LSS Election Campaign Officially Launches

NICHOLAS BAUM
Volume 4, Issue 6, (Originally published on Monday 2 September 2013)
 
Nominations for election to the Committee of the Law Students’ Society closed yesterday, with eleven positions being contested and five elected unopposed. Erin McMullin (Secretary), Daniel Osvath (Third Year) Matt Pierri and Anthony Pitruzzello (Activities) Yi Long Li and Will Brown (Careers) and Sophie Parr (Environment) were each elected unopposed. Current committee members John Manwaring and Nick Jane nominated for President.
 
Manwaring nominated the role played by the LSS in developing student skills as the most pressing issue facing the committee. “The fact is most of us will go on to careers that are only tangentially related to the law,” he said. “I think by working with faculty and with potential employers beyond the big firms, we can reduce a lot of the stress associated with looking at what happens after we graduate.” He also indicated, if elected, that he would like to see the LSS reach out to a broader group of the student population. “We’re a fully graduate cohort now, with much greater diversity than has been seen in the past,” he said. “It’s absolutely crucial that we solicit ideas from ALL Melbourne Law students. Before that can happen, though, students need to know they’re going to be heard.”
 
Jane also pointed to career development as the most important issue for next year’s committee. “This means a greater concentration on providing information on part-time legal work, a broad range of internships at legal and non-legal companies and placements for upcoming graduates,” he said. He thought that the LSS could do more to focus on helping students with practical life and study improvements. “This would mean longer access hours for ALL students, creating more law-student only room in the library, and increasing student financial assistance, such as increasing Book Fairy,” he said. “The LSS should be an inclusive organisation that looks to help students, not only while they are at law school, but to establish them for life beyond it.”
 
Matthew Condello, Hannah Fitzpatrick and John Azzopardi all nominated for Vice-President. De Minimis asked these candidates about what they thought were the important issues in the campaign, but as two of the candidates declined to comment (citing the election standing rules), we have made the decision not to run the third candidate’s comments. James Coppe, George Priestley and Will Davidson put their hand up for Treasurer.
 
In the Education portfolio, Larissa Chan and Zoe Anderson are running together against James Szauer. In the Competition portfolio, there is a four-way race between Marijana Banovac and Emilia Budisavljevic, Alyssa Dixon and Adam Gleeson, Will Chen and Vincent Pang, and Noah Bender Bennett and Vanessa Reinehr.
 
Communications is also a four horse race, with Naomi Shimoda and Andrea Tran running in tandem against Thomas Richardson, Olivia Crane and Nicola Ojerholm, (all of whom are running individually).
 
There are three pairs running for Equality Directors: Caitlin Louth and Alex Dworjanyn, Claire Jones and Samantha Jones, and Jessie Allen and Jennifer Vogan.
 
There are also four team competing for the role of Women’s Officers, with Naomi Shimoda and Jennifer Fiegel, Manekha (Nicky) Jacobs and Sarah (Jin Hyung) Yang, Olivia Chapman and Giorgina McCormack, and Bridget Meyer and Abbey Sultan all nominating.Tana Cooklin Cevallos is running for Queer Officer and Galen Jaffurs and Nathan Van As (who are running together). The International Students’ Representative position is being also contested, with Brian Fu up against Alena Kosmin.
 
Finally, Robert Ceglia, Charlotte Grover and Alex Horton have all put their names forward to be the Second Year Representative. De Minimis hopes to be able to speak to candidates about the issues in this election, and make their responses available online throughout the week.
 
Nicholas Baum