After the comical non-event that was the Welcome Members’ Meeting (see cover) it was left to the Autumn elections to restore faith in student politics. However, this hope quietly collapsed with the close of voting on 23 October.
Up for grabs were some fairly superfi- cial Faculty Representative positions, as well as 6 weightier and more responsible Student Trustee roles. There were also a handful of tickets to Sheffield available for elected NUS delegates, and a couple of Forum Chair posi- tions that can be as substantial as the office holder desires.
Despite the number of positions availa- ble, voter turnout for the elections was a mis- erable 3.4% of the student body – only 746 votes were cast out of a potential 22,000. In fairness, voters had good reason for lacking interest given that six out of eleven positions with a seat on Union Council were uncon- tested. The predictable results came not with a bang but with a whimper, some way short of what Pi Newspaper termed “a night of high drama”.
No man Left behind
UCL Union’s Eastern Bloc was the un- doubted victor of the evening, with nine of eleven Council seats snapped up by left-wing candidates.
The NUS Delegation and Student Trus- tees will also have a hard left slant. Former UCLU Education and Campaigns Officer and well-known capital-smasher Michael Ches- sum was elected to a Trustee position on the back of the manifesto slogan: “Sustainable Revolution, Violent Accounting”.
Chessum clearly had time on his hands during election season, as he managed to fit in writing the manifestos of fellow candi- dates Ben Beach and Jessica Riches, claim- ing of Riches that she had no time to write it herself.
While Riches declined to comment, Beach told The Cheese Grater that he’d “for- gotten about [the campaign material]”, but went on to mention that he gave Chessum “the key points”.
The Cheese Grater is still baffled as to why Riches - who won the post of Com- munity Officer – and Beach – the success- ful Bartlett Faculty Representative candidate – allowed someone else to put pen to paper and write election pledges on their behalf. Perhaps Riches felt her success was guaran- teed – her opponent, Akshat Khandelwal, failed even to include his name on his official manifesto.
That electioneering is a feature of UCLU politics is not necessarily a breach of election rules but rather a startling hypoc- risy on the part of those same individuals who then campaign for greater transpar- ency and accountability within the Union.
The state of student participation is so dire that two candidates were elected as Faculty Representatives with fewer than ten votes. Getting your seminar group to vote for you is not a mandate to influence Union policy, and does not lead to accurate representation. That UCLU, which Ches- sum himself described as a “Tory-Liberal marginal”, has elected a group overwhelm- ingly dominated by extreme left positions only serves to highlight this point.
Passing without difficulty
Council whirred back into motion on 25 October with the elected above fill- ing their seats for the first time. Given the year of plenty for the Left, motions were passed not just to support the National Demo on 9 November but also to commit theoretically unlimited resources to it and to urge students to strike with their lectur- ers on November 30. Council also passed a motion declaring no confidence in UCL Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant, after his appointment as NHS Commissioning Board Chair.
The item which caused most debate was the motion to make Grant’s position elected, left over from the WMM. Con- demning the current UCL governance clique as illegitimate, it resolved to cam- paign for the election of the Provost by all UCL stakeholders (including the apathetic student populace), as well as to reform the entire college governance structure. The mo- tion was billed as being pro-democracy (rath- er than anti-Grant) by proposer PGA Officer Ben Towse, but he was curiously accused by Gareth Chan, RUMS Officer, of attempting to politicise the (already over-politicised) role of Provost nonetheless. This motion too was eventually passed.
Playing fast and Skuse
The last issue of The Cheese Grater highlighting Democracy and Communica- tions Officer James Skuse’s manifesto betray- al was almost itself censored. In spite of The Cheese Grater’s release being Skuse’s respon- sibility, our beloved bespectacled Sabb wasn’t quite able to make the decision himself, and took the unprecedented step of bringing the issue to a vote at the full-time executive meeting on Wednesday 28 October. Skuse himself voted against publication, allegedly citing that the issue would give freshers a negative impression of UCLU. After advo- cacy from Education and Campaigns Officer Luke Durigan and Finance and Services Of- ficer Tim Rees Jones the issue finally went out unamended, leaving censorious Skuse more egg than face. Skuse has now also cre- ated a spoof Twitter of himself, going under the crafty alias “Lame Skuse”. In the words of Durigan, “I can barely believe it. In order to have a cult of personality don’t you need a personality first?”