Campus

“The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they’ll sleep at night.” This quotation situated above the kitchen sink in the Monash Law Chambers, has curiously popped into my head as I walk past Flagstaff Gardens on my way to uni. I am arriving earlier than usual in order to finish several chapters of reading for class, in classic Courtney style, before said class. After studying the Juris Doctor for the past 3 years, I am somewhat inclined to agree with Otto Von Bismarck on his views on sausages and laws. The course is not

How much do you spend on food at university on average? If it’s any more than eight dollars a day, then you’re spending over five hundred dollars each semester. Considering the tightness of students’ purse strings, one would think that Monash University would offer tenders for vendors who would sate students’ appetites with healthy, affordable meals. However, the options in the increasingly corporatized campus centre suggest that this is not a priority.  Before 2016, Clayton Campus had only one chain food store: the venerable Boost Juice. Healthy? Supposedly. Affordable? Not really, kind of a luxury (although very welcome on a

Last year, there were cuts to the arts faculty. Staff were laid off, contact hours decreased, class sizes increased, and learning content was moved online. The dramatic changes were obvious to everyone; and thanks to the public posters, meetings and protests on campus throughout the year - difficult to ignore. Quietly, the cuts made their way into the halls of the loudest faculty on campus, the music school. This is where I study Classical Composition. During October last year, near the end of the second semester, students in the Classical Composition stream and the Creative Music Technology stream were notified

DISCLAIMER: Daniel is the Managing Editor of Lot’s Wife. This is his opinion and his alone. Not Lot’s Wife and not the other editors. This is partly a response to Jan Morgiewicz’s piece published on 09.05.2019   Student politics is a joke. To the majority of students on campus, student politics is a minor annoyance, a trigger word for eye rolling and groans. For one week in second semester, you avoid the campus centre but beyond that you couldn’t care less about it if you tried. You can’t tell the difference between one party and the next. Especially with their

It’s Week 9 here at Monash. We’re getting to the stage where students feel increasingly isolated. Exams are creeping closer, and major assessments are being submitted and returned. Study consumes our daily life, and most of our work is done solo and online, without the help of peers and without physical interaction. This is a tough time for many students. Issues frequently arise such as the late return of assignments, lack of substantive feedback, limited practice questions and study spaces. Tens of thousands of Monash students believe they have not been provided with the resources and assistance necessary to prepare

Visual By 3.20 Those who live in on-campus accommodation here at Monash are often the first to extol the virtues of the residences, praising the residences, the community, and the ease of access to general university life. Such praise is not unwarranted, demonstrated by the continued willingness of residents to return for a second year. However, lurking behind these public affirmations of enjoying where they live are a number of systemic issues plaguing the residential community: externally, students living in on-campus accommodation are disproportionately underrepresented in the broader social sphere of Monash, while within the residential bubble, the student voice

Content warning: toxic behaviour, gatekeeping of queerness  My mind goes blank when I try to think about queer culture. There isn’t anything particularly emblematic of our culture at large. Is it the spectacle of Mardi Gras? The dialogues of Leftbook?   But if I home in on my experience of university queer culture, specifically in the autonomous spaces, I find insights into queer culture generally. These insights come from a line of constant questioning and investigating. The questions I ask are not uniquely about university queer culture, but the answers I supply come from there. To know university queer culture, we

Congratulations!    If you’re reading this it means you’ve made it this far in the semester without dying!   A rare feat indeed, and for that, I commend you.    But, knowing the busy bee you are, I bet you’re in dire need of some TLC, a big bowl of comfort food, and a good ol’ fashioned pep talk to get you through the last leg of the semester.    So my dear friend, here is a list of some (potentially) helpful tips, just to think about, while we’re approaching the end of the semester.       1) No last-minute cramming (ah, duh!)   Now

The smell of freshly brewed coffee is enough to give my brain cells the push they need early in the morning. While this has been my routine for the last decade, there has been a notable difference in the last few months. Initially the coffee helped me juggle between interviews and submissions as a professional journalist, working for a daily newspaper. Today, it works wonders in getting me to my lecture on time. While most of us can’t wait to get done with studying, for me, I couldn’t wait to get back to it.   Taking notes, hoarding up on content

Fake news is not a new phenomenon. Inaccurate or partial truths have been spread in the media for hundreds of years, be that propaganda or overtly biased news. Yet, fake news distributed online continues to cause problems in social and political realms. As we saw during the 2016 American presidential election, fake news content can influence citizens’ opinions and alter their behaviour.   Gunther, Beck, and Nisbet from Ohio State University conducted a study in 2016-2017 observing the influence and impact fake news had on the decisions of voters during the American election. They concluded that fake news “most likely did

The ABC, whether you like it or not, is a pillar in Australian society.   Yes, times are tough, the ABC does not make as much money as it once did.   However, it is a government-funded network which allows for it to report independently from commercial interests.   Many branches of government absolutely despise the ABC, because they do what they do best, hold government departments and organisations accountable for their actions.   The ABC published that the Indian company Adani was planning on building what would have been the biggest coal mine in the southern hemisphere, to which the Resources and Northern

Q: When do you start your graduate position at McDonalds?  A: How original. Fuck off.    Q: How does it feel being a disappointment to your parents?  A: See above.    Q: So, what do you actually study? Painting?  A: Ha. We have a comedian on our hands. You’re thinking of fine arts. A bachelor of arts provides a wide range of fascinating and rewarding areas of study across the arts, humanities and social sciences.    Q: What are you, a walking ad for Arts at Monash?  A: No, why would you insinuate that? Besides, with the Arts at Monash