for other students to use, they're going to find a lot of value in using that. And I think that especially ties back to the dual learning mode. You're going to have students who may be in the same class, but maybe taking an in-class and an online version. So to have this software where we can all share a document, more streamlined than say Google Docs, we have something we can sign into with our university account, having that so that you can engage with your online classmates or in-class classmates. I think that's doing a great step for improving communication for USC. For training and support, we're collating resources improvements to the induction process. So this is about helping to build a capacity to prepare students and representative for their roles, especially in these groups that are new. There was, we've seen examples of other groups that have fallen to the wayside due to burnout, for example, so now there's some more structure and some more support for these groups to succeed. And finally, authentic peer connection online, we're connecting and networking with the on-campus or without, sorry, the on-campus casual conversation. So this is about providing a chance for representatives to connect with their peers as we notice some students aren't spending as much time on campus because of COVID restrictions. So that does it for the areas of improvement, what's been working well, what we've improved on. So now I wanna invite everybody to share in a padlet exercise. Belinda will put the link in the chat. So there's a couple of areas, a couple of questions, you can leave a comment on, you can like other people's comments, we'll go through it at the end. There's, we wanna hear about some of your success stories, some of your improvements that you've made to concerns that you've faced in the last year or the last few years. And we wanna look at areas of improvement that you've gone through, so your communication, your training and support. But most importantly, in my opinion, and I'm sure my teammates share this as well, and I think a lot of other people would be interested in hearing about how have you dealt with engaging online and on campus due to these COVID restrictions, where do you see it going in the next couple of years? And how has it affected you? So you can find the link in the chat box now, and we'll spend a few minutes on that. Thanks, Alex. Sorry, it took me a while to find it, but I just put it in there. So grab it up and have a read through. So you can do that by just pressing add comment at the bottom of each box. If you haven't used padlet before, and you can probably just refresh your browser along the way to see other people's comments coming through. And then as we do that, we're happy to take any questions as well, if anyone had any questions about the content we walked through today. I have more of a comment. When you say areas for improvement around engagement on campus and online, how are we engaging with students post COVID? We're still in COVID. So I think it's post-emergency online teaching. Just being aware that, yeah, Melbourne's has gone into another lockdown. That's very true. Yeah. In the new COVID world. In the new COVID, in the new world, yes. But yeah, thanks, great presentation. And there's a question about the slides. Do you guys know if they'll be available on the SVA website for other people to have a look at? I call if Piper's here. We're happy to share them. Yes, yep. Happy to share. So Piper's here, yes. I think what we were more not post COVID, we were kind of that engagement with the on-campus. We've noticed a change even with the ability to come on campus, that students are not socializing as much or talking, you know, waiting outside tutorials or after as much as they were prior to, you know, before all these restrictions. So you're right, it's not post COVID yet. There is a question there from Adrian in the chat. Oh, sorry, Aidan, my apologies. You've developed a really phenomenal structure and framework for opening governance up to student voices. What was the pathway to getting initial buy-in from University Council who initiated those conversations? It was Student Council representatives, I believe that's right, Linda. I think, sorry, yeah. Yes, yeah, and having that good, utilizing those positions and those opportunities that we have as students and, you know, utilizing those opportunities and really engaging in the space, the opportunities that were given to then develop further. Yeah, and I believe we've had our two Council student representatives for quite a few years, but what we were finding was the voices we were hearing were from a really small group of Uber students who were amazing, but we wanted to develop a framework that really reflected a wider voice to make sure that every group across the university was heard. Yeah, and having the opportunity to present a Student Senate report to Council and then having it received and really respected and valued because they know that the information we're giving because we've got the framework is representative of students. Absolutely. Well, I think we are almost out of time, but I also want to highlight, we're going to leave this padlet open. So if you'd like to keep a, keep the link if you want to keep making comments or chatting, we'd love to hear your feedback on areas that we're all trying to improve on. We answered all of the questions in the chat or did anyone else add anything? Thank you, everybody. I think we need to wrap it up ready for the next President's decision. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Yes, thank you. Thank you.