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► Student Council

Student Council

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COUNCIL NEWS

Once a month Swansea Met SU Council meets; we discuss a range of issues, debate policy and decide on the direction and activities of the Students’ Union. All officers and representatives attend Council as part of their duties, though any student can come along and get involved in discussions. It is a great opportunity to pop along and find out more about the Students’ Union and what everyone is up to! Here is a quick overview of the subjects we’ve been discussing, the events we have been attending and the decisions we have been making!! Fresher’s Fortnight – Kicked off the beginning on the year, with many extremely successful events. The Student Activities Officers did an amazing job in organising the whole thing and then enlisted the help of council members to help facilitate the smooth running of these events.

NUS Reform - Last year NUS held an Extraordinary Conference to discuss a complete reform of their governance structures. The proposals passed with a two thirds majority at Extraordinary Conference but fell by a narrow margin at Annual Conference. This year the National Executive Committee of NUS came back after extensive consultation

With even better proposals. There was a motion brought to our Council in October by our President, Welfare, Student Activities, Communications and Entertainments Officer for our union to call for another Extraordinary Conference this year to debate these issues again. This motion passed unanimously and we then elected our three sabbatical officers to attend and represent our pro reform mandate of support. The motion to change the NUS governance structures passed with an 82% majority at the Extraordinary Conference in 2008.

Another motion was then brought toanother council in December to call for another conference to ratify the constitution, this again passed and we will be sending our Welfare, Student Activities and Communications Officers. As complex as it sounds I can promise you this is very important so students can finally have a NUS that works for them effectively and can deliver for its membership! Student Housing - This year student housing has been high on our agenda with a motion being brought to council in October to mandate our Welfare and Student Rights Officer to produce a comprehensive document to distribute to students so that they are more informed when finding private accommodation. We also submitted at motion to NUS Wales Winter Council about how important student housing is and for the NUS Wales Deputy
President to continue to run a training day for officers on how to help and advise students in this area. Education Officer – There was a motion brought in October to change the title of SU President to Education and Representation Officer by taking this issue to referendum and for the student body to decide, it was felt by the submitters that it would help define the role more clearly to students.

There was a lengthy debate on this topic and although it passed by a simple majority it did not pass by the two thirds majority that was needed as it was a constitutional amendment. It was decided by council that we would have more debate and consultation before we bring this issue up again.

Big Welsh One – The campaigns launch for NUS Wales took place at the end of August at Swansea University. The SU President, Welfare and Student Rights, Student Activities Officer and the Women’s Officer attended.

NUS Wales Winter Council – Our council elected delegates to attend this event on behalf of our student body. Our delegation consisted of SU President, Communications Officer, Community and Voluntary Officer, and Art and Design Rep; Student Activities and Disabled Students Officer attended as NUS Wales National Executive Committee.

We had submitted motions and we spoke and debated them successfully. Our
Welfare and Students Rights Officer also got elected onto the WNEC as a FE Rep as she also studies at Swansea College.

Other Events – Your SU Council has also attended the LGBT Activism training day, The QAA training day, the HE Review consultation day, the Domestic Abuse Training day and The Course Rep training day.