Student Members’ Meeting 2021

The Union’s annual Student Members’ Meeting took place on Wednesday 1^st December. This year at the meeting we heard an update on the Students’ Union finances and a number of key issues were submitted, debated and voted on by students. All of the passed motions will become student policy and the Union 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 those in attendance, you can see these in the papers for the meeting.

City Students’ Union Preliminary Financial results 2021-22

Shaima Dallali, SU President presented the preliminary financial results for the Union, including changes in income and expenditure across different areas of the Union between 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22.

List of Affiliations

The meeting approved the list of affiliations which were:

This means that the Union and student groups can access and receive support from these organisations.

Motions passed by the meeting

• Free, high quality anti-viral software for students at City

As University learning is dependent on a functional computer, students presented this motion on the need for a free, high-quality anti-viral software. This motion was passed and becomes student policy.

• Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

The motion requested the incorporation of the Palestinian community’s call to BDS in its ‘Decolonise City’ project on an educational, investment and social level, and to work with representatives of the City Friends of Palestine to seek alternative investment strategy. This motion was passed and has been passed to the Union’s Board of Trustees for review.

• Update CityNav

As the CityNav app has not been updated since 2018, the motion urges the Union to encourage the university to update the app regularly and change its interface and algorithm for a more user-friendly and helpful experience. This motion was passed and becomes student policy.

• Law Module Specific Exam Sessions

Students presented the motion to request the Students’ Union to lobby and pressurise the Law school to require (or at least encourage) all lecturers to hold exam sessions and to upload example or previous essay questions and answers. This motion was passed and becomes student policy.

• Transcripts and Captions for Lectures

The motion requested the Union to lobby and pressure the university to require (or at the very least encourage) all lecturers to enable captions and upload transcripts with their lecture videos and lecture capture recordings. Moreover, the university should train lecturers on how to enable, access and upload captions and transcripts. This motion was passed and becomes student policy.

• Invest for Change

The motion urges the Union to support and put resources towards an Invest for Change campaign on campus. Furthermore, it mandates the Union to lobby the University to move at least 30% of their investment portfolio into investment in environmental and social justice solutions and to adopt a radical responsible investment policy, which includes divesting from the fossil fuel Industry. This motion was passed and becomes student policy.

• Provision of laptop loan service at all schools in City, University of London

The motion argues that the University and the relevant groups should ensure that a laptop loan service is provided on all schools and that the university should provide different laptops loan services, including short-term and long-term loans. This motion was passed and becomes student policy.

Additional Student Members’ Meeting

An additional Student Members' Meeting was called by Student Council on Tuesday 14th December with the purpose of discussing the Union's ongoing Democracy Review. This meeting took place online the 13^th of January 2022.

• Amendments to Memorandum and Articles of Association

The motion recommends the Company Law Members (the Union’s Trustees) approves the changes proposed to the Memorandum and Articles of Association. These proposed democratic structures will now be voted by the Company Law Members. If approved, the proposed changes will be adopted during the Spring Elections.

If you have any questions about the motions passed, you can email our team at studentrep@city.ac.uk.