What happened at the Emergency General Meeting??
On Monday the 5th of December we had an Emergency General Meeting, at which student policy was passed; what does that mean, I hear you ask, and how will affect me? I thought I should break down what all this means, and how KeeleSU is going to change things based on student votes!
First of all, there was no emergency. That is just the name of a meeting that has to be called at short notice. General meetings usually take place every 8 weeks, and any student can bring ideas to them to be voted on my other students, and if passed, they become KeeleSU policy and the full time officer team are responsible for making sure they happen.
This meeting was an extension of the meeting held the Monday before that didn’t have enough people present to more accurately represent the student population. When this happens, the meeting is closed and reopened 7 days later.
So on Monday the 5th, we had 3 ideas to discuss. One was around the university’s new plans around anonymising exam boards, another was about formally opposing the benefits cap, and the third was about a women’s only hour in the gym on campus. As you can see, you can bring issues around just about anything to general meetings! (to see the full text of these ideas, please follow this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0ByYwslxNTuwfS3JXN0ladlNwTUU)
These ideas were submitted to our Constitutional Affairs Committee (who make sure that nothing is going to go against our major rules) up to 7 days before the meeting via the pretty cool online form: https://keelesu.com/yourunion/ugm/yourideas/
So what happened next??
The first idea, around opposing the university's proposals around anonymised exam boards got a lot of people talking, and the room was quite undecided on the end result. In fact we voted on it twice, and both times came out with an exact draw, so it was decided that it would be taken to the next meeting in January, giving students more time to find out information. If you want to know more about this, please contact your Education Officer Jeff at su.educationofficer@keele.ac.uk
The second idea was that KeeleSU sound formally oppose the benefits cap, and the discussion here was around how this will effect our students and how it will affect future students’ ability to come to university. Our Welfare and Internationalisation Officer Nat was tasked with taking this to NUS and making it a priority for them to work on. The idea was voted through and your full time officer team will now start working on the action points.
The third idea was that the officer team and the AU committee should work with the sports centre to try and provide a women’s only hour in the gym. It wasn't specified how often this would take place, but the idea passed and we’ll now be able to work on student’s behalf to try and make this a reality! This idea in particular allows us to continue to highlight that some of our facilities do not fit the needs or expectations of our students.
Thank you to everyone who attended, particularly those who attended both meetings. Our next meeting will be on the 1st of February 2017, and you can submit ideas from now! If you have any questions, please come and see your elected officer team or email su.cac@keele.ac.uk