City, University of London Students’ Union (the Union) hosted its annual Student Members Meeting on Tuesday 12 February and it was attended by 50 students.  During the 2-hour lively meeting, a number of key issues submitted by students were debated and voted on.

It was exciting to see that all student motions were supported by those in attendance and the Union will be working to achieve these over the coming months and years.

You can see all the papers by clicking here and below are some of the key highlights.

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Affiliations
The meeting supported all the affiliations and the Union and student groups can continue to access the support from a number of great organisations.

Iftar as Part of Study Well

Students stated that Ramadan is expected to clash with exam period for the next couple of years. Study Well is to support students during exam period. Students agreed that Study Well campaign should hold 1 Iftar meal of each week of Study Well as well as a safe space to hold it in.

Running Study Well events all year

Student agreed Study Well would be more beneficial if it runs all the way through the term as it gives more consistent support to students.

Mandatory Unconscious Bias training for all Union staff

Unconscious bias training is effective for countering micro aggressions, an act which negatively impacts a member of a minority group, whether consciously or unconsciously. It was clarified in the meeting that it would be an external providing training as a trial and the aim for the future is to include not just staff but also students.

In-House In City

Student stated the desire city to bring Catering and Cleaning Staff in house, and be subject to the befits and rights of city staff members. Student were worried that many of these staff members are women, from abroad or members of our BAME community. Cleaners and caterers get no sick pay if they are ill for more than 4 days. Moving forward the Union will support and with Union to bring Catering and Cleaning Staff in house.

UCU Industrial Action

Based on the previous Referendum to support the Strike Action, students have agreed the Union should support staff in the upcoming strikes. Some students were worried about the impact the strikes could have on their lectures, however the Union reassured students that the Union’s Advice Service will be available to support students with compensation claims.

Make CityBar work for City Students

The lack of student space as been a recurring issue, especially when it comes to organise society events.  Students agreed that the Union should manage CityBar (not financially) as it is a good space and could be utilised better, such as using the space as day space and making sure it is more accessible. Moving forward, the Union will start having conversations and see how to gain control of the CItyBar space.

British Sign Language to be offered by the Language Centre

Students were happy to push for the language centre to include British Sign Language on top on the six language that it already free of charge to students.

Room booking

Once again, the lack of student space was mentioned, in this case regarding the booking of spaces for society events. Students agreed the Union should work on reducing the room booking time to no more than 5 working day and ensure communication with societies when there are changes to policies.

Lecture Theatre plugs

Students noted that many lecture theatres have plug sockets under seats and agreed to lobby the University to ensure there are plug sockets in every lecture theatre.

Longer opening hours and more resources for the library

Students agreed the Library should be opened for longer hours and have more resources available for all schools. The aim would be to have the library open for 24h but to start it should open at 7am. Two amendments were added to: the first stated that the resources from the Grays’ In library should be made available at the NSQ Library; and the second noted that this policy should cover all libraries at City, University of London.

To improve the assessment and feedback process within Cass

Students agreed that there should be an improvement on the feedback process within CASS. Students felt this was a wider issue across all five schools and decided to amend the motion to extend this feedback review for improvement to all schools.

Let’s create an opt-in paper system

Students agreed the Union should encourage the University to have an opt-in system when it comes to printing documents and not assume everyone needs a handout.

Climate change

The meeting agreed the Union needs to declare a climate emergency and should support the Climate march on the 13^th of March.

Re-mark system

Students believed there was a need to have an official policy for the University to better implement a remark policy.

Lecture capture

Students stated that Lecture Capture is currently an opt-in system which makes it more difficult to have lecture capture widely across the five schools. Students amended the motion by removing the clause “To lobby the university to make it policy that all lecturers, where held reasonable at the discretion of the university, should use lecture capture.” and replacing it with “To lobby the university to make it policy that all lecturers, where held reasonable with the exception of an opt out policy, should use lecture capture”.

Any other business

Students were very disappointed with the low turnout of the event and noted that many societies had events on the same date as AGM. This feedback was taken in consideration by the Union, who is going to look on other ways to increase the turn out and engage more students.

A student complained about the poor quality of the showers. This student was direct to Student Advice to complete a complain.

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You can find a full live-blog composed by Carrot Magazine on their site here.

Any questions concerning the motions passed, or about how the Union will start work on these issues please email our team on studentrep@city.ac.uk