THERE are hundreds of stories to be told about student activism at the University of Sydney since 1937, or there is one: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

That story is written on the walls of the university's Fisher Library in an exhibition of campaign posters, mostly from the past 30 years, to celebrate the student representative council's 80th anniversary.

They chronicle a rich history of student bugbears, through the introduction of HECS, changes to student income support and intermittent threats to student unions, and broader issues including feminism, racism and nuclear weapons.

From "reject Keating's budget" to "the four horsemen of the Liberal apocalypse", they mostly target conservative governments but occasionally rail against Labor policies and even their own dons.

A man in a gown and mortarboard appears above the caption of one poster, origin unknown: "This man is an academic. Do not be mistaken by his scholarly guise … If he finds your work satisfactory, he will steal it. If he doesn't, he will fail you."

Previous student presidents include the High Court judge Michael Kirby (elected 1962), Chief Justice Jim Spigelman (1968), barrister Geoffrey Robertson (1966) and politicians Tony Abbott (1978), Joe Hockey (1987) and Belinda Neal (1983).

Kate Laing, the current president, has sifted through a treasure trove of evidence on now prominent people that could comfortably see her through retirement if she ever chose a life of blackmail - which she says she never would.

"We were covered in dust by the end of it," she said.

There is a letter from a senior policeman during the Kirby presidency complaining that a local plod had lost his cap after he was kidnapped by students during a rally and paraded through the university.

She found archived newspapers about the occupation of the clocktower by the now federal Minister for Transport, Anthony Albanese, to advocate for a separate department of political economy.

And old copies of the student newspaper Honi Soit have revealed that Mr Hockey, who was industrial relations minister when the Howard government banned compulsory student unions, advocated against such laws during his term as student president.