An on-campus Christian group has been banned from making direct contact with students during orientation week in an unprecedented move by the student representative council (SRC).
The Student Christian Fellowship (CF) at the Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga campus is banned from having an on-campus presence during the university's O-Week.
This means no club member can attempt to recruit students on the university grounds during O-Week.
Wagga campus's student council, known as the Rivcoll SRC, has also banned other club paraphernalia for the duration of O-Week, meaning any club member wearing attire or in possession of items promoting a club will be in breach of strict guidelines.
Under the strict guidelines any item of clothing with a club logo such as a football jersey or a CF t-shirt would be in contravention, as would any cap, flyer or sticker bearing similar logos.
The guidelines state that if a club does not abide by this policy the following actions will be taken: a first warning will receive a letter, a second warning will result in the club being banned from clubs day, a third warning will forfeit any future funding for the club from the committee and a fourth and final warning will mean the dissolution of the club.
The guidelines state that if a club wants to hold an event during O-Week it must be held off-campus.
Christians respond
The O-Week has traditionally been a critical time for making contact with new students, explains SCF's senior AFES staff worker Richard Wilson.
"Orientation week is where the majority of our contacts happen. It has been a very helpful time for making connections with Christians," Mr Wilson says.
""They have been told by friends or their church to look out for and are enthusiastic about meeting us. Usually by the time club day come around we have already met most of the students we are going to contact."
In recent years university clubs were not allowed to make contact with students during the Monday or Tuesday of O-Week.
"We would set up a drinks stall on the Wednesday and Thursday and allow students to approach us," Mr Wilson explains.
Mr Wilson says the SRC also moved the official club recruitment day to the week after O-Week around five years ago.
"A lot of other clubs couldn't be bothered doing anything during O-Week anymore but because we were more motivated we made up banners and special t-shirts to have a strong O-Week presence," he says.
Mr Wilson believes the SRC was under pressure from the orientation week leaders to ban club presence from O-Week.
"The orientation week leaders employed by the university to give guidance to new students felt our prominence takes the focus off them," he says.
"We were merely providing students with drinks and information about our club. We actually encouraged first-year students to be involved in all formal activities.
"Clubs have had a long tradition of being present during O-Week and it has never been our intention to distract."
Christians will fight ban
Mr Wilson says the stated unofficial reason for the new rule is not anti-Christian or anti-religion but reaction to club misbehaviour in recent years, including an incident which occurred during O-Week last year.
“In my conversation with a couple of SRC board members they reported to me that there has been misbehaviour by Agricultural Students over a number of years and that was a major reason for their policy change,” he says.
It has been reported that last year several Agricultural students misbehaved by getting some new students drunk and shaving their heads.
“We have done nothing wrong to deserve this. It is hard to pin the new rules down to religious discrimination,” he says.
Mr Wilson says six campus clubs have been united and proactive in fighting the ban, seeking to overturn the rules in time for next year's O-Week.
"The Uniting Church group, the Baha'i group, the Islamic group, the Aussie Rules team and the Rugby Union team and us got together and wrote a joint letter expressing concern about the negative effect this move will have on campus life," he says.
However, Mr Wilson says this week will not be a write-off for CF despite the lack of O-Week presence.
Mr Wilson is using this week to run an off-campus CF Ministry Training Week for second and third year student members.
"We are doing Bible studies on Philippians every morning and have various ministers from in town coming in to contribute with Bible teaching," he says.
"We have about 25 students present this week and have already had some great discussion and planning so far."
The SCF is the largest religious student group on campus with around 80 of the 3000 full-time students on campus registered as club members.
University defends
A club is only allowed on campus during O-Week if they are specifically invited by a university faculty or school, according to Rivcoll SRC treasurer Kai Zauner.
Ms Zauner says in previous years a spiritual advisor had been present during O-Week to address the students.
She says the SRC had planned to liase with the various on-campus religious clubs to organise a similar event this year but it was not able to be organised in time.
"After we spoke with student services we discovered due to time constraints we had to remove the talk and can the idea for this year," Ms Zauner says.
"We did had not yet approached the clubs with the possibility of their involvement."
However, Ms Zauner believes the SRC's new policy actually gives clubs an improved opportunity to make contact with new students.
"This year is the first time ever clubs can have their flyers included in the orientation bags during O-Week which are given to every student. If they give us their flyers ready to go we will put them into the bag," Ms Zauner explains.
"Our brand new rules have offered them a larger opportunity to present themselves."
While Mr Wilson laments the loss of an O-Week presence, he is keen to use these and other means to make contacts with new students.
"We are still hopeful for making early contacts this year by running our Unichurch service on the Sunday after O-Week and through the student newspaper and the flyer in the showbag," he says.
The SRC will also include a supplement in the new issue of campus student publication Hungappa which lists all the clubs and gives each one a full page to promote their activities.
Ms Zauner says the inclusion of a club presence during O-Week would be "information overload' for new students.
"We have daily academic advisory sessions, health and wellbeing seminars, online environments tutorials and so it's a lot for students to take in," she says.
"Due to the intensity of our O-Week program we felt having clubs present as well would be too much."
University classes commence Monday, February 18 and clubs day will be held Friday, February 22.
