The SRC’s and student newspapers.
In this period a fee was collected when enrolling in a Tertiary institution and allocated to the Student Representative Council (SRC) which provided student representation, student support services and other activities, and usually published a student newspaper. Therefore the student newspapers were financed by student fees, accountable to and published by the SRC, auspiced by the Teachers Collage / Education Department.
The students enrolled in the two Teacher Collages, and their respective SRC’s and their student newspapers were quite separate. There was however considerable contact at the student social level. By circumstance the key protagonists in both student newspapers also lived in the same share house. In June 1970 VOX and GRIFFIN decided to produce a combined student newspaper edition in the context of various amalgamation discussions occurring. The wrap around cover of this edition features a picture of the newspaper staff(s), plus some local kids who gate crashed to photo session.
Status of 1970 intuitional sexual discrimination, mandated relationships, censorship
1970 was the pre Whitlam, the Vietnam War and conscription were both taking place. Censorship was entrenched; theatre productions were raided by police if deemed to be offensive, fault divorce was still in practice. Of course males were paid more than females. Females accepted into the studentship program were required to be unmarried. If they did marry during the course their studentship was cancelled and also their teacher education program studies. It is difficult to reimagine now but the underlying rationale was that marriage resulted in pregnancy and mothers should be home makers supporting their husbands, and not available for teaching employment.
Indeed I had peers who did marry but had to keep this secret from the Teacher Collage to avoid termination. Defacto relationships were becoming more common adding to this farce and clash the 1950’s outlook and the actual popular culture of the 1970’s.