Global concerns
Student press in Australia has always been known to push boundaries and influence change - whether at a macro or campus level or on a national stage. Global issues were a concern for students on campus throughout the last 30 years and still continue to be into the future.
International events and issues
Student newspapers engaged with international, as well as local and regional issues. On June 6 1989 Hungappa's front cover was a blank page with the statement "REST IN PEACE THE STUDENT MARTYRS OF TIANANMEN SQUARE", and the Editorial statement was:
Events in Beijing over the weekend defy description. Any comment from HUNGAPPA would trivialise the realisty. In these circumstances an editorial in a student newspaper broaching another subject would be obscene.
Conversations about Tiananmen Square contniued through the pages of Hungappa well into the next year.
Student solidatirty globally was high at this period, and into the future. Other global topics of concern included the Salman Rushdie/Satanic Verses debate, the death of Princess Diana, and terrorism.
Euthanasia
Through the 1990s in particular voluntary euthanisaia was a hot topic in the Australian mainstream media, and Hungappa continued this conversation at a local level, translating the debate for students and addressing student concerns. Of note and interest is an advertisement for the the First National Conference on 'Death, Dying and Euthanasia' in 1993,
HECS and Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU)
Universities in Australia and their student press have had unique and over time, complicated relationships, often governed not at a local level (ie by the university) but at a Federal level, with studient unionism (VSU) and student fees (HECS) being the key focus. The student press provided a space for education, engament and action over the topics, which escalated through the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Take for example Vol 1 No 14, which featured an 'Announcement' reminding students of the HECS census date, a reminder to 'practice safe HECS: withdraw by the census date' and later discussion about the politics of HECS.
Voluntary Student Unionism has been a hot topic over the years, with debates and discussions featuring regularly - including an analysis of VSU through an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
