News Archive

The countdown to PROSH has well and truly begun, so mark 22 March in your calendars, and prepare to laugh.

For Directors Skevos Karpathakis and Angela Stojanoska it’s been a fun and challenging experience so far, with the best yet to come.

“We had our launch party and layout weekend last week. With two weeks until sale date it really is all systems go now with the focus being on content creation and of course sourcing volunteers - without them, PROSH couldn’t be nearly as successful as it is,” says Skevos.

A UWA institution, PROSH is driven by a team of volunteer students who write, design, edit and sell the spoof newspaper designed to poke fun at current events and political agendas.

“The content is always a bit controversial, people have come to expect it that way.  We know that boundaries have been pushed too far in the past which is not something we want to repeat.  The point is to be clever with our humour, and I’m looking forward to seeing the final result,” says Angela.

All proceeds from PROSH sales go to chosen charities, and the team are hoping to make over $80,000 this year.

Skevos says it’s always hard to pick which charities to support as the team get so many applications from such worthy causes.

“This year we’re supporting the Sexual Assault Resource Centre, Ronald McDonald House, the Centre for Asylum Seekers Refugees and Detainees and Millennium Kids.”

For 86 years PROSH has been a key community engagement activity for UWA. While the people of Perth don’t know what date to expect the paper they are always happy when they see dressed up students on the streets.

“It really is a one of a kind event, no other university has something similar. I remember my sister bringing home copies of PROSH which made me really excited about one day going to UWA,” says Skevos.

This year PROSH is a bit earlier than previous years and a key reason for this is to ensure high school students aren’t on holiday.

“It’s a great way to engage with high school students, and raises the profile of UWA in a positive way. It’s a more organic kind of promotion than advertising for example.

“It’s also awesome when you sell a paper to a member of the public and they tell you about the time they sold PROSH when they were students here,” says Angela.

As the PROSH team look to build a formidable volunteer army, they do have one request of UWA staff.

“We’d love you to encourage students to get involved, whether it be selling papers on the day, or helping out in the lead up.

“The more volunteers we have, the bigger and better we can make PROSH 2017,” Skevos says.