Union Council (1st February 2016)

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Darren Richardson, George Seabrook, Kieran Reals, Adam Turner, Elliot Grater, James Peploe, Michael Oliver, Lauren Baugh and Alex Hovden were also in attendance.

Apologies were received from Yousra Hikal, Christie Matthews, Caitlin Doyle and Philippa Pearce.

The minutes of the meeting of 8 December 2015 were approved.

a. Election of Open Place Union Councillors

James Peploe, Kieran Reals, Adam Turner and Isabelle Morgan nominated themselves for the Open Place Union Councillors.

 

b. Appointment of a Returning and Deputy Returning Officer

Ben Franklin proposed that Lorna Reavley and Kerry Sclater be appointed Returning Officer and Deputy Returning Officer respectively.

On a clear show of voting cards, this was approved.

 

c. Results for the election of Open Place Union Councillors

Isabelle Morgan and Kieran Reals were elected.

 

d. Election of Union Council representatives on Zone Committees

Sports Development Zone: There were two positions available, and one candidate, and Kieran Reals was elected.

There were no financial matters.

Supporting the Junior Doctor National Action Week: Sam Bailey reported back that National Action Week was about the proposed changes to the NHS and that the discussion centred on how SUSU could meaningfully support medical students and whether the support should continue after the Action Week. Council approved the idea to be considered in the same meeting.

How can SUSU encourage under-represented groups to participate in the Spring Elections: Ben Franklin reported that they had discussed the issue of identifying under-represented groups and how to target marketing to them. Council referred this idea to Democracy Zone.

The importance of the principle of Freedom of Information: Jamie Wilson said that there had been a general agreement that Freedom of Information was very important and the University should not be exempt. Council approved this idea to be considered in the same meeting.

Proposed changes to Nurse Education: Anjit Aulakh reported back that they discussed the issue of nurses who have degrees over apprenticeship nurses and the various issues around this discussion. Council referred this idea to the Vice-President Education.

Staff Student Partnership Agreement review: Sam reported that they had discussed the agreement and talked about different scenarios that might arise. Council referred the idea to the Union President.

Policy on Placement Hours: Jamie reported that this idea lobbies the University to put a limit on working hours, and they had discussed issues such as potentially harming students’ prospects and the nursing students’ welfare. Council referred this idea to Education Zone.

Education Zone Profile: There was no feedback due to everyone being present when the idea was discussed. Council referred this idea to the Vice-President Education.

EU Referendum: There was no feedback due to everyone being present when the idea was discussed. Council referred this idea to the Union President.

a. Ideas

Workspace and facilities in the University and the impact it's had on you: Shruti Verma (Vice-President Education) reported that this is an ongoing project and that the Sabbatical Team are actively sharing any complaints that are received about overcrowding.

Student Groups resource allocation: Trini Philip (Student Groups Officer) reported that the paper had been passed by Student Groups Committee and they will continue to make sure that the document is up to date.

Bottled water: Sam Bailey (Vice-President Welfare) said that he is speaking to Union Services about marketing reusable bottles and also looking at doing a Tap Choose Change to gauge wider student opinions on the issue.

Further consultation on ‘Vision 2020’: Ben Franklin (Union President) stated that Trustee Board was aware there had been some dissatisfaction with this process, and will take the feedback on board for future projects.

Ethically-divisive adverts: Ben reported that the advert in question has come to the end of its term and has not been renewed and they will look to draw up guidelines when the relevant staff vacancy has been filled.

Health Sciences Funding Review: Daniel Browning (Health Sciences Faculty Officer) stated that the Working Group is currently in the process of being set up.

 

Ideas from previous meetings

Exploring ways SUSU can promote existing language opportunities to students: Anjit Aulakh (Vice-President Student Communities) spoke about the Global Project, a project looking at how international students can be supported.

Supporting a Living Wage for those under the age of 25: Ben said that the issue will be discussed at the next Trustee Sub-Committee in order to justify the stance that the Union takes so that it doesn’t come across as hypocritical.

MSC certified food supplies: Sam reported that they are looking at all the Sustainability policies with the aim of forming a new strategy which will include sourcing food from ethical supplies.

 

b. Democracy Review update

Kerry Sclater (Vice-President Democracy & Creative Industries) gave a presentation explaining what the proposed changes would be and why they are necessary.

David Allwright (National Oceanography Centre (Site) Officer) asked about whether the Zones would become isolated and that if there isn’t a lot of online discussion then it could end up with just a few people making decisions. Kerry said that there would have to be a new attitude towards Zones and students would be actively encouraged to come along. Furthermore, Senate would have oversight of the Zones and would be expected to read and question decisions. Kerry also said that training that would be provided, linked in with equality impact assessments, ensuring that each Zone has considered different groups of people in every decision it makes.

Kieran Reals (RAG President) asked about ideas that didn’t receive enough engagement from the online discussion. Kerry said that it would be up to the Zones to recognise that and then offer further consultation methods. Kieran also asked about whether it would be realistic to recruit more volunteers. Kerry said that it would be realistic with the new form of Zones, as the Zones would become the place to discuss certain topics.

Ryan Notman-Watt (Winchester Campus President) asked whether every idea would go through the same process: for example, would decisions about Winchester School of Art still go through the same process. Ryan also asked how the new Winchester Committee would work with the new democratic system: for example, an issue could be solved by the Committee instead of going through the democratic system. Kerry said that Ryan’s example was a good example of how issues could be “greenlit” which fits in with both structures.

Kokulan Mahendiran (Union Councillor) asked about how realistic it was to expect student engagement during the online discussion, and also about preventing trolls whilst avoiding censorship. Kerry said that the discussion would be a more controlled and safe environment than previous discussion environments such as Facebook groups.

Frazer Delves (Humanities Faculty Officer) asked about the cost of the new structure. Kerry said that the only major resource would be marketing and they would look into the possibility of creating a centralised budget for student consultation.

Mike Allwright (Postgraduate (Research) Students Officer) also expressed concern about filling the new positions on Zones, especially considering that they will gender balanced. Mike also asked about the issue of under-represented groups on zones. Kerry said Senate would still have reps for under-represented groups and also equality impact assessments would become ingrained in the process making sure other groups are considered.

Darren Richardson asked about whether the gender balancing would be on open places or membership overall. Kerry said that she imagined gender balancing would just be on the open places. Darren also asked about whether Senate could call in the lack of actions. Kerry said that it would.

Due to time constraints the discussion was closed. Kerry encouraged anyone who still had questions to email or come and see her.

 

c. Brand Review update

Ben reported that they had received nearly 1800 responses on the survey as well as 150 students attending the branding talk. Although there had been some criticism of the survey, there would be focus groups held in February to go further in depth.

Alex Hovden (Student Trustee) asked about the timeline for the review. Ben said that by the end of February they would receive the Strategic Brand Positioning and by March the brand agency would get back with concepts which would be put to the student body by the end of March and beginning of April.

Kieran asked about how much the review would cost. Ben said just under £20,000 for the review, including the design and concepts and that it would be difficult to estimate the overall cost of the rebrand without knowing how much needed changing.

Mike asked about whether a cost benefit analysis would happen. Ben said there would be an element of common sense in the decisions.

a. The importance of the principle of Freedom of Information (1516P9)

Speaking for the Proposal, Alex Hovden spoke about the Government’s recent green paper which could make universities exempt from Freedom of Information requests. Many people and organisations are against the proposal and this Policy Proposal with the approval from all the heads of the media departments seeks to condemn the proposed Government changes.

• Amendment C

Speaking for the amendment, Darren Richardson said that whilst this was an important policy, it advocates the status quo, instead of highlighting the fact that the University has been slow to respond to requests. Therefore, the amendment simply lobbies the University to comply with the current law and improve their response time to FOI requests.

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

There were no speeches against.

Summing up, Alex compared the issue to freedom of speech and said that freedom of information was as important.

• On a clear show of voting cards, the amended policy proposal was passed.

 

b. Policy on Placement Hours (1516P10)

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

 

c. Proposed changes to Nurse Education (1516P11)

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

 

d. Supporting the Junior Doctor National Action Week (1516P12)

Speaking for, Rebecca Lake (Union Councillor) explained that the proposed changes would increase working hours of Junior Doctors. The Students’ Union needs to do more to represent medical students and should take a stance on local and national issues that affect our students.

• Adam Turner moved Procedural Motion B (to take the proposal in specific parts).

Speaking for the Procedural Motion, Adam proposed taking out Resolves 1, because the Students’ Union had already agreed to provide space to other groups and passing this proposal as it stands could result in a student group losing their space.

• On a clear show of voting cards, the Procedural Motion was passed.

On a Point of Information Ben Franklin said that this was just a practical issue and that if the Proposal passed, they would still do all they could to support the campaign.

• Jamie Wilson (Vice-President Sports Development) moved Procedural Motion B (to take the proposal in specific parts).

Speaking for the Procedural Motion, Jamie proposed removing the words ‘and space’ from Mandates 1 because it might not be practical.

Speaking against, Anjit Aulakh suggested that space was not necessarily physical space.

• On a clear show of voting cards, the Procedural Motion was not passed.

• Amendment A

Speaking for the amendment, Daniel Browning said that the amendment would remove the words ‘Junior Doctors’ because the Action Week was more than just the Junior Doctors.

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

• Amendment B

Speaking for, Daniel said that the amendment would correct a simple error.

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

Speaking against the Policy Proposal, Kieran Reals said that it is unnecessary for the Sabbatical Officers to be mandated to support the campaign through a policy, especially considering the strike action is next week.

On a point of clarification, Kokulan Mahendiran asked about the phrase ‘the Union’ and who it refers to. The Chair explained that it would be all officers and not the membership of the Students’ Union.

Continuing speaking against, Kieran said supporting the campaign goes beyond the remit of a lot of the officers who have very specific roles.

Speaking for the Policy Proposal, Mike Allwright said that there are a lot of issues where it is good and valuable for the Union to formally establish a position on. The point of policy is to formalise the support for something and to ensure that actions are completed and accountable.

Speaking against the Proposal, Shruti Verma said that we should be supporting our students, but the Proposal doesn’t do that, for example, the Working Group was set up for a different issue and seems inconsistent. She said that the Proposal was very specific about supporting action for one week and it would be better to bring back a policy supporting our medical students generally.

• Frazer Delves moved Procedural Motion C (to refer the question to another body or person). 

Speaking for the Procedural Motion, Frazer proposed referring the issue to Education Zone, which would allow the Policy to be looked at in greater depth.

Speaking against, David Allwright said that there seems to be general support for the campaign and if another general policy wants to come later, then it could, but Council should support the Proposal now.

• On a clear show of voting cards, the Procedural Motion was not passed.

• Adam moved Procedural Motion B (to take the proposal in specific parts).

Speaking for, Adam asked to remove the words ‘the Union and’ from Mandates 1 because there is no point mandating officers to do something that would be above and beyond their role.

Speaking against, Daniel said that there have been many other policies passed that have been passed with similar wording. The wording doesn’t mandate every officer to do something but rather sets the Union’s position on an issue.

• On a clear show of voting cards, the Procedural Motion was not passed.

Speaking for the Proposal, Iona Maxwell (Medical Society President) said that she believed that the Proposal was a really good first step in supporting medical students.

Anjit opted to speak against the Proposal in order to have a balanced basket debate.

Summing up, Rebecca said that supporting the campaign would be a good first step in supporting medical students.

• On an electronic vote, the amended Policy Proposal was passed.

 

e. Winchester Campus President job description (1516R5)

Speaking for, Anjit asked Council to pass the Rule Amendment.

• On a clear show of voting cards, the Rule Amendment was passed.

a. Union Council Star

Bridie Pearson-Jones was highly commended for her enthusiasm for student journalism.

Mike Allwright was awarded the Union Council Star for his work representing PGR students.

 

b. Union Council Student Groups Star

Nightline were highly commended for their work over the exam period.

MedSoc were awarded the Union Council Student Groups Star for their work in supporting the Junior Doctors strike action.

 

Alex Hovden also thanked Sam Bailey and Shruti Verma for their work on the Special Considerations and You Are More Than campaigns.

a. Attendance of Union Council Members and Student Trustees

 

b. Officer Reports

Kerry Sclater spoke about the ongoing Democracy Review, which has been taking up a lot of her time. In Creative Industries, they have hired an Excel intern to focus on careers in the Creative Industries.

Sam Bailey reported that the You Are More Than was very successful and they are now looking at the impact and feedback to make improvements in the summer. There are currently loads of things happening for Housing Week this week and also the Invest Positive Working Group is meeting this week.

Jamie Wilson updated that he had been working on the RAG Colour Run as well as Varsity planning, which has been going well, with two promotional videos in development.

Shruti Verma reported that she has been working on improving the academic award ceremonies. She is meeting with the Vice Chancellor next week about recorded lectures and they are discussing some important issues at Education Zone later this week.

Anjit Aulakh said that they had held the first Halls Committee Board which was really positive. The most recent Student Communities Zone was really successful with lots of collaborative ideas coming out of the meeting. Culture Week planning is going well and they are currently in the process of electing positions for the Winchester Committee.

As Hannah Talbot was not present, Ben Franklin reported that Hannah is leading on the EU Referendum project and as well as a communications strategy for both internal and external communication.

Ben reported that the brand review talks have gone really well and that they have started to plan Grad Ball with the Committee being selected. The University Council away day was successful and the Vice Chancellor’s address seemed really positive.

 

c. Questions to Officers

Improvements in transparency surrounding Trustee Board: Ben Franklin said that they had decided to make Trustee Board more transparent by providing a summary of the minutes. There has been a bit of a delay in getting these put up on the website because they have to be approved first.

Kokulan Mahendiran asked about recording votes at Council. Kerry Sclater said that they had spoken about this and decided that they would wait to see what the results of the Democracy Review would be before implementing a system to record voting decisions.

a. Union Councillor reports

The Chair stated that Union Councillor reports had been received from Democracy Zone, Sustainability Zone and Creative Industries Zone. There were no questions asked about any of the Zones.

 

b. Democracy Zone By-law amendment: Membership of Elections Working Groups

Kerry Sclater said that the only change is to include members of Union Council instead of Union Councillors.

• On a clear show of voting cards, this By-law amendment was passed.

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

Frazer Delves spoke about the Avenue Campus Survey and the SUSU presence there, and encouraged Sabbatical Officers and Student Leaders running campaigns to give greater consideration to students on Avenue Campus.

The next meeting will be on Monday 14^th March at 6:00pm.

As there was no other business, the meeting was closed at 9:36pm.