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Monday 26 November 2018 Issue 1379 Free
Feature The Courier pays tribute to the MARVEL legend Stan Lee Page 22
Campaigners clash in live NUS debate The independent voice of Newcastle
Ally Wilson Features Editor On Friday 23rd November, a student-organised debate over the upcoming referendum on Newcastle University Student Union
The debate focused on four main issues: representation, finance, politics and the future relationship between NUSU and the NUS
(NUSU)’s membership of the National Union of Students (NUS) took place. NUSU voted to leave the student-led organisation in 2016, entering into a minority 5% of universities in the UK who are not members. Constitutionally, NUSU must have a referendum on its membership of the NUS at least every three years, however a referendum can also be called through a petition signed by at least eight trustees. The debate was chaired by Harry Parsons, station manager of NSR. Emma Dawson, leader of the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign and Welfare and Equality Officer, Jack Green, spoke for the student body to re-enter into the NUS. Speaking against NUSU’s becoming a member of NUS were leader of the ‘Vote No’
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campaign, Scarlett Rowland and Education Officer Johnny Hall. The debate focused on four main issues: representation, finance, politics and what the future will hold for the relationship between NUSU and the NUS. Emma Dawson began by highlighting the achievements of the NUS, including the introduction of 16-25 railcards, council tax exemption for students and the implementation of postgraduate loans. Scarlett Rowland’s response was that these were brought into effect during the 1970s and 1990s. “In more recent years, what have NUS actually achieved for the wellbeing of students?” she asked. According to NUS’ website, the most recent policy response is from April 2017, a response to their ‘Building our Industrial Strategy Green Paper’. The financial discussion over the referendum was one of the most prominent of the debate. “We’ve invested a lot in our union in the past few years, with refurbishments and campaigns for people like our course reps and part-time officers. We wouldn’t be able to run these as well without the £50,000 we would have to pledge to the NUS,” argued Education Officer, Johnny Hall. “The money can be better spent on students here.” In January this year, an email was sent to all presidents and chief executives of students’ unions across the country, informing them that the NUS was “looking at a £3m deficit for the group in this and future financial year.” However, the NUS also offers financial benefits for students, with initiatives such as Totem Cards, which offers over 42,000 international commercial discounts on the likes of travel and clothing for paying members.
Sabbatical officers Jack Green and Jonny Hall joined the campaigners on opposing sides Image: Haaris Qureshi, NUTV
Search engine motion provokes tense council dispute
Student Council took place at 5:15pm on Thursday 15 November in the History Room at NUSU. This was the second Students’ Union Council Meeting of the year, the first having been held in October. The first motions to be proposed to Council were three Constitutional Motions (those that change the constitution of the Students’ Union), and they all passed by an overwhelming majority. The first was to mandate all Sabbatical Officers elected in the Easter term to attend the Executive Committees that they will
be Chairing when they formally start their role in September. The second constitutional motion updated Officer Job Descriptions to list RAG (Raising and Giving) as a society rather than a fundraising arm of NUSU. The final motion formally allocated time during meetings for students to give notices to Council. All Constitutional Motions require a 2/3 majority, but these three motions passed with an outstanding 95%, and 4 abstentions. Next, Scrutiny Officer Jamie Cameron proposed an Ordinary Motion (requiring a simple majority), to change the default search engine of NUSU computers to Ecosia. The motion also proposed to mandate the President to lobby the University to make all
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University computers use this same search engine. Ecosia uses ad revenue from web searches to plant trees and was proposed in an effort to reduce the University’s negative impact on the environment. However, after considerable debate, the motion failed to pass as there were concerns that more research was needed into the possible practical ramifications of the change. The new Student Notices section of the meeting proved popular, with a number of representatives from clubs and societies letting their peers and Sabbatical Officers know about the important work they had been doing recently. The council moved on to the first open
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debate of the academic year. It was centred around the new role of a NUSU Postgraduate Sabbatical Officer, which will be introduced in the academic year beginning in September 2019. They will join the six other Sabbatical Officers working at the Union, and the Council discussion was to determine what the priorities of the role should be. The debate was lengthy but lively, with a number of different students standing up to discuss some of the key issues faced by Postgraduate students at the University. Despite there being only a small number of Postgraduate students in attendance at the meeting, they were vocal in outlining the problems they felt Postgraduates experienced, including loneliness and diffi-
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culty getting involved with activities aimed at Undergraduate students. It was also raised that some of the issues faced were not exclusive to Postgraduate students, as struggling to get involved or feeling excluded from university life are difficulties experienced by other groups, such as mature students and students who are parents or carers. NUTV filmed the whole meeting, the video for which can be found on YouTube. The next meeting will be held on Thursday 6 December at 5:15pm in the History Room, on the 1st floor of the NUSU building. Students interested in attending can register for a casual place through the NUSU website.
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