Hi Anon,

Thank you for your suggestion, and apologies for the length of time it has taken to conclude this You Make Change.

The Students' Union has always been clear that we do not support Emily's comment in question as we recognise that it was deeply insensitive and inappropriate. Following on from the incident, SUSU carried out an internal investigation into whether there was a breach of our HR policy at which point Emily made the decision to resign from her post. Unfortunately due to the confidential nature of these proceedings this is all I know and this is also all I am legally allowed to disclose. We will always challenge extremist or inflammatory language where we find it, in line with our rules and procedures.

Evie Reilly issued a public apology to Union Senate on the 20th November 2018 in which she addressed her part in the incident and expressed regret over her lack of understanding of the significance of the mural when she replied to Emily's tweet. It is important to remember that Evie was not in the meeting that Emily was in when she sent her controversial tweet, and as such had very little context when formulating her response, which makes her supportive reply on twitter more of an error in fact checking rather than active disrespect towards what the mural represents. Senate is the body of elected students that exists to hold sabbatical officers to account and the Senators that sit on the committee were happy that this was the most appropriate way for her to make amends. SUSU as an organisation is also content with this outcome and we are not currently looking to take any further action, however any member of SUSU is entitled to raise a complaint if they see fit, which would be investigated in line with our rules and procedures.

If you have any further concerns regarding this please feel free to email me at aupres@soton.ac.uk.

Best wishes,

Steve Gore, Acting President