Some major changes were made at the University of Manchester Students’ Union’s December Senate and I’m here to give you all the important details. As the Trans Students’ Officer for the Union, I attend senate and vote on policies put forward.
The SU’s publicity of senate goings on hasn’t been that great – as proven by the extremely misreported “clapping ban” fiasco – so we’re here to fill in the blanks for you. After all, it is your University!
Constitutional Change: Full Time Postgraduate Students’ Officer
Last year, the Union implemented an International Students Officer into the team of eight full time officers, a position Riddi Viswanathan has fulfilled wonderfully. Around that time, there was also a movement to try and implement a Postgraduate Students’ Officer. There are currently eight full time officers and we can’t get any more without getting more trustees for the Union.
This is exactly the issue that this policy encountered. In order to implement a Postgrad Officer, we would need to combine the roles of two others. The policy did this by combining Welfare and Campaigns, Community and Citizenship into one role called Welfare and Community. This was because all of the executive officers already do campaigning as part of their separate roles, be that Women’s, Liberation, Education etc. So theoretically we don’t need a campaigns officer.
A lot of research went into this policy and it paid off – despite some members of Senate being concerned about the Welfare and Community officer being given too much work as welfare is at the heart of the SU, the policy passed with over 90% majority.
That means that the roles available in the upcoming executive elections are as follows: General Secretary, Education, Liberation and Access, Women’s, International Students’, Welfare and Community, Activities and Development and Postgraduate Students’ Officers.
QTIPOC Inclusion
The Liberation and Access Committee put forward a policy to ensure that somewhere in the liberation budget, there will be a dedicated pool of money for putting on events and campaigns specifically for Queer, Trans and Intersex People of Colour [or QTIPOC].
It’s a well reported fact that there is often racism within queer spaces and there is similarly often homophobia, transphobia and other queer discrimination in cultural and faith spaces. This policy would ensure that dedicated crossover events happened in a safe and accepting environment.
After explaining that just because homophobia, transphobia and racism are all illegal as hate crimes, it doesn’t mean people don’t still do them, the policy passed with a 92% majority.
Supporting Marriage Equality in Northern Ireland
Currently, Northern Ireland is the only country in the UK to not have equal marriage for same sex couples. The people of Northern Ireland voted for marriage equality but the DUP were able to veto the motion on the grounds of a “petition of concern” – a policy originally put in place to protect minority groups, not deny them of their rights.
This policy, also put forward by the Liberation and Access Committee, stated that the SU should put out an official statement in solidarity with Love Equality, Northern Ireland’s largest marriage equality movement, and host an annual fundraiser for the cause as part of LGBTQ+ History month which takes place every February.
After a procedural motion to take this policy straight to a vote without points for and against, the policy passed with over 80%.
Thank you @ManchesterSU for supporting @Love_EqualityNI and the fight for marriage equality in Northern Ireland!!Very grateful to have the support of the UKs largest students’ union!Special thanks to the speakers for and proposer Sara Khan @unethicalcoffee! https://t.co/yKWM8bH3Hi
— Conor Loughran | NUS-USI LGBT+ Officer (@ConorLoughran96) December 6, 2018
‘2 for 1’ Tree Planting Policy
Activities and Development Officer, Lizzy Haughton presented this policy, suggesting that the SU should implement a ‘2 for 1’ tree planting policy to mimic the one present in the University. The University currently plant two trees for every tree they cut down when doing building work. For the SU, this policy would work based on calculating the number of trees that the paper waste from the SU is equivalent to.
Once again this policy went straight to a vote and passed with 94%.
Limiting the Environmental Impact of SU Events
Lizzy presented this policy once again, stating that large SU events such as fresher’s fair can have a huge environmental impact, particularly with the amount of paper used for flyers. This policy asked for the SU to consciously consider this and try to limit the impact of their events.
The policy passed with a 95% majority.
Plastic Pledge
The final policy that was discussed was the motion for the SU to take the Plastic Pledge and ban all single use plastic within the SU. There were some issues concerning accessibility – Lizzy had taken into account that paper straws are not accessible as they cannot be bent and had suggested using Vegware straws instead.
This was queried by Ayden (Trans Officer) who mentioned that people with corn allergies can’t use Vegware straws so this may not be the most appropriate plan. However, by this point a lot of people had left senate and we no longer had enough people to vote so the discussion of this motion, along with any others, has been pushed back to next senate, which is in February.
Remember, senate is open to all students and the policies being discussed are posted on the SU website a week or so before the event. Minutes of previous senates are also available to read there so please take a look if you are interested!