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  • Israa Merhi

    Israa Merhi is a Muslim writer, poet, student, and editor. She is currently writing and editing for the student-run and funded magazine, W’SUP News. She has briefly worked with an independent publication, Wolfbound Books, in Parramatta. In her early career, she’d performed in multiple poetry slams across the country like Enough Said Poetry Slam and Saltwater Poetry Slam. Also, in the 2025 Grand Slam hosted and facilitated by Bankstown Poetry Slam, Israa, along with her team, won the People’s Choice award. Now, she is hoping to expand her career and include other forms of creative writing. She is also aiming to write and publish reflective articles, analyses and essays, on neocolonialism inherent to Western cultures from the perspective of a Muslim.

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2025 Student Election Live Updates

2025 Student Election Live Updates

22nd September 2025: On Monday, the 15th of September 2025, Western’s student elections opened for the positions on the Board of Trustees (BoT), Student Representative Council (SRC) and the National Union of Students (NUS).   Each enrolled Western student received an...

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Let’s Teach Consent with Chanel Contos

Let’s Teach Consent with Chanel Contos

On May 26, 2025, Teach Us Consent – a movement founded by activist Chanel Contos, advocates to dismantle rape culture, launched the Promoting Consent Initiative. The initiative aims to provide young people with online content communicating the importance of healthy...

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Western’s Student Union is almost here!

Western’s Student Union is almost here!

W’SUP News has been closely following news regarding Western Sydney University’s student union that is set to be established in the upcoming months with operations to begin early 2026. We recently asked SRC President Laine Fox for union updates. Laine’s Statement:  ...

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Traumatised By Maths? Same – You Need MESH!

Traumatised By Maths? Same – You Need MESH!

As a writer, and definitely NOT a Mathematician, I freak out when I just get close to numbers. It takes me back to school days when I used to have a meltdown over equations and shapes. I still don’t know why I needed to prove how something was a triangle, to be...

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What’s On at WSU

Western’s Annual Lifeblood Challenge, Now Open to More Donors!

The Lifeblood Challenge is a yearly competition organised by the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood where each team attempts to collect as many blood donations as possible in a set amount of time. From August 1st to October 31st, Western Sydney University (WSU) is working...

Queer Social Club Celebrates 2 Years

  Josh Bouman (he/him) is the Queer Social Club (QSC) co-founder. The QSC runs events such as, picnics, hiking, queer trivia, beach days, game afternoons, brunches, trips to a café, craft-days, karaoke and craft-days.  ‘[The Queer community] is very important...

Penguin Fantasy Fest Comes to Sydney

  July 2025 saw Penguin’s ‘Fantasy Fest’ arrive in Australian cities, readers enjoying exclusive previews of upcoming fantasy novel releases and extensive author panel discussions.  In 2023, Penguin Random House Australia, one of Australia’s ‘big five’ publishing...

Diversity Fest in Jeopardy: An Absent Crowd, but a Present Message

  Diversity Fest was once the booming heart of Western Sydney University’s social life. This year, the campus was silent, with attendees few and far between. This begs the question: Has Diversity Fest lost its spark or has a shift occurred with how students...