The Hive Student Union

What is The Hive here to do?

The focus of The Hive is to improve university life on Western Sydney campuses for students, making things better. University should not just be about attending classes and doing exams; if we wanted that we could have gone to TAFE instead. University should offer a more rounded education, a chance to try new things, to explore ideas, to meet different people. Attending classes should just be the starting point of your university experience. After all, most of us are only here for three years (some of us don’t want to leave) so why not make the most of it?

“Making things better” is easy to say, but how does The Hive do it?

Firstly, The Hive is student-owned, student-run and student-controlled. Who has the best interest of students at heart? Students! Who knows what students want to do? Students! Who is best able to create a student culture on campus? Students! With students in the driving seat, The Hive will be able to direct all its resources to students’ interests and not to corporate profitability or customer ideologies. This in itself will make The Hive different from anything else you have seen on campus.

Clubs and Societies at UWS

Clubs and activities are the cornerstone of The Hive and the cornerstone of a strong student culture on campus. The Hive can provide clubs with superior support to get active on campus. Support includes office and computer resources for clubs to use on campus, access to room and venue booking through The Hive staff, website hosting including design and support for club sites, access to student media for advertising and most importantly REAL funding from The Hive’s budget to actually run events and activities for students.

Your Campus, Your Uni

The student’s relationship with the University is a campus relationship, and The Hive is geared to make the most of that. Each campus has an elected Campus Chair to ensure that the campus needs such as activities and resources are supplied by The Hive and to lobby the University for fairness. The Hive also employs Campus Organisers who are there to make the creating and running of events easy for students and to ensure that everyone has access to The Hive’s resources.

Student Representation at UWS

Student representation has been lacking at UWS for quite a while. Did you know that most UWS committees have a place for students to sit on them? The Hive is determined for every student position to be filled and for those students to be supported on that committee. That is why The Hive has the Student Academic Council as part of its structure. Its role is to make sure student views are being heard on every decision at UWS. Of course, representation goes much further than that, and The Hive will be ensuring that the UWS student voice is heard not just on campus but in the wider community as well.

Student Advocacy at UWS

The Hive also employs staff to provide students with advocacy at the University. Sometimes things go wrong and the bureaucracy of UWS can be hard place to find fairness or even the path to take and it is good to know that there is someone in your corner. Our staff are experienced and understand how to get things done at the University, who to talk to, what forms to fill out and if everything is going wrong how to get it fixed.

What is The Hive here to do again?

Activities, representation and advocacy are just the tip of the iceberg. The Hive is about what students want and as such it will be able to grow and adapt to students desires and needs. For more information, please see Degree. Students decided they wanted a newspaper, got the work done, and The Hive was there to support them. That is what The Hive is about and that is what it is offering to you. The only question is what do you want to do?

For more information, please visit our website at The Hive Student Union.