UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD STUDENTS’ UNION STUDENT COUNCIL WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2011 MINUTES
COUNCILLORS PRESENT: Daniel Walton, Stephen Mann, David Heaton, John Hart, Liam McLoughlin, Chetan Mali, Kevin Rowswell, Tom Hughes Roberts, Mosami Sayare, Dilip Das, Harriet Phipps, Katie Taylor, Robert Barr, Donna Woolley, Sebastian Pal, Matthew Metcalfe, Heather Sharp. IN ATTENDANCE: Ricky Chotai (President), Caroline Dangerfield (Vice President), Maros Kravec (Vice President), Jim Dale (Vice President), Christabel Brown (Vice President), Sophie Atkinson (Vice President elect), Phil Benton (Chief Executive), Rhiannon Cruse (Student Engagement Manager), Marco Galea, Ray Eckersley.
1. Received: Apologies for absence from Councillors Reetu Zarora, Joe Woods and Holly Brunt. 2. Received: Resignation from Christine Merry. 3. The Chair accepted a request to move paper SC11/10 ‘Peel Hall issue’ to earlier in the agenda, to enable the student presenting the paper to attend an examination. 4. Received: Paper SC11/10 ‘Peel Hall’ issue, presented by Marco Galea, a student from the school of Music, Media and Performance. The paper outlined issues regarding the use of Peel Hall as a lecture theatre for the academic year 2011/12 whilst the Chapman lecture theatres are being refurbished. The student asked the Union to request that the University stop its plans to use Peel Hall as a lecture space. Sabbatical Officers have already been involved in meetings about temporary lecture spaces and in discussion it was noted that because of the Chapman building refurbishment, various alternatives are due to be used for lecture space, including Peel Hall and Maxwell. Semi-permanent desks were considered more appropriate than lap trays for these alternative venues. It was further noted that alternative performance spaces have been arranged for MMP students in the local area, as well as at the University’s new facilities at Media City. Peel Hall is also due to undergo significant improvements following its use as a lecture space. The Sabbatical Officers expressed the view that while this is not an ideal situation, it is a short term issue which will result in long term benefits for all students. Marco Galea commented that communication from the University had been poor, and that many affected students were not aware of plans. Resolved: While it is not possible to prevent Peel Hall being used as a temporary lecture space for next academic year, Council asked the Sabbatical Officers to lobby for improved communication between the staff and students affected. 5. The election for a Council Chair was conducted using the Alternative Vote system. In the first round of votes, Kevin Rowswell was duly elected and took the place of Chair for the remainder of the meeting. a. In discussion and following a suggestion by Council, the post of ‘Vice Chair’ was offered and accepted by the Councillor coming second in the election for Chair, Stephen Mann.
6. Received: ‘Student Officer Reports’ (SC11/01), ‘Trustee Board Report’ (SC11/02), ‘University Committees Report’ (SC11/03) and ‘NUS Report’ (SC11/04).
a. The Chair commented that the content of the Committees Report had been decided by the Sabbatical Officers and asked that Council be given an opportunity to decide whether future issues are of student interest. The President commented that while this may be possible in some cases, the Sabbatical Officers are bound by confidentiality, meaning that some issues discussed at University Committees cannot be shared with Council. 7. Considered: A paper entitled ‘The Salford Bill of Student Rights: Feedback time’ presented by Vice President Arts, Media and Social Science (SC11/05). asking Council, in the light of feedback and criticism from academics, to decide whether to keep the Bill’s proposed feedback time limit of three weeks, or alter the Bill to bring it in line with the University policy of four weeks. In discussion, the evidence base for the Bill of Rights was questioned, and suggestions were made that further research could be done to determine the current state of feedback times across the University. The Vice President Health & Social Care explained that NSS data had been used throughout the Bill of Rights, and that although further research had not been done, the extremely low scoring for ‘feedback and assessment’ in the NSS sufficiently demonstrates the problem. The Chair suggested that Council take a vote on the Sabbatical Officers original request, but included an alternative option of recommending further research. The Chief Executive alerted the chair to the fact that the Sabbatical Officers’ request was for a decision between two options, and that a vote for a third option would be detrimental to the political power of the Bill of Rights. The Chair gave Council three options and conducted the vote. Resolved: To retain the three week feedback limit demand. 8. Considered: A paper entitled ‘The Salford Student Charter’ presented by the President (SC11/06). The paper explained the University’s plans to create a student charter which would outline the rights and responsibilities of the University and students, and included a draft charter. The University’s charter is due to be completed by September 2011. The Sabbatical Officers asked Councillors to give feedback on the draft charter and make suggestions or recommendations. During discussion it was noted that a key difference between the Union’s Bill of Rights and the University’s charter is that the charter will be concerned with responsibilities, while the Bill of Rights highlights problems or gaps in quality and is written predominantly for students. The Bill of Rights will continue to be the Union’s campaign document. Councillors discussed that differences between Schools will make an institution-wide charter difficult, but there was general agreement that the draft charter was a good model document. Resolved: The Vice President Health & Social Care will update Council on the progress of the charter. 9. Considered: A paper entitled ‘University Restructure’ presented by the President (SC11/07). The paper outlined the University’s restructuring plans and the potential impact on students, particularly with regard to School mergers. During discussion, it was noted that Schools have agreed longer office hours in order to ensure that students are not disadvantaged by the mergers. The Vice President Business, Law & Languages stated that an email update would be sent to reps in the affected schools this week. On behalf of Council, the Chair thanked the Sabbatical Officers for their work on this issue so far. Resolved: To mandate the new Sabbatical Team to make this a priority campaign issue for the next academic year. 10. Considered: A paper entitled ‘LGBT issues’ presented by K. Taylor and H. Phipps (SC11/08). The paper outlined a number of campaign issues currently being dealt with by the LGBT society. The first issue ‘gender neutral toilets’ was described as the priority campaign. During discussion it was noted that this issue is backed by the NUS LGBT campaign, and that to introduce the concept to University House would not require significant changes to the building, but merely the changing of the door signs. The use of disabled access toilets was suggested, but strongly challenged by Council members who felt that these facilities should be kept as designated disabled toilets.
The President commented that because the Students’ Union does not own University House, it is not immediately possible to implement this change, and that more consultation must be done to ensure that other minority groups are not negatively affected. The example of Muslim students who would be uncomfortable with mixed facilities was given. The President added that while the Union is affiliated to NUS, it is not bound by its policies or campaigns, and must act in the best interest of its members at Salford. When asked whether they wished to mandate the Officers to dedicate resource to this issue, KT and HP stated that this was not necessary as the LGBT society would be campaigning on the issue, and they would like to report back on progress to Council. 11. Considered: A paper entitled ‘Halls issues’ presented by Stephen Mann (SC11/09). The paper outlined the view that students living in halls are underrepresented and face specific issues like cleaning charges. During discussion it was noted that a University email introducing the cleaning charges suggested the Union had been complicit in the decision. The President and the Vice President Health & Social Care assured Council that this was not the case, and that the University often inaccurately exaggerated Union support for unpopular decisions. Councillors discussed the potential for a forum or system of reps within halls, and it was noted that forums of this kind had been tried before, and fairly recently by Student Life with no success. Resolved: To use the Better University forum to explore this issue further.
Next meeting date to be arranged when timetables are released. Close of meeting