Cheese Grater journalists sat through 12 hours of Union meetings so you don’t have to.
Over the past two weeks, the Union has formally adopted a number of policies, including two major proposals rejecting the place of fossil fuel companies on campus that prompted a bizarre six-page rant from the Engineering Society president.
For the first time, at least one Cheese Grater journalist was in the room across all three of the Union’s lower houses, or “Zones” – Activities, Education, and Welfare and Community – as well as in its upper house, the Union Executive. Here are the highlights from these 12 hours of meetings, lasting three each.
Equity and Inclusion Officer inspects Student Centre toilets on her birthday
Days after The Cheese Grater posted on Instagram a satire article titled “Working toilet found in Student Centre on first try”, Equity and Inclusion Officer Eda Yildirimkaya revealed to the Welfare and Community Zone that she had gone on a tour of the Student Centre toilets on her birthday.
Having spoken to UCL’s cleaning contractor Sodexo, the Officer said the reason behind the SC toilets’ stinking reputation is that it gets so busy during certain hours that even “cleaners have to wait in the queue” to clean the toilets. She said Sodexo is now “working on a better plan” to deliver a more hygienic space.
Asked what prompted her to such undertaking on her birthday, Yildirimkaya said she casually brought it up at a meeting with UCL after it “popped into [her] head” that some of her close friends had been experiencing issues with the SC toilets. She said staff proceeded to suggest a tour of the SC toilets so she could point out to them what’s wrong.
Unfortunately – or rather fortunately for the Equity Officer – the inspection took place at 10am just after the cleaning rounds, meaning the toilets were “pristine”, she noted in shock. Another inspection took place at 3pm during peak usage in her absence. “That’s where the real stuff is, without me”, she added.
Education Officer blames everything but himself for low attendance at own Zone
It took them nine attempts over two years, but activists at Fossil Free Careers last week finally convinced members of the Education Zone to back a policy that would see the Union lobby the University to stop promoting careers in the oil and gas industry.
The policy, first presented to the Union in February 2023, was previously rejected, stalled, or sent back on seven occasions. It is now in its fourth iteration after two years of political ping-pong and was finally adopted as official policy after a historic vote on Union Executive last Monday.
But the policy nearly didn’t make it out of the Education Zone because it was one short of the minimum attendance requirements in the first hour of last Thursday’s meeting, having already failed to meet quorum the last time it met in February.
When asked about the Zone’s persistently low attendance, Education Officer Shaban Chaudary rolled his eyes and told journalists with a straight face that Thursdays were to blame, alongside a litany of factors including members’ work commitments and mental health.
The Officer previously blamed the cost of living and “gloomy” English weather for the Zone’s failure to meet quorum and has repeatedly refused to say whether he accepted any personal responsibility in his capacity as chair and a full-time salaried officer of the Union. He did not respond to a request for comment.
UCL Union becomes first in the UK to enshrine the IPSO Code for student media
A proposal to regulate UCL student media groups according to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) Editor’s Code of Practice was unanimously approved by the Activities Zone last week and ratified at Union Executive on Monday evening.
The policy, tabled by Union Media Rep and Cheese Grater editor Robert Delaney, called for the Union to adopt the IPSO Editor’s Code as its internal framework for complaints about student media, in effect holding media groups at UCL to the same professional standards as the nation’s newspaper industry.
Prior to this, the Union had no specialised framework to process complaints about student media. Indeed, The Cheese Grater was the first and only student publication in the UK with an active pledge to hold itself to the IPSO Code.
The policy is a major win for The Cheese Grater as well as being a significant step toward building a stronger and more reliable student media scene at UCL. It is now the Union’s responsibility to offer training on the IPSO Code for editors of every UCL publication.
IPSO is the largest independent regulator of press standards for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. It deals with issues including accuracy, intrusion of privacy, harassment, and the public interest.
A room fit for a real democracy?
After The Cheese Grater revealed that last month’s Union Executive managed to overrun by 20 minutes despite having achieved absolutely nothing, sabbatical officers were understood to have held an emergency meeting to vote on those policies – albeit behind closed doors.
The proposed reforms to the Sports Rep system were voted through, but a policy to introduce a new “Commuters’ Officer” failed to meet the two-thirds requirement for constitutional changes. President Goksu Danaci abstained on that vote, whereas Education Officer Shaban Chaudhary did not vote on either policy.
Meanwhile, Monday’s Union Executive notably met in the South Wing Council Room – a Dr Strangelove-esque war room – rather than its usual basement seminar room.
This much fancier venue was not lost on attendees, with one student officer telling journalists: “I wonder if it’s because you guys commented on Exec meeting in a ‘dingy basement’,” whilst another attendee said: “This feels like a real democracy.”
