You said, we did: how students got the electric heaters back.
As the more observant of you might have noticed in September, the outdoor heaters in the Outback had been taken down. This was a decision made by last year’s officer team and members of staff in the SU, as they were seen as not particularly environmentally friendly, and were restricting our ability to apply for sustainability funding from NUS (the National Union of Students).
When students returned, some weren’t happy with this decision so they submitted a motion to get the heaters put back up.
Because KeeleSU is a student led organisation, any member (so any current student of Keele University) has the opportunity to change things in their students’ union! The main way of doing this is by taking an issue to a general meeting, to be voted on by students and then enacted by officers (who are also elected by students).
When you submit an idea to change something about KeeleSU via the SU website (https://keelesu.com/yourunion/ugm/yourideas/), you need a proposer and a seconder, so the person who has the idea and a friend who agrees with it. In this case, it was Tom and his mate Phil. They called their idea ‘Things can only get Hotter’.
They then had to write down what the facts about the issue were:
• The outdoor heaters were removed in order to get KeeleSU a higher environmental rating.
• Winter is coming. Winter is cold.
• Nights out are a key source of revenue for the Union.
Explain their opinions about this issue:
• Many students enjoy sometime outside during nights out to chat and cool off.
• Currently, without heaters, it's unbearably cold outside and will only get worse as this semester progresses.
• Reinstatement of the previous heaters to ensure students don't get cold while outside until a more environmentally friendly system is found.
And then, what they thought the SU should do to change this:
• KeeleSU shall put previous heaters back in place.
• KeeleSU will conduct research into finding a more environmentally friendly system for the future.
• KeeleSU will replace previous heaters when a new more viable option is found.
This was sent to a student committee called the Constitutional Affairs Committee who are responsible for making sure that any ideas submitted by students don’t break any of our big rules, and then to prepare and run the meetings at which students vote on policy! This motion passed through them with no problems, so Tom and Phil were then invited to talk to students at the general meeting in October about why they thought the heaters should be reinstalled, and answer any questions students had about it. After this, students at the meeting voted in favour of the motion, meaning that the full time officers were then mandated to make the action points happen!
The first step in doing this was talking to our premise manager about how we get them back up. As the university estates team are responsible for some of our premise maintenance, one of their electricians was sent over to reinstall them. As some of the heaters were broken before they were took down, a few have not been put back up. The SU is now looking into what we could use in the future to keep students warm on nights out.
Thank you to everyone involved, and all the SU and university staff that helped us make student policy happen! If you have any questions about making a change in your students’ union, please get in touch with your full time officer team, or the Constitutional Affairs Committee su.cac@keele.ac.uk
Our next general meeting is on the 1st of February at 6pm in the Ballroom, see you there!
