Dear Ian,
I’m writing to you today to express my concern, on behalf of the student body, about the approach that your office has taken to the 2021 SSAF bidding process. The first major issue is that the survey will in no way determine the allocation of funds for 2021, with all funds being pre-set by the ANU. The complete removal of any meaningful bid process means that organisations have no ability to present their services and have funding appropriately allocated. A bidding process must be established, as there are so many services that are purely funded by SSAF deserving of that funding being kept the same. Without a bidding process, it is hard to have faith that funds are being allocated in the most efficient and effective manner, or that the most important student services are being prioritised.
Secondly, there is a serious lack of clarity around how these funds are spent in the first place, as there is no information in the email sent to students offering the survey that can easily connect them with the relevant information to make informed decisions. This plays into a broader issue with the SSAF process can be found that all student-led organisations that receive SSAF funding release detailed financial reports of how that money is spent. The exception is the funding that non-student-led organisations receive; instead, there is merely a list of dot points that do not in any way provide clarity on how students’ money is spent. Transparency in SSAF is critical for ensuring that not a cent of student money is wasted, and serves to provide better services for all in the long-run. Student-led organisations involve elections and public accountability mechanisms that extend over how money is spent; these are the organisations that SSAF should fund, not ANU-run divisions.
Finally, I’d also like to raise a major issue with the division of student funds that has become a long-term issue at the ANU. Every year, between $400,000 and $500,000 is given from the SSAF pool to organisations that are themselves not student-run. I believe that SSAF money should be given to organisations that are directed by students, as these funds are paid for directly by students to receive services that are most responsive to our needs and demands. Student-led organisations are the best-placed to respond to our needs, as the decision-makers are students themselves, who feel the effects of financial pressures that we all face; staff simply do not feel those same pressures.
Considering these non-student-led organisations have alternative means of funding through the ANU, my question is why would ANU services not be funded by the ANU? If this was done, we could ensure that ANUSA, and by extension all students of the ANU, would receive Not a Dollar Less than we did in 2019. Going into what is going to be financially, emotionally, and socially difficult times, a well-funded student association has never been more important than it is now.
Kind regards,
A concerned ANU student