Present: EM (VP), SM (Communications Officer), KW (LGBT+ Rep), EuM (SwD Rep), JF (JSU Rep), CG (JSU Rep)
Absent: DV (POC Rep), SS (Assistant POC Rep), AK (President), ZM (JSU Rep), JB (International Rep)
Apologies: MW (JSU Rep)
Setting: Conference room and WN is here and he may never leave…
Discussing the 12th March 2019 Assembly Papers
Agenda
Sexual Violence
Equality and Diversity
Accessibility
Association Elections
Association Ratification
Support access to free, safe and legal abortions
International fees
Leadership and management training
Meeting
Sexual Violence
SM: I don’t know why we wouldn’t support this. We just want to make sure they have a clear policy on this
JF: Don’t we have one of these?
SM: MH (Welfare & Liberation Officer) says we did but it’s lapsed
WN: What does zero tolerance mean?
JF: being kicked out of the university if you are found to have sexually harassed someone
All agreed to vote in favour of this
Equality and Diversity
SM: this is updating the policy on this as well because this one has lapsed too. Again, I don’t know why you’d vote against this
EuM: this feels more like admin- they probably just need to pass it
All agreed to vote in favour of this
SU Accessibility
SM: this is saying they should strive for best practice etc
JF: so carrying on with what we should be doing?
SM: yeah, I think this Is just updating the standing orders
All agreed to vote in favour of this
Association Elections
SM: this is for all the minority group rep elections and saying that when they hold elections it shouldn’t just be an AGM and it should be online for better representation
EuM: that’s a good idea, especially for SwD who might not be able to make the AGMs
All agreed to vote in favour of this
Association Ratification
SM: the trans association, working class and women’s associations still haven’t been ratified because they want drop ins and they need to go through procedures and get approval for all of that. The assembly believes that we don’t want to vote on this again as we did last year but this is to pass the power on to the group. I think we should vote for this because they have been waiting so long
All agreed to vote in favour of this
Support access to free, safe and legal abortions
SM: this is in response to the pro-life groups. It wants the SU to take a pro choice stance and let people know when they are going to happen
CG: I think that’s good
JF: letting people know in advance could argue that that could be used to shut people down…
EuM: having a pro choice stance in the SU is probably representative, but the SU shouldn’t make the pro life choice not feel welcome…
CG: I think there are always going to be people protesting prolife, and as women who might feel quite sensitive towards these issue so it’s important that the SU look after people and reassure them
WN: to say the whole institution have this view and always will seems a little controlling
JF: I’m now thinking of people who aren’t maliciously pro life, like Catholics for example,
SM: my thoughts is that you can still chose with pro life
WN: but if you’re explaining this to us then maybe
EM: no one is actively going to try and get people to have an abortion, we just want them to have the choice. It’s important to show people there are safe choices. It would be way more controversial to vote against this.
KW: it’s not that we want to shut down their arguments
WN: is the SU meant to remain neutral?
SM: in the past they have supported campaigns etc
[CG drops oreo in her cuppa ☹ ]
All agreed to vote in favour of this
International fees freezing
SM: fees for internationals are disgustingly high, and it’s important because Brexit means that European students will have to pay these really high fees as well
All agreed to vote in favour of this
Leadership and management training
SM: this is about training some of the exec of colleges and some non- exec roles and to work out who should receive these
EM: will this is equally accessible to independent and DSO colleges? Because sometimes there is an issue with this and training
SM: I will send this question to rep comm meeting for you
SM: one argument for this was that this training should be at the end of the year
[SS briefly hijacks the meeting in order to collect her books but left]
All agreed to vote in favour of this