City, University of London Students’ Union (the Union) hosts a Student Council Meeting every term. This term the meeting was held on Thursday 4th February and was attended by over 31 students.
All of the passed motions will become student policy and we will be working to achieve the resolutions over the coming months and years.
You can see the papers and motions for the meeting by clicking here, but here are the short highlights.
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Minutes:
The Minutes from our last meeting were voted for approval by the Student Councillors in attendance, you can see these in the papers for the meeting.
Officer Reports:
Student Councillors were able to hold the Executive Officer team to account through the accountability reports. Student Council is responsible to ensure the Executive Officer team is undertaking the responsabilities of their roles and abiding to Union Policy in their actions.
11 Officer reports were submitted to Student Council:
- SU President - Saqlain Riaz
- VP Education - Ruqaiyah Javaid
- VP Community and Wellbeing - Shaima Dallali
- Business SRO - Martin Stepanek
- Law SRO - Tyler Austin
- SMCSE SRO - Chandra Rodrigues
- SASS SRO - Tevo Kearney-James
- LGBT+ Officer - Paulina Samasova
- Disabled Students' Officer - Ellie Foulger
- Ethics & Environmental Officer - Shad Islam
- Postgraduate Taught Officer - Abdul Qudoos Sohal
Have a look at what they have been up to so far this term here - you only need to scroll down after the agenda.
Motions:
- Change the LGBT officer title to LGBTQ+ officer
This motion looks to expand the title of the officer role to LGBTQ+ officer to better represent its members, and foster inclusivity and self-identification by expanding the title to be more open to greater identification with the change of name.
The meeting moved to a vote and passed the policy. Bye-Law 6 - point 4 (4.1) will be officially updated after the next Board of Trustees meeting (29th of March).
- Encourage university staff to identify their gender pronouns when introducing and in their email signatures
This motion looks at encouraging staff to use gender pronouns, in order to create a diverse and inclusive environment at the university. Adding gender pronouns to the staff university email signatures and Zoom meetings is a great first step to building inclusivity at university.
The meeting moved to a vote and passed the policy.
This policy look to campaign for more PhD studentships and more full-time ans part-time funded research opportunities to be carried out at City. This motion further advocates for different recruitment strategies to be put in place to fill the gap in academic staff from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic.
The meeting moved to a vote and passed the policy.
- Common room for SHS students
This motion looks at creating an SHS Common Room on Campus (Tait Building). Making friends and getting to know their colleagues for placement can be difficult, as there is no designated place for SHS students to meet, socialise or discuss group work.
The meeting moved to a vote and passed the policy.
- Motion of No Confidence in the City, University of London Executive Board
This motion seeks to inform the Council that this Union no longer has confidence in the City, University of London Executive Board.
This motion aims to continue supporting the Rent Strike campaign by completing three demands:
- demand that the Executive Board and/or Council agree to rebating students in accommodation but have no access to
- demand that the City, University of London hardship fund process is made easier and more accessible to students by removing the bureaucracy around it.
- allocate a pot of money for specifically for students in accommodation to access as part of the hardship funds
The meeting moved to a vote and passed the policy.
What’s next?
You can find a copy of the full papers from the meeting, including reports and motions, here.
If you are interested in submitting a motion to the next Student Council meeting, all information is here - Deadline is on the 11th of March (submit your motions to studentrep@city.ac.uk and studentcouncilchair@city.ac.uk).
The next Student Council meeting will be taking place via Zoom from 4pm on Thursday 23rd of March 2021.