#LiberateSURHUL Why we need Liberation Officers at SURHUL What are Liberation Officers? Liberation Officers would be 4 new Executive Officers in the Students’ Union whose job would be to represent 4 different marginalised groups. The Executive Committee is a level below the Sabbatical Officers, made up of part time student officers (e.g. Academic Affairs). It would be in accordance with the National Union of Students' 4 liberation campaigns: women; ethnic minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and people who have other minority sexualities or gender identities (LGBT+); and disabled students. Their introduction would replace the existing Equality and Liberation officer. We feel that having “rep” positions on the Inclusion & Representation Senate is not enough. Not enough people know about these roles, and, as a consequence, not enough people know about the issues that these marginalised groups face. We therefore want to promote these roles to the level of Executive Officers, so that there is greater awareness of, and greater emphasis on fighting, discrimination. In turn, it would elevate them to the position they deserve – at the top of the organization. We need the importance of liberation to be reflected by its position in the SU hierarchy. This will allow every decision made by the Executive Committee to be scrutinized from the position of each liberation group, putting liberation at the forefront of what SURHUL does. We currently have positions on the executive committee for Postgraduate Students Officer and International Students Officer, because we recognise that these two groups face unique issues that other groups do not. The same is the case for the 4 groups mentioned here.
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Why aren’t the Equality and Liberation Officer and the Inclusion & Representation Senate sufficient as they are to promote liberation issues? The result of the Senate and a single Equality & Liberation Officer is that one person needs to represent the voices of all the liberation groups (black, LGBT+, women, disabled students) on the Executive Committee, when they are highly unlikely to be a member of each of the groups. This leads to further under-representation of people, in a situation where we’re trying to improve it. Having an Executive Officer for each liberation campaign would mean that these issues were discussed as a core part of the functioning of the SU. Furthermore, we feel that someone cannot truly represent a liberation group without being a member of that group. Thus, we want separate officers for each liberation group so that we have people who self-identify as members of each group represented at the level of the executive committee. Additionally, in some situations what is best for one liberation group may not necessarily be best for all of the others, and there needs to be someone “fighting the corner” of each group to ensure that the best possible decisions are made for the equality and liberation of everyone at SURHUL. We cannot prioritise one liberation group above all others – it is vital that we support all liberation groups.
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Why would we want to be in line with the NUS or other students’ unions? Can’t SURHUL act independently of these bodies? SURHUL is affiliated to the NUS, and our members vote to remain affiliated because they recognise the benefits that it brings. Such benefits include student discounts through the NUS Extra Scheme, but also valuable campaigning resources and the opportunity for our members to get involved in campaigns on a national level. Such campaigning is especially valuable in the current economic climate, with the NUS facilitating opportunities for national networks to form that campaign against tuition fee rises and education cuts, issues that affect all students. The NUS also provides resources for campaigning on liberation issues, such as resources for NUS Women’s anti-sexual harassment Zero Tolerance Campaign, which aims to protect students, primarily women, from sexual harassment in SUs; Zero Tolerance has received a lot of support from SURHUL, and women members of SURHUL are currently working on implementing it to make the SU safer for women. Even with the introduction of Liberation Officers, SURHUL would still be able to act autonomously, and the Officers would be able to formulate their own campaigns. However, as the NUS conducts valuable research into issues such as racial harassment, it is worth us taking some guidance and inspiration from them. It is worth noting that this is the first year in a long time (possibly ever) that delegates have been sent to each NUS liberation conference. This shows a real desire of our members to get involved with liberation campaigns nationally. Furthermore, at these conferences, delegates were often confronted with the fact that so many other students’ unions already have Liberation Officers, and the shock on people’s faces when delegates said that SURHUL does not have Liberation Officers highlighted the progress that our SU needs to make to be taken seriously on a national level.
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Did you say a Women’s and Marginalised Genders Officer? Don’t we have a Gender Equality Rep? We do, but believe strongly we should have a Women’s and Marginalised Genders Officer (WMG Officer). NUS Women’s Campaign, has officially passed policy calling for “a Women’s Officer in every Union”, and many other universities already have Women’s Officers. Women are the majority in education, yet the sexism that is endemic in society prevents women from getting the most out of their education. This sexism is seen a myriad different ways; student parents (women predominately look after children) have to deal with inadequate child care provision & inflexible courses, the gender pay gap on leaving university is 15%, women feel unsafe and hassled on SU nights and across the UK women are under-represented on SU Executive and Sabbatical teams. The WMG Officer would take up these issues and campaign on them, providing a specific voice for these issues within the SU. What are “Marginalised Genders”? Aren’t they included under LGBT+? The term “marginalised genders” refers to trans* people (people who identify as a member of the gender which is opposite to that which is generally assigned to their sex) and people outside the gender binary (i.e. people who do not identify as either men or women, who sometimes identify as genderneutral or agender). This year, the SU has introduced gender-neutral toilets and passed a motion in favour of gender-neutral pronouns being used in General Meetings, and this is hugely progressive, something that we can build on. Marginalised genders are indeed included under LGBT+, but it is worth noting that LGB refer to sexualities (lesbian, gay, bisexual) and T refers to a genderidentity (trans*), and that sexuality and gender are different things. Some trans people feel that there is too much emphasis on sexuality rather than gender within LGBT, and so they may feel more comfortable being represented by an officer who is dedicated to gender. Thus, having both an LGBT+ Officer and a WMG Officer means we are being as inclusive as possible to trans* and
non-binary gender people, and the two officers could campaign together in gender issues,
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If we have a Women’s Officer, why not a Men’s Officer? We believe this view shows a misunderstanding of the notion of equality. Equality doesn’t mean everyone having the same but, instead, everyone being able to achieve the same. To introduce a “Men’s Officer” would actually reinforce and extend the advantage that men have. The WMG Officer would erase the gap that exists between men and women, allowing women to live their lives with the same privileges as men. End Violence Against Women coalition which reveals that 43 per cent of young women in London, aged 18-34, have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces in the past year. The survey also shows that 50% of full-time women students in London have experienced harassment in the last year. We were also concerned about non-binary students but felt the WMG officer (for those trans students who don’t identify as men) and the LGBT+ Officer could work together on campaigns and welfare to ensure non-binary and trans* students would be represented.
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One of the rep positions on the I&R Senate currently isn’t filled. I’m concerned the new Officer positions won’t be filled? This is a concern we take seriously. We have decided not to introduce the roles immediately but wait for the following year. This will allow time to be dedicated to building strength in the campaigns, giving confidence to those who may potentially want to run for the positions but also more importantly, to make the campaigns relevant to those that could take them up. Why is it that we have an enormously active Afro-Caribbean Society (ACS) yet a real lack of formal, organised campaigning around black student issues or a paucity of black students involved in our structures? The current active participation of students in relevant societies such as ACS, the Feminism Society and LGBT Society show that there is a real desire of students to campaign on liberation issues- the problem is, the current structure of the SU means that many such students feel that these societies are the primary avenues through which to campaign, with the SU being seen by some as irrelevant, and we thus want to introduce Liberation Officers to make the SU more relevant to the students affected by liberation issues. Also, some strong advertising amongst societies, subcommittees and the student body will reap significant rewards in terms of students taking up the positions. Many students don’t know these positions exist – let’s make them aware.
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What would all these officers do? It seems a lot to add four new officers, but they‘d have a lot of responsibilities. These would include: • Attending the appropriate NUS zone conference , assuming they self-define into the category they represent • Implementing campaigns and bringing motions from their NUS liberation zone alongside the democracy officer, VP Communications and Campaigns, Union Chair, and Campaigns Officer • Ensuring that any structural procedures in the union don’t unfairly disadvantage the group that they’re representing on Exec • Share the current mandate of the Equality and Liberation officer in terms of making SURHUL accessible to the entire membership. • Work with the union chair to make sure language and aspects of the constitution referring to their group are up to date • Work with each other and representatives on the I&R Senate to ensure that issues of intersectionality (where someone belongs to more than one marginalized group) are being recognized. • Sit on the I&R Senate and any official SURHUL or RHUL working or focus groups appropriate • Attend General Meetings, Exec, Community Liaison Forum, Democracy Sub-Committee, Academic Affairs Senate, Campaigns Sub-Committee, and any others when appropriate.
7 Thanks for reading this, and hopefully you feel better informed about liberation officers now!
But what about the other groups that are discriminated against? Lots of people are discriminated against for reasons that aren’t gender, race, sexuality or ability, and we aren’t trying to imply that people are not discriminated against for other reasons. We believe the discrimination against, for example, student parents and carers, is closely tied to misogyny. Regardless of this, the Inclusion and Representation (I&R) Senate, including representatives from many other groups, would continue to run, and the VP Ed Welfare would be responsible for ensuring these other groups are represented. Furthermore, issues that affect groups who are not liberation groups (e.g. the issue for men that societal notions of masculinity may prevent them from getting help for mental problems) can be focused on by both the VP Ed Welfare and the Campaigns SubCommittee.
If you require this in an alternative format such as large print or audio, email Matt, m.chadkirk.2010@live.rhul.ac.uk or Dan, president@su.rhul.ac.uk This motion is being supported by (amongst others): Matt Chadkirk (Equality and Liberation Officer) Sidonie Bertrand-Shelton (Equality & Liberation Officer Elect) Amarbeer Singh (NUS Black Delegate and Societies Officer) Daniel Cooper (President) Katie Blow (VP Education and Welfare) Jamie Green (VP Communications and Campaigns elect) Jasmine Wyeth (NUS Women's Delegate, FemSoc Founder and President) Susuana Antubam (NUS Women's Delegate - BME) Oliver Rushby (Student Trustee elect) NUS Women’s Campaign NUS Disabled Students Campaign NUS LGBT Campaign NUS Black Students Campaign