Union Council (28th April 2016)

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Lauren Baugh (Student Trustee), Alex Hovden (Union President-elect and Student Trustee), Reema Begum, Amro Amer, Ahmad Anbar, Amgad Ellaboudy, Jack Harvey, Maymun Hashim-Subhan, Amirul Hj Bokhairi, Ali Laham, Abdihakim Maalim, Junaid Mahomed, Liibaan Mohamed, Mohamed Mohamed, Betul Ozcan, Muhammad Razali, Darren Richardson, Mohd Rosli, Amina Seylani, Omar Shetta and Mohammed Subhan were also in attendance.

The minutes of the meeting of 14 March 2016 were approved.

There were no membership matters arising.

There were no financial matters arising.

Gender balancing: Sam Bailey (Vice-President Welfare) reported that the discussion centred on the issues of the current gender balancing system and how a different system could be implemented. The Chair explained that Mike could submit an amendment to the Democracy Reform Proposal at the AGM if he wanted to take the issue further.

Events at WSA: Hannah Talbot (Vice-President Engagement) reported that the proposal would mandate the Sabbatical team to facilitate one big event at WSA in order to raise the profile of WSA. Council approved the idea to be considered in the same meeting.

Re-run Full-Time Officer Elections that receive One Nomination: Jamie Wilson (Vice-President Sports Development) reported that the group recognised the issue of only having one nomination for Full-Time Officer positons. There was general agreement that re-running the election was not a suitable solution, but there could be they had discussed whether it would be better to facilitate a RON campaign. Council referred the idea to Democracy Zone.

Implementation of Policy 1415P12 (Longer opening hours for SUSU during the holidays): Hannah reported that Ben had updated the group on the progress of the policy and also explained that it’s not possible for some outlets to open any longer. Council referred the idea to the Union President.

Supporting the Students not Suspects campaign: Shruti Verma (Vice-President Education) reported that they had discussed how Prevent is applied very lightly on a practical level by the University but they had agreed that Prevent is seen to target specific groups of people, which is unfair. Council referred the idea to Student Life Zone.

Democracy Reform Proposal: There was no feedback due to everyone being present when the idea was discussed.

Media Review: Ben Franklin (Union President) reported that they are in the process of gathering consultation with the media groups.

Supporting improvements to mental health services across the city of Southampton: Sam said that there had been a meeting with the two representatives from the Clinical Commissioning Group to discuss how proposals would affect students. An action plan was drawn up and a blog will be published about the meeting in the next few days.

Action from other meetings this year:

Supporting the Junior Doctor National Action Week/Proposed changes to Nurse Education/Policy on Placement Hours: Shruti reported that she had tried contacting Daniel Browning again and received no response. Whilst they were not specifically working on the ideas from the policy, Shruti and Calum Lyon (NamSoc President and Nursing Academic President) have written a joint response to the proposed changes and submitted it on behalf of the Students’ Union.

Rebrand: Ben reported that the approved concept was now in development. In terms of cost, the biggest cost will be £12,500 for the signage and the rest of the smaller changes would occur within the usual marketing budget.

Mike Allwright (Postgraduate (Research) Students Officer) asked whether the data from the consultations would be released. Ben said that this data would be released as part of the launch process.

Amy Paraskeva (Ethics and Environment Officer) asked what would happen if the proposal supporting keeping the name ‘SUSU’ was passed at Open Union Council. Ben said that it would be very disappointing considering the amount of consultation, time and money that has been put into the project.

a. Re-run Full-Time Officer Elections that receive One Nomination (1516P16)

This Proposal was not moved, as it had been referred to the Union President following the Ideas Discussion session at the start of the meeting.

b. Events at WSA (1516P17)

Speaking for, Ryan Notman-Watt (Winchester Campus President) said that the profile of WSA has been increasing and that following the success of the Saints and Sinners ball earlier this year the Proposal seeks to mandate at least one big event in Winchester each year.

•  On a clear show of voting cards, the Policy Proposal was passed.

a. Union Council Star

Darren Richardson was highly commended for his work contributing extensively at various Union and University meetings.

Katie Lightowler was award the Union Council Star for her work in supporting the AU ball and Varsity.

b. Student Groups Star

Humanities Mission Employable Working Group was highly commended for their delivery of range of employability initiatives to students.

Nightline was awarded the Student Groups Star for the incredible work Nightline volunteers do, for which they have seen a 182% increase in calls this year totalling 208 hours.

a. Attendance of Union Council Members and Student Trustees

The Sabbatical Officers were asked in turn to account for their officers with a poor record.

Daniel Browning - Shruti said that she had sent multiple emails and had just recently got a response and will discuss the issue with him.

Zehong Au - Ben reported that Kerry has emailed him about his attendance.

Kelechi Nze - Ben reported that Kerry has emailed him about his attendance.

Sammi Standley - Ben reported that Kerry has emailed her about her attendance.

Jamie Furlong - Hannah reported that Jamie had been having some issues with his email account and therefore not receiving all emails.

Sam Guthrie - Sam said that there hadn’t been any meetings for him since the last Union Council so the situation was unchanged.

b. Officer Reports

Anjit reported that Culture Festival is currently happening all this week and has been really successful so far.

Shruti said that aside from her report, they have recently had their first joint honours working group meeting as well as focusing on mature and part time students’ student experience. They have also been pushing the special considerations campaign on different campuses.

Hannah reported that the enterprise fund will be launched soon and the planning for the EVAs has been going well. RAG have now chosen their charities to be voted on by students and they are looking at changing the Charities and Community Officer remit and name.

Jamie said that AU ball is happening tomorrow. Alumni Day also took place last week and the summer tournament planning is going well.

Sam reported that the Safety Bus is now running until the end of exams. You Are More Than is currently being organised that they are specifically branching out to support student parents. There is a Swap Shop happening in Winchester tomorrow and the Vent About Your Rent survey will be sent out soon.

Ben said that he attended the Student Experience away day with the University and they came up with lots of joint strategies and action plans to improve the situation. Also the Cube renovations are now finished and looks really good.

c. Questions to Officers

PCC Election – Hannah said that they have been focusing mainly on the EU Referendum but that she is happy to write a blog about it.

Amy asked Shruti about the work she has been doing on esubmission and what she will do to ensure that all the work doesn’t go to waste. Shruti said that all of the information is going into her handover so that the next VP Education can take the project up straight away.

There were no updates for this meeting.

There were no hearings of Disciplinary or Appeals Committee since the last meeting.

The meeting closed at 8:10pm.

The date of the next meeting is Monday 6th June, in The Cube, time to be confirmed.