Condem Emily Dawes' (Union President) views that the WW1 Memorial in the Senate Room should be removed.
Anonymous submitted on
Thursday 25th October 2018
Complete
Emily Dawes tweeted "Mark my words - we're taking down the mural of white men in the uni Senate room, even if I have to paint over it myself" on the 24th October.
This is in reference to the Rothenstein Mural which is dedicated to students from British Universities that were killed while fighting in WW1 and never finished their degrees.
This is an unusual extremist view that is at odds with most University students. SUSU should condem this view in order to maintain legitimacy rather than appear as an organisation supporting such an unusual viewpoint.
Responses
Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.
Students' Union replied on
Wednesday 19th Dec 2018 4:50pm
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. We will always challenge extremist or inflammatory language where we find it, 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
Students' Union replied on
Tuesday 20th Nov 2018 1:41pm
Thank you for your submission, due to an ongoing HR process, we were unable to publish this You Make Change. Now that the process is concluded, and in the interest of transparency we will publish this and allow our usual processes to take place.
The most recent statement form the Union can be found here: https://blogs.susu.org/blog/2018/11/19/emily-dawes-to-stand-down-as-union-president/
Comments
Let's keep this space positive and respectful! Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions, but please remember to keep the conversation friendly and avoid any offensive comments.