ULU Senate’s relations with London Student Editor, Jen Izaakson, turned nasty at the last meeting when Queen Mary Stu- dents’ Union president, Babs Williams, confronted Izaakson and other LS writ- ers calling them “dickheads” and saying “I fucking hate student journalists” before be- ing ushered out of the room by ULU Vice President, Daniel Lemberger Cooper. The abusive words come after months of sour- ing relations between many in ULU Sen- ate and the LS Editor during which Sena- tors have become more and more critical of Izaakson. And though grievances with the Editor have descended at times into groundless insults - the Courtauld Student Union vice-president called her a fascist - they nonetheless have their basis in her ac- tions as editor.
A ULU Senate meeting on 14th September rejected Izaakson’s report - a summary of what the editor has been doing and plans to do – by a vote of 6-6. Some in ULU Senate had issues with the com- position of Izaakson’s editorial team. Only five new editors were brought onto the LS editorial team this year, ten staying on from last year. Some senators claimed that Izaakson had not advertised editorial posi- tions to newcomers properly, if at all, ap- pearing to allow the majority of last year’s section editors to stay on by default. One senator from Royal Holloway described this as “undemocratic”. Senators were also annoyed at Izaakson planning to spend £700 − 75 percent of the paper’s budget - developing an iPhone app, despite senators making clear it could be developed for a lot less. Izaakson has since found someone to develop the app for free, making the initial sum seem rather large.
Izaakson came under intense criti- cism from several London students’ unions after publishing a trans-phobic article by an LSE student. Royal Holloway SU de- scribed the article as “hate speech” and LSE’s SU temporarily removed copies of the paper in order to insert a statement ask- ing Izaakson to publicly apologise. Student union officials from across ULU criticised Izaakson on Twitter. One UCLU Council member tweeted that the article was a “big- oted slur” and others called for an apology but the Editor brushed the criticism off tweeting it was trolling by the “ultra-left”, before accusing Alex-Peters Day, LSE Gen- eral Secretary, of attacking her.
Engagement with new writers also appears to be a problem for the Editor. One aspiring writer for “Queer Corner” Tali Janner-Klausner had her article, written as a critical response to Izaakson’s column on gay marriage, rejected by Izaakson and the section editor Alice Golder on grounds it was a “personal attack” on the Editor.