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written by JESS SAWANG (edited by JONO CHENG)
“WHAT DO WE WANT?”
“TRIPLE SPEED ON ECHO360!”
“WHEN DO WE WANT IT?”
“THE DAY BEFORE THE END OF COURSE!”
“WHY DO WE WANT IT?”
“BECAUSE CRAMMING IS THE ONLY VIABLE WAY OF PREPARING FOR AN EXAM!”
It’s 11:30 am when fervent chanting pierces through the peaceful winter morning.
Hundreds of students from all years of the UNSW medical program are gathered around in front of Wallace Wurth, holding a multitude of home-made signs that proclaimed “3x FOR PRESIDENT!”, “2x IS A CRIME” and “THREE’S FOR P’S”, to list a few. The crowd’s passion is fuelled by caffeine, and with eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep, they look possessed by their enthusiasm to bring about change.
Vikram Min, the organiser of the protest and a second year UNSW Medicine student, had stayed up until the early hours of dawn every day in the past two weeks in order to ensure the success of the rally, which included hand-painting 200 signs.
He states that the protesters plan to sit in and block all the entrances to the illustrious Wallace Wurth building for the next few days, right up until 24 hours before EOC, in order to ensure that they convey their message loud and clear to Medfac.
When questioned about whether they should instead be spending their valuable time to watch lectures and revise like their peers in other courses, Min says, “Mate, that’s just not how we do things around here. That’s just illegal.”
In a heated address to the gathered protesters, Min engages his enraptured audience as he draws upon the years of his own experiences; his frustrations stem from the impending doom that is the EOC and his record of not yet having watched any lectures since the first scenario plenary all the way back in Foundations.
“There simply isn’t enough time to watch sixty lectures in the day before EOC, even if it’s on two times the speed. This reflects a clear and glaring fault of the online lecture viewer known as Echo360, which begs the question, why is triple speed not offered? That is why we are here today! We will bring about change, even if it is wrenched from the hands of the unwilling!”
Min raises his fist to the masses and his words are met with roars of agreement from the raucous crowd.
Perhaps it would be more efficient and effective to obtain the skills of better time management, as, after all, watching 60 lectures in 3 days at 2x speed is quite reasonable. But for now, it is nice to see that medical students are exercising their personal autonomy and implementing their advocacy skills in a public display as per the Ethics Cube.
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