Union Council (2nd December 2013)

The Chair welcomed everyone to the second Union Council of the year.

Jamie Hemingway asked for the spelling of his name to be corrected. The minutes of the previous meeting held on 21^st October 2013 were approved (Yes: 34, No: 1, with 7 abstentions) by a counted vote.

There were no matters arising since the previous meeting.

a). By-election for Union Councillors

There were no candidates for the available positions.

b). Election of Union Council representatives to Zone Committees

Creative Industries Zone Committee

There were no candidates for the available position.

Student Life Zone Committee 

There was one position and one candidate, who was duly elected.

• Thomas Feather

 

David Martin explained that the Returning Officer is appointed on an annual basis, and that David Gilani has filled in so far this term. He explained that Lorna Reavley was returning officer for the last set of elections and that it was good to have an external person in the role. The reference to rule 9 should be to rule 7. The appointment of Lorna Reavley as Returning Officer for the 2013-14 academic year was approved by a clear show of hands.

a) Approval of expenditure & contracts: sports kit collective purchasing deal

Evan Whyte introduced the proposal and explained the background to the negotiations.

 Sam Everard asked which clubs would be covered by this deal.  Evan provided the list of clubs, as follows: Volley Ball (male and female), Ultimate Frisbee (male and female), Trampolining, Touch Rugby, Tennis, Tchoukball, Table Tennis, Swimming, Squash, Rugby (male and female), Rifles, Netball, Mountaineering, Lacrosse (male, female and mixed), Korfball, Ice and Inline Skating, Hockey (male and female), Football (male and female), Golf, Dodgeball, Cricket (male and female), Cheerleading, Boat Club, Basketball, Baseball, Badminton, Archery, Athletics and American Football.    

 The proposal was approved by a clear show of hands.

a). Sexual harassment – Claire Gilbert

It was generally accepted by the discussion group that this issue effects everyone and therefore more research is required to investigate the actual effects on people that sexual harassment has; this will better inform a future policy that will tackle harassment. Claire explained that this is not about policing, but rather the fact there is currently no policy towards sexual harassment and there should be. It was suggested that more be done to publicise the topic of harassment on campus through training, campaigning and general discussion.

 b). Disciplinary procedure reform - Henry Pearson

The group were in favour of the way Disciplinary committees are chosen (opt-out method), which was a new addition this year. The groups discussed issues that need to be clarified in the disciplinary procedure:

• unlike fines, there is currently no limit to the amount of compensation a defendant must pay; a limit on compensation must be listed in the rules
• the chair of the disciplinary committee should be decided earlier in the year, suggestions were AGM or first Union Council of the academic year
• the list of punishments should be reviewed and include community service and finally,
• the rules should explain clearly where fines end up.

c). Post-graduates and students living in private accommodation - Oli Coles

The group agreed that there needs to be more visibility on the website for post-graduates (PGs), and contacting PGs can be difficult. It was decided that more PG activities and social events should be organised, for example, a PG Ball. The creation of a PG Association would help oversee other events directed at PGs, for example welcome events during Freshers’ week.

d). Availability of University facilities during exams - Alex Hovden

Many students use the library during exam times. However, facilities such as the café or shop are not always available when student need them. Now that VP Education is working to get the library open 24 hours, students are wondering what other facilities’ opening hours could be extended too. The group suggested asking the student what facilities they require and when; this will better inform the commercial side of SUSU of what their customers want. The group also discussed the availability of common learning spaces and how they can be better advertised, particularly around exam times.

 

 

a) External speakers – David Gilani

A good discussion was had at the meeting. The idea would now go back to certain Zones for their consideration – Student Communities Zone as it relates to issues of diversity, Democracy as it relates to legal and constitutional issues, and Sustainability from a welfare point of view.  He expected to bring a Policy Proposal to Union Council 3.

b) Union Council dates, times and locations – David Martin
David Martin explained that this was working already, and that the next meeting would be on a Tuesday.

c) Activities and presence at sites – Oli Coles

Some work has started on community forums, and this will progress going forwards.

d) Payday lenders – Josh Cox

This came as a Policy Proposal to this meeting of Union Council.

 

a) SUSU and Payday lenders
Laura Mason spoke for Josh Cox, who sent his apologies. She explained that the issues of payday lending to students had grown as more lenders target students. The policy has come from an ideas session at the last Union Council, and has been through Student Life Zone. She said that the main aim of the policy is to prevent advertising.

• Amendment (Claire Gilbert)

In "Union Believes", for section 2, omit: "2. Payday lenders are inherently immoral" and substitute: "2. Payday lenders are against our values as a Students' Union." The amendment was accepted by the proposer.

No-one spoke against the proposal.

On an electronic vote, the Proposal was passed (Yes: 40 No: 2 Abstain: 1)

b) Creation of a new Intra Mural Officer Student Leader position

David Martin introduced this Proposal on behalf of Democracy Zone Committee as chair of that Committee. He explained that it originated from the Sports Development Zone.  The core theme was that intra-mural sport needed a greater focus, and this change would complement the Zone strategy to that effect. Creating a student leader position for intra-mural sport would give intra-mural sport the full and proper attention it deserves. Democracy Zone has made relevant provisions required in the Rules.

William Cable spoke against the Proposal. He said that intra-mural sport was too specific an area to merit a student leader of its own, and suggested that this should be a matter for Student Groups.  He said it set a precedent of taking a specific area and giving too much priority.

Evan Whyte spoke for the Proposal, saying that between1,500-2000 students are involved in intra-mural sport. Last year there was a backlash against poor provision for the system, and that creating a student leader position would promote intra-mural sport, and in the long term ensure it was run well, and that student voices were represented in the organisation of intra-mural sport.

David Martin summarised, saying that intra-mural sport is one of the five main areas of work of the Sports Development Zone, and that this new position will complement the zone and its work.

On an electronic vote, the Proposal was passed (Yes: 35 No: 6 Abstain: 3)

c) Creation of new Media Officer Student Leader position

David Martin introduced this Proposal on behalf of Democracy Zone Committee as chair of that Committee. He explained that it originated from the Creative Industries Zone, and had been approved by Creative Industries Zone, Democracy Zone and then Creative Industries Zone again. There has been changed at each stage and additional consultation. He said that the Policy Proposal would be beneficial for the Union as a whole.

He said that the media groups have discussed this at Creative Industries Zone, and that the Proposal was brought again to CI and again passed. He believed there were countless benefits: improved communication, co-ordinator and collaboration. He said the Proposal would allow media heads to focus on the day-to-day running of their organisations, and would reduce involvement between media and sabbatical officers, and that media will still have support of sabbatical officers where relevant. Democracy Zone has made relevant provisions required in the Rules.

Sam Everard said thathe, and all editorial staff and writers of the Wessex Scene never supported this motion. He expressed his belief that this additional media officer position will not benefit the four media departments and that it would represent a step back from SUSU; as a result of this, the quality of information and content from the media departments will suffer. He stressed that the four media departments are not the same, nor are they similar to the student groups that the Performing Arts Officer represents. The media departments publish information on a daily and national basis; as such he stated that the media groups are departments not societies and should not be forced to unite under the same banner. He believed that attempting to do so would be a misguided exercise, as shown by the introduction of a news coordinator during last year’s spring elections. Sam also explained the difficulty in finding an individual qualified enough to represent all media departments. He said it would be “near impossible” to find someone with prior knowledge of how each media group operates.

•  Procedural Motion A (Jack Kanani)

To extend the time available to the current speaker by two minutes. Passed by clear show of hands.

Sam continued, and explained that it is true that the new position would mean more time for the heads of departments to work in their respective area, but that this should not be an issue as they knew what was being asked of them when they ran for the position last year. Sam was also dubious as to whether the media officer will encourage collaboration due to the differences between all four media groups, and adding that there has been collaboration between media groups already and therefore a media officer is unnecessary. He concluded that, after discussion with media and writer groups, it has been decided that this motion will not benefit any of the departments and instead, will only hinder the ability of future committees to run their respective departments. He asked the Council to listen to those who will be directly affected by the motion.

Katy O’Brien noted a correction to the Proposal: in Resolves 3(c), for “reduce by one” it should instead read “reduces by three”.

• Amendment (David Martin)

Insert two new sections in "Mandates", as follows:

"2. The Vice-President for Democracy and Creative Industries to establish a Media Committee as a subcommittee of the Creative Industries Zone Committee, by July 2014.

3. The Vice-President for Democracy and Creative Industries to look into the issue of the Creative Industries Zone's funding process, and bring a discussion to a future meeting of Creative Industries Zone Committee."

The amendment was accepted by the proposer.

Laura-Mary Ellis, speaking for, said that she had spoken to all four Media heads before the motion was brought forward and that, essentially they were all for this motion. On a point of information, Sam Everard then said that he personally was never for the motion and that this was a misleading statement. Laura continued saying that this motion was less about collaboration between media groups, and more about gaining fair representation of Media on the Creative Industries Zone committee and Union Council. She added that the media heads should not see this as a step back.

• Procedural motion A (Oli Coles)

To extend the time availble to the current speaker by one minute. Passed by clear show of hands.

Laura continued, saying it is possible to represent many students, as she does as Performing Arts Officer. Under her remit, she alone represents 1400 members whereas the Media groups combined have 750 members represented by four individuals. Laura concluded by reiterating that this motion is about promoting fair and equal representation across committee.

Jamie Barker, speaking against the Proposal,began by reiterating what was said by Sam Everard previously about the forced collaboration during spring elections last year and how unsuccessful this was. He explained that the media departments’ successes are due to the ability of the student leaders in charge of these areas being able to interact directly with the students, and that this will all go with the introduction of a media officer. 

• Procedural motion A (unknown)

To extend the time available to the current speaker by one minute. Passed by clear show of hands.

Jamie concluded that the new position is not necessary and that it makes no sense to change something that is working so successfully, especially if it will reduce student input and interaction with students which Jamie believes will happen if this motion is passed. He suggested that a new way to promote fair representation on the Creative Industries Zone should be found.

Speaking for: Jamie Hemingway

• Procedural motion D (Unknown).

To move to a vote. Failed by clear show of hands.

The Chair chastised members for speaking when others were.

Jamie Hemingway, speaking for, said that as chair of Student Groups Committee, he expects there to be a representative from the media groups sitting on the committee, however this is not the case and could potentially be solved by this motion being passed. He added that, as a member of the Creative Industries Zone Committee, he can clearly see how ‘media heavy’ the meetings are and therefore more attention is upon media activity when it should be spread across the committee. He believes this is unfair on the Performing Arts Officer who represents hundreds of groups and it would be better to delegate media issues to a media committee. 

• Procedural motion A (David Martin)

To extend the time available to the current speaker by one minute. Passed by clear show of hands.

Jamie reiterated what he explained before, stressing that it is unfair to have such a media-focussed committee and that it should be better balanced.

• Procedural motion E (Alex Hovden)

To move to an informal discussion. Failed by clear show of hands.

David Gunns, speaking against, mentioned the history with JCRs. Three years ago, there were ten JCR Presidents on Union Council, and now that has been reduced to just him as JCRs Officer, and he is therefore supposed to represent 4,500 students but he does not have enough time. He envisaged a similar problem occurring with a media officer position. Individual JCRs struggle to get involved they don’t have a platform to do so. This will also create an additional layer of bureaucracy. Media heads engage with students on an everyday basis, and that is what Union Council should be about. All these student leaders are engaged with students on a regular basis, so why would we want to vote them out.

• Procedural motion D (David Martin)

To move to a vote. Passed by clear show of hands.

 On an electronic vote, the Proposal was rejected (Yes: 9 No: 33 Abstain: 3)

 

v  At 8:00pm, the meeting adjourned for an access break, and continued at 8:05pm. 

The report was received by Council.

David Gunns asked why the report, which is not about a JCR official, say that JCRs need to resolve issues? Henry Pearson replied that the report was not saying JCRs are to blame, but that they are in best position to tackle the issue.

Oli Coles asked if the mentions to JCRs Committee in recommendation 3 could change to Student Communities Zone? Henry said he was happy for this to change.

a) Zone Reports (Paper L)

The reports were received by Council. The Chair explained that these reports were in a one-off format and would in future be replaced by more concise reports that also include financial information.

 b) Democracy Zone: Policy Review Group update (Paper M)

Marcus Burton updated the Council on the work of the Policy Review Group. He asked Council to delay the reporting of lapsing Policies to later on this year. He also asked Council to allow the terms of reference to be changed to allow the various recommendations to come to different Councils rather than just one.

 The proposals were passed by a clear show of hands.

a) Verbal officer repoprts
Oli Coles (VP Student Communities): Oli had recently attended an international students’ conference in Sheffield, where it had been good to speak to other Unions. JCR training – 55 new committee members had been trained, all of whom had written basic plans and goals, and that they has so far defied the image of being events-focused. Community forums now set up on website. There were still three vacant positions on JCR committees which were being filled.

Claire Gilbert (VP Engagement): Working on the welcome project de-brief for next year, building on last year and more of a focus on sites. The RAG Totaliser is planned to launch on Monday 9^th December. The enterprise audit has stalled slightly on the questions, but expected to report to the next Council. Claire had mentioned stats in her report, and asked whether people would people like more/less in future? She apologised for the lack of progression on her last goal, which was working on University communications with students, but explained that this was due to the nature of the work. Finally, RAG had so far raised £14,079.51.

David Martin (VP Democracy and Creative Industries): The activities room survey has now finished, with 60 responses, and he expected to see progress from January onwards. There had been a discussion about advertising support staff vacancies and how student talent can be best used. There had been progress with Student Southampton International Film Festival, with plans to increase this next year. The Student Groups Review for 2014 had started and they were looking at support, working with SGs and processes. Round 2 of student groups funding was now over, and more money had been given out than before. The new online agendas, papers and minutes page was ready to go soon.

David Mendoza-Wolfson (VP Education): We currently have 359 course reps which he thought was a new record, and he hoped to finish filling vacant positions soon. There had been an incredibly successful round of training, for which he wanted to thank Carla Jardim (Policy and Representation Coordinator). He had done work on e-submissions with the University, moving to more e-submissions, and also looking at recordings in lectures, with more to come in the future. They were also looking at standardising policy on personal tutors across the University. He had also been going round the country looking at new buildings at other universities.

Evan Whyte (VP Sports Development): A lot of work has been done on intra-mural sport, Sport Relief, and work with local schools on free sports sessions. The unification of team colours has taken a lot of time but very worthwhile. Funding round two had seen around £185,000 distributed. They have also done work with the University about reducing pressure on the Highfield gym, improving training for AU member club committees. The first meeting of the Sports Experience Board hadn’t gone as well as he would have liked, but they were working on coming up with a University-wide strategy for sport.

The Chair welcomed Beckie Thomas (VP Welfare) back following her absence. Claire Gilbert mentioned that Beckie’s work has been covered in Claire and Oli’s reports.

David Gilani (Union President): Over the last month, a lot of consultation has been done on the master plan, with over 40 students coming to focus groups. The Grad Ball committee has started well. He had loved working on the housing campaign, though it was great to have Beckie back. They have sent pledges to the 10 worst letting agencies. Speaking about the kit deal, he praised Evan for his work after many years, and asked for a round of applause for Evan.

b) Questions to Officers

Q1. David Gilani, speaking for David Mendoza Wolfson, said that although some universities did use to donate pay from striking staff to hardship funds, the University have made the decision to not do this, as when staff are striking the University loses productivity, and that money was needed to spend in other areas. The University had declined to reconsider this matter and he did not want to pursue this.

Q2. David Martin said he had had a meeting today about the matter. They are aware that the Student Groups Room was being under-utilised, and they were working to resolve this. It might be possible to swap the space in the building but first they need to communicate it exists, and it was important to ask if other ways of using room would be better.

 Laura Mason asked if consultation could be done more widely, as there was currently no room for distressed students who arrive at the Advice Centre, and she was worried about making it bookable. David replied that he understood those sentiments, and would look into the matter.

Q3. David Mendoza-Wolfson, speaking for Beckie Thomas, said he had spoken to staff, and a few of the recommendations are being taken forward, particularly on tariffs and the Code of Conduct. One bus is disabled-friendly, but this is not good enough, so when the time comes for a new contract, this will be taken into account then.

Q4. Claire Gilbert, speaking for Beckie Thomas, referred to a report by Chloe Green (former VP Welfare): to keep the lights on and cut back bushes. However, the Council have other funding priorities and are suffering £60 million cuts. She was willing to look at how students and locals can work at how this can be done, if the Council fail in future.

The Chair asked if members wanted more time for questions (submitted after the deadline and submitted from the floor). The meeting was clearly in favour of continuing with questions.

Q5. David Martin said he agreed that we should be publishing minutes. He explained that the previous site (minutes.susu.org) was non-functional, and did not reflect the new Zones structure and a new site was required (www.susu.org/meetings). The new site has a lot of improved features, and is expected to be fully functional from January onwards. He apologised for the delays but explained that it was better to fix this now rather than later.

Questions from the floor

Joel Young: The snow on the SUSU website is a problem for those with older laptops and phone users. Can we disable this? David Gilani said he will pass this on and look into it.

Thomas Gleeson: What was the response from Elliots? David Gilani said that so far, one agent has said yes to pledge, but some have said it was ridiculous. Elliots have asked questions – they haven’t said “no”, but neither have they said “yes” yet, and he was optimistic we will get somewhere.

Alex Hovden: Was there any update on Ratemash? David Gilani said he has sent a list to Ratemash of students who don’t want to be there, but hadn’t heard anything back. Other students’ unions have taken legal action via their university communications departments. David said he would update students via Facebook. Oli Coles informed that neither Kings College London Students’ Union nor Cardiff University Students’ Union had got a reply so far.

The Union Council Star was awarded to Jamie Wilson for his work with the Master Plan, Housing Campaign and intra-mural sports, in addition to his work as a JCR Committee member.

a) Thanks

Joe Spencer said that he had started coming to Union Council at the beginning of the year, and had thought that it didn’t do much. He said he had been here for five years and during that time had been annoyed about housing matters. He wanted to thank those who have been working on housing campaign, and said he appreciated the work done to fix this.

b) Industrial action by lecturers: approval

A motion to support the lecturers’ industrial action was moved, pursuant to Union Policy 1112P5.

David Gilani outlined the issue but explained that on this occasion, he was taking a different tack, and that he would inform Council of the decision to make, but not take a position himself.

Darren Richardson spoke in support of the motion, saying this was not just action by UCU but also other unions, and asked members to consider properly the word “severe”.

David Mendoza-Wolfson spoke against the motion, saying the action had the potential to affect 1015 different lectures, and that there would be 40,180 individual effects on students. He said there had been a number of complaints last time, about vuvuzelas and the blocking of delivery trucks. He said that students not in lectures had been disrupted in the library.

• Procedural motion A (Oli Coles)

To extend the time available for the current speaker by one minute. Passed by clear show of hands.

David continued, saying that as this was a re-occurrence it is now “severe”. He said there were a number of people earning less than the Living Wage, and we should support action to resolve this, but that this action was not about that. He said the action would be “incredibly” disruptive.

• Procedural motion D (David Gunns). To put the vote immediately. Passed by clear show of hands.

On an electronic vote, the motion was rejected (Yes: 11, No: 29, with 5 abstentions).

 

The next meeting is to be held on 4^th February 2013, in the Senate Room, Building 37.

The meeting closed at 8:50pm.