Sponsorship Rises As Unis Wrestle With Funding Cuts

Sponsorship Rises As Unis Wrestle With Funding Cuts

The Age

Wednesday February 21, 2007

ADAM MORTON, HIGHER EDUCATION REPORTER

UNIVERSITIES are charging businesses and community organisations up to $1200 to set up stalls on campus as part of a bid to keep services afloat after federal laws stripped them of funding.

Call it the big sell: on campuses across the state, new students are facing an orientation week increasingly dominated by marketing and corporate sponsorship.

This is the first year to be directly affected by voluntary student unionism. Federal laws passed in late 2005 banned universities from forcing students to pay services fees sometimes topping $500.

Elected student union officials are devoting orientation week to signing on enough members to ensure their organisations stay alive. Depending on the university, the target for membership ranges between 10 and 33 per cent of students.

In the meantime, dwindling funds mean some orientation week events have been cut and others have continued, thanks only to commercial backing.

Deakin University Student Association last year signed Austral Credit Union as a major sponsor and smaller deals with Coca-Cola and Ripcurl ensure orientation events including movie nights, live bands and a beach party continue.

DUSA president Ben Davison said non-university affiliated organisations wanting to set up a stall on market day were being charged $1200. Students would find that nearly everything on campus became more expensive over summer for those who did not pay $139 to join the association and get a discount card.

The story is similar at other campuses. At Monash University, a $149 payment gets students discounts including cheaper parking.

At La Trobe, contact manager Martin Cheale said a one-third reduction in the activities budget meant less free food and drink.

Melbourne University has kept its campus tours, clubs and societies day and services carnival, which yesterday included inflated sumo wrestling suits.

Outgoing RMIT student union president Dan Thomas said students seemed less interested in what orientation had to offer.

"I think people are just getting through their degree and moving on," he said. "This is the twilight years of student organisations ... but new students won't know that - they won't have any idea what it was like."