Vertigo Reform: What the Changes to the By-Laws Mean for the Future of Vertigo

The UTS Student Association (UTSSA) is a student-run organisation on behalf of the students at UTS. They run campaigns, provide student services and advocate for the needs of the student body. Vertigo is somewhat of an organ of the UTSSA, meaning that we are funded by them. As – technically speaking – our investors, this means they also have authority over our creative output. The relationship between the UTSSA and Vertigo is complex, as we continue to seek creative and independent control of the publication while ultimately being managed by an organisation that generally does not majorly associate with Vertigo's reputation. For example, when students see stacks of the new volume of Vertigo around campus, or stumble across our stylish Instagram, they aren't going to immediately connect us with the UTSSA. This is of no fault of our own, as Vertigo presents itself as an art-based and often creatively experimental outlet for student work, which is not necessarily representative of the UTSSA’s image.

These differing ideations between what the Vertigo editorial team envisages for the magazine as a publication and as a brand, versus what the UTSSA envisages, is where the problems begin to arise. The UTSSA’s vision for Vertigo informed their new by-laws that were passed in the June 2024 UTSSA Council Meeting. They will officially be enforced by the General Secretary for the 2025 Vertigo editorial team. 

By-laws are rules put in place by an organisation to regulate itself and to provide guidelines. In our case, the UTSSA made by-laws that attempted to do just this, but which also worked to restrict our creative and overall control and editorial vision for the magazine. The by-laws are to be taken seriously because of the interconnected, established relationship between Vertigo and the UTSSA. The development of these by-laws have been discussed internally within the UTSSA and are based on the data collected from a survey conducted by a research company hired by the UTSSA in May of 2023 which was paid for using Vertigo’s budget last year. Essentially, the survey and the actions that have followed suit have occurred as the UTSSA believes we are not producing enough content related to UTS as an institution, or in other words, “student news” (which in the past has been an arguably ambiguous term).

A few of the by-laws put in place in the June council include: 

• “No less than 50% of the total articles in physical editions of Vertigo must cover non-fiction content related to student life and university news. No more than 20% of the total articles in each physical edition of Vertigo can be student showcase work and no more than 30% can be miscellaneous non-fiction unrelated to UTS. Articles must have a minimum length of half a page to qualify towards the percentage allocations specified”

• “Vertigo must not publish any written work, in whole or in part, that has previously been submitted as an assessment task to UTS or any other academic institution (This restriction applies to physical edition of Vertigo and assessments may be published if deemed valuable to the wider student body)” 

• “If the General Secretary receives a complete edition of Vertigo which fails to comply with the UTSSA by-laws, payment for printing must be withheld for that issue until alterations are made”. 

Ultimately, these new rules buffer hard-hitting and original student work by restricting the magazine to word limits and newsy articles.

The culture of student publications

This major change to Vertigo’s by-laws has evidently created major worry for the future of the publication given the creative content of the magazine, and will directly affect the content produced in its future physical editions.

In the glory years of student unionism prior to the implementation of the Voluntary Student Unionism Act (VSU) in 2005, student unions such as the UTSSA held great power, effectively being at the forefront of student life and services. Since then, we have seen a major stagnation in campus culture and that has effectively trickled down to our student publications.

The livelihood of campus culture is connected to our publication. Prior to the VSU in 2005, Vertigo was an outlet for student dissent, holding ads for protests against the implementation of HECs to auditing the spending of the UTS Union (now ActivateUTS). With the implementation of VSU, campus culture is effectively dead and apolitical. 

While Vertigo still remains a voice for students, VSU as well as the COVID-19 Pandemic has killed what was left of campus culture and significantly affected student engagement. While Vertigo is still a publication for students to express their dissent, a change in who is engaging with the publication has ultimately changed the culture of Vertigo – from once a publication that once held a full-spread ad for a protest against HECS, to a pretty aesthetic magazine. 

It would be amazing to go into this more, but we’ve gone past our word count in order to write this article (as the magazine has never had so few pages as it does now) so let us summarise this:

Yes, writing about student events to serve the students is important. But, we need the UTSSA to understand that a by-law change that will now require Vertigo to meet these requirements in order to get what they need, is a poor decision. We want to write about campus culture, but it needs to exist in order for us to do so.

Writing puff pieces about student society events and services the UTSSA provides like they’d like us to do more of, does nothing but take away space from meaningful, original student works. Space that has been dwindling for a number of years as our budgets are continuously slashed and page numbers are forced to be significantly reduced.

We aren’t the only publication that does news, take Central News for example. Opinion pieces can be found on UTSOC’s publication, the Comma, too. Advertisements about the UTSSA and their services can be found on their Instagram or posters around campus, and marketing for society events is done by ActivateUTS and societies themselves. But students want to showcase their creative works or intellectual ramblings that they have spent time and energy on and think deserve to be seen, and we are the only space available at UTS to platform that. If management and the UTSSA takes this away from our student body as they’re personally not interested in the creative aspect of Vertigo or don’t see the value in the arts or humanities, they’re shaming and undervaluing a huge portion of UTS’ student population.

In response to this article, UTSSA General Secretary Adam Levett and President Mia Campbell released a statement, rejecting the assertion that the by-laws constitute censorship or limit creative freedom. They countered that they,

‘...[R]eject any assertion that the reforms passed in June constitute any form of censorship or limit on creative freedom. Rather, they adjust the proportion of non-fiction pieces related to UTS required for us to invest in printing physical magazines. This is not a mandate on what can and cannot be published, given that these only apply to physical copies and Vertigo is free to publish a different percentage breakdown in online editions of the magazine.’

They continued that,

‘These proposed by-law changes stem directly from student media research conducted in 2023. When asked what content should be included in Vertigo; “Community and University Activities” averaged 17% whereas “Creative content” averaged 11%, the research showed a significant student preference for accessing content via digital platforms, with 91% of students finding a digital-only version of Vertigo appealing. Given the high costs of print editions, it is both practical and reasonable to expect that print content focuses more on topics that resonate with a broader student population, while other creative content can still be freely published online.’

Yet while this point is valid, the data collected from our social media analytics, alongside the proportions of submissions we receive per content category, overwhelmingly preface that our readership has its base in the design, creative writing, and arts sectors of UTS.

The UTSSA also rejected the comments this article has made on campus culture, stating that it is ‘insulting to hard-working student societies who put on countless events every single year.’ While this article does not undermine the hard work that both societies and faculties endure to establish as much campus culture as they are able to – and who do so to such a commendable standard – it is our opinion that comparative to other universities such as USYD, where campus culture is rife, there is simply less to report on at UTS on a week-to-week basis. This is felt by all societies, student-run organisations and even organs of the SRC such as Vertigo, where post-covid membership remains at an all time low. This is not to discredit work, but is a fact of 2024 uni life. Students are simply not as engaged with their universities as they once were.

While we honour the statement made by the UTSSA, our point remains the same. We of course care about preserving this publication in the way that it currently exists. We commend that the UTSSA is attempting to evolve that according to valid research, but we are sad to see it change.

Their full joint statement can be found here.