Flier
- Title
- A Call to Action
- Imprint
- Anonymous, Melbourne, March 1969
- Abstract
The SRC had convened an ‘extraordinary general meeting of students’ (1.00 pm in upstairs Cafe) on the subject of the University Administration’s proposed Discipline Statute. The leaflet proposes three motions additional to SRC motion.
Monash University had first erupted in full-scale revolt the previous year (1968). A ‘Mock Crucifixion’ staged on April 11, 1968 by the innocuous Tiddlywinks Association provoked an unprecedented furore and offered the pretext for disciplining students. A press report of a proposed new draft discipline statute suggested that Monash was considering introducing moves to punish students for acts of misconduct outside the university (‘double jeopardy’) and sparked the first of many sit-ins in the Monash administration building. An apparent backdown by the Administration relaxed tensions but at a deeper level a new source of conflict had emerged: the mischievous genie called ‘Student Power’. The Campaign for University Freedom (CUF) formed and rallies were held daily in the upstairs foyer of the union. The SRC disbanded and gave way to the Monash Association of Students, the apparent embodiment of the ‘new left’ ideal of ‘participatory democracy’. - [Ken Mansell]