By Ahmad Albaraa Alaa
GOMBAK, 18 April 2019 – Eight proposed Student Union (SU) structures set forth by various bodies within and outside IIUM were discussed at a conference on Monday (16 April) by the IIUM Student Representative Council (SRC)’s Student Union working committee.
The idea to replace the SRC with SU was proposed by Education Minister, Dr. Maszlee Malik, when he was appointed as president of IIUM.
Since then, the SRC has organised a committee that was tasked with coming up with the structure and job scope of the Student Union as well as overseeing the transition from SRC to SU, alongside many other offices like the Student Affairs and Development Division (STADD) and the Office of Legal Advisor (OLA).
During the conference that was held in the IIUM Cultural Centre (ICC) eight proposals were presented on stage, where most of them were from bodies within IIUM, while two were not, namely from GAMIS and Kuantan Harmoni.
SRC president, Ahmad Irham, told an interview session with IIUMToday that the reason cited for SU to be established is for students to gain “more power” and for them to be able to make decisions for themselves.
Ahmad Irfan stressed on the point that after SU has been established the SRC will be disbanded.
The transition from SRC to SU, he added, will not be an abrupt one, rather they will slowly hand over control to the new body “phase by phase”, and once they have ensured that everything is “stable” they will then switch to new structure of SU.
The outcome from Monday’s conference will be used to establish the first IIUM Student Union this upcoming September.
The closing ceremony witnessed remarks from Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zulkifli Hasan, Deputy Rector (Student Development and Community Engagement), as well as Datin Paduka IR. Dr. Siti Hamisah Binti Tapsir, the Director General of Higher Education (Ministry of Education). In addition, an informational video on the Student Union was shown. ***