Student involvement outside campus
From ACT GreenGuide
The information on this page has not been verified or updated since the 2003 hardcopy version of the GreenGuide. Its accuracy is therefore uncertain. Please help to verify this page and update it if necessary.
Are Students Involved in the Environment Outside Campus? Why, yes. In fact, the busiest, most productive and dedicated cross-campus student organisations are environmental ones. Where you find students from different universities working together, the odds are better than even that they’re working on an environment project. All of these groups are dedicated to helping you as a student get involved in environmental issues, and with sharing skills and stuff.
In New South Wales and the ACT we have the Student Environment Activism Network (SEAN). This is like a big friendly version of the Environment Collectives at ANU and UC, a multi-campus collective that includes nearly a dozen campuses from as far north as Lismore and going as far south as Wollongong and the ACT. Some SEAN projects have included cheap interstate travel for students to get to Perth for environmental events, activism handbooks, zines, skill-share weekends, nuclear reactor protests, alternative energy, media skills workshops and forest actions, media stunts, aboriginal land-rights actions. You can get involved in these bodies through asking your local campus collective for the details about the next SEAN event. Website: http://www.todesign.com.au/sean
On the same principles as SEAN, is the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN). This group attempts to share skills across the entire nation, and is also the governing body behind the marvelous Students Of Sustainability Conference (see below). ASEN is very new, and held its first conference in Canberra in January 2003. Website: http://www.asen.org.au/
In July each year the largest gathering of ecologically inclined students occurs. This is the Students Of Sustainability Conference (previously Students & Sustainability). This is surely the single most fun event that you can partake of and still chalk it up as an attempt to save the planet. 400-odd students from around the country gather for a week-long festival of campaigning, workshopping, partying and eating splendid meals together, camping on the grounds of a campus somewhere in Australia. In 2003, S&S will be at Flinders University, Adelaide, SA. Website: http://wiki.studentsofsustainability.org.au/SoS2003
Not quite as informal as all of these bodies is the National Union of Students, which pays a part-time Environment Officer to coordinate environmental representation of students nationally. The NUS has produced some excellent work nationally, but is frequently paralyzed by internal politics. Get involved in NUS and make sure it stays in the hands of real students (and try to help them improve their terrible website!) Website: http://www.unistudent.com.au/
