Term 2 – Week 9 – Meeting of Council

The next Council meeting is on Tuesday 6th March – the last one of this term. It will be at 7pm in MS.01 and everyone is welcome to attend – bring your Uni card!

You can collect an agenda from the Democratic Services Office in Union North, but some will be available at the meeting.

Let’s look at the agenda:

New Policies

Deferred from previous meetings:

Residential Internet Access
24 Hour Library
Summer Library Disruption
Better Bursaries

New:

Library Incompetence and Injustice – To ensure that fines are justified and for the library to tighten it’s issuing procedures to prevent fraud.

Resolutions

Role of the Equal Opportunities Campaigns Officer – To change the title of the Equal Opportunities Campaigns Officer to the Welfare & Equal Opportunities Committee Chair, simlarly renaming the committee, and also to revise it’s role.

Policies Up For Lapse

Deferred from previous meetings:

370 – Wednesday Afternoons

Lapsing this week:

437 – Water Provision
467 – Amusement With Prizes
602 – NUS Conference Expenses
603 – Executive Control Orders
605 – Limiting Devolved Department Negotiations
608 – Publishing Sabbatical Expenses

These policies can be found on the SU Policy File
If you think any of these shouldn’t lapse, let them know in the DSO or inform the Chair just before the Council meeting.

Co-Options

The following positions are vacant:

• Lifelong Learning Committee Chair
• PG Medical Faculty Representative
• PG Arts Faculty Representative *

• Chair of Council
• Deputy Chair of Council
• Equal Opportunities Campaigns Officer
• UG Medical Faculty Representative
• Second Council Representative
• Fourth Student Warwick Sport Board Representative
• International Committee Chair

Contact the DSO to find out how to stand for these positions.
For more information, leave a comment or head over to the Democratic Services Office or visit the Students’ Union Website and click on Democracy.

: 03 Mar 2007 15:56 |  Tags: Union |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Term 2 – Week 6 – Meeting of Council

The last Council Meeting was inquorate!
Of course the AGM was inquorate too, as a consequence we have a backlog of New Policies, Co-options, etc. and so meetings can only get longer until we catch up!

Why were so few people at these meetings?
What are your views on the state of Union Democracy?

: 02 Mar 2007 16:36 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Students' Union AGM 2007 – Agenda/Information

This years Annual General Meeting for the University of Warwick Students’ Union student body is this Thursday (1st February) at 6:30pm in R0.21 (The Ramphal Building) – bring your ID card or you can not vote.

Get your chance to question Vice-Chancellor Nigel Thrift and here what he has to say about the University.

Vote to approve this years’ election group.

Get your chance to question any of the officer.

• Residential Internet Provision – About £5 of the weekly rent on rooms on-campus is for ResNet and students deserve an internet provider which reflects this high cost. This policy mandates to lobby the IT Services to improve it’s service and to improve the connection speed to reflect the cost.
• 24-Hour Library Access – This one is simple: to lobby the University to introduce 24-hour library access.
• Summer Library Disruption – The library is to undergo extensive redevelopment this summer and this is bound to be disruptive, especially during exam period. This policy madates that all students should have full access to the library at all times of the year, including vacations.
• Postgraduate Merit Classification – This policy lobbies the University and the NUS to introduce a merit system for taught postgraduate students as the current system of Distinction/Pass/Fail does not accurately represent the academic successs of a student.
• Better Bursaries – This one is of great importance: it aims to ensure that all students are sufficiently supported financially throughout their education.

If you have an opinion on any of these policies it is for your benefit for you to come to the AGM this Thursday and have your say!

For all the details of this event, visit:
http://www.sunion.warwick.ac.uk/council/AGM-UGM/06-07/

Start the debate now, and be more informed for the meeting by discussing the motions on this, The Official Students’ Union Council, blog !!!

: 26 Jan 2007 15:11 |  Tags: 2007 Council ITS Union |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Term 1 – Week 9 Meeting Of Council

Everyone is welcome to attend council meetings – the next one is on Tuesday 28th November 2006 at 7pm in MS.02 and will be the third meeting this academic year.

You can pick up an agenda from the DSO (Democratic Services Office) on the first floor of Union North (past the reception, up the stairs, turn left) from Friday afternoon, right up until the meeting, where a few will be available aswell.

Below is a quick glance at the agenda:

New Policy:

Plastic Bags – Aims to reduce plastic back usage, firstly from Costcutter, then other campus retail outlets, and ultimately, nationally. This will be achieved by first charging for each plastic bag taken from Costcutter, then to lobby the government to mandate a charge for all plastic bags distributed to customers.

Bollocks – Aims to highlight the issue of testicular cancer to members of the Union, and to annually publish guidelines on how to conduct self examination. Also, it aims to write to local doctors urging them to consider testicular cancer as a possible diagnosis when faced with abnormalities, as well as ensuring that prostheses are offered following an orchidectomy.

Students On Medical Leave – Aims to award students on medical leave full student status, giving these students full access to the university and to inform them of the Welfare provisions available.

Policy To Go To NUS Conference:

Islamophobia – To oppose the current racist and Islamophobic backlash from 11th September 2001, and any attempts to ban religious or other clothing, and to defend the rights of Islamic, or other, soieties.

Stop The War – To campaign to withdraw troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, and for all occupation forces to leave Lebanon and to campaign against any attack on Iran.

Strong And Active Union – To scrap NUS Extra and to organise tours of student activists from Greece, France and Latin America to discuss the way forwards with student activists.

Top-Up Fees – To campaign for free education, and for NUS to affirm it’s commitment to free education and non-means-tested grants for all.

Policies Up For Lapse:

413 – This Union Shall Not Ban Books
587 – Campaign Against The BNP
589 – Communication
590 – Warwick And The NUS
591 – The Future Of Elections Group
593 – Environment Policy
594 – Specialist Food In The Union
595 – Access To The University Experience
596 – Zero Waste And Recycling Policy
598 – Banning Rascists And Fascists

If you feel that any of these policies should be renewed, let them know in the DSO before the meeting, then come to the meeting and tell us why.
These policies can be found on the Students Union website.

Resolutions

To rename all ‘Campaign Officers’ to ‘Officers’.
To create a new part-time Officer role entitled ‘Black & Ethnic Minorites Campaign Officer’.

Co-Options

The following positions are vacant:
1x Lifelong Learning Committee Chair
1x SWD Campaigns Officer
1x PG Medical Faculty Representative
1x PG Arts Faculty Representative
1x PG Social Studies Faculty Representative
3x Institute Of Education Councillor
5x Medical Faculty Councillor
4x Science Faculty Councillor
1x Academic Representation Committee Members
1x International Committee Member
1x Sports Federation Member
1x Communications Committee Member

If you would like to stand for any of these positions, just turn up to the meeting on Tuesday.

That has covered most of the agenda.
To have your say on any of these issues or to stand for an afformentioned postion, simply come to the next council meeting on Tuesday 28th November at 7pm in MS.02.
For more information, either use the comment facility on this blog, or speak to someone in the Democratic Services Office in Union North or just go the Students Union website.

: 22 Nov 2006 23:10 |  Tags: Union |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Week 9 Council + Referenda

Wow I haven't blogged for a while about Council, I'll restrict my points to what mainly happened, and sum up about referenda too. This is hopefully reflect the format of future postings.

Full minutes are available for Term 2 Week 6 and Term 2 Week 9

Policies Renewed:

• 487 "Sponsorship and Advertising in the Students Union" – Enabling the SU to actually ban companies from sponsoring and advertising.
• 506 "Nestlé" – Banning Nestlé on grounds of their unethical activities specifically with regards to baby milk.

New Policy:

• 635 "LOBBYING FOR A FULL NATIONAL SMOKING BAN" – Resolved to support the introduction of national smoking ban and to make the Union non-smoking as soon as a national smoking ban came into force.
• 636 "DENIAL OF ACCESS TO FURTHER EDUCATION IN IRAN" – Resolved to write letters etc. to MPs about restrictions on access to higher education for certain religious groups.
• 637 "ACCESS TO EDUCATION – FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS PRACTICE" – Resolved to write to Imperial College condemning their ban on the ‘Niqaab’ (face veil) and 'hoodies'.
• 604 "Sabbatical Pay" – Resolved to appoint a Advisory Group for Sabbatical Pay, which was during done. They will look at sabbatical pay levels and report back to council in T3W3.
• 460 "TRADE JUSTICE" – Resolved to do lots of lovely FAIRTRADE stuff and promote trade justice, read the policy for more details!
• 638 "SUPPORTING THE LECTURERS STRIKE" – Resolved to support the AUT and the lecturers strike, wholly.
• 639 "COCA-COLA" – Resolved to lobby NUSSL (who provide the Unions food and drink) not to use Coco-Cola or to source an alternative vendor for the Unions 'soft' drinks.
• 640 "PROPAGANDA" – Resolved to create some form of publication that would be for Union officers to write articles in.
• 641 "ALCOHOL-FREE ACCOMMODATION" – Resolved to lobby the University to provide alcohol free corridors in halls, and to undertake a survey of students to see if this was something they wanted.
• 642 "VARSITY DAY" – Resolved to investigate the possibility of making the final match on Varsity day alternate between men's and women's rugby. And to oversee the production of the 'Song Book' so that it is in line with the Equal Opps Appendix.

So that was all the major stuff from council.

Referenda

All five motions were passed at referendum, you've probably heard about them all, but I'll sum up briefly if you haven't:

• 643 "RESTRICTING POSITIVE GENDER DISCRIMINATION" – Resolves not to support or use positive discrimination on the grounds of gender.
• 644 "UPDATING OUR CONSTUTION" – Resolves to make changes to the constitution removing the requirement for a union general meeting, placing restrictions on what can be put to a vote and numerous other changes.
• 645 "FINANCIALLY SUPPORTING AND ADVISING PREGNANT STUDENTS OF THEIR CHOICES" – Changes the Unions stance to pro-choice and resolves to set a fund to help support pregnant students.
• 646 "ENSURING FREEDOM OF SPEECH FOR MEDIA SOCIETIES" – Resolves to let media societies publish/broadcast without independent vetting for impartiality and to allow WTV to broadcast potentially offensive content.
• 647 "FAIRTRADE IN THE UNION" – Resolves to make the Union even more FAIRTRADE based, all good stuff but too much to list here.

Well thats all I want to say for now, hopefully you've learnt something about what the Union does.

: 08 Mar 2006 19:30 |  Tags: Council Democracy Students Union Union |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

SU Council

Tomorrow sees the second session of Union Council for term two, on the agenda are many English words and phrases combining to give you a picture of what is happening:
Co-options, (again!), places for Medical Faculty Councillors and Science Councillors amongst others, and we're co-opting a new deputy chair of council, should be interesting.

Policy Lapse, your standard affair mostly, ban on Nestle and their evil doings, and Also a policy that actually allows council to ban companies etc.

Then we get to enjoy the deferred business from last council, a few resolutions, nothing too exciting.

Then all the stuff from the inquorate AGM (oh dear), some policy that will require discussion, NUS extra, though most of the points were raised at the AGM, and the councillors attended, didn't they? Anywho on to the fun stuff:

New Policy:
Access to Education – A policy to ensure that people aren't 'put off' education by restriction of clothing or practices etc.
Positive Gender Discrimination – A policy to give the union a stance on the issue of Positive Gender Discrimination.

Then, for afters, two more resolutions, read about them on the Agenda, I'm tired. If you are councillor, see you there, if you're a student come along too, S0.21, Thursday 7pm.

: 08 Feb 2006 22:01 |  Tags: Council Democracy Students Union |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Council 19/01/06

Disclaimer: This is not the official record of the happenings of council, that is known as 'the minutes', and can be found on the Unions website

I missed the first half hour of council, so if anyone wants to add to this post, please send me an email, with what happened, otherwise I'll fill everything in from the minutes.

I caught the end of questions, where one was asked that particularly resonated with council. As I'm trying to remain objective on this blog, you can read my comments on my blog, listed in track-backs. All the policies due for lapse, were kept on the policy drive, with some of them being 'beefed up' slightly, so the union basically supports:

• The Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
• The removal/disclosure of 'Hidden course costs'.
• FAIRTRADE products in the Union.
• Refusal of Sponsorship from Tobacco Companies.

The Union confirmed the decision that Exec took, and supported, the consultation document by WASS. An amendment was proposed to remove the Union's support, to make it clear that the Union doesn't positively discriminate. But the amendment was rejected in a vote 26/24, then the real policy went through clearly.

The Union confirmed its view of 'No Confidence' in the National Student Survey. It was explained to councillors that the survey was almost pointless as the data was collected and collated in such a way that to infer any meaning would be questionable.

Clear policy was set out for the upcoming emergence of 'TV dinners', the plan is to show TV from 4:30 to 7:00 pm, changing current policy. The policy was given a warm reception and voted through quickly.

A policy of preventing Union events on religious holidays was passed, the exact details of which can be found on the Union's website, but basically the Union will try to schedule events around religious holidays so that more people can attend.

That was all the motions and at this point people were leaving, Quorum was in jeopardy!

The first two resolutions were passed, so the Elections Group vs Warwick Boar saga continues, but they seem to have met each other half way. The second resolution was some general housekeeping and so nothing really changed, but it did, read the document if you really want to know!

Unfortunately at this point the meeting fell inquorate, so all the other resolutions were deferred until the next meeting, week six.

More to come soon, when I'm less tired, feel free to comment.

: 19 Jan 2006 23:49 |  Tags: Council Democracy Students Union |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Council on Thursday

There is a meeting of the Council of the Students' Union this Thursday at 7pm in S0.21.

Many interesting things are to be discussed, and I will edit this entry with more details when I have the time, meanwhile you can investigate for yourself, by visiting the SU website

Any full member (i.e. a student) can attend if they so wish, but usually only do if there's a particular thing you want to speak about.

And, councillors please attend, big shamey McShamington if you don't.

: 17 Jan 2006 19:29 |  Tags: Council Democracy Students Union |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Union Council

What is Union Council?
What does it do?
Why should I care?

These are all questions that I hope this blog will answer, in time.
If your a student at the University of Warwick then you'll probably also be a member of the Student's Union, which means that's it's rules and regulations govern you and what you can do in the Union's buildings. Union council is one of the main policy making bodies of the Union (notable others being referenda and the Constitution) and is an appropriate place to discuss most of the issues facing the Union today. Say you want to ask one of the sabbatical officers (e.g. president) about something they are doing or not doing, then you can ask them at Union council! That's one of council's duties, to keep the sabbatical officers in check, not to mention all the other democratic bodies of the Union.

You don't even need to be a Union councillor to attend, any full member of the Union can turn up and observe, and if you get permission, speak.

Hopefully in time, we'll get some Councillors to write on this blog, and you can find out what happens at Union Council!

But you should note, this blog is entirely unofficial, it isn't endorsed by the Student's Union in any way, and as such shouldn't be taken as the definitive source of Council related information.

: 12 Dec 2005 18:10 |  Tags: Council Students Union |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem