As we all know, ‘Hell Week’ is upon us but alas, life must go on. This week on our ‘What is MUSA doing again?’ schedule, we have fresh details from the 4th Monash Student Council Meeting ranging from feedback from students from the MSC Feedback Form, to the launch of MUMerch (Monash University Merchandise, how cool is that?) to updates on Monash Cup 2021. Let’s go! (̶D̶o̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶r̶y̶,̶ ̶w̶e̶’̶l̶l̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶r̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶w̶e̶e̶t̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶E̶d̶i̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶i̶g̶n̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶,̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶)̶

Excessive workload?

Without further ado, let’s start with the feedback given by you guys! First off, there have been complaints of certain units having excessive workload where “many questions for 1 assignment worth about 80% while the assignment only has a weightage 15% from the whole unit.” It has been suggested to MUSA to not provide assignments with low weightage of total marks of the unit with a large amount of questions not worth the percentage. The Vice President’s have responded to this by stating that the student did not provide their contact or mention any specific units, therefore they are unable to personally follow up with the student. However, they are aware that the student is from the School of Business. 

Monash Merch!

This next one is for all the Monash Merch enthusiasts! There have been many requests if MUSA could finally launch their merchandise as Monash comes closer to reopening campus. Good news everyone, the Vice President Department has come to the decision to gradually work on merch where they will prioritise hoodies first, due to large demand. Other merchandise such as shirts will come later on. The first batch of hoodies will probably be around 500-600. After almost more than a year of Monash Merch Drought, we’ll finally have something to ‘flex’ our Monash brand 🌚 Thank you Vanessa, Mohit and the Vice President’s department <3 

About reducing tuition fees…

On a more serious note,  there have been concerns about the tuition fees charged by Monash where the student has stated that running the university should cost lower due to online learning and that they hope Monash will lower the tuition fee or at least provide financial support to students affected by the pandemic. It was answered that this issue has been appealed by MUSA 2020 and that MUSA 2021 were also working on this. Unfortunately, after bringing this up to the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Andrew Walker, he reinstated that the fee will not be reduced and therefore, there will be nothing much that MUSA are able to do about this. 

However, if any students are facing difficulties in financial issues, they are actually able to request a Student Compassionate and Hardship package from Monash where there are initial emergency grants up to RM500 and a further grant up to RM7000 for students in exceptional financial hardship. Here is the link for the website for students who are interested in this package. 

Request for library extension

Next! 

There were suggestions that the library should extend the opening hours so that students can have more study times instead of having to rush to the library in the morning  then rush back home once it closes in a few hours. MUSA has responded by saying that they will request for the library to extend the closing time to 9PM instead of 6PM. 

Updates on Monash Cup!

Last but not least, one of the most anticipated events of the year planned by the Clubs and Societies division, Monash Cup 2021! If you’re waiting for an update, wait no more. It’s been said that the House committees are currently hard at work on making a trailer for the Monash Cup and that it will be filmed during the semester break. Not only that, the House committees are also in midst of designing house jerseys and supporter tees have been finalised.

 

Annnnnd that’s it for now! If you actually read through this article in detail, have a Pepe meme from the Editors as a token of appreciation. You deserve all the HDs in the world.

Written by Christie Wong

Header by Angeline Ho