Training and uni politics

[morsla]

Lots of things have been happening lately. My ICWSM paper has been approved! Though it needs to be re-written as a short-format paper, before the end of the week. That means that I will be able to attend the conference in Barcelona (mid July), and meet a bunch of interesting people working in the social media field. This makes me happy :)

In less happy news, Melbourne Uni Sports continues to be crap. They appeared in an article in The Age yesterday, as the university has decided to cut support for venue hire, for the clubs that aren't involved in regular competitions.

The Melbourne Uni Kung Fu club has been running since 1977, and may not make it through the current year. As there are no competitions available to them, they are now required to pay regular hire costs for all their venue use, in addition to hiring instructors (which is traditionally covered by membership fees). For a "sports and recreation" body, MUSA doesn't do much to support recreation groups any more. However, the university is still happy to market itself on having an active student community, full of sports and general interest clubs and societies...

I've been told that venue hire will only be covered for three sessions per competition event that a club competes in. That's fine for a football club that plays a 16-week season, but not for martial arts groups that may only have one or two events available for the year. Clubs that don't "fit the mould" of a western sporting team are effectively being cut from the university.

At least RMIT is (currently) still in the habit of supporting its student groups, even when there's no space on campus to put them. RMIT Kung Fu is training in the appropriately named "multicultural hub" next to the Queen Vic market. It's a world of difference from the Melbourne Uni training area - which has been relocated outside, to the concrete lawns.

Comments

[sharplittlteeth.livejournal.com]

I don't think the MUS policy is deliberately racist. But it's obviously slanted towards competitive sports.

Of course, many regional universities lost their sports clubs altogether because of Howard's legislation.

[morsla.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's deliberate either - and I think the club will have a hell of a time convincing the human rights commission of it. Those competitive sports are generally not the ones that the international students are joining, though. Have a look at the Blue Bloods slideshow and see the great diversity present at a football club event :)

It does generate a bit of publicity, though, which seems to be the main goal. Aikido, Tai Chi & Wushu, Kung Fu, Karate, and the WTF Tae Kwon Do group are all going to be heavily affected by the changes.

MUSA is a bit of an old boy's club (perhaps even more so than the rest of the uni), and they'd really like to be able to spend the rest of their diminishing funding on the rugby, cricket, football and boating that fit their image of what university sports ought to look like.