Tell UTAS to Properly Fund the TUU

The Tasmanian University Union is a core part of student life at UTAS. The TUU runs student initiatives, events, provides leadership opportunities, advocates for students on campus and is an employer to many staff who work tirelessly for students.

In 2019, UTAS slashed funding of the TUU to $430,000, down from $900,000 in 2018. This is a whopping 52% funding cut.

This massive cut to TUU funding comes just 12 months out from the funding agreement end between UTAS and the TUU. It is clear that UTAS is using this cut as a steppingstone to cease funding the TUU and thus close down the student union.

The TUU is negotiating a particularly difficult time as it undergoes a transformative program, experience revenue loss from the closure of the Co-Op Bookstore, and suffers the cuts imposed on it by the university. TUU staff redundancies were being considered as part of the transformation program, but with these cuts, the redundancies go from being potential to inevitable.

To protect students, to protect workers, and to ensure that the TUU can keep serving students and providing student community culture on campus we, as students of the University of Tasmania, are calling upon the Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black and UTAS to reinstate full funding of the TUU to 2018 levels and to commit to funding the student union past 2021.