Paper 1: Senate Minutes

Transcription

1 Meeting attended by: a full list of attendees is available from emmet.cleaver@manchester.ac.uk Apologies: Kitty Bartlett, Olivia Meisl, Varang Bombaywala, Joseph Clough Date: Thursday 9 th November Time: 18:00 20:00 Secretary: Jessica Mills (JM) Agenda Topic #1: Welcome, Quorum and Apologies Action Items: None Agenda Topic #2: Explanation of Senate - Code of conduct - Speak when chair asks you to - Senate is not for reporting staff there are other procedures - Coloured card explanation - How the little clicker works Agenda Topic #3: Minutes of Previous Senate The previous minutes were taken as a true record Action Items: EC to upload approved minutes to Students Union website. Agenda Topic #4: Steering Report and Steering Committee Minutes State of the Union AT essentially you re joining the union at a really exciting time. We re operating as normal. We celebrated our accreditation as a Living Wage Employer. Meat Free Mondays, half price food at the bar. It would be great if you could encourage people to come and make the most of our bars and shops. Since the last senate we ve had quite a few elections. An enormous amount of work goes into getting Senate ready and the Voice team and especially Emmet and our lovely Chair Ruth. RS ok thank you Alex and next up we have the steering report that Saqib s going to come up and present SM evening everyone so if you look at page 8 when it comes to the end of 3 year steering look at it and reallocate it to a sub-committee. We felt that we d carry out a resolution rather than a motion because we felt like if you voted for it and felt that it was ineffective then we d have to go through a vote again. RS ok does anyone have any questions for the Exec team?

2 Agenda Topic #5: Questions for Officers No questions asked Action Items: None Agenda Topic #6: Senate Rep Elections Paper 1: Senate Minutes RS next up we have elections and we actually have a couple of elections to get through. Senate Committee s voting will close on Monday at 12. JS hi everyone my name s Jack Swan I m a student a first year, I m running for Campaign and Citizenship Committee. I understand there s a lot I still need to learn, I have trained with Citizenship UK I have worked with Labour Youth UK. I think I can bring a fair amount of experience to the role and especially to the range. As I say I think I ve got a decent amount of experience that will help us to Will Hi I m Will I m chair of the living wage committee at the university I m aware of how to effectively campaign and make change happen M Hi I m --- I m running for a few positions, I m working with the UN to raise money for women who have been abused. I m from Pakistan and I m running a small charity of my own. So I m hoping I can help with the committees. RS we also have some senate representatives to elect, so on your table you should be able to see the contested positions we have XX Hi my names --- I m running for Fallowfield and With officer I ve lived there for a few years and I ve got a few ideas on how to improve the area. I m concerned with safety and want to bring in some concepts like Neighbourhood Watch. RS is there anybody else here running for the contested election positions? XX Hello thank you I m running for city centre officer, the city centre officer is not usually the focus of the elections not many people put themselves forward. So I want to give the city centre a voice. You have private accommodation people, who live there, it s important that you have a representative who would go around the city centre to get representative feedback. RS so now we re going to vote for the contested positions. So if you go to manchesterstudentunion.com/vote you ll be able to vote, I ll give you a few minutes to do that and longer if you need Voting happens LT so Fallow and With is Cardigan with 21 votes, the liv at home rep is Jake, the mature student rep is Emma, the student carer rep is Marian with 25 votes RS Student Community officer is -----, for BMH we have Rahul, no objections to that? Humanities PTO Officer Hulin, any objections? Student Community City Centre, we have Giami. Any objections? LGBTQ Officer we have Celine. Any objections? Lovely round of

3 applause and get your clicker. Action Items: EC to update data system. Agenda Topic #7: Policy Proposals Paper 1: Senate Minutes 1. Close All Detention Centres Deej detention centres UN have condemned British policy for this places like Yarlswood where women and young children are held are horrible place been to demonstrations to show solidarity can the Union support students to campaign against detention centres because these are horrible dehumanising and have no place in a civilised society Union support would mean that campaigning could be supported by Union funds rather than just BME funds RS ok has anyone got any questions? Voting is going to close in 10 seconds. Ok voting is now closed RS 6 against congratulations Deej 2. Malcolm in the Middle Floor Deej you might not be aware but Malcolm X spoke in this very building in Academy 2. This building is called Steve Biko building. We name rooms after people who are important. This Union by its nature is political we remember our history. At a time when we have a US president like Trump and policies that pull people apart, we really should remember people who wanted to bring people together. So we propose that Academy 2, for internal events is called Academy X RS Any Qs? Lucas Ferguson I d like to raise the issue of Malcom X s history he was a part of the Nation of Islam wanted to get rid of White Supremacy and would go to any lengths he was part of Islam for far longer than he was a civil rights campaigner so I want to ask the question, should we really be naming Union rooms after someone with such a contentious history? Dr Majid just wanted to clarify is the name set in stone? When I hear Academy X it doesn t make me think of Malcolm X. Deej the policy does clarify why we ve gone for X Giles when did this policy come into place? When will the renaming take place?

4 Deej as soon as possible Paper 1: Senate Minutes Orange t-shirt this is trying to honour him as an activist but do you think there s a better way to honour him Deej when it comes to policy and I d like to, like in the Pankhurst room and Khaled Said room we ve got a bit of a mural there that explains who they are and why it is named after them Saqib in Islam we have conversion anything that he did was erased from his life if you re from the Nation of Islam you follow a prophet after the prophet Mohamad Malcolm X believed in Islam and the unity of all Muslims XXX I want to dip my toes into the policy. I think naming it X could be confusing for people who are not acquainted with the Academy already. I think we should name it something less confusing. People could get lost trying to find events, perhaps honour it in a diff way RS Ok, so Emma Emma just to respond to that we have thought about that already, the way we have thought about that, for branding we would still call it Academy 2, but for Student Union events it would be called Academy X XX I would like to reiterate a point that was previously made about Malcolm X s previous history. While his previous actions may have been deleted religiously, they have not been deleted historically. Also, if we are going to rename the Academy we should do it together, and we should probably rename both of them. We should have a pool of candidates. RS cos of timing one point FOR then summary Sara Khan I see a lot of point people are making about logistics. But I think in this circumstance we should be thinking of it in a political way and of an important person, who we should honour, we already have rooms named after political figures all political figures are controversial to some extent. I personally have issues with the Pankhurst s feminism but I can appreciate their contribution to history. Malcolm X s contribution was an amazing one to Black People it would be symbolically be a huge deal to people of colour around campus. RS Deej will reflect on the debate that has just happened Deej we are all on a political journey, we need to remember Malcolm X s context a time when people were still being lynched in 21 st century Britain we can say he was really bad for thinking that then but why did he have his journey. RS opens voting closes voting

5 RS reason why it takes a while to see the result RS this policy has passed XX can we have the voting numbers for that? RS 70% for and therefore passes 3. The Last Straw Deej: Plastic straws are crap. They take 300 years to biodegrade. There s no need for them. Not having a straw, having a paper straw. Paper can be recycled. Essentially we have so much waste that we produce as a society. Ferguson will the Union advertise that they have paper straws if this is passed? Majid We re just wondering about pricing? RS once a policy is passed it goes to the trustee board that will look at expenditure. Any points against? Ok let s go to a vote RS this policy has passed 4. Make the Union Halal Deej a decent proportion of our students are Muslims it s difficult to find clearly labelled halal food on campus I know for example most of the chicken we already use is halal but we just don t know that because of bad labels. So this policy proposes that all halal and non halal foods should be prepared separately. The new building work should give us this opportunity. Union should start doing halal sweets. We should source our lamb and poultry from halal suppliers. We should clearly label what food is halal and not halal. We should get halal certification from clear authorities, so when visitors come and students know. I like vegetarian but I don t always want to be one. Black t-shirt hi Deej, brilliant sensible idea, only q about it, does this create any onus on us that if we are booking in external caterers for an event do we have to ensure if we re booking halal or not? Deej if you booked through the Union you would know it s halal White t-shirt would the Union be open to extending this policy to Kosher food as well? Deej I have considered this myself. The only issue is that you don t just need a separate

6 place to prepare the food but you need a separate kitchen. I defo want us to become Kosher but I m not sure how practical is at the moment compared to halal. XX I m in engineering where there catering has no labels and sometimes we don t know if it s vegetarian or not Deej I m proposing that the Union has clear labels, this would give us a good precedent and a step in the right direction to encourage the university to do the same RS any points against this? Ferguson I d like to raise the issue that in halal meat, in 2012 report % halal meat was not stunned before it was killed. Causing unnecessary animal suffering in my opinion. Giles his proposal wasn t towards the sanctity of halal meat but to give students the option RS any further points against? Deej I take your point when it comes to the stunning. But how halal meat is certified there are 2 or 3 bodies that will guarantee that the animal is stunned before its slaughtered. We will find halal meat that has been certified. With that, let s just be halal. Dr Majid you didn t give anyone a chance to debate properly Ruth explains the for and against debate policy, suggests he brings a policy to the next senate to change the debate procedure. Ruth vote opens, vote closes Ruth just to reiterate, if you have a point to make use your hands to gesture what kind of point it is Ruth this policy has passed Action Items: EC to update SU Policy and Bye Laws. Agenda Item #8: Resolutions Scrutiny Restructure Trial RS - we have a resolution, it s not going to create policy. Alex is going to come and talk about it. AT ok everyone, scrutiny is the body designed to make sure the elected officers are doing a good job. People have felt it hasn t been officially scrutinising. It s there to hold people to account and it wasn t really working. We re looking to have it impartially chaired by a senate member rather than a student. So basically that would allow a lot of people to come, it would be a first come first serve basis, the rating should be 0 10 rather than 0 4 for more clarity.

7 RS any Qs? Emma As an Exec officer and the fact that scrutiny would be open to all students, what s sotpping me from inviting 20 of my friends and getting them to score me 10/10? AT if people think it s better, only certain committee members and etc. would be able to attend White shirt FSE what s the proposed length of trial period of the proposals? Is this all of the proposed changes? AT this is all we have so far, you re welcome to contribute changes, we would have a good feel for how it works after just one or two Ferguson just wanted to check, is there a reason beyond health and safety for a maximum attendance for scrutiny? The more the better for scrutiny AT if we had more people in the room it would take a lot longer, in terms of effective governance there s usually a good number that makes things worse, main thing is practicality but we feel like 10 is quite a lot and more than that would possibly delay the process. Adam Rogers a first come first serve basis what about diversity? AT you would have to commit an entire day for this so no missing lectures etc. RS scrutiny could open up to more people, a full day event, we try to schedule it around when committees are available. In terms of having a FCFS basis. The issue shouldn t be if you have time to get there from other locations. City Officer the idea to have a week before scrutiny, Su website a system open to all students where they can drop their suggestions AT sounds like a really good idea, scrutiny committee could consider things put forward. Mancunion are running something called Check Your Exec. Also you can ask questions in Senate, you re very welcome RS just one more question Emma will there be a code of conduct for this scrutiny? I m just thinking of all the scenarios that could happen, for example a student coming just to slag somebody off AT I suppose the chair would ensure that people behave and we could possibly have a code of conduct Emma will the 1000 word document written by Exec members go to scrutiny panel so they have a chance to see it before hand? Ruth explains ABC voting

8 AT This will really help us to get better as we go on I really hope that you approve the changes RS this is our last things, congrats on your first senate. Ok this has passed with 34 votes for 10 against and 10 abstentions. Any other business: Emma we re holding an Education Conference. 22 nd November. Tickets are available on the SU website. Riddi 17 th November International Students Day stalls in the SU foyer photo booth performances face painting please come and support us Deej this month is islamophobia awareness month, 20 th Nov students not suspects tour coming to Manchester, 28 th November hosting a panel discussion called Let s Talk About Islamophobia how we can combat racism Saqib 22 nd Nov stall with free tea and coffee and flowers for Random Act of Kindness Lucas Ferguson Fuse FM event Tuesday evening Fuse Live gig at Fallow Majid protesting for Palestine, against Zionist White top 23 rd Manchester Media Group are holding Check Your Exec event Ruth concludes reminds students to vote in Senate committee elections Next meeting: Thursday 29 th September 18:00-20:00