Union Council (27th March 2014)

Members in attendance:

• Samuel Bailey (Equality and Diversity Officer-elect)
• Sophie Isherwood (Union Films Cinema Manager-elect)
• Steven Osborn (Union Councillor-elect)
• Katie Lightowler (Vice-President Sports Development-elect)
• Sophia D'Angelico (Vice-President Education-elect)
• Chris McGeehan (Student Groups Officer-elect)
• David Heard
• Jade Head
• Marcus Burton
• Jack Beckett

Katy O'Brien (Chair of Council) welcomed members to the meeting. She explained that the deadline for apologies was 4pm on the day of the meeting, and that she would no longer be accepting any apologies after this time. She explained that the meeting was currently inquorate, and that a decision would be made by 7:15pm on whether to continue with the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting of 4th February 2014 were approved on a counted vote (Yes: 34, No: 0, Abstentions: 0).

Marcus Burton presented an update on the work of the Policy Review. Claire Gilbert asked for it to be noted that responsibility for the Responsible Drinking Policy had passed to the Student Life Zone as it it a welfare issue; Marcus apologised.

David Martin advised the meeting that Emma Miles (Union Councillor) had resigned.

a. Wessex Sailing Club

David Gilani introduced the proposal and explained the costs.

Laura Mason asked if the costs could be shared with other universities, and whether the boats could be shared with them?

Evan Whyte responded that this could lead to complications in terms of liability for damage, and that the boats are currently very heavily used by our students alone, leaving too little time for other users to be able to make use of them.

Henry Pearson asked how many people were actively racing. Jack Beckett, from the Wessex Sailing Club, informed the meeting that four teams currently use the boats for racing, but that some events can see 50 or 100 people participating.

Emily Shepherd asked if approving this expenditure would mean that other requests for funding get declined?

Evan explained that the Sports Development Zone has made the collective decision to support this particular request, having taken into consideration the large number of casual sailors, and the performance of the Club, but that this did not mean that other bids had been rejected.

The expenditure was approved by a clear show of voting cards.

• A quorum having not been reached but 15 minutes having passed since the time appointed for the start of the meeting, in accordance with the provisions of Rule 2, s4.6(a), the Chair decided to continue with the meeting and to refer the business to the next meeting of Council for approval.

• Trans Inclusion (Beckie Thomas): see attached sheet
• Industrial action (David Mendoza-Wolfson): lots of feedback (sheet to follow). DMW will present draft to next Education Zone. They will feed into OUC.
• Re-running sabbaticals (Jade Head/David Martin): see attached sheet.
• Communications and social media: (sheet to follow).

• Capital expenditure: David Gilani informed the meeting that the decision on capital spending projects was going to the next meeting of the Finance Sub-Committee.
• Voter registration: Claire Gilbert said she hoped members had registered to vote, and encouraged them to encourage their housemates. She said it was possible that there would be a hustings for the European Parliament elections on 1 May.

The Chair explained that the motion on stike action had been placed under "any other business" on the agenda in accordance with previous practice. David Mendoza-Wolfson asked for it to be moved to the policy discussion, which the Chair accepted.

a. Union Films

David Martin proposed the Policy on behalf of the Creative Industries Zone Committee.

He said that the current Policy is outdated and references defunct departments. This Policy would recognise the independent status of UF. He said be believed it was important to maintain the presence of UF, and that this would ensure UF will be consulted on any changes in facilities provision. the policy would ensure that UF is not subsumed into the commercial operations of the Union, and that it was important to preserve it as a fantastic student-led service.

David Gilani, speaking against the Policy, said he loved UF but it should be the case that everyone knows of the importance of UF. He said he believed it was a shame that we have to write this down rather than just note the status quo, giving SUSUtv as an example. he believed if we could save writing it down, it would be better to note that we currently "live it".

Catherine Darcy, speaking for the Policy, said that the Union had hired people (other than SUSUtv) to film things without informing them, so she could understand where UF were coming from. She gave the present meeting as an example, where filming was occuring for the Annual Review.

On a Point of Information, Claire Gilbert said that SUSUtv would have been informed about the Annual Review work broadly.

There were no further speeches against the Policy.

Nick Tinsley, speaking for the Policy, said it was not the case that UF were worried about their status at the moment, but more that this was an update to existing policy. He agreed that it shouldn’t be necessary, but believed that it was better to have it in place, as it provides a guarantee that UF will remain student-led.

Summing up, David Martin said be believed the Policy was important as it would keep things student-led and separate from commercial outlets.

• On a counted vote, the Policy Proposal was passed (Yes: 35, No: 3, Abstain: 3)

b. Tackling Sexual Harrasement

Claire Gilbert, proposing the Policy, said she hoped that members had read it before the meeting. She mentioned that 68% of people students report having been victims of sexual harrasement, and that this didn't include witnesses, and that up to 1 in 4 students had had unwanted sexual contact. She explained that this subject had been brought to an Ideas Discussion at the previous meeting of Council, and has since been to Equality and Diversity Committee, Student Life Zone Committee, the Seniort Leadership team and volunteers behind the campaign. She said that as a Union, we’re here for our members, and we need to do more on sexual harrasment. She believed it was important to include everyone regardless of gender, and that this Policy was about education, training, conversation and making changes happen.

There were no further speeches.

Summing up, Claire said that if anyone wants to get involved in the campaign to let her now, and they could join in the group.

• On a counted vote, the Policy Proposal was passed (Yes: 41, No: 1, Abstain: 0)

c. SUSU Job Shop

Proposing the Policy on behalf of the Student Life Zone Committee, Beckie Thomas explained that the motivation behind the move was that the university, which currently provides the service, was better placed to focus on graduate employability. She explained that the proposed Job Shop will be both online and have a physical prescence.

There were no further speeches.

Summing up, Beckie exhorted members to vote for the Policy.

• On a counted vote, the Policy Proposal was passed (Yes: 41, No: 0, Abstain: 1)

d. Increasing Access to Bursaries

Proposing the Policy on behalf of the Student Life Zone Committee, Beckie Thomas explained that this one was more complex. SUSU can have an impact on the Access Agreement for the University, and this year we’ve achieved £2.4 million more on bursaries for students. We believe these are better than fee waivers, as 40% of students will not pay back their student loans in full, so don't benefit from waivers. This Policy would cause us to lobby the University to cut fee waivers and provide more bursaries, to increase the threshold at which they are paid, and to increase by inflation the amount paid. It would also include national lobbying for inflation-based increases in student grants.

David Mendoza-Wolfson, speaking against, said that although he will vote for the Policy, he believed that there was a long term benefit to fee waivers, but that this was outweighed by an increase in bursaries.

Laura Mason, speaking for the Policy, said that she believed students will still have the benefit of being able to offset bursaries against tuition fees, but that some students will never benefit from fee waivers as they won’t ever earn enough to re-pay them.

Beckie Thomas asked members to vote in favour of the Policy to support the Union at Access Agreement meetings, and to fix the problem nationally over inflation.

• On a counted vote, the Policy Proposal was passed (Yes: 36, No: 2, Abstain: 4)

e. Industrial action by lecturers

Note: With the permission of the Chair, a paper from UCU was distributed in connection with this motion. No paper was available from UCEA.

David Gilani proposed the motion was saying that he believed the Policy in it's current state is not ideal, but that he had a duty to put this motion, so that there can be a debate.

David Mendoza-Wolfson, speaking against, said that what was being debated was the severity of the impact. He said he didn't think anyone could suggest that a boycott couldn’t have this affect. Regardless of principled position. If you support action, you believe that the severe affect will force the University to do something. If you don't support action, you believe it would be too great an affect, and that it shouldn’t hit students. He sympathised with the grievance but didn't believe that students should feel brunt of disagreement. He mentioned students who wouldn't have disserations or vivas marked, and that students have spent thousands of pounds on their educations. He said he had no doubt that a marking boycott would have a severe adverse affect, and encouraged members to vote against the motion.

Louisa Smith, speaking for, said that although the boycott will have a huge impact on current students, she believed it was is better for us as an SU to minimise the severity by keeping our relationship with UCU and getting information from them to our to members. She said she did not believe that SUSU's opposition would prevent the action, so the question was how can we reduce the severity for our members?

Grace Cameron, speaking against, said that as a third year, she has worked hard for months on her dissertation, and that she saw this boycott as a massive slap in the face. She believed it was not a question of supporting the decision of the Union, but about whether it will have an affect on our students. She said she understood that it was not just about third years, but from a finalist's perspective, it would have a massive impact on marks and graduation.

Tom Gleeson, speaking for, said he thought everyone agreed that this was about reducing the impact on students. He referred to Louisa's remarks, and noted that if we don't vote to support the action it's still going to happen and is still going to have same impact, but that one way to avoid the impact is if there’s a resolution.

David Mendoza-Wolfson, on a Point of Information, said that UCU has said even if the Vice-Chancellor spoke to them and agreed with them, the marking boycott will not stop, even in Southampton. 

Grace Cameron moved procedural motion E (to move to an informal discussion), which was passed by clear show of voting cards.

David Martin mentioned the wording of the motion, and clarified that the UCU will continue to hold the boycott regardless of discussions. William Cable said that if your work is not being marked, being told that isn’t going to reduce that impact. He believed education was the reason students come to university. Adam Proudley asked if UCU had shown any indication that our support would mean the affect was reduced? David Mendoza-Wolfson replied that the local branch will support the boycott regardless of what we believe.

Josh Cox said he was against the boycott, as as a third year, his dissertation and exams were integral to his progression. He did not believe that there was anything we can do to minimise the action, and believed that SUSU should make a stand and say we understand the issues, but that we believe that taking it out on students is not the right way to do it.

Louisa Smith said that the company who offered her a job told her to keep them informed on the situation, and that they would work with her on the available information they have. William Cable said it could not be guaranted that that will happen to others, and that it wasn't good enough for students to have to convince prospective employeers. Kane Hands said he believed that employers will not be obvlious to the national situation. Grace Cameron said that she accepted that some will understand this, but that postgraduate courses have particular grade requirements, and this would create too much uncertainty.

Tom Gleeson said that David Mendoza-Wolfson has convinced him; if we cannot stop the action, we should should stand against it.

Jamie Barker moved procedural motion D (to move to the vote), which was passed by a clear show of voting cards.

• On a counted vote, the motion was defeated (Yes: 6, No: 32, Abstain: 4)

Laura Mason asked if Zone Reports could only include information not in Officer Reports. David Gilani explained that the Zone Reports are for multiple audiences not just Union Council. Alex Hovden asked if future Zone Reports could include the dates of the next Zone Committee meetings. David Mendoza-Wolfson wished to correct the Education Zone Report; 4 not 3 new Faculty Officers had been elected.

The report from Disciplinary Committee was recieved.

a. Attendance

Those who hadn't been attending meetings were present, and have consulted with Sabbatical Officers on non-attendance.

b. Officer reports

Claire Gilbert reported that Sport Relief was a success despite the hail, with Oli Coles and David Gilani running. the "Building Bridges" event happened last night between police, SUSU and the Highfield Residents Association HRA. She reminded members that it was the Big Give this week and that they could donate online. She also offered Thank You cards for Student Leaders to send to their Voluntary Officers. She also encouraged people to nominate others for the Excellence in Volunteering Awards, and to push Your Skills sessions for their succesors.

David Martin noted that the Creatibe Industries career season has been very successful, with over 90 students coming to the panel session on Publishing. The Surge Awards had been fantastic. he had been doing work on the Student Groups Project, though only one person has turned up to a recent consultation. Work is continuing on revieiwing the balloons system and making things easier to udnersatand. May will be very busy, as it will see Union Council #5, the Annual General Meeting and Summer Elections. the first draft of a facilities map had been produced to help lost people around the buildings, and the Activities Room refurbishment was going ahead, at an expected cost of around £50,000. The main thing he wanted to report on was the success of the Spring Election s, which saw votes increase to over 6,500. he also mentioned his work on the "We the People” project mandated last year.

Evan Whyte was asked by the Chair why his Officer Report had been submitted late. He jokingly responded that had been busy cleaning the Varsity trophy, but apologised for the delay as he had had to go home. He reported that it had been a fantastic few months for sport. Varsity had been a huge success, with good weather, a good vibe and a good result, and over 1000 people had attended the afterparty at 90 Degrees. he said he was very proud of all the work, and was pleased that it had created a community spirit. he noted that the AU Ball had sold out in three days. He also noted the good work being done on intra-mural sports, which they were still hoping to bring within SUSU.

Beckie Thomas reported that she had been focusing on mental health work, working with Josh Cox on Wellbeing Week and Stress Less Fest. She was also working on the mental wellbeing survey and housing campaign, with the Council on "to let" sign takedowns and on the  Trans* inclusion with Tom Gleeson. Sustainability Week had gone went well with Charlotte Hollands. The Nightline service was being offered to Southampton Solent University, on which she'd been working with Laura Mason. She had attended a recent conference in Oxford on mental health and a Solent Sustanability business event. The BEES launch had gone well, and audits will start soon. She was also attending Access Agreement meetings.

Oli Coles was asked by the Chair why his Officer Report had been submitted late. He apologised, and stated that he had scheduled time in his diary running up to deadline, but a meeting had overrun. He reported that he has run the Sport Relief mile in a ridiculous costume. He has also been working on the Improving Participation project, and launching the new SUSU forums, an online portal for students at sites and postgrads to communicate through at susu.org/forum. Today, he had met with architects at Winchester on plans for new halls. he has also secured more lockers secured for medics at Southampton General Hospital. The Fresher Rep role description was being written and recruitment was planned to start after the Easter holidays.

David Mendoza-Wolfson noted that his report had been submitted on time but had been rushed. He noted the pilot for the 24 hour library. He mentioned the lecture recording agreement, which would see audio recording in all lecture halls next year, but that he was continuong with lobbying to add cameras. He reported that he was taking part in the current review by the Quality Assurance Agency, and that a job advertisment for an intern was going out soon to help with number crunching. The Excellence in Teachign Awards has seen over 500 nominations, less than last year but shorter period of time. More time for CRs to pick form entries.

David Gilani was asked by the Chair why his Officer Report had been submitted late. He apologised, giving poor time management as his reason. he commented that the previous week had been incredible, and since then, things had been equally as awesome. The first round of Innovations Fund bidding had begun, and some was finalised already. The Grad Ball ticket sales period had finished, with sales up 150 on last year, and he paid tribute to the Grad Ball Committee who helped promote the event, and announced that they were trying to find more tickets. He also praised the diversity of elections and the successes, and paid tribute to David Martin for his work over the week. He also thanked UC for voting for the Bursaries policy.

c. Questions

The questions are minuted in the order they were taken, the numbers refer to the numbers in this document.

Q1. Catherine Darcy responded that a lot of unpredictable things happen at events like this. She had been there from 8am on the day, and the night before. Random occurances often conspire to cause problems - this year, the vision mixer failed to work close to the start of the show, and even external technical experts couldn’t fix it. She implored people with required skills to help out in future. She also noted that the SUSUtv debrief and SUSU elections debriefs had picked these issues up and there were many improvements they would look to make next year, including improved communications between students and staff in charge of the various areas.

Q3 & Q5. David Martin said that some technical problems had meant the minutes system hadn;'t been working as intended. Some old minutes have now been uploaded that had been missing, and the system was now fully functioning, as is the archive of old minutes. Where minutes are not available, students should take this up with the respective Chairs of those meetings. He noted that where a document is not visible but is linked to, there is a note to email the Democracy Team for more information.

Emily Shepherd said that although she has spoken to Chairs, the thought that they didn’t understand their areas of responsibility. David confirmed they have been informed, but will continue to work to ensure those still missing are being followed up.

Q4 & Q7. David Martin confirmed that the problems with reports have now been rectified and monthly zone reports are now available. He will work with Union Councillors to make sure their final reports are done. On the subject of the "We the People" system, he said he had done a lot of work in the last few weeks, as he had previously been prioritising other work in the run-up to elections, and that an initial flowchart had been developed. One particular idea was that a "student ideas group" could help sift through ideas and also shape the agendas of Union Council. On the subject of facility charges, work had been delayed as the matter went to Student Groups Committee, and also the Communications, Media and Technology Sub-Committee. These steps had now been finalised, and charges (now to include minibus charges as well) will be online very soon.

On Question 7, Claire Gilbert wished to add that a review of the Union's web presence will happen in future, and the possibilities of open-sourcing the code will be fed in.

Q6. David Martin stated that this had been an administrative error which had now been solved, and this will be working from now on.

Q8. Oli Coles stated that gender balancing for Union Councillor positions was now in place, the leadership programme was in operation via Your Skills and the Inspiring Women event, and a survey been out during January and February.  Analysis of this was now underway and will be reported in future. Jade Head asked if the Your Skills programme was replacing the leadership programme, and Oli replied that he believed it was part of it.

Q9. Oli Coles stated that the policy was being re-written as agreed, but that it had been hard to work out who the best people to talk to were. he suggested that it might be possible to solve without a new policy. Emily Shepherd referred to a meeting that had occured with staff from Residences. Oli confirmed that that had been today, and that they were happy to support the idea, but that it was a financial decision.

Q10. David Mendoza-Wolfson replied that the "Big Question" had gone live today, but admitted that not all Faculty Officers has been aware of this. On the subject of universal e-submission, he reported that he had had agreement from Associate Deans for Education that where it was easier to submit work online, they would allow this. They had decided to go without a formal policy to this effect, but the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment have changed their mind since the meeting. he said he would try to take this up firstly through the Education Committee, and then the Systems Committee.

Q2. The Chair stepped down to answer this question, and David Gilani took the Chair. Katy O'Brien said she has always taken question from the floor, and Council has previously voted on whether to take more questions or finish. We prioritise questions submitted in advance as they can be submitted beforehand. She has always given a right to reply, but has been mindful of the fact that questions are not an avenue for debate. She reminded members that if they ever disagreed with her ruling, this could be challenged via a procedural motion. Jade Head stated that she had had a question declined before. She asked if procedural motions could be put by non-Council members. Katy confirmed that there was no restriction in the Rules as to who could move them.

Alex Hovden asked David Martin if there was any update on what happened with the fradulaent withdrawl of Emily Shepherd during the Spring Election. David responded that due to way the email has been sent, we were unlikely to gain any further information, but that it was very unfortunate and a new process will be introduced to prevent it from occurring in future, most notably that withdrawals will not be possible after voting has started. Emily stated that she was entirely supportive of the way that SUSU had handled the issue.

Alex asked Oli Coles if there was an update to his question at the last Union Council about behaviour in halls. Oli said he had met with halls management and raised it at the Halls Experience Board. Work was underway to improve the regulations that covered halls.

Alex asked David Mendoza-Wolfson, on the subject of lecture recording, if it can be borne in mind that some students might not want to be recorded? David responded that he believed lectures should be public to all university of Southampton students, and all students should be able to access the content during and after lectures. if it was possible to turn off the system, he believed some lecturers would use it as a reason to avoid recording. Alex asked if it would be possible for questions in lectures to not be recorded. David said that this was not possible with the way the system is setup at the moment, as it would record automatically when in use to require lecturers to use it, but that there should be the possibility to edit the recordings before publication. He agreed to publicise this.

Gabriela Discenza asked David Gilani why the sales window for Grad Ball tickets had been so short, as a friend of hers who was a post-graduate had missed the deadline but did not know about the time period. She also asked what was being done to promote the event to students who might be less aware of the event. David Gilani replied that he did speak to post-graduates and had sent an email to all post-graduate students. The time limit had been introduced to reduce the coverage over social media channels, as it previously dominated our communications for months, to allow for a better idea of the finances and to allow the Grad Ball Committee to focus on the quality of the event and not marketing. he said that efforts were underway to try to find more tickets for those who missed the deadline. Gabriela said that she didn’t necessarily think post-graduate students understood grad ball was for them as well. David said he understood this, which is why the email was sent. Joe Spencer also thanked David for recent communications to post-graduate students over improvements to the Easter opening hours of SUSU facilities.

Giles Howard asked Claire Gilbert what the provision for the wall was then the new sabbs took office. Claire informed him that various of the changeable areas were actually stickers, which could be easily changed when required.

Will Yeong asked about inflammatory posts on the "Southampton University Tell Him/Her" page, and wanted to know what SUSU are doing. Claire Gilbert responded that part of the work for the Sexual Harrasment Campaign was around online harrasment and how action can be taken. She stated that SUSU always encourages students to report content that's offensive and that SUSU regularly do so as well, and that change can be made if everyone stands up. Will said he thought reporting was not having an affect, and wondered if there was nothing else we can do? David Gilani noted that "Southampton University Rate My Shag" was much worse, and got taken down in hours after a discussion, but that SUTH/TH is less clear-cut. he stated that if we feel the page overall was unacceptable, we can see what can be done, but that it was sometimes hard to decide where that boundary lies. Alex Hovden stated that, legally, Facebook do not have to take the initiative, but where things are drawn to their attention, they do have to take action.

Two Union Council Stars were awarded. One went to Catherine Mitchell, for her incredible hard work in creating a full programme of events for student volunteering week that engaged over 300 individuals in projects.  These ranged from knitting for 10 minutes to painting a room in a hospice and talking to vulnerable young people about the skills they would like to learn from our students. Catherine worked for months bringing together different types of projects, ensuring there were clear
communications and engaging students from a multitude of backgrounds. The variety of projects were a testament to her hard work. She went above and beyond her role as a volunteer and really exemplified everything brilliant about students who are passionate about a cause.

The other went to Jawad Bhatti, International Students Officer, for organising an amazing International Cultural Night at the Nuffield Theatre and Global Village in the SUSU concourse. He did a great job at engaging international societies and the international community at Southampton.

a. Thanks to officers

Jade Head wished to thank everyone involved with the Housing Campaign. When speaking to students during elections, shed had noticed that many more people had been aware of the campaign this year than previously and wanted to thank those officers who had worked on it.

The date and time of the next meeting is 6pm on 1 May 2014 in the Senate Room, Budiling 37.

The meeting closed at 8:52pm.