Students’ Union President Anam Choudhary faced criticism from members of the Union Executive, with many voicing their concerns over the Libertarian Society’s event hosting ‘gender critical’ speaker Connie Shaw.
Choudhary sparked controversy when she remarked, “there's a huge community who wants this to happen, and some people, some students who don’t.”
This comment came in response to backlash from the LGBTQ+ Network who published an open letter calling for the event not to go ahead. At the time of the meeting there had been no official response from the Union.
When asked to comment on the situation, Choudhary said “I think this is quite stressful and we are trying to put out something as a whole Union and also personally me… the event that is happening there is nothing we can do legally.”
The Union stated that it would be illegal to cancel the event, saying in their response published after the meeting — “as a registered educational charity, those decisions have been made within a framework of UK law and policy that we can’t deviate from, regardless of anyone’s subjective feelings on the matter.”
Union officers in the room argued that holding the event would be a risk to the wellbeing of trans students at UCL, with LGBTQ+ Officer Rosanna Steele saying “I just think it's really important to address that the Union, of course, has a legal obligation to free speech, but also has a legal obligation to student welfare.”
Choudhary addressed welfare concerns by claiming, “we are going to try to reach our students who are quite distressed and stressed in the situation and try to help them… facilitate them to signpost to their well-being or advise people.”
When a Cheese Grater journalist challenged Choudhary on her claim that a “huge community” wanted the event to go ahead, she clarified: “I just said that there are some who want to do this and some that don’t and I am going to support them, like the students who don’t want this to happen.”
At the time of writing, the sabbatical officers have not released an open statement to all students regarding the statement, but they have responded to the LGBTQ+ Network open letter, directly to the committee.
The Union has now released an open statement to transgender and non-binary students, written by Equity Sabb Eda Yildirimkaya, in which she says “I’m not trying to change minds or justify what happened here, and I’m truly devastated that trans students and allies have said they’ll find it hard to trust the Union in the future.”
During the meeting, it was confirmed that Yildirimkaya and Activities and Engagement Officer Ana Boikova were writing the response, rather than a coordinated response from all the sabbatical officers. It should be noted that all six sabbatical officers did sign off the final response.
When asked about her lack of involvement in drafting the letter, Choudhary said, “I think not every issue is being faced by all the staff at once because we are being formed into different meetings”
“We do have different things internally, things that are going on which are quite serious and we have to look at that as well.”
It is unknown why the backlash from the LGBTQ+ Network was not considered serious enough to justify a direct response from the President who serves as “spokesperson for the Union”. Although this does not mean that Choudhary is involved with drafting all the Union's statements.
Holiday disruptions
Choudhary also came under fire for failing to provide her report prior to the meeting. The report was not available prior to the meeting, but members were given printed copies upon arrival.
It is standard procedure that sabbatical officers provide reports prior to meetings, to be approved by all the officers.
Choudhary apologised for the last minute report, saying she had been on holiday until 22 February, despite the meeting being held 11 days later on 2 March.
When asked what tangible impact Choudhary had made on students since the last meeting, she cited the creation of an ‘essentials cupboard’ which will be implemented in term three.
Election doubts?
The Union President is currently undecided whether to run for a second term as President, or instead run for Postgraduate Officer, according to multiple Union sources.
Over Choudhary’s year as President she has focused heavily on the postgrad-dominated School of Management in Canary Wharf, where she studied prior to her election. She has also placed emphasis on career opportunities for students.
When suggested that her policy platform was better suited to the postgraduate position, Choudhary remarked, “I have no comments.”
With the leadership race just around the corner, we will soon know whether Choudhary will fight for a second term, or instead pursue the postgraduate role.
Additional reporting by Jasmine Sparrow