Unnecesecratary
Outgoing Black and Minority Ethnic Students’ Officer Shanell Johnson has been forking out Union funds to pay for a personal assistant, a luxury which no other officer seems to be taking advantage of. Johnson’s assistant is paid for seven hours work a week at the London Living Wage, although The Cheese Grater struggles to imagine what the assistant has been doing, when officers are already supported by the Union’s own staff.
Officers Assemble
Democracy and Communications Officer Dan Warham could have done with some extra assistance this term, as he seems to have forgotten to hold any Union General Assemblies since the start of the year. After a woeful turnout at the Welcome General Assembly in October (see CG 40), Warham cancelled all future Assemblies up until February. These were meant to function as forums for decision making. Fans of student apathy have been short-changed of their right not to turn up as no more meetings are on the schedule for this year. Warham explained that the lack of Assemblies was due to him tweaking the Memorandum & Articles of the Union, trying to lower the quoracy needed to hold a General Meeting from 2% to 0.5% and resolve some gaps in the governance of the student trustee board. However, these changes would need to be passed at a quorate Company General Meeting. This being an unlikely prospect, the Union appears to find itself stuck in an infinite quorum-lacking loop.
We’re Going To Need A Bigger Suit
Failed Women’s Officer candidate (2013) Kirk Sneade was banned from UCLU areas and sports teams until last December, after his election campaign rather catastrophically backfired. Now that the ban’s been dropped, Sneade’s still been keeping a (comparatively) low profile. At this month’s Varsity rugby match, Sneade was hidden in plain sight as an ersatz UCL mascot, dressed head to toe in a giant shark costume. Surprisingly there was no mascot fight this time, despite Sneade’s history of starting fights with pretty much anything, including, in his first year, a wall.
Hogging the limelight
Turnout was 20.6%, up 4% over last year. At a lavish results ceremony in the South Quad, Dan Warham wowed the crowd with pricey lights and pyrotech- nics to rival a Pink Floyd concert, the announcements dragging on for almost as long as both parts of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’.
Warham arranged free food at the re- sults night, laying on falafel and a near- £600 hog roast. The chickpea budget is presumably much lower, Judging by the turnout of known hacks and hacksesso- ries, the publicity for the event was not as widely read as was hoped and the ma- jority of people who enjoyed Warham’s considerable spread were the various UCL political cliques.
A sporting chance?
The actual campaigns weren’t as con- troversial as in previous years, but there were some cats put among the demo- cratic pigeons. The use of iPads by can- didates to encourage voting, which was discussed in Union Council before the elections but never outlawed, led to some complaints. Eleanor Tresize, who lost out to Sabeeh Rasool for the Activi- ties and Events Officer, claimed later on social media that ‘elections shouldn’t be about who has more money’ and that she had ‘heard of people being lied to or intimidated into voting straight away’.
Warham countered that he believed that the increased turnout wasn’t down to the use of iPads, and that complaints received before the close of voting had been investigated.
Trot on
Omar Raii, the winning candidate for External Affairs and Campaigns, was attacked for his membership of the Al- liance for Workers Liberty. Raii found himself at the centre of a factionalist fight due to criticism of the AWL over an allegedly Islamophobic article from 2006. A poster campaign quickly sprung up in opposition to Raii’s involvement in the AWL, led by Former Democ- racy and Communications Officer Sam Gaus. Many of those opposing Raii fear that his new position will allow mem- bers of the AWL to gain influence with- in UCLU.
Other candidates’ campaigns were similarly derailed. The Black and Mi- nority Ethnic Officer candidate Vimbai Dzimwasha had her banner cut down from the railings outside the Lewis Building.
The RON Prognosis
The only candidate to lose out to Re- Open Nominations was current School of Pharmacy Officer Sergio Lanza. Lan- za missed out by 200 votes. continuing UCL’s trend of RONning incumbant officers.
Not announced on the night was the Medical, Pharmacy and Health Stu- dents’ Officer, result. The only candi- date, Harkiran Dhanjal, did not submit her campaign expenses and could not be contacted on result’s Night. She beat R.O.N with a stunning 148 votes.
Vlad the Villain
This year’s comedy villain came in the form of Union Chair candidate Vlad Kardapoltsev. Kardapoltsev tried the unusual tactic of sending out a mass email to students encouraging them to vote for him, and faced accusations of sexism and racism over comments he made online.
The list of winners and losers can be found deep in the bowels of uclu.org, but for now future sabbs can neck their complimentary bubbly and steel them- selves before they ascend to the fourth floor battleground of Gordon St. in July.