Following much turbulence in recent years, UCL Union may finally be on the brink of democracy, albeit one akin to herding cats. This year’s Welcome General Meeting led to the passing of several motions but, like an outbreak of diarrhoea, left some exhausted and saw others running quickly for the door.
Thankfully, there was no repeat of February’s AGM, when hundreds of students were left stranded outside after the Bloomsbury theatre had reached capacity (see CG 21). However, last year’s policy that each Union society must send two delegates to general meetings still applied – never mind that the WGM fell during ‘Try’ fortnight, when societies were still wooing potential members.
Still Josh...
The meeting began with a slideshow, rock music and cries of “get on with it”. After half an hour of introductions, including an even cheesier explanation of Union democracy by “I’m still Josh” Blacker, the meeting finally got round to dragging up last year’s big argument: should the Union refrain from condemning or supporting either side of the Israel/Gaza conflict?
The referendum held last March had in fact already provided an answer – 833 ‘Yes’ to 700 ‘No’ – but failed to reach the 10% quorum required for referenda by UCLU Standing Orders. As a result, the matter was passed back to the WGM, attended as it was by less than 2% of UCL students. With much squabbling between factions and the threat of a second round of speeches, a move to the vote was finally made, the result once more a resounding ‘Yes’.
Some hope, then, that the Union could start to focus on matters closer to home, such as saving the medics’ sports team and having UCL pay workers the London Living Wage. Indeed, motions such as these were voted for and became Union policy… but not without the odd cringe-worthy moment. For starters, the otherwise Socialist Stop the War types obviously deemed the London Living Wage unimportant, as they all buggered off once the Israel matter was over, leaving a patch of empty chairs directly in front of the podium. (It has since transpired that the Union doesn’t care much about the Living Wage either, and is only now considering adjustments to its bar staff’s inadequate pay.)
The motion ‘For a United Policy on Cuts and Fees’ confused voters who only agreed with part of what was proposed, leading the General Secretary Pierre Deludet to advise them to abstain. The result was a winning 98 abstentions, leading to much cheering until Deludet pointed out that the motion would pass as, by definition, abstentions don’t count.
Particular mention should be made of Clinical President Amanda ‘Mandelson’ Smith, who made no less than four speeches that evening. One of Smith’s motions supported the NUS Blueprint’s graduate tax, thus conflicting with the increasingly ironically-named ‘United Policy on Cuts and Fees’. When pushed, Mandy admitted that she had been ‘too busy’ to read the Blueprint and suffered the evening’s only vote against.
...And Still Mandy
Next up was Smith’s motion to mark out the new Union bar as a replacement for the medics’ Huntley Street, which will likely be demolished in 2011. When asked who would pay to rename the new bar ‘The Huntley’, Smith replied ‘it’s just a sign, it won’t cost much’. Indeed – the site of the new bar, 23 Gower Place, is a Grade II listed building and cannot have a fancy new sign slung on it, thus making the cost to the Union very small indeed.
As the last normal motion of the evening was passed, many more students poured out of the room. Pi Newspaper has helpfully reported how these were all medics disinterested in the motions that followed. Indeed: everyone else had left earlier on. Pierre Deludet called quorum and closed the meeting, so the ‘emergency’ motions that followed did not become policy. Perhaps this was for the best – one of the motions aimed to erase a swathe of last year’s motions just to protect the General Secretary’s role as Returning Officer for Union elections.
Minority Report
Last up was a motion from Shawn Sherwin-Williams, the Medical and Postgraduate Officer. During a training day run by a contractor, the casually-dressed MPO believed he was the victim of racial discrimination when he was mistaken for a cleaner. The sabbatical officers rushed to sever the contract, only to be advised that the company should be given a chance to respond. A mediation with the company the day before the WGM did not produce an admission of racism, leading the outraged MPO to bring an emergency motion demanding that the Union terminate the company’s contract ‘with immediate effect’.
Activities Officer James Hodgson opposed the motion on behalf of the other sabbs, and has since been singled out by the student media for stating, in response to a query, that he did not feel the incident to have been racist. Sherwin-Williams’ motion was indicatively passed by the minority of students remaining, but he still threatened to call for an Extraordinary General Meeting over the matter. A week later, the sabbs had ‘completed an internal investigation’ and decided not to offer any further contracts to the company in question.