SOME TENTATIVE congratulations are in order for this year’s Sabbatical team, who promised at the Welcome General Meeting to improve the Union’s reputation. UCLU could certainly do with a PR makeover. Last year saw the resignation of a Sabbatical Officer, the suspension of two Union Executives and a farcical AGM in March that made a mockery of democracy at UCLU (see CG Special Report March 2008). The Union made national headlines and received mass criticism for banning the Officer Training Corps from Union property, despite the fact that many Union events, including Freshers’ Fayre, are held on College property over which the Union has no jurisdiction.
Technocracy
Students who attended the WGM were given snazzy new electronic touchpads with which to vote, a costly investment designed to avoid the voting irregularities that plagued the AGM last year. The pads were handed out in exchange for students’ UCL ID cards, presumably to prevent anyone taking one home as a memento of the dawning new era of democracy at UCLU. Sadly, if the WGM is anything to go by, it looks like the new Sabbs will be ushering in nothing but another era of frustrating bureaucracy.
So keen are this year’s Sabbs to avoid accusations of misconduct that Finance and Democracy Officer Nathanael Macdonald, who chaired the meeting as acting General Secretary, jumped the gun by declaring the meeting inquorate (and therefore unable to make policy) just five minutes in. This left all present rather confused as to what they were actually voting for, and Macdonald found himself fielding questions as to whether any Union policy was ever going to be passed! Macdonald reassured the floor that the results would be passed on to the next Union Council as “recommendations”, and policy decisions would be made there by a small group of elected members. When asked why previous Sabb teams had allowed inquorate general meetings to run and make policy, Macdonald explained: “They were wrong”.
Ethical ingorance
It’s all very well following the Union’s Standing Orders to the letter, but perhaps the Sabbs should have spent less time reading the rulebook and more time clueing up on their responsibilities. When questioned about the Ethical Investment Motion, first passed in 2007, Communications and Services Officer Charlie Clinton claimed he’d never heard of it and asked, “Is this to do with Fair Trade”? Actually, it isn’t. It’s ‘to do’ with the Union lobbying UCL to divest its shares in arms companies and, rather notably, it mandates the “Communications and Services Officer” to make all students aware of the DisarmUCL campaign against UCL’s investments in arm companies. Hope that’s cleared matters up for you, Charlie!
Groaning idiot
Next, there were audible groans of despair from the floor when Ed “For Education” Steward claimed that UCLU had no policy on the future of Senate House Library. Oops! Just such a motion was passed at Union Council only last May, and mandates future Education Officers to help other University of London sabbatical officers to lobby to ensure students’ access to the library’s resources. When corrected by the motion’s proposer, Ed conceded, “Oh, that motion”. Reassuring stuff from the only Sabbatical Officer who sits on UCL Library Committee and, as mandated by the motion, should be making a submission to the working group’s review on the library’s future, emphasising it’s importance to all UCL students!
What a Dummy
At one point there was great celebration among the floor when a motion was passed to allow military organisations, including the OTC, to attend Union events, prompting a reminder from Macdonald that no policy was actually being made. Other motions included one from Rare FM on having recycling bins in proximity to all union buildings. Designed to demonstrate how easy it is for ordinary students to get policy passed in their Union, the fact that the meeting could not make policy meant this motion ended up being a dummy in more ways than Rare intended.